Humboldt Transit Authority Awarded $18.7M Grant for Improved Transit Service and Passenger Amenities
[Image from the Humboldt Transit Authority Facebook page]
The Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA) has been awarded a $18.7M capital infrastructure grant from the California State Transportation Agency’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. This project will:
- Install infrastructure needed to support Humboldt’s first 15-minute frequency service to be deployed on the Redwood Transit System;
- Enhance passenger safety and experience through improved bus stop designs that incorporate real-time arrival and departure information, improved lighting, and security enhancements;
- Develop standard bus stop designs that follow current design best practices, and integrate HTA’s new RideHumboldt branding;
- Commission public art installations at bus stops;
- Enhance the planned Eureka Intermodal Transit Center with the addition of state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor real-time arrival and departure information for all transit lines in the County, design and technology features to encourage use of the transit center as a community space, interactive and activating lighting to creatively increase safety, and commissioned public art installations;
- Kick start the first phase of HTA’s planned North Coast Zero Emission Training Center that will procure training equipment to advance HTA’s driver and mechanic training programs, construct a new training classroom, and facilitate collaboration with local high schools, colleges, and workforce development programs in support of regional zero emission vehicle training programs; and
- Procure additional fuel cell electric buses to grow HTA’s zero emission fleet in support of the new 15-minute frequency service.
“This is an incredible opportunity to expand our fleet of lower emissions vehicles, improve information for transit riders, increase frequency of service, and more. I’m thrilled to be part of the Humboldt Transit Authority team, and am so proud of our agency’s work to steadily increase the capacity for transit in Humboldt County!” – Natalie Arroyo, Board Chair, Humboldt Transit Authority.
HTA partnered with the Humboldt County Association of Governments who will provide project management and implementation support. This project is expected to contribute significantly to increasing transit ridership and decreasing vehicle miles traveled, two key targets in the County’s Regional Transportation Plan.
This project builds off HTA’s award in 2022 which kickstarted HTA’s transition to a fuel cell electric fleet. HTA is on track to receive it’s first fuel cell electric bus in spring of next year. This bus will be the first fuel cell transit bus in the nation with enough fuel capacity to drive 400 miles. HTA is currently in the procurement process for temporary hydrogen fueling to support this first bus, and for a permanent liquid hydrogen fueling station to support HTA’s additional buses planned for delivery in the fall of 2026. The liquid hydrogen fueling station will support both bus fueling and passenger car fueling. A fueling dispenser will be available to the public, providing a station that supports the Governor’s target of 200 hydrogen stations by 2026 serving light and medium-duty vehicles. HTA will also offer fueling to other local fleets interested in adopting fuel cell electric cars, delivery vans and other vehicle types.
This project also builds off HTA’s award in 2022 for a new intermodal transit center in downtown Eureka. The new transit center will be integrated with affordable housing and commercial spaces. It will support local and intercity fixed route services, on-demand services, taxis, bike and scooter share, microtransit, paratransit, and regional Amtrak services all centralized in Eureka’s Old Town district.
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Does anyone ride the bus?
Or is this just a waste of $18.7 million that would be better spent paving the roads?
I have a friend who drives one of the buses. She says like 3 to 5 people. On a million dollar bus. I’ve ridden it from Arcata to Eureka and back and it’s a nice ride. So…something is obviously being done wrongly or poorly. Tax money is being wasted by administrators once again…
And the 3-5 people is a busy day!
Buses are not practical in rural areas with dispersed populations.
Whenever I have ridden that bus it has been pretty full, especially when school is in session.
As it it is now it runs on a half hour schedule, for most areas.
Good to hear! I’ve never seen that fullness. Enjoyed some almost empty busses but was concerned about the wastefulness…
I agree it may be unnecessary. But hopefully it will lead to more people abandoning their cars and using public transportation.
It’s $5.25 for a day pass now
Considering the price of gasoline these days, that’s a good deal
A lot depends on time of day and areas serviced. Seems between McKinleyville and Fortuna most users.
Total waste of funds. The ridership is slim to nil. We are not an urban community.
Ridership is low because our bus system sucks, is expensive, and gas prices are kept artificially low.
If buses were made cheap and convenient, they would be full.
And most of Humboldt is not rural.
The overwhelming majority of people could have a bus stop within 1/4 mile of their home.
