Planning / Development
Major Studies
MST periodically conducts planning studies to evaluate current routes and schedules and to assess demand for transit.
- 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)
MST is working to implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and technologies along several corridors throughout the county. BRT combines the high-quality service of rail transit with the lower-cost and greater flexibility of buses. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has granted MST’s request to initiate Project Development for the first BRT corridor in Monterey County and has provided $2.77 million in funding. Fremont / Lighthouse Corridor MST’s Bus Rapid Transit Project follows a 6.75-mile route from the Monterey-Pacific Grove border through the cities of Monterey and Seaside to the western edge of Sand City. The project corridor consists primarily of the well-traveled business route of California Highway 1 in Seaside and North Monterey as well as the visitor-intensive Lighthouse Avenue corridor in New Monterey, ending at the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. The entire corridor is currently served by local buses carrying approximately 3,800 passengers per day. As this is not a fixed guideway BRT that has bus-only lanes, implementation of project features used in shared-lane facilities, such as queue jump lanes, transit signal priority (TSP), and increased stop spacing, will improve travel times through this congested corridor. In fact, a traffic study completed as a part of the preliminary planning process indicates that bus travel time through the corridor would improve by approximately 50% with the implementation of BRT service. Frequency would increase from every 15-30 minutes to every 10 minutes during peak times, and average stop spacing would increase from the current every 0.2 miles to every 0.5 miles. In addition, the traffic study indicated that, with implementation of the BRT service, auto travel times through the corridor would also decrease by 2½ or 6½ minutes, depending upon the direction of travel. Construction of the project would involve primarily the installation of custom-designed shelters reflecting a strong brand image of the new service. These new shelters would offer electronic passenger information signage and other enhanced amenities as well as minimal curb and sidewalk improvements to ensure that all stop locations meet ADA requirements. Pavement at stops as well as at the new queue jump locations would be restriped to accommodate BRT operations. MST’s low-floor buses that would operate on the BRT corridor are already TSP-enabled and would be repainted to reflect the strong brand image of the new service. It is not anticipated that any right-of-way would need to be acquired as all project activities would take place within the public domain. Final design and engineering on the BRT project is nearing completion. Construction is expected to begin later this year with operation of the BRT service expected in fall of 2012.
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.
