[Sosfbay-discuss] Residents excoriate bus officials: Proposed changes to VTA Route 88 draw fire

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http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2007-5-24-05-24-07-pa-vta-routes
Thursday May 24

Residents excoriate bus officials

Proposed changes to VTA Route 88 draw fire

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer
An overflowing room of angry Palo Alto bus riders
berated Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
officials Wednesday afternoon over a series of
proposed bus changes.

The most contentious among them were to the 88 bus
route, which serves Gunn High School and the Veterans
Affairs Health Care System, among other spots.

The authority no longer wants to compete with the city
of Palo Alto's free shuttle, which serves the same
neighborhood surrounding the high school and the area
between the California Avenue Caltrain station and the
hospital. The proposed changes fall under its
Comprehensive Operations Analysis, a plan to shift
resources to more popular service areas.

"We frankly feel there is competition between the free
shuttle and our bus," said Kevin Connolly, VTA
transportation planning manager.

But Nik Kaestner, a consultant for the Palo Alto
Unified School District who formerly worked at Gunn,
said both the shuttle and 88 bus are always packed and
follow different routes.

"One is not a replacement for the other," he said.
"It's not a rational solution."

Gunn sophomore Monica Datta said she takes the 88 bus
every day to and from school.

"If they take it away, it basically cuts off all
options for me," she said.

And she would not be alone.

According to a 2004 survey, 8 percent of Gunn's
population, or 144 students, took the 88 bus to
school, said Michelle Rosengaus, who works with
Kaestner.

But VTA officials say they've seen a decline in
ridership since the free shuttle began service.

"We are an outlet for (the shuttle's) capacity,"
Connolly said.

Other proposed changes include discontinuing the 22
bus service between Palo Alto and Menlo Park and the
35 bus service to Stanford Shopping Center.

But the raucous crowd of more than 100 residents
hardly touched on those changes, focusing instead on
the disruption to the 88 line.

"We think it's a crazy time to reduce bus service in
South Palo Alto because we're getting flooded with new
housing," resident Jean Olmsted said.

Roughly 967 new housing units and 220,000 square feet
of commercial and community space have been proposed
for the 88 bus service area, said Penny Ellson,
chairwoman of the Greenmeadow Community Association's
Civic Affairs Committee.

"Environmental impact reports for the largest of these
projects cited the VTA 88 as traffic mitigations for
their projects," Ellson said, citing the new Jewish
community center and former Hyatt Rickey's site, among
other developments.

Others in the crowd, comprised mostly of senior
citizens, said they could not imagine cuts to the 88
bus service.

"I maybe take the bus four times per month, but I
always know it's there," Mary Ann Michel said.

Connolly emphasized that the proposed changes are part
of a rough draft that may be modified according to
community input.

"We don't pretend this is the final route," he said. A
final report will go to the VTA board Aug. 30 and
officials expect the first phase of route changes to
take effect in January.


E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson at dailynewsgroup.com.

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