Bus riders gather to oppose route changes

Jennifer Kho

SANTA ANA -- Alfonso Ramirez, a Costa Mesa resident who relies on

county buses to get to work, has a lot at stake.

He will lose an extra hour and a half each day to his commute if new

bus routes, which go into effect next month, are changed as planned.

Ramirez is one of dozens of bus riders countywide who gathered

Thursday evening to discuss the bus system plans.

Their concern is that the new system -- a plan that will straighten

many of the county’s crooked routes -- will result in more transfers and

longer bus rides.

“For any change [the Orange County Transportation Authority] makes, at

any level, it has to take the people into account or it won’t work,”

Ramirez said in Spanish. “I believe the OCTA should reverse these

changes.”

Ramirez lives at Pomona Avenue and Wilson Street and works at Del Taco

at Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue. He takes a bus route that will no

longer run through the West Side -- or his stop on Harbor Boulevard --

once the changes go into effect.

A new route will run through the West Side, and Newport Beach- or

Santa Ana-bound riders will have to transfer from that bus, which will

stop on Harbor Boulevard much less often.

That change will make it more difficult for many workers to get to

their jobs on time, Ramirez said.

Dave Simpson, spokesman for the OCTA, said the new system was designed

to speed up the bus service. Even with the increased transfers, the

reduction in turns and deviations from the routes will result in quicker

commutes, he said.

Costa Mesa has the county’s second-highest bus ridership.

“We need these routes,” said Costa Mesa resident Maria van Gent.

“Leave the buses alone.”

Mary Olson, of the Dayle McIntosh Center for the disabled in Anaheim,

said the new system will be detrimental to physically and mentally

disabled bus riders.

“Someone in a [wheelchair] taking two buses now will have to take

three once this begins,” she said. “That is just more difficult. And for

someone with a learning disability, changing the routes makes it

difficult for them to learn.”

The Orange County Citizens Bus Restructuring Task Force, a citizens’

group that held the forum, suggested several ways to improve the new

“straight-lined” system: increase the length of time buses run and the

frequency of the routes; improve bus stop locations and handicapped

access; and involve more riders in designing the system.