Transportation / Yolo, California

Credit: Oconomowoc Transport Co.

Partly rural, partly urban, and close to Sacramento without being under city jurisdiction, the Yolo metropolitan region (which encompasses Yolo County) demands flexible transit solutions. Yolo transit provider Yolobus balances the needs of avid bikers, commuters, and regional transit partners—and also happens to be an alternative-fuel pioneer.

Yolobus serves the towns of Davis, Woodland, and West Sacramento and ferries commuters to and from downtown Sacramento, the California state capital. Buses run to Sacramento International Airport, the Cache Creek Casino Resort, and the Capitol Corridor train, all of them popular routes that help push total ridership across the region to 1.7 million passengers per year.

In Davis, a large student population and strong bicycle culture keep car ownership low, while in West Sacramento, a large percentage of public sector commuters keep transit ridership high. The region’s low average household vehicle miles traveled make it stand out in the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s statistics. A higher percentage of households, 91%, in Yolo have access to transit that in any other metropolitan region with a population of less than 250,000.

Alternative Fuels Leadership

Yolobus began converting its fleet to low-emission, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles back in 1993. At the time, nobody knew for sure whether CNG could compete—in price, quality, or reliability—with diesel fuel, but smog-spewing diesel vehicles were recognized as a public health threat.

“Back then, NOx was the flavor of the day—everyone was focused on it,” said Terry Bassett, executive director of Yolobus. Combating hazardous air particles, like nitrous oxide, guided the pilot project, which was financed by clean air company Sierra Research Services and a consortium of energy companies, including Chevron Research and El Paso Natural Gas.

“We were among the first in the state to aggressively pursue CNG for our operations, and it’s worked remarkably well,” Bassett says. “One of the side benefits is that we save money on gas, [and get] an energy rebate from the federal government.” Increasingly stringent state emissions requirements for both airborne pollutants and greenhouse gases have helped push the Yolobus fleet in a greener direction.

Transit Access in Yolo Metropolitan Region (light green lines indicate location of metro region with darker brown regions showing higher transit access), Credit:CNT H+T Affordability Index

The Yolobus fleet now consists of 44 CNG buses and 6 low-emission buses, chosen for their larger size. “We came to a point where we needed to look at capacity, so we made the concession to do clean diesel,” Bassett says. The new big buses actually put out lower emissions than their oldest CNG buses, it was necessary to add high capacity 45-foot MCI buses to the fleet for certain popular trips as “it means we put fewer buses on the road, because more people can be in each vehicle.”

Bikes, Bikes, and More Bikes

“You think one, two or three bike racks is a good thing—and then you see the thousands of bikes in Davis!” Bassett jokes. With its flat topography, sunny weather, and bike-mad college students, Davis is a bicycle mecca. Seventeen percent of all city trips are by bike, and the city has more bikes than it has cars. During UC Davis class changes, a campus-wide car lockdown goes into effect: So many students are on bikes that it would be unsafe for cars to share the streets.

Davis began incorporating bike routes into its transportation infrastructure as early as the 1960s. All Yolobus buses can carry between one and three bikes, and the regional provider plans to establish a series of bike lockers. Through a partnership with the university, Davis undergraduates ride for free; they comprise roughly 10 percent of total ridership.

Working with Sacramento

Several regional transit providers run a commuter service into Sacramento, keeping the entire metropolitan area closely connected. More than 51 percent of West Sacramento residents commute into the capital every day, and many of them choose to travel by Yolobus.

“We transport a lot of commuters who work for the state—legislative staff, air resources board staff,” Bassett says. “We’re so connected to Sacramento Regional Transit that we honor the same [bus fare] pass on both systems.”

The principle of Transit Oriented Development (PDF) has long helped guide Sacramento Regional Transit’s decisions. The regional authority helps determine Yolobus’s long-term growth strategy, and it’s pushing the county in a transit-focused direction: In a 2006 regional transit plan for Yolo county, the county Board suggested that “transit be used to influence land decisions,” and recommended more partnerships with individual cities and suburbs.

Partnering with Sacramento offers Yolobus a mix of opportunities and challenges. It gives the Yolo region access to state capital expertise in Transit Oriented Development and clean fuels, and as the metropolitan region grows, the partnership may deepen. “We’re pursuing the possibility of a streetcar system with Sacramento Regional Transit,” Bassett says.

However, local and state budget cuts have hit both providers, and Sacramento’s response hurt Yolobus more than expected. “We’ve seen ridership take a dip in the last several months,” Bassett says. “It’s really complicated [because] we can’t change our fares” without coordinating with Sacramento. Sacramento eliminated bus and rail service after 9 p.m. rather than raising fares. “That really disenfranchised a lot of people,” Bassett says. “It had a much bigger impact on light rail than we were expecting. When there’s no night connection in Sacramento, there’s no reason to hop on the bus.”

With gas prices rising and a better budget outlook for the state’s public transportation agencies in the coming year, Yolobus’s ridership should rise. Yet the recession has showed both providers how deeply they depend on each other and, with any luck, it may inspire even more effective regional cooperation in the future.