MTD
The following information is from MTD effective March 2nd. Please refer to their website for the most up-to-date information.
Health and Safety
We are following all of the CDC guidelines for public transit, and have instituted best practices for health and safety on all of our buses. Federal law requires all bus operators and passengers are required to wear a face covering their nose and mouth at all times while at any bus stop or on any bus, and this was our policy even before it was the law. Passengers who refuse to comply will not be allowed to board, and will be asked to leave the bus if they fail to comply while on board. Every night, each bus is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with hospital grade disinfectants on all interior surfaces. We are also following best practices with regards to air flow. As a reminder, for most students who ride our boosters, their trip lasts 15 minutes or less.
Fares
MTD has not collected fares since March 18, 2020. We have been asking our riders to board through the rear door, and the front door is currently reserved for seniors and people with disabilities. Depending on when secondary school students return to campus, we may be in this same situation, or we may have restarted fare collection. We are in the process of installing driver safety barriers at the front of the bus to safely separate passengers from the bus operator as they interact when boarding and paying fares. We expect to resume fare collection at some point in April or May. We will give the public at least a week’s notice before we start up again.
Arrival and Departure Times
The booster schedules have been updated to reflect the times the buses will run when in-campus instruction resumes. They are These can be found by school: https://sbmtd.gov/routes/booster-services/
The morning boosters are scheduled to arrive between 10 and 25 minutes (depending on the route) before the morning bell.
Buses will be lined up in the afternoon when the bell rings and will leave 5 to 10 minutes after.
Capacity & Routes
https://sbmtd.gov/
MTD will be running the same booster lines as in a normal non-pandemic school year. Our other non-booster lines are running on a regular schedule, and we know many students take those buses as well. We cannot guarantee that every person wishing to ride the bus will be able to do so. With our capacity constraints, and our workforce and fleet constraints, we may not have the resources to boost our service to capture every last rider. We are planning internally to try and be as nimble as possible, especially the first week back, which will be our first chance to really assess demand. The District has agreed to provide us with a “heat map” of where each cohort resides, but we won’t know how many students plan to get to campus using the bus.
Most likely, our capacity on each bus will be 15 people. This is obviously significantly less than our standard capacity—38 is a seated load, we often fit 58 with a standing load. We are hoping that with the cohort model, some students staying remote, and of course, others getting to school via other means, we may be able to make it work. Some of our booster lines already run with 2 or 3 buses on the route in a caravan, and that will continue.
The following routes will have more than one bus serving that trip:
Line 2510 AM (Lower West & Westside to SM)- 2 buses
Line 2510 PM (SM to Lower West & Westside)- 3 buses
Line 2720 AM (Old Town Goleta to DP)- 2 buses
Line 2720 PM (DP to Old Town Goleta)- 2 buses
Line 2730 AM (Cathedral Oaks to DP)- 2 buses
Line 2730 PM (DP to Cathedral Oaks)- 2 buses