Changes ahead for city transit

We’ve all seen the city’s transit buses motoring passengers all across the city. But rarely are the buses filled or even half full.

Mostly, there are a handful of riders.

And you’ve probably wondered it out loud or to yourself if Porterville Transit was working efficiently?

Fortunately, that question is answered or an attempt is made to answer this every five years.

Currently, Porterville Transit is in the midst of developing its transit plan that basically lays out the direction of the agency for the next five years. The city council is using the IBI Group to develop the plan with input all of the interested parties, including the from the public, and other research.

Some years only minor changes or tweaks to plans are made. Others times significant changes are recommended.

According to Richard Tree, manager of the city’s transit center, this could be a plan that sees major changes.

Tree also said he’s excited from what he’s seen so far and that what is eventually put in place could be “a level of service that is not seen in Tulare County.”

From a network standpoint, the goal of the plan is to make the city’s transit simpler to understand and easier to use, with fewer routes covering generally longer alignments that offer more one-seat ride options between origins and destinations across the service area. One idea that has been floated include the use of replacing some of the transit’s marginal fixed routes with a flex route or demand-response type service, which would probably impact routes with the least amount of people such as those in the southeast and northeast parts of the city.

Before IBI Group makes its final proposal, it will be reaching out the public again for more input.

We like Tree are excited to see what is finally proposed and believe that it will benefit the city.