Video and story by: Sebastian Echeverry— Staff Writer
It seems as though Long Beach Transit (LBT) may consider making systematic changes to its current bus schedule in order to increase on-time travel to destinations and frequent-flowing bus routes later into the evening.
LBT conducted a community-input meeting in the Signal Hill Youth Center on Thursday, April 20, as part of its Systemwide Transit Analysis and Reassessment (STAR) initiative. STAR was designed to help LBT consider where resources should be spent in order to improve its services to the public.
The STAR initiative works by gathering service user information from online surveys, meetings and community events. Then, the data is studied by corresponding LBT officials, who then decide what services need improving according to STAR’s results.
LBT hired third-party consulting firm Nelson Nygaard to assist with the STAR initiative. Hazel Scher, senior associate for Nelson Nygaard, conducted most of the meeting.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”350px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-27-at-4.42.21-PM.png” credit=”Photos by Sebastian Echeverry | Signal Tribune” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”At a public-outreach event on Thursday, April 20 at the Signal Hill Youth Center, Hazel Scher, senior associate for consulting company Nelson Nygaard, hosts a discussion on Long Beach Transit’s STAR initiative. The Systemwide Transit Analysis and Reassessment, or STAR, initiative helps LBT consider where resources should be spent in order to improve its services to the public.” captionposition=”right” revealfx=”off”]
Scher’s presentation focused on outlining the STAR initiative for the handful of Signal Hill and Long Beach residents who attended the meeting. She told the audience that STAR is categorized into three main stages— analyzing existing services, assessing the marketplace and conducting public-outreach operations. Thursday’s meeting was a component of public-outreach operations.
“We are going to be done by the end of April with this phase of public involvement,” Scher told the Signal Tribune. “The next time we’ll be talking to the public will be when we have hammered out three different options. That gives the opportunity to the public to decide what they like, or don’t like, about each of them so we can come back with a vetted option.”
LBT’s and Nelson Nygaard’s next step is to enter the “scenario development” stage, according to Scher. This step in the STAR initiative is used to analyze bus routes and maps to determine where transportation gaps may be located in the city.
Following the presentation, community members stated ideas to better improve LBT’s services. Two major points that were discussed included increasing the number of late-night bus routes and making sure buses deliver passengers to their destinations faster.
A community member pointed out that although she believes LBT holds a good on-time record for passenger delivery, she expressed that improvements should be made to that part of LBT’s service. A California State University, Long Beach student who attended the meeting said she felt that waiting for a bus late into the night was troubling. This prompted the suggestion to increase the number of bus routes in the later hours of the day.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”200px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-27-at-4.42.31-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Long Beach Transit public information officer Paul Gonzales (right) speaks during a public-outreach meeting at the Signal Hill Youth Center on Thursday, April 20 to discuss ways in which LBT’s transportation services can be improved for the public’s use.” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”]
LBT public information officer Paul Gonzales told the Signal Tribune that drastic changes to LBT’s services will not be seen until after the STAR initiative runs its course— which is estimated to be sometime at the end of 2017.
According to Gonzales, LBT constantly examines what its services provide for the people. Approximately every six months, LBT conducts modifications to its routes.
“Tiny modifications, periodic modifications, are not the things the STAR initiative was designed to address,” he said about the suggested ideas. “It is designed to address the system itself, how the system operates and to develop ways to operate the system that offer the most utility to the people that use it.”
Gonzales predicts that revenue collected from Measure M, which was voted into effect last November, will help fund improvements for transportation services. He said the measure could generate approximately $800 million. It is estimated that Long Beach will receive close to $8 million of Measure M’s revenue, according to Gonzales. Measure M’s money is not controlled by transportation service providers.
“It’s up to the cities themselves to decide how to use those funds,” Gonzales said.
Community members can take an online survey at survey.lbtstar.com to get involved in the public-outreach section of the STAR initiative. The survey is only available until the end of April.
