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SN&R
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04.04.19
Lost in transit shuffle Fair Oaks, Orangevale bus riders feel left in a lurch by Scott thomaS anderSon s c o t t a @ne w s re vie w.c o m
Bonnie Lindemann stands at her regular bus stop near the border of Fair Oaks and Orangevale.
Another Fair Oaks resident who’s concerned Sacramento Regional Transit is preparing to is Dawn Saunders. She knows first-hand about launch the largest reconfiguration of public bus the impact that lost routes could have on families. routes in 30 years, expanding services into Elk Saunders’ daughter spent the last few years attendGrove and shifting a number of buses to neighboring high school within the San Juan Unified School hoods where there’s potential to grow ridership. District, which doesn’t offer school buses for But not everyone’s happy about the reshuffle. students. Saunders’ daughter relied on RT buses to Some riders in Fair Oaks and Orangevale say avoid walking 3 miles to school along a path with RT’s data-driven approach reduced them to disposseveral roadside memorials where pedestrians were able statistics and stranded their suburban pockets. killed. They also claim a lack of outreach from RT left “I never heard a thing,” Saunders said of the their community without a voice. proposed changes. “It’s not like our supervisor told RT officials said last week they tried to solicit us, either. The entire community is represented input from Fair Oaks and Orangevale riders and by Sue Frost, and now the entire community isn’t promised to monitor impacts to see if adjustments going to have bus service.” need to be made after the changes take effect in RT spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said the September. canceled routes around Sunrise Hub, specifically Fair Oaks resident Bonnie Lindemann doesn’t routes 24 and 28, were two of its lowest-performing drive and uses RT as her primary transportation. routes, only averaging 11.5 boardings an hour. In December, she learned from a fellow rider that “We took a host of factors into consideration, major routes within what RT calls its “Sunrise because we understand it’s a really big deal,” Hub” would be eliminated. Gonzalez said. “We want higher performing routes Lindemann says she hadn’t seen any bulletins about this on the buses. Concerned, she asked her because it gets more people around.” Gonzalez added that RT is filling the service gap driver, who encouraged her to attend the public in Fair Oaks and Orangevale with SmaRT meetings RT was holding. But RT didn’t Ride, an on-demand, micro-transit hold any meetings in the places service. Lindemann expected, particularly “They said James Boyle, RT’s director of the Fair Oaks and Orangevale planning, says he’s working with libraries. The only meetings they were just San Juan Unified to see if four Lindemann could find to cleaning up squiggly new RT routes can be added to attend were in downtown lines on their map, but address parental concerns. Sacramento, which can take “That’s something we’re in well more than an hour all those lines are real the process of doing,” Boyle to get to by bus from Fair people.” stressed. Oaks. But for Lindemann, who Once Lindemann finally Bonnie Lindemann worries that older and intellectusaw the planned route eliminaFair Oaks resident ally disabled riders will just stay tions, she realized it meant home rather than try to navigate a she’d be doing an extra 25 minutes micro-transit service, RT’s plans are nothof walking a day. ing to celebrate. “I didn’t get to see what their grand old plan “A fixed route is far more rideable than a dial-awas until January 14th,” she recalled. “It was awful ride,” she noted. “They said they were just cleaning and cold and pouring down rain that day. I was in up squiggly lines on their map, but all those lines despair because everything I was using, they were are real people.” Ω getting rid of.”