The new commuter bus service, called the Causeway Connection, is billed as a way of reducing congestion on the Yolo Causeway as well as an early step toward creating an electric-vehicle future for transit in the Sacramento region.
But the program has come under criticism from a group of UC Davis employees, whose employee-only commuter bus will be discontinued in favor of the new service that is open for all riders. That group complained that the new buses will not have seat belts, as their current bus does, and will not have as much bicycle-carrying capacity.
An organized group of UC Davis employees and students has protested the project, arguing it is unsafe to ride at freeway speeds in a bus without seat belts.
General public transit buses in California currently are not required to have seat belts, although transit officials say that regulation could change in the coming years. Most school buses in California, though, are required to have seat belts, and long-range private coaches such as Greyhound and MegaBus often have the safety devices.
Several current riders have said they may boycott the buses if they aren’t made safe and convenient, and are continuing to call on the university and transit agencies to get at least some seat belts installed. James Rodgers, a rider of the current bus who lives in Davis and works at the UC facility in Sacramento, said he will give the new bus a try, but he is upset with the university for what he and others say was a lack of early communication.
“It is sort of shocking to us that UC Davis would enter into this and not consider those safety issues,” Rodgers said.
Bus service between Davis and Sacramento
Transit officials said they already had ordered the buses for the service, none of which have seat belts. They say they later explored the possibility of retrofitting the buses with seat belts, but found it was too costly and difficult.
Sacramento Regional Transit officials said that if the Causeway Connection is successful and becomes a permanent service, officials will look for funds to transition to “freeway-style” coach buses with seat belts. The service currently is funded for three years.
“Safety is a top priority for SacRT,” agency spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez wrote in an emailed statement. “We will look into ordering buses with seat belts for future purchases, especially for buses that travel on freeways, like the Causeway Connection.”
The new service will employ 12 buses, operated in tandem by Sacramento Regional Transit and Yolobus. Some of the buses will be express service, others will make additional stops in Davis and Sacramento.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who pushed for the bus, and UC Davis officials lauded the service as another example of Sacramento making advances into electrification of transit, taking advantage of grants from the Electrify America agency, a subsidiary of Volkswagen.
Matt Dolcich, environmental planning director for UC Davis, said the university and transit agencies have been working with the existing employee riders group after being hit with complaints from them about the new service. He said the university expects the service to be heavily used.
“It expands the frequency of the existing service and should be more convenient for UC Davis riders and is open to all members of the region,” he said. “And it will reduce congestion on the Causeway.”
©2019 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
