2015 – Page 3 – County Connection

Faces of County Connection-Meet Sophia

Sophia.1158 small.Meet Sophia

When Sophia came to County Connection 15 years ago she was amazed to learn that many of her co-workers had been here for 15 years or more. She thought this must be a great place to work. Now here it is 15 years later and she knows her first impression was right.

Customer service is #1 with Sophia. “I have a good way with people so that even if they’ve had a bad day, I can usually coax a smile out of them”. She truly enjoys her job and the people she serves, and it shows.

County Connection Is Now A Member of Nextdoor

Print

Nextdoor is the free and private social network for neighborhoods. On Nextdoor, neighbors create private websites for their neighborhoods where they can ask questions, get to know one another, and exchange local advice and recommendations.

Thousands of neighborhoods across the country are already using Nextdoor to:
•Find trustworthy local resources, such as babysitters, plumbers, and dentists
•Report suspicious activity and local crime
•Organize neighborhood events, such as garage sales and block parties
•Get assistance in finding lost pets and missing packages
•Sell or give away items, like your old kitchen table or bike

To join or create your neighbor community, visit
www.nextdoor.com.

*Your Nextdoor website remains private. County Connection staff will not be able to see any of the posts on your neighborhood website except for the direct replies to our posts.

We will not use Nextdoor to communicate day to day messages and service alerts (if you want these, its best to follow us on Facebook or Twitter). County Connection will use Nextdoor primarily to communicate service or routing changes specific to your neighborhood, fare changes, public hearing dates, and special promotions.

Nextdoor is not the place to report service complaints that need to be investigated. These should be called in to our Customer Service Department at 925-676-7500 so the complaint can be immediately documented and forwarded to the appropriate department for investigation. General comments, recommendations, or commendations will be also be forwarded.

County Connection has been part of the community since 1980, and we’re please to now become a part of the Nextdoor neighborhood.

BART Transbay Service – Part II

Once again, BART will not provide transbay train service between West Oakland and Embarcadero stations during three-day Labor Day weekend, September 5-7, in order to perform critical maintenance work near the Transbay Tube. In addition, the West Oakland BART Station will be closed during the maintenance work.

BART will offer lifeline bus service between 19th Street in Oakland and the
Temporary Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, but the buses are intended
only for those who have no other options. The buses will carry customers
from 19th Street Station in Oakland to the Temporary Transbay Terminal in
San Francisco (a 2 block walk to the Embarcadero Station) or from there
back to the East Bay.  There will be no additional charge for the bus. 

Please plan ahead, use alternate forms of transportation, and avoid unnecessary transbay trips.

Bookmark the link below for all service alternatives and updates.

http://alert.511.org

July Emissions Reduction Are In

1 day signRidership is growing! And as County Connection ridership grows, our passengers are improving the quality of air we breathe each day. In July, the people riding County Connection buses reduced CO2 emissions by 27,427 pounds every weekday.

Each person can make a difference. With the system average trip length (one way) of 5 miles, each person who leaves their car at home and uses the bus will reduce CO2 emissions by 4.6 pounds. One person – one day a week – can make a difference.

Give us a try! It’s easy…download the free mobile app from our home page to get real time arrival predictions for buses near you. Or sign up to get arrival alerts by text or email message through Bus Tracker – also accessible on the home page.

Several Changes Take Place Effective 8/16/15

County Connection will make several changes to bus routes and schedules effective Sunday, August 16, 2016. Below is a brief description of the changes with links to new schedules and maps.

Route 1M – New Service

  • Service to the Marchbanks neighborhood is being restored between WC BART, John Muir Medical Center and Marchbanks
  • Four AM peak trips, and five PM peak trips
  • Marchbanks Loop
  • Route 1M Map CS5

Route 3 – New Martinez Community Shuttle

  • New route will serve Amtrak, CC Regional Medical Center, Adult Education Serivces, Kaiser, Arnold Dr., and the Senior Center
  • Service runs hourly between 7 AM and 9 PM
  • Rt 3 Map-Timetable

Route 19

Route 310

  • Two AM trips added leaving Concord BART at 7:25 and 7:45
  • Two PM trips added leaving Concord BART at 6:50 and 8:10
  • Two AM trips added leaving Clayton/Kirker at 7:45 and 8:05
  • Two PM trips added leaving Clayton/Kirker at 7:10 and 8:30

Route 314

  • A new trip was added leaving DVC at 6:10 PM

600 Series – Supplemental School Schedules

  • Changes were made to the 611, 613, 616, and 619 school day service. Please call Customer Service at 925-676-7500 for details

 

New Community Shuttle To Debut In Martinez

Martinez Community Shuttle – Route 3 Begins Monday, August 17th

I’ve said it before here, but it’s worth repeating: I strongly believe good collaborative planning often leads to better results. On Monday, August 17 such a product of good collaborative planning will take hold in Martinez. That is the first day of County Connection’s new Martinez community shuttle – Route 3.

