COALITION FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION (COAST)
February 19, 2004
SBCAG Unmet Transit Needs Hearings
Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST)
P.O. Box 2495, Santa Barbara, CA 93120 www.coast-santabarbara.org
2004
UNMET TRANSIT NEEDS IN
NORTH SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
February 19, 2004
Summary
Three North Santa Barbara County jurisdictions continue to divert over $3 million earmarked for transit to roads in 2003-4. The loss of these funds each year has resulted in unmet transit needs in the North County that are reasonable to meet. Needs were identified in the following areas:
§ Commuting services for farmworkers in the Santa Maria Valley.
§ Shorter headways for SMAT.
§ Expansion of COLT service to include extended hours and weekend service.
§ Guadalupe Flyer weekend service.
§ Intercommunity service between Lompoc, VAFB, and Santa Maria.
§ Extension of intercommunity service to include the Santa Ynez Valley.
2004
UNMET TRANSIT NEEDS IN
NORTH SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
Contents / Page1. / Documented transit needs in North Santa Barbara County / 2
2. / Farmworkers’ transit needs / 5
3. / Intercommunity service for North County / 10
4. / The political factors influencing implementation of transit service and intercommunity service in North County / 10
5. / The legislative intent for funds received under the State’s Transportation Development Act (TDA) / 11
6. / “Reasonable to meet” and farebox returns / 12
7. / Request for action / 13
1. DOCUMENTED TRANSIT NEEDS IN NORTH SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) conducted public workshops in the fall of 2003 in Santa Maria, Lompoc and Santa Ynez as part of its annual Transit Needs Assessment. Recommendations from these workshops were presented to SBCAG’s Technical Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC) on 12/04/03 and are reproduced below. SBCAG also distributed transit surveys to identify transit needs. In addition, specific requests to improve City of Lompoc Transit (COLT) and Santa Maria Area Transit (SMAT) were submitted directly to COAST by transit users and persons in need of transportation, including farmworkers.
a) Transit Surveys.
SBCAG distributed surveys to transit users and social agencies. The results will be added to this report as soon as they become available.
b) Santa Maria workshop (9/24/03) recommendations:
1. Integrate transportation mode facilities along Broadway.
2. Provide additional park and ride lots for commuter transit facilities.
3. Implement “real time transit” to coordinate each local transit provider.
4. Implement circulator express service along the Broadway corridor.
5. Implement later evening service hours, more frequent service and more routes.
6. Provide system information (routes and schedules) at bus stops. Provide red curbing at bus stops for passenger safety and bus circulation.
7. Implement the enhanced Orcutt service identified in the Orcutt Transit Study.
8. Build a new transit center to consolidate all bus service providers feeding into Santa Maria.
c) Lompoc workshop (10/1/03) recommendations:
1. Improve intercommunity transit around Lompoc and commuter transit between Lompoc and the South Coast.
2. Encourage car and van pools, and transit use. Use employee incentives and fare discounts. Businesses should also encourage “flex time” so it is easier to use transit.
3. Provide more transit education and marketing programs. Provide accurate schedule and route information.
4. Provide additional park and ride lots make it easier to use commuter transit, and van/car pools.
5. Provide an Emergency Ride Home program for transit and car/van pool users at V.A.F.B.
6. Improve Dial A Ride and ADA complementary services for the senior population.
7. Need more frequent service and more routes. Example, implement a Sunday service and provide a route on College Ave. (a cross-town service).
8. Provide intercommunity service between Lompoc, VAFB and Santa Maria.
d) Santa Ynez workshop (10/15/03) recommendations:
1. Encourage car/van pools and transit use through employee incentives, customer base incentives, preferential parking and high school student programs.
2. Build a park and ride lot at Hwy. 101 and 246.
3. Transit systems in the N. County cities must have coordinated linkages.
4. Provide commuter transit to service the Valley. Commuter service is needed to serve both ends of the Valley and access the South Coast by U.S. 101 and Hwy. 154. This service should address demand from both professionals and students (UCSB and SBCC).
5. Provide transit service between Lompoc, V.A.F.B., Santa Maria and between Lompoc and Buellton.
6. Provide more vanpool opportunities between the Valley and the South Coast, and between the Valley, Lompoc, VAFB and Santa Maria.
