News Archive

Have you noticed how easy it is to step onto a bus these days? Not too long ago, getting on the bus meant climbing up a steep set of stairs, which was not easy for a lot of people. 

But for some riders, those steps weren’t just a hassle, they were a barrier. Parents juggling children and strollers, people using canes, and anyone carrying groceries all had to struggle to get on and off. And wheelchair users faced even greater obstacles, relying on slow-moving mechanical lifts, when lifts were available at all. In fact, the first lift-equipped bus route in the United States didn’t begin service until 1977 in San Diego. (Fun fact: in 1989, County Connection became the first public transit agency in the nation to operate a fully lift-equipped bus fleet.) 

So, what happened to the stairs? Spurred on by the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the first low-floor bus hit the American market in 1991. Today, all major transit bus manufacturers make only low-floor buses, a modern and standardized all-access design. And that gets us to our original question: just what is a low-floor bus? 

As the name would suggest, a low-floor bus has a floor that’s closer to the ground, but the real trick is the fold-out ramp, which allows people using wheelchairs, walkers, and other mobility devices to board independently. With the push of a button, the bus operator can quickly deploy a ramp through the front door that creates a smooth path from the sidewalk onto the bus. This simple feature makes boarding faster, easier, and more dignified for everyone.  

And that’s the point: accessibility improvements benefit all riders. The same features that help wheelchair users also make life easier for everybody. Think about the sidewalk curb-ramp at a crosswalk when you’re rolling a suitcase or cart, an elevator for someone who has a hard time with stairs, or even the closed captioning on the televisions in a noisy sports bar; these were all features designed for accessibility that ended up helping everyone. 

By redesigning the front suspension and steering system to make room for a low floor, modern buses have come a long way towards making transit accessible for everyone (think of it like remodeling a house—moving pipes and wiring behind the walls so you can replace a staircase with a ground-level entry)*.  Simply stated, switching from steps to a ramp has improved mobility for millions. 

*For all you fellow gearheads out there: Most bus manufacturers did this by replacing the solid front axle with independent front suspension and lowering the steering linkage to make way for the low floor.  Not only did this increase passenger accessibility, but it also lowered the center of gravity and improved handling, just like a sports car (a sports bus?).  

---

Andrew Smith is the Director of Planning & Marketing. Do you have question about County Connection? About our buses? About our routes and service? Email asmith@cccta.org and your question might be included in a future issue of our monthly newsletter, Headways.

As a genuine transit geek, I could talk all day about what goes on behind the scenes in running a transit system, but the one question we’re asked more than any other is “when is my bus coming?”. We have several ways of letting you know: 

Printed timetables

If you want to go old-skool, there’s our tried-and-true printed timetables. Some of you will remember when printed timetables were just about the only way to know when your bus would arrive, and we still provide these on our buses and at libraries, community centers, and city halls (they may also be downloaded from our website). These timetables tell you when the bus is scheduled to arrive at the timepoints along the route (timepoints are bus stops where the bus will stop and wait if it is running ahead of schedule), but you’ll always want to make sure you have the most up-to-date version.

• (If you need any printed timetables, they’re available at County Connection, 2477 Arnold Industrial Way in Concord and at various locations around Contra Costa County. Or, you may email us customerservice@cccta.org, and we’ll be glad to mail you what you need.)

Schedule panels

About half of our bus stops have schedule panels showing the arrival times for each route serving that stop (or the previous timepoint for stops that aren’t themselves a timepoint). We typically install schedule panels at bus stops served by more than one route, and at all BART stations and transit centers. They’re a great way to confirm that you’re at the right stop at the right time, but they won’t tell you if the bus is running late. Each timetable is specific to the location of the stop.

Call customer service

We have a dedicated in-house team of friendly and helpful customer service representatives who know all of our routes, are in frequent contact with our dispatchers, can tell you where your bus is, help you plan your trip, or even check to see if something you left on the bus has been turned in to lost & found.  You can call them at (925) 676-7500, Monday through Friday between 6:30 am and 6:30 pm. They look forward to hearing from you! 

Real-time arrival signs

Here’s where we get into some new technology! We recently installed electronic real-time arrival signs at 28 of our busiest stops, and we have an entire article written about them (See Real-Time Bus Signs Installed for more information and a detailed map of current location of these signs).  

County Connection website

Our website has schedules for all of our routes, plus interactive route maps that show the current location of each bus. You can watch your bus as it moves along the route in real time (visit specific route pages), and you can click on your bus stop for real-time arrival estimates. Just visit countyconnection.com and select “Maps & Schedules” from the menu at the top. You can also download our system map to get the overall picture of our entire system (something enjoyed by map nerds such as myself). 

