Santa Cruz Metro CEO Michael Tree said he is leaving the transit agency for personal reason to be closer to his aging parents in Southern California. He will join the Golden Empire Transit District in the Bakersfield area as its CEO when he officially departs. His last day will be Feb. 16.
Santa Cruz Metro
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Prospects for local politics in 2024: Metro advances, more women in office and El Niño
Lookout political columnist Mike Rotkin offers a sneak peek into the big issues he sees locally for 2024. There are bright spots, he says, like the exceptional work at Santa Cruz Metro, which, he thinks, will soon make riding a bus faster than driving a car to get across the county. He rejoices at the prospect of a more diverse county board of supervisors and worries what an El Niño year will mean for West Cliff Drive, Pajaro, Capitola Village and rural county communities. And he wonders how we will continue to tackle our two biggest issues: homelessness and affordable housing.
Posted inLatest News
Carmageddon: Reimagine Metro Phase 2 comes with extended routes, more buses, and more drivers
Santa Cruz Metro is already working towards implementing Phase 2 of its Reimagine Metro initiative to upgrade the county’s transit system into a much more efficient, convenient service. In order to do that, the agency will incrementally add more buses to its fleet and hire 70 more drivers.
Posted inEducation
Driver in UC Santa Cruz bus crash dies
Dan Stevenson, the bus driver who was behind the wheel of a bus that crashed on UCSC’s campus on Dec. 12, has died from his injuries. The school’s investigation into the cause of the accident is still ongoing.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs to listen to the 50-plus-year-old Lorax and rethink hydrogen fuel
More than 50 years ago, Dr. Seuss’ eco-parable “The Lorax” warned us of dire consequences of corporate greed and climate blindness. Today, the tale is as relevant as ever, writes Santa Cruz activist Michael Levy. But, he says, the environmentalism of the past needs to be updated with a much deeper, broader vision, even locally. These days, he says, every “environmentally friendly” solution – even Santa Cruz’s new hydrogen buses – has a downside. He says we all need to call for solutions that replace extraction and consumption with community resilience, not new corporate technologies. “We need a revolution yesterday,” he writes.
Posted inLatest News
Carmageddon: Watsonville Transit Center, Highway 9, and this week’s delays
Last week, Santa Cruz Metro received another round of funding, this time for its South County project aiming to revamp the Watsonville Transit Center, and build 65 units of affordable housing above it. Up in the mountains, Highway 9 repairs continue nearly a year after the storms at the beginning of 2023.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Carmageddon: Metro’s two-year relocation, and this week’s delays
Pacific Station North, slated to break ground in February, will bring much-needed affordable housing to downtown Santa Cruz along with an updated Metro depot. However, that will come with some traffic circulation changes and the loss of some street parking to make room for the buses that will need to operate off of the street while the new depot is under construction.
Posted inLatest News
Carmageddon: Santa Cruz Metro prepares for free rides, 15-minute wait times in bid to double ridership
Santa Cruz Metro is set to begin rolling out the first phase of its Reimagine Metro initiative aimed at more direct, frequent routes and 15-minute all-day service. The changes will begin as a three-year pilot program, and civic leaders will work towards transitioning the pilot into a permanent fixture.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
RTC needs to support Metro’s visionary plans for Santa Cruz County
This week, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) will make a decision that will affect the future of public transportation in the county. Lookout political columnist Mike Rotkin, who is a member of the RTC and on the board of directors of Santa Cruz Metro, unpacks the importance for us and explains why support is essential.
Posted inLatest News
Carmageddon: This week’s delays and Metro’s ramped-up UCSC campus service
In Metro’s big pursuit of doubling ridership, the transit agency is improving service to the UC Santa Cruz campus. Last week, Metro secured 12 extra-long buses to carry more passengers per ride as it looks to keep wait times no longer than 15 minutes.