OUR tax money is being wasted through grants and subsidies and “enhancement funding” being allocated to this public transit system that is not working. Are the administrators being paid well? Then why does this continue to suck OUR money away? I dig public transit- when it works. This isn’t working. Yet it continues to spend large amounts of that free and easy taxpayers money….it is a tax-and-spend liberal’s dream.
Actually most of Humboldt is rural. You need to get out more. Distance alone does not make rural. Just 5 miles inland from Eureka or Arcata or for that matter Fortuna or Ferndale and there are no city public services. Except for PG&E or intermittent cell service if lucky, they’re on their own. There may or may not be garbage pick up or even mail delivery within miles of a residence. No water, no sewer. A sheriff that takes an hour, if lucky, to arrive at a crime scene.
The wheels of the bus may go round and round but don’t come within many miles of most of Humboldt Co.
“19. Humboldt County
– Rural area: 98.7% (3,522 square miles)
– Urban area: 1.3% (45 square miles)
– Total land area: 3,568 square miles
— #14 largest county in state, #142 nationwide
– Population density: 38.1 people / square mile (136,101 residents)
— #17 lowest density county in state, #1,428 nationwide”
https://stacker.com/california/most-rural-counties-california
The vast majority of the population lives in one of the towns.
If we had buses running from Bridgeville to Fortuna, Shelter Cove to Garberville, and Willow Creek to Arcata, even people in the outlying regions could drive to a park & ride and take the bus the rest of the way.
Yeah, I’m sure people people would be lining up to catch the Bridgeville to Fortuna bus!
Hello? What’s the point of posting any information if you just ignore it? 98% of the population do not live in town.
But I have thought that idea of parking and taking a bus for a longer trip. Just because I rather not drive. Then the next thought (because having more than one is good) was where would I have to leave my vehicle? There would need to be a bus service circuit at least two times a day- once to go and one to come back. More than two bus circuits would be unlikely to generate enough riders to pay for it in areas of low density. Really not likely two would be self funding but just for reasons of speculation, let’s say two. That means many hours of unsecured parking at various areas where car break-ins and vandalism would likely become routine. Not a good prospect. Leaving a person with a disabled vehicle at some distance in the boonies still far away from home. This would be a choice only for those not having a vehicle and then why would they fit in this scenario?
Then there’s the reality that driving to reach a major bus route would already be a lengthy drive. Driving to 101 for example to catch a bus would not save that much to make the risk worthwhile. Better to drive another twenty minutes and retain the flexibility to go to multiple places in town so you can do everything in one trip.
The only self sustaining reason for doing what you say would be to pick and return employees making the same trip at the same times between population centers. Which is what people used to do when most people worked 8am to 5pm five days a week. But that is an artifact of the past. Too many people don’t do that any more. Their schedules vary, children are delivered to various events and schools, and too many members of the same family work and are not free to go shopping at local places during the day while the breadwinner is at regular employment. That ship sailed decades ago.
What really rural people do now is plan trips. They keep extra supplies because going to town for needed gizmo is not practical. They don’t run into town at a whim. They save grocery shopping for the same day as a needed appointment then swing by the hardware store and get gas, etc, in one trip. Something not likely to be possible in your fantasy. There needs to be enough people using busses to have enough of them to be self sustaining and we just don’t have that.
I never said 98%.
And I’d like to see buses run from the outlying regions to the towns much more frequently than twice a day.
Hourly would be much better.
Hello again. I’d like solar powered flying cars on call but the point is that fantasy isn’t functional. I gave a link that said 98%. You said “The vast majority of the population lives in one of the towns.” Those are mutually excluding ideas.
“Multiple research studies have attempted to quantify density thresholds for transit. At somewhere around 3,000 people per square mile, it makes sense to operate some level of infrequent local bus service. This level of density is common in US cities, both in prewar neighborhoods and postwar car-oriented suburbia. Here, while an hourly bus will get ridership, transit will never be the most convenient mode, and most people will choose to drive. Somewhere around 10,000 people per square mile, though, transit reaches a tipping point. ”
Humboldt has about 3500 square miles. According to this, we need a minimum of 10,000,000 people to make a barely functioning infrequent public bus system. We don’t have it except in Eureka, sort of, in a very limited way. Which-ta da- is where and pretty much only place with regular bus service. Inconvenient bus service. We don’t have a density of even 40 per square mile countywide..
Otherwise it will be inconvenient and people will choose to drive. And here we are. I have to ask, do you even live here?
