BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — GET bus is launching into phase two of their multi-year study.
23ABC has been following this story for weeks and through several focus groups and surveys the public transportation company is finally ready to show the community their findings.
“One of the biggest complaints that GET bus received is that customers wanted a faster route so it could take you from one moment to the next within seconds,” said Janet Sanders, Director of Marketing for Golden Empire Transit.
“We need to hear what the community has to say they’re the ones riding it. They’re the ones that know our transit system very well and so we want to know what they need as well”
Sanders said that is why they enlisted the help of the IBI group.
“We’re looking at the performance of the existing bus services. Community outreach has been an integral part of our work program. Earlier, early December late November, we had a number of focus group meetings,” said Steve Wilks, IBI Group Associate.
Wilks said his team also conducted surveys, public meetings and talked with local representatives to get the pulse of the community and they had some suggestions.
“Takes too long to travel by bus or bus routes aren’t direct enough things of that nature so that really informed us at looking at alternate approaches.”
Thursday, Wilks and Sanders came out with other team members to show the community their initial findings and see if they were on the right track.
“One idea was a north-south express bus line something that I describe as a Bakersfield subway. It’s a direct service from Bakersfield College through the downtown to the south end.”
Wilks said this will result in faster travel times for more customers and many riders seemed excited by these ideas. Sanders said rider input is what matters most.
“This isn't a quick fix it’ll be a span of 1 to 5 years. We’re going to try to implement some changes to our service to provide a better service to our community.”
Build Better Transit is having a virtual public meeting tomorrow from 5:30 till 7 p.m. For more information visit their website.
