New bus routes for Manteca Transit are coming soon.
And the City of Manteca wants to hear from the residents who use the system and those that don’t about the kinds of things that they want to see included in the realignment.
At a community meeting Thursday night at the Manteca Transit Center, the city outlined the preliminary plans for the system they’re hoping will better connect the city and possibly even provide an alternative to traditional school bussing for kids that aren’t lucky enough to live far enough away to qualify for transportation services.
While the new routes likely won’t be in place for at least two more months, current proposals include a new route that will connect the southwest portion of the city to existing lines, and another that will connect the new development south of the 120 Bypass with the central portion of Manteca.
The new routes, which will provide access to all three of the city’s comprehensive high schools, will now mean that parents living south of the Bypass will now have an alternative to driving their children to school – paying the low daily or monthly rates so that they don’t have to walk over the busy freeway to get to school every day.
According to Juan Portillo, Manteca’s Transit Supervisor, the city has been in close contact with the Manteca Unified School District about the realignment to ensure that students will be able to have access to the system that currently only serves the Promenade Shop at Orchard Valley South of the Highway 120 Bypass. By connecting the new residential develops near Oakwood Lake at around Woodward Park – and all points in between – the system would provide coverage that opens the system to thousands of new people that were previously exclude in route iterations.
Administrative Analyst Heather Brojer also spoke about the connections that the city has been making with other agencies like the school district to make sure that students have access to the buses. Presentations at high school campuses are planned in the near future and a number already visited over the past several months as Manteca steps up its effort to promote the service to a younger demographic.
Federal guidelines state that the city must hold a number of public meetings to allow input from residents about routes before any changes go into effect, and those meetings will continue next month when the city reaches out for even more input – either though a workshop like the ones held on Thursday, or a live digital town hall through a social media platform like Facebook that will allow people who can’t physically be present to tune in and offer their input about what would work best moving forward.
Other route changes include providing access to:
Prestige Senior Living off of East Louse Avenue through a new spur that connects the retirement community and the new homes in the area and those under construction with established lines within the heart of the city.
The Manteca Boys and Girls Club, which has been working closely with the city to make sure that the children who utilize the services that the club provides have safe and reliable transportation to get there on their own rather than being forced to walk.
A spur along Atherton Drive that connects back to Woodward Avenue to provide residents in Woodward Park with access to the other side of the freeway without having to drive down to the Promenade Shops to catch the bus.
For additional information about proposed routes, or to find out when the city will host its next transit workshop, visit Manteca Transit’s website at www.mantecatransit.com.
The Manteca Transit bus system will be free for all users through Aug. 19 – a program that will also occur in October as a way to generate ridership interest.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