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/excerpt-many-cities-have-transit-how-many-have-good-transit
Can we at least agree that it doesn’t make sense to run buses to the 98% of the County where people don’t live?
That’s why I’m glad to see this small step towards providing better bus service to the areas where the vast majority of the population does live.
Where on earth are you getting the idea that 98% of people in humboldt “do not live in town”?
Close to 20% live in eureka proper. Another 20% live in arcata and mckinleyville. Fortuna and the u incorporated neighborhoods that are contiguous with eureka get the total over 50% of the county population.
Oh I see it now, you conflated the 98% “rural area” with residents. Effectively all of the counties land area is rural, but those few urbanized areas are significantly more densely populated than the rural lands around them
Linked article. Experience. (Helped to put together a map of private roads and water sources for volunteer fire departments) And Fortuna is not “contiguous with Eureka. Both Loleta and Carlotta are between. Even when looking at what you can see from the highway. Which is where I suspect many people get their ideas of where people live.
McKinleyville is not incorporated. However built up it is. It has no urban fire or police services. No city government. It is literally maintained by two service districts and the County. Urban by definition are cities and municipalities. McKinley is at best suburban.
As I pointed out zip code 95503 has about the same number of people in it as 95501. But 95501 covers about 7 square miles and 95503 covers 85 square miles. So while people see the population density on the main roads, they miss the fact that a lot of the 95503 doesn’t have many people. 95549, which is adjacent to 95503, has a population of less than a thousand for 138 sq miles. Carlotta has less than 1000 people over 87 sq miles. Lolita a population of 2000 over 42 square miles. Far below the density to support much public transit.
Once stepping off the highway, people get mighty thin. Partly because much of the land is not available for development.
The population of humboldt co is only about 10% higher than it was twenty years ago. It was surprising to see that Wikipedia said Humboldt Co expected a census drop.
https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/rural-urban-suburban-difference
I didn’t say fortuna was contiguous with eureka.
And regardless of how you want to classify a place like Mckinleyville, just the city limits if eureka has a population close to 20% of the county population. The idea that 98% of the county’s residents live in a rural area is preposterous.
We certainly have a large rural population and the idea of comprehensive bus coverage outside of the 101 ‘corridor around the bay is some pretty fanciful thinking. But if our county is majority living in a rural setting then it’s a slim majority. Certainly nowhere near 98%
Loleta has 2k people? You’d have to cover some ground to find them. It’d take two hours just to round up the 10 people that might actually ride a bus that weren’t working on a farm next to their house. I think about the only possible route there that would work would be a loop from the casino, to there, to Ferndale to Fortuna and back. Short one on shuttles. Lots of wasted time and energy though, and the revenue wouldn’t even cover the wages of the driver(s).
No park and ride north of Herrick Ave on the south side of Eureka.
You are wrong, Jebs…
Most of Humboldt is definitely rural…
AI Overview
“➡️Yes, Humboldt County, California is mostly rural⬅️:
Land use: 60.2% of Humboldt County’s rural land is used for agriculture and timber.
Population: Most people live in the county’s rural communities and countryside, while over 65,000 live in the three largest cities.
Lifestyle: The cost of living is generally lower than other parts of California, but the region is fairly rural, so you may need to commute to larger cities for work or other amenities.
Humboldt County is located in Northern California, about 250 miles north of San Francisco. It’s a densely forested, mountainous county with 110 miles of coastline. “
Wrong. Over 100000 of Humboldts 130000 live in Mckinleyville, Arcata, Eureka and Fortuna
More like 74,000…
But the issue was “most of Humboldt is rural”…
(98.7%)
Not “most of the people in Humboldt live rurally”…
This is one of the problems with AI.
AI doesn’t include the 13,000 people who live in the ’03 as part of Eureka.
These are people who would be within easy walking distance of improved Eureka Transit Service stops.
AI also, for some reason didn’t include the 12,000 people who live in Fortuna.
Factor in Garberville, Redway, Scotia, Rio Dell, Fields Landing, and Trinidad- which will be served by improved 101 service, and people who live Between Shelter Cove & Garberville, between Bridgeville & Fortuna, and between Willow Creek & Arcata and you now have convenient service to the vast majority of Humboldt’s population.
If you really want to reduced emissions , you would lobby for no AI which burns energy like it’s running on a wood stove. And it’s 99% wasted energy.