7. Demand response service needs improvement in the Valley.
8. S.Y. Valley Transit needs more frequent route service, including a direct express route through the Valley. Service needs more attractive buses and bus stop amenities such as benches, shelters, and trash cans.
9. Buses should have bike racks and air conditioning.
10. Need more park and ride lots provided at each end of the Valley for access to transit and carpooling opportunities along Hwy. 101 and Hwy. 154.
11. Need express transit service between Buellton, Solvang and Santa Ynez (including Ballard and Los Olivos).
12. Bring back the youth pass for the S.Y. Valley Transit service.
e) Requested Improvements to COLT Service:
1. The late run from the Allan Hancock College, Lompoc Center, to Lompoc should be made a permanent route in order to increase ridership. Riders will not commit to a service that can be pulled at anytime.
2. Service has been recently extended to cover night and morning hours (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.). This expansion should be permanent. This will become essential when the Lompoc/VAFB/Santa Maria bus service is implemented.
3. The Lompoc/VAFB/Santa Maria bus service is still very much needed. Although approved and funded as a pilot project, no bus is running yet and the need remains.
4. Bus service from the Bridge House (homeless shelter) into Lompoc is needed. This requires County funding, as the Bridge House is located outside of the Lompoc City limits.
5. All recommendations in Lompoc's Short Range Transit Plan should be fully funded so they can be completely implemented without delay. The bi-directional service should be expanded. Additional shelters are needed.
f) Requested Improvements to SMAT service:
1. Increase frequency of operations to 30 minute-headways on all routes.
2. Increase frequency to 15 minute-headways along Broadway.
3. Increase marketing and promotion of transit as a reliable transportation option.
2. FARMWORKERS’ TRANSIT NEEDS
The majority of the farmworkers in the Santa Maria Valley, as many as 9 out of 10, are Mixtec. Although exact figures are hard to come by, it is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 individuals who go to the fields every day to pick crops; 9,000 of them are Mixtec. The total number of Mixtecs and other indigenous groups in Santa Maria is estimated at 18 to 25,000 people, or 60% of the total Hispanic population.
The Mixtecs are an indigenous group from Southern Mexico that has been migrating into the Western United States during the last 40 years. Mixtecs can be found working and living in over 23 states, including Alaska, Florida, Idaho and Illinois. Within California, Mixtecs are clustered in San Diego, Los Angeles, Arvin, Bakersfield, Santa Rosa, Santa Maria, Oxnard, Madera and Fresno.
Mixtecs have become an important component of the work force in the most labor-intensive crops: strawberries, tomatoes, grapes, olives and citrus. Some Mixtec families live full-time in the United States and return to Mexico only for brief visits. They have children who were born and attend school in the United States and who speak Spanish, English and Mixtec.
The Mixtec, who call themselves “the Cloud People”, come from the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico. Oaxaca has the lowest level of income, health, literacy and other attributes by which development is measured, in all of Mexico. The Mixteca region is the western part of Oaxaca extending from the higher altitudes to the coastal plains. It has a population of 500,000.
Mixtecs have been migrating to California since the 1960s, with significant increases in the mid 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. A study by a team of researchers published by The California Institute for Rural Studies (Runsten and Kearney: 1994) estimated that in 1991, 50,000 Mixtec indigenous Oaxacans were working in California. That study found that:
· One quarter of their jobs paid less than the legal minimum wage in 1989-1990;
· Mixtecs were concentrated in the least desirable, lowest paying jobs in agriculture;
· Mixtecs were subject to high levels of labor standard violations;
· One quarter of Mixtec workers interviewed reported non payment of wages by U.S. employers on at least one occasion;
· The majority of Mixtecs were unaccompanied men of prime working age;
· Of those married, 55% had wives and/or children in Mexico;
· 35% were undocumented and 65% gained immigrant status with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act;
· Many Mixtec migrant families live in caves, along rivers and in the orchards;
· Women and children often sleep on floors and several families may occupy a single bedroom. (Bade: 1990)
The number of Mixtecs living in the United States is unclear, but there is consensus that it is highly underestimated in census data. Their numbers have increased considerably in the last 10 years, and Santa Maria has seen much of this increase due to the year-round nature of the crops produced in this valley.
