With all the talk about Santa Cruz County road updates and long-awaited upgrades to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the works, it’s easy to forget that Santa Cruz Metro has its own ambitious plans to create a more robust transportation system.
Metro is aiming to double ridership to 7 million, from about 3.5 million this year. Working to achieve that goal involves introducing a multitude of changes, including buses running every 15 minutes on corridors like Soquel Drive and Capitola Road, a new 15-minute route on Highway 1 connecting Watsonville to Cabrillo College, and a service extension from the Eastside through downtown Santa Cruz and to the UC Santa Cruz campus. Metro hopes to begin implementing these steps by April.
But life could become easier for UCSC commuters before the end of the year. Last week, Metro secured a fleet of a dozen extra-long articulated buses to serve the campus in response to a leap in UCSC ridership. At the start of the 2023 fall quarter, Metro transported about 13,409 UCSC riders a day, which is up about 30% from September 2022’s average of 10,349 daily riders.
UCSC riders account for nearly 70% of Metro’s total ridership, according to a Metro news release.
What are articulated buses? They’re extra-long buses with an accordionlike hinge in the middle. Essentially, articulated buses can almost double the number of passengers per ride. While a standard bus can carry 36 seated passengers and another 10 to 15 standing passengers, an articulated bus can carry 60 to 65 seated passengers and 15 to 25 standing passengers. The new buses will bear the “Bay of Life” artwork around their surfaces, like some of the other new Metro vehicles.
Two articulated buses already served the campus and two more were introduced during the second week of the fall quarter. Within the next two weeks, Metro expects to have three more ready to serve UCSC, and a total of 10 providing rides to and from campus by the end of the year. The other two will remain in reserve.
More buses with greater capacity is just one step toward Metro’s goal of doubling ridership and significantly improving the transit system for UCSC students, who live scattered around the county. Check out the maps below for a bigger picture of the first phase of Metro’s major restructuring, dubbed “Reimagine Metro.”
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Check out our Carmageddon road delay list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
The holidays are in full swing, meaning that the annual Downtown Holiday Parade is happening this weekend, which will block off a good amount of downtown streets for the first half of the day Saturday. Police officers will direct traffic at the intersection of Laurel Street and Pacific Avenue from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Closures include:
Parade staging area, from 7 a.m. to noon
- The 500 to 800 blocks of Pacific Avenue south of Laurel Street to Front Street.
- Spruce Street between Front and Cedar streets.
- All of Sycamore Street.
Parade route, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- The 900 to 1500 blocks of Pacific Avenue between Laurel Street and Water Street.
- Front Street between Water Street and River Street.
- Locust Street between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
- Cooper Street between Pacific Avenue and Front Street.
- Church Street between Pacific Avenue and Commerce Lane.
- Walnut Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
- Soquel Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Front Street.
- Lincoln Street between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
- Cathcart Street between Front Street and Cedar Street.
- Maple Street between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
- Elm Street between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
- Birch Lane between Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street.
The on- and off-ramps at north- and southbound Highway 1 and Buena Vista Drive in Watsonville will be fully closed beginning at 9:30 a.m. Monday for resurfacing, with some work continuing on the northbound on-ramp until 6 a.m. Tuesday. The rest is slated to wrap up by 10 p.m. Monday. This is one of the first steps of the Buena Vista Drive rehabilitation project, an endeavor to rebuild the road leading to one of the county’s landfills. Heavy use on the road has damaged the pavement and drainage.
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