I don’t know what was included in RG’s AI splurb, but the three largest cities must include fortuna and must also include the 95503 zip code because it seriously over counted the strictly city populations otherwise. 95503 encompasses over 80 square miles. Many times the area of Eureka proper. Some of it is very rural.
https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/95503/
I think you’re intentionally being obtuse.
Myrtletown: 5,000
Pine Hill: 3,500
Cutten: 3,300
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/california/humboldt-county
No one is suggesting running a bus up a rural road to the middle of nowhere.
Actually it is you who are being deliberately obtuse. As I pointed out, the “Megatropolis” of Eureka did those places you list. But that is a small drop in the bucket of the total land mass of Humboldt county, which you did actually say in the conversation “And I’d like to see buses run from the outlying regions to the towns much more frequently than twice a day. Hourly would be much better.” Somehow your conversation has changed from the point you started. And you seem to have migrated to the same point of the people who said they would no benefit from these grants when you contradicted them with the statements “The overwhelming majority of people could have a bus stop within 1/4 mile of their home.”
You said..
“And most of Humboldt is not rural.”
I said…
“Most of Humboldt is definitely rural…”
Yabut confirmed, with link, that…
“19. Humboldt County
– Rural area: 98.7% (3,522 square miles)
– Urban area: 1.3% (45 square miles)
– Total land area: 3,568 square miles”
_______________________________________
I’d “definitely” say, that a “Rural area” of “98.7%” is clearly, “Most of Humboldt”, Jebs…
Wouldn’t you…???
Do you actually live in the county? Who in Shelter Cove is going to ride a bus? Or Dinsmore? And Bridgeville? Seriously? There’s a huge number of folks that live out in the hills and STAY there. They don’t come to town but once a week or so, if that. They know how to live….rurally. They have ways to get to town and do it on their own, not waiting in the rain at some stop in BFE that takes them 2 miles down the hill to get to. And have you ever taken a weeks worth of groceries for a family on a bus? Good F-ing luck. You’ll be packing around stuff like you’re going on a cruise ship vacation. What you think up or AI does for you isn’t the reality or “if you build it, they will come” utopian thinking. Eureka had a hell of a chance when the street trolleys crisscrossed town but even then ridership wasn’t fantastic at a time when busses didn’t exist and there was far less vehicle ownership.
Will remain low until the population increases significantly. A lot of bus stops and a predictable bus schedule is needed. Ever try shopping for groceries using a bus then making your way home ? 1/4 mile for senior citizen would be like a Bataan death march.
Gas is artificially low? How much should it be then, $20 a gallon? That won’t make me ride a bus (I ride a bike if it’s in town, which costs me zero), that will make me move away, which also takes away sales and other fees I might have paid later as well. The cost of many, many other things will go up when transportation costs go up, and government runs the show (which takes more of your money you didn’t have much of to begin with).
“Could have” within a 1/4 mile is pure fantasy unless you’re SF or Seattle or Chicago. Eureka? You’ll always operate at a loss. That grant money will evaporate pretty quick and no return on the investment, with huge incurring costs when it runs out. Do you really want to watch empty busses go by your house every 15 minutes? That type of planning should be laughed at.
Better would be say 8 routes in Eureka instead of 4 or at least cut the times down to 30 minutes from 1 hour as it is, a couple more runs to Arcata and Fortuna, down to Garberville on the smaller “party bus” shuttles. They can navigate areas the bigger ones can’t and overall speed up travel times and less expensive to run. There are ones that run on LPG or are electric too.
And most of Humboldt IS rural. Have you travelled more than 5 miles away from the bay lately? It gets hilly and woody real quick. I’ve lived in neighborhoods of cities that have more people than our entire county. That’s pretty rural. And when the next city with more than 20k people is a 3 hour drive away, that’s rural, not to mention isolated. Also, one solid winter storm can cut us off from everybody. We have no large infrastructure and lack a population with disposable income to keep our own mom and pop businesses running. And crap healthcare. And an airport that barely works when the fog comes in.
That is rural. Maybe not Willow Creek or Salyer rural, but we’re out there.
Jebs said: “Ridership is low because our bus system sucks, is expensive, and gas prices are kept artificially low.”
The bus system is very expensive – especially for the 99% who never take the bus!
According to HTA financials for March ‘22 the cost was $14.10 per passenger – the cost for dial a ride was over $40.00 per passenger!
Public transit in rural areas is a huge taxpayer funded boondoggle.