Google/Apple maps

In addition to a trip planner, both apps (Google Maps and Apple Maps) include a public transit map layer (you’ll find it right next to the traffic layer) that features the location of every bus stop and transit station. Tapping on a bus stop will bring up real-time arrival information for every route that stops there. 

Transit app

My personal favorite, the Transit app is designed specifically for transit riders. From the start, it automatically shows you the transit routes closest to your current location and their next arrival time.  Clicking on a route opens an interactive route map showing the current location of each bus, its full schedule, and even in some cases how full it is. The app also features a robust trip planning tool that will usually provide you with several options, and it will even tell you when to start walking to your bus stop.  Now covering the Bay Area over a decade, the Transit App changed the way I use transit by greatly simplifying trip planning, reassuring me that the bus I’m waiting for is on its way, and even letting me know that I can take a more leisurely walk to my bus stop if it’s running a few minutes late. I recently used the app to take a trip to South San Francisco that included County Connection, BART, Muni, and Caltrain (with seamless connections between all four operators), and over the years I’ve used the app across the United States and abroad (because of course I take transit when I travel!). 

We’ve come a long way from the days when you had to find a printed schedule and then wait at the bus stop, not knowing where your bus was until you could see it up the block.  Online tools have greatly improved my transit experience, and they will likely do the same for you! 

Please note: this article is not sponsored by Google, Apple, or the Transit App. 

---

Andrew Smith is the Director of Planning & Marketing. Do you have question about County Connection? About our buses? About our routes and service? Email asmith@cccta.org and your question might be included in a future issue of our monthly newsletter, Headways.

Have you ever looked at a bus timetable and thought, “Geez, that looks complicated”? You’re not wrong. A bus schedule contains a lot of information. But every line, timepoint, and column is carefully designed to help you plan your trip by time and location. Here’s a look at what goes into building one. 

Creating a bus schedule is about far more than timing how long it takes to drive a route. Yes, driving the route provides a baseline. But that’s just the beginning. Schedulers also have to add time spent at bus stops (how long it takes for passengers to board/disembark), figuring that some stops will be busier than others, and at different times of the day. And don’t forget red lights, left turns, and stop signs!  

Then there’s traffic congestion, which can vary throughout the day both in location and direction. For example, during the morning rush hour, traffic backs up going westbound on Ygnacio Valley Road, but in the evening, it backs up going eastbound, and not always on the same stretch of road. There’s also heavier traffic in both directions around lunchtime, but not in all the same places as during rush hour. And don’t forget about schools! Traffic backs up at the beginning and end of the school day because of parents dropping off their kids, and kids using the crosswalk (which means longer and more frequent red lights). And of course, everything changes when school is out for the summer or on spring break (and not every school has the same schedule!). Add holiday shoppers (traffic around Sunvalley Shopping Center, for example), road construction, weather, and weekend traffic patterns, and the variables multiply quickly. 

The reality is that travel times are never exactly the same twice. For that reason, schedulers have to add additional time, or “padding” to account for this. Padding is extra time built into a schedule that helps even out the variations in traffic or other delays that the bus might experience along its route. 

County Connection’s individual bus routes all come together to form a regional network, so we also need to plan our schedules to accommodate transfers between different routes, not to mention BART.  It’s common for us to “pulse” at our major terminals, meaning several buses arrive and depart around the same time to make transfers easier. But synchronizing routes can be challenging when some take longer to operate or run more frequently than others.  

And last but certainly not least, we have to think of our bus operators. The bus is their workplace, their office, so to speak, but it doesn’t include a restroom or a lunchroom. So, we have to build time into our schedules for our operators to take their breaks and to access the restroom. And the time it takes to walk from the bus stop to the restroom can vary a lot – looking at you, Dublin/Pleasanton BART station!

You can think of a bus schedule as a giant algebra equation with a million variables, where solving for X means the bus arrives on time. Yet it’s something we do for each of our 53 routes, updated four times a year! If we’ve done our job right — if all those variables have been factored in and the math adds up — then your trip should feel predictable, reliable, and maybe even a little bit easy. You just show up, check the time, and go. Behind the scenes, we’ll keep solving for X so you can focus on getting where you need to be. 

---

Andrew Smith is the Director of Planning & Marketing. Do you have question about County Connection? About our buses? About our routes and service? Email asmith@cccta.org and your question might be included in a future issue of our monthly newsletter, Headways.