Although students and other riders may be left out of ridership counts, transit officials last week decided there are still too few riders on Golden Gate bus Route 24 to justify the expense of continuing the weekday route west of Forest Knolls.
Golden Gate Transit directors on Friday, Sept. 13, will consider their staff's recommendation to shorten the bus route.
If approved, the change would go into effect Nov. 24, with Route 24's last stop becoming the western-most edge of Castro Street in Forest Knolls.
West Marin residents received a warning in June that the route would be shortened unless more people climbed aboard. Morning departure times were made later, arriving at 7:35 a.m. at Drake High; 7:49 at College of Marin; and 7:52 at Marin Catholic. The route now arrives at downtown San Francisco at about 8:50 a.m.
Bus drivers also were to count Route 24 riders during the trial period, in order to see if the route was making any progress, said Alan Zahradnik, deputy director of planning for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, & Transportation District.
Residents in June campaigned to get more people to take the bus, but by a Sept. 5 meeting deadline, still fell short of the 25-daily riders transit authorities require to keep a route cost effective, he said.
Students were the last chance for increasing ridership on the route, Zahradnik had told The Light last month.
"Dozens of cars head over the hill each school day carrying children to school experiences beyond our community," said Susan Allan of Inverness Park, who led community efforts to save the Point Reyes Station and Inverness section of the route.
"West Marin needs to boost its bus service, but drivers seem to be married to their cars," Allan said.
Although morning counts for the beginning of school season were left out of a transit report officials used to make their determination, at least 22 additional students or other local riders would have been required to meet the route's $20,000 operation-cost target, Zahradnik said. An additional 11 out-of-county riders would also have met the cost, he said.
Morning West Marin ridership doubled (from four to eight daily riders) between June and August a transit report showed. An average of eight riders took the evening West Marin bus. At least half the riders were from stops west of Forest Knolls.
While transit directors are expected to make a decision regarding the weekday route this week, rider counts will continue for three more days in case the school season would prompt more students to use the service and trigger additional action, Zahradnik said.
"We're providing up to the 11th hour for ridership to miraculously materialize," Zahradnik said.