This is a good start.
A very small step in the right direction,
but a good start nonetheless.
Those busses couldn’t even get up most of Humboldt County roads. And talk about subsides. This whole article is about the subsidies provided to bus riders.
There is an old adage about a democracy can only exist until people find out that they can vote the money out of your pocket into theirs.
We are close to that existential crisis.
They did it with the gas tax proposition. That little tidbit at the end that said future increases would be at the will of the government, not the people (another referendum). It’s about to go up some more too as the remaining number of refineries dwindle and CA becomes a net importer of refined fuels.
For those who live in SoHum it’s pretty hard to make the bus system work. Will we be getting service every 15 minutes at our bus stops?
Would depend on ridership. Do many people use the bus in your area?
If there is no service now, we can’t ride the bus to prove to you that it would work for us if there were to be service in future.
Ah but you can hazard a good guess. Have a population of a hundred? Fifty are not going to show up even twice a day to catch a bus.
They can just send vans our way. We’ll hook up with the big bus somewhere important, like Fortuna. We’re here, paying CA gas taxes and driving on shitty county roads. How about some of that equity i keep hearing is important?
We don’t have the type of employment that lends itself to bus lines.
Only big ‘single’ draws are Humboldt State, CR and the Hospital district.
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Humboldt State has now built a brutalist (sort of) prison along 101, should reduce bus traffic a lot. CR mostly doesn’t have any accessory housing, campus is now pretty ’empty’ compared to back in the 70’s and 80’s. Hospital district usually employs moderate to high-income workers… that live in dispersed houses, often have ‘odd’ schedules.
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Compared to the ‘old days’… lots of people were in ‘company housing’, most of the single workers resided in company provided dormitories.
Korbel, Samoa, Cranell, and Scotia (etc) were all ‘company towns’.
Lumber companies provided schools, grocery stores, theaters/auditoriums, athletic fields, and most every company town also had a hotel.
In Eureka, most of the employment was along the bay, an easy walk from most of the housing in the town. Across the bay, Cogshall had 4 or 5 ferries that took workers to and from Eureka/Samoa/Fairhaven.
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WWII also had government provided housing for the workers building ‘dry dock barges’.
(Big thing in WWII.) Was up on the hill where the old ‘Eureka Mall’ is now (ala Winco).
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Now, all gone. Only thing keeping the county ‘alive’ is state and federal money.
But that well is going to run dry after awhile.
—
Oh well.
C/R is one of the few community colleges in California that have dormitories, There used to be two separate facilities but I believe a new building was constructed that added to the potential dorm population. We used to have space for 160 students in the 80’s but I believe there are more spaces now.
If the bus came anywhere near my house, I might care. But this is just a gift to Eureka/Arcata and mostly meaningless to rest of county.
Scam, and won’t it be popular during flu season.
Years back, 70’s, I drove bus for HCAR special needs adults program events. Perhaps the present transportation system could offer trips from various local towns to the Crabs baseball games, and other events. This could be fun and provide access for non drivers to community events. How about a shopping express from Garberville and towns along 101 to Eureka in Saturdays with stops at Costco and like stores.
I never see more than a few people on the local busses. Looks like more wasted tax dollars. They should use vans or smaller vehicles,like airport commuters, powered by small diesel engines. Economical and durable.
I’ve got the same impression. Full size busses may be justified for a handful of routes during peak times, but otherwise it seems like smaller busses would be much more efficient
It’d save the taxpayers money if the county would simply pay the Uber/Lyft tabs for the bus passengers than to run this expensive transit system.
I lived for 11 years *without a car* in Southern Humboldt and Mendocino Counties and used public transit ALL THE TIME
I even managed to get myself VIA PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION as far as Portland, Oregon using public bus services system to system and then Amtrak
it can be done
was so happy when SoHum got a bus when I lived there…up to Eureka quite a few times, and yes, the bus was full when school was on…many SoHum kids riding to CR
I’d take the bus now but it’s HELL EXPENSIVE and 2 times a day doesn’t get it for me
Tell is about your route and connections from So Hum to Portland, please…
How long did it take…???
About 24-48 hours…???
That’s my guess…
Multiple buses up 101 and over 299 to Redding Amtrak, or Amtrak Bus south to Martinez Amtrak Station, and then Amtrak Train connections to Portland…???
TRG here’s an OR to SF trip on public transit: https://youtu.be/C8oIxLHJhyQ