Santa Rosa debuts its revamped bus lines

Santa Rosa has revamped its bus routes in a bid to boost ridership with speedier service.

The new routes have been in the works for more than two years and were implemented Sunday. They increase the frequency of service on the busiest bus lines in an attempt to make service faster and more convenient.

The goal is to have buses arriving every 15 minutes along routes such as Mendocino Avenue and parts of Santa Rosa Avenue and Sebastopol Road.

To achieve the increase in frequency, the city needed to trim or consolidate a number of lesser used or one-way routes, such as routes over Fountaingrove Parkway and along Montgomery Drive.

Large “rider alert” signs at the city’s downtown transit mall alerted people to the new schedules and maps, which are also available online.

The effort, dubbed Reimagine CityBus, involved more than 100 meetings or events to gain public input from riders. It aims to increase flagging ridership in the city’s bus system.

The redesigned routes that launched Sunday represent the first phase of the effort. The second phase, which among other things aims to improve weekend and night service, does not have a start date. More information is available at srcity.org/1638/Reimagining-CityBus.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.