Category: Uncategorized

SANTA BARBARA—Effective Thursday, March 19, 2020, Santa Barbara MTD will be lowering service levels on several lines associated with area educational institutions, in light of these schools ceasing campus operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally on Thursday, all MTD fixed-route bus service will be provided free of charge until further notice. Passengers without disabilities will be directed to use the rear door of the vehicle for boarding and alighting to minimize contact with bus operators at the front door and farebox area. Passengers using mobility devices or who need the ramp will be allowed to board and alight from the front door of the vehicle.

As described below, Transit Center Customer Service functions will be changing, as will public access to the MTD Administrative Offices.

Service Reduction

Earlier this week on Monday, March 16, 2020, all booster services to Junior Highs and High Schools were cancelled. This cancellation will continue until further notice.

Beginning the morning of Thursday, March 19, 2020, the following service changes will go into effect, until further notice:

No Line 15x (SBCC/UCSB Express) Service

No Line 16 (SBCC Shuttle) Service

No Line 28 (UCSB Shuttle) Service

Line 27 (Isla Vista Shuttle) will operate on the “UCSB out” alternate schedule as published in the schedule guide

No booster service to Junior Highs, High Schools, or Alpha Resource Center

This service level mimics the service level provided during Spring Break, when SBCC, UCSB, and Santa Barbara Unified School District are all closed.

UC Santa Barbara will still be accessible by bus on Lines 11, 24x, and 27. The Santa Barbara City College area will still be accessible by bus on Lines 4, 5, and 17.

Passengers with questions about schedules and affected routes can call (805) 963-3366 for assistance.

Transit Center Customer Service

Transit Center facilities will still be operating on normal business hours (Monday through Friday, 6am to 7pm, and weekends, 9am to 5pm), but no walk-up sales or person-to-person transactions of any kind will be available; however, the two Ticket Vending Machines at the Transit Center will still be operational and accept cash, debit and credit cards. The public may still ask questions through the window or call (805) 963-3366.

In addition to help over the phone, the public is encouraged to contact MTD with any questions or concerns via the sbmtd.gov website, by emailing info@sbmtd.gov, or through the agency’s Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, all @santabarbaramtd.

MTD Administrative Offices

Additionally, effective March 19, 2020, MTD’s administrative office reception area at 550 Olive Street will be closed to visitors. Customers needing to make bulk pass purchases may do so upon appointment only. To arrange for a pass purchase during regular business hours (Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm), please call (805) 963-3364.

The public is reminded to stay home if they are sick, follow proper health hygiene practices, and maintain appropriate social distance on buses, at the Transit Center, and at bus stops.

SANTA BARBARA—Santa Barbara MTD is actively responding to the possibility of the spread of COVID-19 virus by taking additional precautions to protect bus riders and the MTD workforce. Along with the rest of the transit industry, MTD leaders are closely following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD).

Additional disinfecting of the bus fleet is taking place nightly, using hospital grade disinfectant on all high-touch surfaces such as door handles, stanchions, seat back handles, grab bars, fareboxes, and driver areas. Portable toilets at the temporary Transit Center are outfitted with hand sanitizer dispensers.

All bus services are currently running on a normal schedule.

While there are currently no identified cases of the COVID-19 virus in Santa Barbara County, MTD encourages community members to follow smart health practices by doing the following, as recommended by the CDC and the PHD:

• Wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Sneeze or cough into the crook of your elbow.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Stay away from work, school, transit, and other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.

SANTA BARBARA—As of December 2^nd, Santa Barbara MTD has stopped purchasing petroleum diesel and will now fuel the agency’s diesel fleet with renewable diesel (RD). This transition requires no infrastructure changes and the new fuel can be dispensed into the same tank that held the old fuel.

Different from biodiesel, renewable diesel is refined from a mix of more than 10 different wastes and residues and various vegetable oils. Around 92% of this fuel comes from a combination of used cooking oil, waste animal fat, waste fish fat, and residue oils. Renewable diesel is odorless, and emits 33% lower fine particulates that aggravate asthma.

