CA: B-Line transit study could reshape bus service in Chico and Oroville

With only so many buses and bus routes, the B-Line is trying to balance maximizing the number of riders with how much of Chico and Oroville are covered by routes.

The Butte County Association of Governments is conducting a comprehensive transit study of the Butte Regional Transit system aimed at redesigning service in Chico and Oroville to better meet current needs.

Butte Regional Transit, called B-Line, was consolidated under BCAG in 2005, which was the last time a comprehensive system redesign was done, according to BCAG transportation analyst Victoria Proctor. Outside of a few studies focused on route optimization and minor changes, Proctor said the system map has stayed relatively the same for more than 20 years.

“We really haven’t taken this deep dive look into ‘is the bus going everywhere that it needs to?'” Proctor said. “Let’s take a pause and just start from the ground up on where transit goes.”

Since 2005, Proctor said Oroville and Chico have changed a lot, with “generalized sprawl” in Oroville to new developments around the edge of Chico that aren’t covered under the current map. She added that in Chico, developments off Highway 32 and Bruce Road, as well as developments north of Eaton Road and east of Floral Avenue, have been around for a while, but aren’t currently served by B-Line.

BCAG and Jarrett Walker and Associates, along with the help of city staff members and elected officials from both Oroville and Chico, are currently in the process of designing four concept maps — two for Chico and two for Oroville — which will be presented to the public to allow people to voice their opinions on the maps. Proctor said the public outreach period will likely happen in late August going into September.

Jarrett Walker, the president of Jarrett Walker and Associates, said a big part of the study is deciding whether maximizing ridership or coverage is more important to the B-Line system. For each city, one map will have a ridership focus, and one will have a coverage focus.

“The typical problem that transit systems have in cities like ( Chico and Oroville) is that they are being bombarded with contradictory expectations,” Walker said. “On the one hand, they’re expected to be judged on ridership, and yet on the other hand, they’re expected to go everywhere and serve everyone who asks.”

A ridership-focused system, according to Walker, would have more concentrated and frequent stops in areas with the highest demand, and fewer stops in smaller areas, while a coverage focus would have service spread out to as many places possible, but have less frequent stops.

Walker said that currently, the Chico and Oroville system has a “coverage-oriented” network, with frequencies of stops being around 60 minutes, which he said is not a frequency that allows as many people to regularly use public transportation.

“The reason (B-Line’s) ridership is not higher is mainly that the network is not designed for maximum ridership,” he said. “A higher ridership network would not go to as many places, but would have higher frequencies, and that’s the contrast that will be seen when the maps come out.”

Walker, who helped design some of the first B-Line routes in the 1990s, said a lot has changed, not only in how the cities are built but in terms of the priorities of the community. He said the study, and public outreach afterwards, will help them “end up with a plan that matches the priorities of the people who live here now.”

The process of making the concept maps involves a lot of different aspects, but Proctor said much of it has to do with seeing how long each specific route would take.

“It’s not just as simple as saying, ‘we have this route that can go along Esplanade from West Second up to Garner Lane, and that should take 45 minutes,’ like we need to know exactly how long does that route take,” she said. “Does it take 46 minutes, does it take 52, does it take an hour and one minute? We need to know that in order to make sure that we have the right headways and the right number of vehicles for the desired headway.”

Outside of the map itself, Proctor also said they have to look at a lot of “little questions” that might make a big impact in the future, and looking at the system “from top to bottom.” One example Proctor gave was looking at what kind of maintenance would need to be done, and when. She said that question led them to look at whether they would need to do overnight maintenance, if they would need to hire new mechanics and more. She said those questions need to be answered before the public sees the concepts, so that people “can make their opinion known on something that we know we should be able to operate and deliver.”

Another issue Proctor said is being looked at is electric buses. Currently, there are five electric buses in the B-Line fleet, and Proctor said there is a state mandate for transit agencies in California to reach zero emissions by 2040. She said the age of the fleet and the fuel that is being used — or will be used in the future — is also something that BCAG is keeping under consideration during the study.

Once the public outreach period is finished, Proctor said the earliest the implementation process can begin is “December or January,” but added that it will take a long time, as it involves “pulling out bus stops” and adding new ones, switching entire routes and more.

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