The Mixtec speak an indigenous language with many dialects (there are 27 dialects in the state of Oaxaca alone). The existence of many sub-groups is an obstacle to the creation of a unified organization to represent them. The largest groups in the Santa Maria area and their coordinators are:
Frente Indígena Oaxaqueno Binacional / Jesús EstradaOrganización Campesino Mixteca / Pedro López and Anastacio Bautista
Club de Cahayaxi / Luis Claudio and José Luis de Jesús
San Agustín Atenango / Leonardo Elena and Arturo Avila
San Juan Pinas / Erculano López and Cándido Ortiz
These groups represent separate communities consisting of 70 to 80 families each. They are not political groups, but rather cultural and social organizations dealing with basic survival issues.
Many Mixtecs have a limited knowledge of Spanish and few speak English. Many travel periodically to Mexico for medical care. It is estimated that about one half of all Mixtecs have proper immigration documents.
We identified several areas in Santa Maria where great numbers of farmworkers live and where groups of 100, 500 and as many as 1,000 individuals take to the streets for rides every morning. They are out by 5 or 5:30 and they have a very difficult time getting a ride to the farms, which are about 8 to 12 miles away.
Large concentrations of farmworkers live in the following vicinities:
· 1300 West Newlove Drive
· 500 West Morrison Avenue
· 200 East Bunny Avenue
· 1000 West Cook Street
· 700 South Western Avenue
These concentrations are near transit routes served by Santa Maria Area Transit (SMAT). Three of them are along SMAT line 7.
The following farms are the largest employers in the area:
· Betteravia Farms
· Teixeira Farms
· Gold Coast Farms
· Agro-Jal Farms
· L & M Farming
· Herrera Farming Co.
· San Ysidro Farms
· Rancho Laguna
Farms have two types of employees: permanent and temporary. The permanent staff is only about 25% of the total. The temporary farmworkers constitute the majority of the labor force and they are the ones that face the greatest difficulties getting to work.
These farmworkers rarely know the names of their employers because they deal with labor contractors. They are paid the minimum wage of $6.75 per hour. They are required to provide identification papers. Taxes are deducted from their paychecks.
Most do not draw benefits from their contributions. Their access to medical care is limited and only attempted at critical stages. Many travel to Mexico for medical care.
Laborers report to work at 7:00 AM, but it takes them between an hour and a half and two hours to get there. They rely on the few of them that have vehicles. They pile up in cars, far in excess of the vehicle’s capacity.
Lack of licensed drivers and reliable vehicles adds to the risk of not reaching their destination. The cost is also an issue, as some have to pay $5 each way, or more. Worse yet, many never get a ride.
During the high season (March to October) they work 7 days a week. The workday ends at 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon; sometimes, even longer hours. During the low season (November to February) the temporary workers may work only 3 days a week, usually until 1 PM.
Farmworkers’ Transit Needs: Conclusion
Farmworkers’ access to work is an Unmet Transit Need that must be addressed for humanitarian and safety reasons at the earliest possible time.
This transit need is reasonable to meet, given the following trip characteristics:
· Concentrated points of origin
· Concentrated destinations
· Fixed schedule for pick up and delivery
· A population accustomed to great sacrifices to reach their destinations.
3. INTERCOMMUNITY SERVICE FOR NORTH COUNTY
In May 2003 SBCAG agreed to implement an intercommunity transit service linking Lompoc, VAFB and Santa Maria for commuting purposes. VAFB would provide in-base transport. This service is currently under study and has not been implemented yet. The hours of COLT and SMAT would have to be coordinated to make this service work.
Extension of intercommunity service to the Santa Ynez valley is feasible and could be phased in the second year. It would consist of buses leaving from Lompoc and Santa Maria and meeting at Buellton. Buellton would be the connecting point between this service and the Valley to Santa Barbara service proposed by MTD for 2005.
4. THE POLITICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPLEMEN-
TATION OF TRANSIT SERVICE AND INTERCOMMUNITY TRANSIT IN NORTH COUNTY.
Several factors influence transit-funding decisions in Northern Santa Barbara County:
· The North County does not have a unified, independent transit agency to serve the region comparable to MTD in the South Coast.