While not zero-emission, renewable diesel represents an 80 percent reduction in emissions and carbon intensity from petroleum diesel. The carbon intensity of renewable diesel is about one-third of that of a battery-electric vehicle charging on the California grid.

Santa Barbara MTD’s Board of Directors set a goal in November 2018 to transition the entire MTD fleet to 100 percent battery-electric by 2030. This transition to renewable diesel speeds up a reduction in emissions fleetwide, and takes the opportunity to green the remaining diesel fleet.

SANTA BARBARA-In partnership with the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and other local partners, Santa Barbara MTD is offering the first 500 individuals to pledge to try an MTD bus in the month of October a free 10-ride bus pass. The pledge and sign up is located at this link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/freepasscleanerair

The free MTD passes are funded through a Low-Carbon Transit Operations Program grant from Caltrans.

California Clean Air Day is a statewide program built on the idea that shared experiences unite people to action to improve local air quality and community health. On October 2, 2019, Californians across the state will take actions to clear the air and improve their and their community’s health. More than 100,000 people participated in 2018, and it is anticipated that 10 times as many people will participate in 2019.

MTD and APCD – together with Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) / Traffic Solutions, Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, and Sansum Clinic – encourages Santa Barbara County residents to take three steps to participate in Clean Air Day this year:

BE AWARE OF YOUR AIR: Sign up to receive air quality alerts issued by APCD and Santa Barbara County Public Health: ourair.org/subscribe.

• APCD provides hourly air quality conditions and daily forecasts on its website: ourair.org/todays-air-quality/. For the most part, Santa Barbara County enjoys good-to-moderate air quality conditions. Sign up to receive alerts when air quality conditions turn unhealthy, such as during wildfires.
• Being up-to-date on hourly air quality conditions will help you and your loved ones protect your health and plan activities accordingly. This is especially important for individuals with heart and lung conditions, seniors, and children.

PROTECT YOUR HEALTH: Learn more about air pollution and health: ourair.org/apcd/air-pollutants-and-health.

• Read about how ground-level ozone and particulate matter can affect your health.
• Knowledge is power, and the more you understand about the harmful effects of air pollution, the more you can do to protect your health.

PLEDGE TO TRY ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION THIS OCTOBER: Try alternative transportation for free this month.

• Sign up to receive a free 10-ride pass to ride the Santa Barbara MTD: surveymonkey.com/r/freepasscleanerair
• Sign up to receive a free one-time, round-trip pass to ride any of the routes of the Clean Air Express, run by SBCAG: trafficsolutions.org/cleanairday
• Walk or bike to work or school, as several Santa Barbara County schools are doing today.

“Every day we make personal choices that contribute positively or negatively to our air quality and our climate,” said Hillary Blackerby, MTD’s Planning and Marketing Manager. “If we each replaced one trip a week with a bus trip, it would reduce our collective carbon emissions and pollution significantly.”

Find more ideas to help improve air quality on the California Clean Air Day website, and take the pledge: www.CleanAirDay.org

SANTA BARBARA – Santa Barbara MTD’s annual August service changes will go into effect at the beginning of the day on Monday, August 19, 2019.

These changes were developed through a yearlong planning process, assessing on-time performance, changing traffic pressures and patterns, and community outreach.

The changes include minor routing changes around Cottage Hospital for the Line 3 (Oak Park), due to the changing focal point of the hospital campus to Pueblo Street from Bath Street.

In an effort to improve the express nature of Lines 12x (Goleta Express) and 24x (UCSB Express), these lines will now make fewer stops. The bus stops skipped by these lines are still served by other routes. The stops no longer served are as follows:

Inbound Stops No Longer Served on Express Lines

Line 12x	Line 24x
Hollister at Los Carneros Way	Storke at Santa Felicia
Hollister at Hartley	Storke at Sierra Madre
Hollister at Griggs	El Colegio at Stadium

Outbound Stops No Longer Served on Express Lines

Line 12x	Line 24x
Chapala at Anapamu	Chapala at Anapamu
Arrellaga at De La Vina	Arrellaga at De La Vina
Hollister at Wendy’s	El Colegio at Stadium
Hollister at Lopez	El Colegio at Camino Corto
Hollister at David Love	Storke at El Colegio
Hollister at Robin Hill	Storke at Whittier
Hollister at Willow Springs	Storke at Santa Felicia
Hollister at Los Carneros Way

Beginning with the start of UCSB’s fall quarter in late September, the Line 28 (UCSB Shuttle) service will increase to every 10 minutes on weekdays from 7am to 6pm.

