April 8, 2004

Relocating a midblock crosswalk and bus stop on Scenic Drive are just two of a number of planned changes for Modesto Area Express.

By January, the city transit system will offer an express route between the downtown transportation center on Ninth Street and Vintage Faire Mall via Highway 99.

Transit officials also announced plans for new and expanded bus routes in 2006, to Village I and the new Enochs High School in north Modesto, and 2007, going farther into Salida, including service to the new Gregori High School.

And planning is under way to extend bus service to northeast Modesto, to serve a potential shopping area that has yet to be developed.

The City Council approved all those changes -- and the money needed to make them happen -- Tuesday night.

The initial price tag for the Scenic bus stop relocation project is about $70,000, listed as a "one-time" charge.

Transit officials said the city will remove the midblock crosswalk and one of two bus stops on Scenic Drive outside the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency.

The bus stop to be removed is adjacent to cemetery land on the north side of Scenic, serving buses that are bound for downtown; the crosswalk there serves people mainly going to and from the bus stop, giving them access to the Health Services Agency and its clinics.

Officials say the crosswalk, even with flashing lights in the pavement and a flashing sign overhead, is too dangerous. Its location at midblock is one problem; another is that the crosswalk is between two curves.

The city will move the bus stop 770 feet west to Scenic Drive, outside the Senior Citizens Center.

Two other bus stops, westbound and eastbound at Scenic and Melrose Avenue, also are to be removed. They are being eliminated because they are too close to Scenic and Bodem, where buses not only will stop on westbound routes, to replace the stop across from the hospital, but eastbound, too.

Changes spark complaints

At the new westbound stop at Scenic and Bodem, buses will use a turnout that is to be built alongside the Senior Citizens Center.

The city's plan to remove the crosswalk outside the Health Services Agency drew criticism in October. Patients, some with physical disabilities, said moving the bus stop would create a hardship by forcing them to walk farther after exiting buses at Scenic and Bodem.

The extra walking distance applies only to passengers on buses headed west on Scenic, toward downtown. The existing eastbound bus stop, in a turnout on the south side of Scenic outside the Health Services Agency, will stay where it is.

As of January, westbound passengers going to the Health Services Agency will have a choice of exiting their buses at the new Scenic and Bodem stop, or continuing to the transportation center and catching eastbound buses that will continue to stop right in front of the medical facilities.

As part of the package of bus system changes approved Tuesday night, the council authorized three hours per day of "supplemental" bus service to carry students directly between Elliot Alternative Education Center on Sunrise Avenue and the downtown transportation center.

Transit officials estimated the cost of the Elliot service at about $30,000 a year.

Bee staff writer Michael G. Mooney can be reached at 578-2384 or mmooney@modbee.com.