Planning / Development
Major Studies
MST periodically conducts planning studies to evaluate current routes and schedules and to assess demand for transit.
- Salinas Area Service Study II (8/1/12)
- South County Area Service Analysis (12/14/10)
- Marina Area Service Study (11/5/09)
- Peninsula Area Service Study (PASS) (9/17/06)
- Short Range Transit Plan (4/11/06)
- MST ADA Complementary Paratransit (RIDES) Plan (06/14/06)
Designing for Transit
Why is the integration of public transportation with land use important? The coordination of land use developments with public transportation planning enables safe, efficient, and effective transit operations. The benefits are apparent at the regional and individual experience. Designing for Transit gives decision-makers, developers, planners, engineers, and community members the ability to plan for safety and efficiency of transit on our streets and highways. When public agencies and private interest groups fail to include safety and efficiency standards for bus operations, fewer people will ride the bus and the region will carry the burden of more congestion and more pollution.
Designing For Transit Manual
Development Projects
Monterey Bay Bus Operations and Maintenance Center
MST has completed plans for the agency’s new consolidated headquarters, an environmentally friendly project that will bring maintenance, operations and administration facilities together on one site. The center would merge the current Thomas D. Albert Monterey and Clarence J. Wright Salinas facilities. In addition to housing a dispatch office, body shop, paint facilities, warehousing and driver training facilities, it would accommodate a 250-bus fleet, including 60-foot articulated buses. A customer service center and parking are also included in the plans. In order to expedite project development and planning and save design costs, MST is utilizing existing plans from the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Santa Ana Bus Maintenance and Operations Facilities to design its new facility. MST has also partnered with San Joaquin Regional Transit District (Stockton, CA) in an attempt to jointly utilize this ground-breaking approach to public transit facility development. It is anticipated that these strategies will save time and money throughout the design process. Steered by MST’s strategic goal to conserve natural resources, the focal point of the facility would be a three story administrative office building, to be named in honor of Frank J. Lichtanski. Lichtanski served as MST general manager and CEO for nearly 25 years and was a member of the agency’s family for more than three decades before passing away unexpectedly in 2005. It is hoped that the Lichtanski building will achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating by showcasing innovative, environmentally friendly technologies that will help the agency minimize water and energy use throughout the facility.
View digital rendering
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) has partnered with the world famous Monterey Jazz Festival to launch their Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service in Monterey County. This service not only decreases travel times by as much as 25% along one of the busiest traffic corridors on the Monterey Peninsula, but it will also provide an entertaining and educational history of the Monterey Jazz Festival at the same time.
Aptly named “JAZZ,” the 6.75-mile BRT service starts at the Sand City Station in the Edgewater Shopping Center, runs along Fremont in Seaside and North Monterey, continues through downtown Monterey and along the visitor-intensive Lighthouse Avenue corridor in New Monterey, and turns around for a return trip near the Monterey Bay Aquarium (see map).
What really makes “JAZZ” a “first of its kind” in the nation is MST’s collaboration with the Monterey Jazz Festival, which has opened its archives for this project and is working with MST to develop a year-round linear jazz museum that will feature dramatic jazz-themed displays at 30 new custom-designed shelters along the route.
The new BRT service introduces new technologies that include queue jump lanes, transit signal priority (TSP) and increased stop spacing to streamline bus traffic along the corridor and significantly reduce travel times. The new shelters also offer Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled electronic passenger information signage.
Safety and Security
During 2007, an increase in crime was noted in parts of the MST service area. At the same time, homeland security remains a high-profile concern among transit agencies across the nation. In this atmosphere of rising crime and potential vulnerability, MST has taken significant steps to insure the safety and security of its passengers, vehicles and facilities. MST buses are being outfitted with up to eight cameras each, while the Salinas Transit Center and the Marina Transit Exchange both have surveillance equipment that are linked via T-1 line to MST’s Monterey communication center and other administrative offices. This enables staff to monitor conditions and activities in “real-time” at MST facilities. MST is successfully working with local law enforcement agencies to investigate, apprehend and ultimately convict individuals accused of violent crimes. This video equipment is also seen as an effective deterrent to illegal gang activities. In 2002 MST began on an agency-wide implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies that included the TransitMaster radio communications and automatic vehicle locator (AVL) package. Key components of the TransitMaster system allow staff in the MST communications center to monitor the location of all buses via Global Positioning System (GPS). When in danger, bus drivers can activate TransitMaster’s overt and covert alarms, signaling the need for police, fire and/or ambulance. When these alarms are activated, microphones on the bus are activated so that staff in the communication center can monitor activity during emergency incidents. And, since the bus’s position is pinpointed via GPS, communication center staff can instruct first responders to the exact location of the vehicle, saving valuable minutes during an emergency.MST was recently informed by the manufacturer of the TransitMaster system that an upgrade to the equipment was required in order to keep the technology current and operating with a full range of utility. This upgrade to technology that is nearing ten years of age is estimated to cost approximately $1 million. To protect the safety and security of MST’s customers, MST is seeking federal assistance to help fund the upgrade project.