The new schedule also includes minor changes to the schedules Lines 4, 5, 10, 14, 15x, 17, and 20 to improve on-time performance.

Several of the booster services that serve area Junior Highs and High Schools have had minor adjustments made to their schedules and routes to improve on-time performance and efficiency. Booster schedules can be found online here. The booster lines affected are listed below:

• La Colina Junior High: 2410 AM, 2420 AM & PM, 2430 AM & PM
• San Marcos High: 2510 AM & PM, 2540 AM
• Goleta Valley Junior High: 2610 PM, 2620 PM, 2630 PM, 2650 AM & PM
• Dos Pueblos High: 2720 AM & PM, 2730 PM

The new schedule guide reflecting these changes is available at the Transit Center or online here.

MTD encourages riders to double-check the schedule to see if their regular departure times have been altered. Customer Service Representatives are available for assistance at (805) 963-3366.

SANTA BARBARA –Santa Barbara MTD has begun a complete renovation of its Downtown Santa Barbara Transit Center, having started installing temporary facilities in July 2019. The project is expected to last until around March 2020.

The official transition to the temporary facilities in the adjacent parking lot and the closure of the existing Transit Center and bus driveway is expected to take place over the weekend of September 7^th and 8^th. Starting on Sunday, September 8^th, buses will be loading and unloading at the new zone locations, and all customer service functions will be handled out of the temporary ticket booth and ticket vending machines in the corner of City Parking Lot 3 along Chapala Street. ADA-accessible portable restrooms will also be available for passengers.

These facilities and services will be open to the public during regular Transit Center hours and will be locked after hours. MTD bus service will remain in full effect throughout the project, but temporary loading zones will be used along Chapala and Figueroa Streets.

The project consists of a complete renovation of the Transit Center building interior, much of the building exterior, exterior loading platform, curbs, driveway, lighting, and landscaping.

City Parking Lot 3 will remain in operation for the duration of the project.

To sign up for project updates or to get further project details, visit MTD’s dedicated project website at www.sbmtd.gov/tc

SANTA BARBARA –Santa Barbara MTD will start a complete renovation of its Downtown Santa Barbara Transit Center beginning in July 2019 and ending around March 2020. The transit agency is hosting an informational open house on July 2^nd to inform the public about project details and phasing.

The project consists of complete renovation of the Transit Center building interior, much of the building exterior, exterior loading platform, curbs, driveway, lighting, and landscaping. The project has been awarded to general contractor Newton Construction and Management, Inc.

During the project, temporary facilities will be installed adjacent to the Transit Center property in the corner of City Parking Lot 3. The facilities will be comprised of a ticket booth, a ticket vending machine enclosure, and ADA-accessible portable public restrooms. These facilities and services will be open to the public during regular Transit Center hours and will be locked after hours. MTD bus service will remain in full effect throughout the project, but temporary loading zones will be used along Chapala and Figueroa Streets.

City Parking Lot 3 will remain in operation for the duration of the project.

WHO: Santa Barbara MTD

WHAT: Transit Center Project Open House

WHEN: Tuesday, July 2, 2019 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm

WHERE: MTD Transit Center, 1020 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara

WHY: To share information with the public on the upcoming construction project to renovate the Transit Center building, driveway, and surrounding areas.

