Pasadena Department of Transportation Wants to Keep Heading in the Right Direction, Needs Your Input

Pasadenans are being both invited and encouraged to recommend improvements to the City’s public transit services as the Pasadena Department of Transportation conducts surveys and holds public workshops to gather community input.

The Pasadena Department of Transportation (DOT) is conducting five upcoming public workshops within the next two weeks as it updates the five-year Short Range Transit Plan for Pasadena Transit and Pasadena Dial-A-Ride.

Three of the workshops are for the general public; two more are scheduled with a focus on seniors and individuals with disabilities and Pasadena youth.

In addition to the workshops, DOT has published an online survey you can fill out at www.pasadenatransit.net/survey. DOT staff will also be conducting rider surveys onboard Pasadena Transit buses. Both the online and onboard surveys are being conducted in English and Spanish through April 16, DOT said.

Transportation Director Frederick Dock said the workshops and the surveys aren’t just for people who already use the City’s public transit system.

“We need the public’s help to participate in the surveys and to provide us with their feedback,” Dock said. “It’s important for people who may not be using transit today to have some say in what they would like it to look like because they may be using it tomorrow.”

Dock’s department plans to have a draft Short Range Transit Plan ready to present to the City’s Transportation Advisory Commission and the Municipal Services Committee for approval by the end of June.

When approved, the plan will be the City’s guide document for its transit service development and investments.

“Our main focus right now is to really encourage the public to give us their input by participating in the online survey that we’re promoting and by attending one of the workshops we’re holding,” says Valerie Gibson, Transit Manager at the DOT. “This is about keeping us headed in the right direction in terms of our transit service development in the city – how are we meeting people’s needs now, and what can we do to enhance our services to better meet their needs in the future.”

Gibson said the last Short Range Transit Plan update provided several key recommendations from the public that have since been successfully implemented, including additional trips on certain Pasadena Transit bus routes in the City.

“In 2013, we were able to have a series of recommendations based on the feedback that we received, and also based on the data analysis of our current ridership trends at the time,” Gibson said. “And then as funding became available and we were looking to either revamp or add to our existing service, we were able to implement those recommendations.”

Workshops for the general public will be held on Tuesday, March 28, 5:30 p.m. at the Villa-Parke Community Center at 363 E. Villa Street; Saturday, April 1, 1:30 p.m. at the Victory Park Recreation Center at 2575 Paloma Street; and Tuesday, April 4, 5:30 p.m. at the Jackie Robinson Community Center, 1020 N. Fair Oaks Avenue.

For seniors and individuals with disabilities, a workshop will be held at the Villa-Parke Community Center beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 8.

The workshop for young people is scheduled for Wednesday, April 5, 5:30 p.m. at the City’s Housing and Career Services Department, at 649 N. Fair Oaks, Suite 202, in the Renaissance Plaza center.

For more information, call (626) 744-4055 or visit www.pasadenatransit.net. You may also call the Citizen Service Center, (626) 744-7311, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

And don’t forget, you can always fill out the survey online at www.pasadenatransit.net/survey.