Using community input to improve transit options is the idea behind two SACOG projects that will wrap up this summer. Though different in focus, the Community Transit Marketing Project and the Community Bus Service Planning Project shared a common aim of bringing transit users into the planning process to ensure services meet their needs.

SACOG planners hope insight and relationships built through the projects will help the region provide better transportation options for commuters, as well as under-represented communities.

“We found community input methods that were truly meaningful,” said SACOG Associate Planner Matt Carpenter, project manager of the Community Transit Marketing Project. “Going into the communities to identify information gaps led to the development of tailored marketing materials and activities that effectively promote transit to targeted groups.”

Funded by a grant from Caltrans, SACOG and a local non-profit, Odyssey, worked with seven area transit operators to identify diverse groups of transit users and determine the best ways to reach them. The 18-month project looked at 11 different routes operated by the Sacramento Regional Transit District, Unitrans, YOLOBUS, Yuba-Sutter Transit and others.

Examples of outreach activities included developing attention-grabbing schedule cards and Web-based information for YOLOBUS’ service to Sacramento International Airport, organizing a “field trip” for Davis senior citizens who wanted to try the bus, recruiting local high school students to paint a bus in Yuba City and transforming an Odyssey team member into a human billboard promoting Regional Transit along congested Highway 50.

Judging by the positive feedback from local transit operators, the project generated some valuable insights into additional service needs and helped open new channels of communication. For Yuba-Sutter Transit, for example, it led to contacts and a good working relationship with the Sikh community there. “The outreach effectively created a bridge to a group they had limited contact with before,” Carpenter said. “There is a lot of value in that.”

The Meadowview and Oak Park communities of the City of Sacramento were the focus of another SACOG transit effort, the Community Bus Service Planning Project. A collaborative venture with Regional Transit coordinated by SACOG Associate Planner Anne Novotny, the project was designed to respond to unmet transit needs and involve traditionally under-represented communities in transportation planning. It was funded through a Caltrans environmental justice grant program.

With assistance from City of Sacramento neighborhood resources coordinators, SACOG and RT staff met with community-based organizations to identify needs and solicit input through a transit survey. Data gathered from the surveys and various outreach activities is being used to develop plans to modify existing transit service and for future service expansion as resources become available.

Joan Barden, a resident of Oak Park who serves on a community transit advisory committee formed as part of the project, called the effort a constructive way to address needs in a community where bus service has been reduced in recent years. Ideas being discussed include flexible-route shuttles that would connect riders with other transit routes and expanded hours of service to accommodate people with later work schedules and activities.

“I think our group is committed to this process because we’ve been made aware of some of the problems RT is facing,” Barden said. “By partnering with people in the neighborhood, a healthy compromise can be made. Rather than a ‘we-them’ attitude, you can say, ‘We have a problem. Now what can we do about it?’”

SACOG staff is completing a report summarizing the project findings and recommendations that will be submitted to Caltrans and RT.