Here’s a re-cap of how the long-awaited Route 3 finally came to be:

The City of Martinez identified the need for some type of shuttle between downtown and the neighborhoods in its 2009 Downtown Martinez Community-Based Transportation Plan. Unfortunately, shortly after that, the recession hit and County Connection was forced to cut service – rather than increase it – due to massive losses of sales tax revenues.

Flash-forward four years, as the area emerged from the recession, County Connection completed its Adaptive Service Plan (ASP) in 2013. This plan was the result of a joint planning effort involving County Connection, the City of Concord, the City of Clayton, the City of Martinez, the City of Pleasant Hill, and the City of Walnut Creek. The five cities participated through TRANSPAC, one of the four Regional Transportation Planning Committees (RTPC) of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. The purpose of the plan was to identify projects to extend transit services to areas that were either underserved or could benefit from a non-traditional approach to transit service.

The ASP made recommendations for service improvements in Martinez and Walnut Creek. The two service improvements in Walnut Creek were implemented in 2014. This involved making service improvements to Route 5, which connects the high-density area of Creekside in Walnut Creek directly to downtown Walnut Creek, including the BART station. The City of Walnut in turn, chose to subsidize the fares of riders on Route 5 making it “free” to the passenger. This has led to a nearly four-fold increase in average daily ridership on this service!

Another service improvement in Walnut Creek from the ASP was a streamlining of Route 7, which connects the Pleasant Hill BART station with the Shadelands business park. The improvements make it much more attractive to shuttle back and forth between these two locations. This in turn has led the Shadelands property owners to underwrite the fares on Route 7, making this route also “free” to the public. Similar to Route 5, ridership on Route 7 has increased by approximately 50 percent since these improvements were made. And, as of this summer, the Route 7 buses have a special wrap that clearly identifies the bus as a Shadelands BART Shuttle.

Both of these ASP recommendations were made possible by restructuring Route 2 (with a ridership of less than 50 people a day), which was another ASP recommendation. Thus, these improvements were cost neutral. The area Route 2 serves has been identified for future innovative technology-based transportation options (i.e. Uber style services).

The remaining ASP recommendation from 2013 was to implement a community shuttle in Martinez. While the ASP provided a cost neutral recommendation to pay for a new community shuttle, public meetings and outreach indicated that restructuring services in Martinez was not the preferred course of action. Instead, it was determined to wait until new funding for the new community shuttle could be secured.

This is where the final piece of the puzzle comes into play. In 2014, the State of California enacted a spending plan for the revenue raised through a state cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program <http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm>, as a response to climate change. This program started in January 2012. Within this spending plan, the state allocates transit funding to various parts of the state to make transit improvements that will both reduce greenhouse gases, as well as provide new transit options to “disadvantaged communities (DAC)”. The state defines these DACs largely using indicators of the considered ill effects of air pollution.Bus on Alhambra

Looping back to the City of Martinez, the zone identified for the desired Martinez community shuttle provides direct services to an area of Martinez that the state has designated as a DAC. Therefore, it qualifies for newly available funding from the cap-and-trade program. In the Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the entity that disburses cap-and-trade transit funding to Bay Area transit operators. County Connection applied for cap-and-trade funding to MTC to fund the new Martinez community shuttle and MTC agreed to fund it!

As a result of this multi-partner collaborative planning process, we begin service on our new County Connection Route 3 on Monday, August 17. It is exciting to enable people living in Martinez to be minutes away from their downtown by transit, where they work, play and enjoy all the wonderful new and old things to do in downtown Martinez, including the Martinez marina.

This is a prime example of how good planning and good transit can enrich the community experience.

No BART Transbay Service This Weekend

You may have heard or read about the BART transbay closure  and now it’s here.

BART will not provide transbay train service between West Oakland and Embarcadero stations during the weekends of August 1-2 and the three-day Labor Day weekend, September 5-7, in order to perform critical maintenance work near the Transbay Tube. In addition, the West Oakland BART Station will be closed during the maintenance work.

Please plan ahead, use alternate forms of transportation, and avoid unnecessary transbay trips.

Bookmark the link below for all service alternatives and updates.

http://alert.511.org

Rt. 7 – The Shadelands Shuttle Is Getting A New Look

DSCN1141-REarlier this year the property owners in the Shadelands Business Park began paying fares for everyone riding the Route 7 buses – AKA – the “Shadelands Shuttle”. In the six months since the free fare program began, the buses are getting a new look and identity.

Route 7 runs between the Pleasant Hill BART station and the Shadelands Business Park by way of Treat Blvd. and Oak Grove Rd. The service runs every 15 minutes Monday – Friday between approximately 6:30 – 10:00 AM, and 3:00 – 7:30 PM. To view the schedule and route map, click here.