Further project details and construction updates can be found at a dedicated project website: www.sbmtd.gov/tc

Santa Barbara MTD has announced a change to the routing of the Downtown Shuttle that serves the Downtown State Street corridor. Beginning Monday, June 10th, 2019, the Downtown Shuttle will originate at the Dolphin Fountain, turn right on Mason Street, left on Anacapa Street, and left on Yanonali Street, serving a new stop in front of Oreana Winery. The shuttle then continues to State Street, turns right and continues uptown. Heading towards the beach, the routing will not change from current conditions.

“With ten to fifteen minute frequency in the summer and shuttles running until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays, we think the Downtown Shuttle is the best way to get around for a Santa Barbara summer day. We’re excited to add the Funk Zone as a destination on this route,” said Jerry Estrada, General Manager of Santa Barbara MTD.

“In addition to the new routing, our Downtown and Waterfront Shuttles will be fully trackable on our BusTracker app so you know exactly how many minutes away the shuttle is from your stop,” said Hillary Blackerby, MTD’s Interim Planning and Marketing Manager.

In a further step towards convenience, in October 2018 MTD launched a shuttle day pass that costs only one dollar and allows for unlimited rides in any direction on MTD’s zero-emissions battery-electric shuttles. The pass is valid for one calendar day after first use, and is only valid on the Downtown and Waterfront Shuttles. Unused passes do not expire.

Day passes are available for purchase at MTD’s Transit Center at 1020 Chapala Street, and the Administrative Offices at 550 Olive Street, both in Santa Barbara. Other sales outlets include the Visitor Center, Hotel Santa Barbara, Downtown Santa Barbara’s office, and the Margerum Wine Company tasting rooms. Other businesses interested in vending these passes can contact MTD for more information.

MTD operates the Downtown-Waterfront Electric Shuttle in partnership with the City of Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara MTD held the 5^th Annual Youth Art Poster Contest this spring in Grades 1 through 6 with a theme of “Celebration Buses” to recognize MTD’s 50^th Anniversary year. With over 85 entries, MTD employees voted on the winners, and the winning works of art will be featured inside MTD buses for the next year.

Participating sites include local elementary schools and libraries from Goleta to Carpinteria, the Isla Vista Youth Projects, Carpinteria Boys & Girls Club, City of Santa Barbara RAP Program, Girls, Inc., and the Downtown Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club.

1st-3rd Grade Winners

1^st Place- Alexandria Dueñas, 2^nd Grade, Aliso School

2^nd Place- Anisia Kourakis, 2^nd Grade, Adams Elementary School

3^rd Place- Mia Desales, 2^nd Grade, Isla Vista Elementary School

Honorable Mention- Sirena Guzik, 1^st Grade, Monte Vista Elementary School

4th-6th Grade Winners

1^st Place- Emma Hayden – 5^th Grade, Coastline Christian Academy

2^nd Place- Natalie & Lila Warren & Audrey Garfield, 5^th Grade, Isla Vista Elementary School

3^rd Place- Sagarika Manian, 6^th Grade, Ellwood Elementary School

Honorable Mention- Edward Perko, 4^th Grade, Adams Elementary School

In the event that the afternoon southbound Pacific Surfliner train number 792 (normally scheduled to leave Goleta at 4:25pm and Santa Barbara at 4:40pm) is cancelled or greatly delayed, SBCAG’s Traffic Solutions and Santa Barbara MTD will work together to help get commuters back home to points south.

First/Last Mile Shuttles Line 90 (West Goleta) and Line 91 (UCSB/East Goleta) will run their normal route to the Goleta Amtrak Station. Line 92 (Santa Barbara) will also run its normal route to the Santa Barbara Amtrak Station.

Options for Ventura and Oxnard Commuters

The VCTC Coastal Express regional bus service has two routes: between Goleta and Oxnard (including Ventura) and between Santa Barbara and Oxnard (including Ventura). The Coastal Express schedule can be found here.

Options for Carpinteria Commuters

Carpinteria commuters can catch the Line 20 from the Transit Center at 1020 Chapala Street in Downtown Santa Barbara. The schedules for the Line 20 can be found here.

Commuters originating at UCSB or along the Hollister corridor in Goleta can catch the 12x or 24x to the Transit Center to transfer to the Line 20.