Thursday Bus dedication to the People of Oakland
News Articles
06/03/2002
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown heads the list of public figures scheduled to join AC Transit policymakers and staff Thursday morning, June 6, in City Hall ceremonies dedicating a low-emission bus to the people Oakland — owners of the East Bay’s bus system.
Thursday’s ceremony, which also heralds a new level of transit service coming to the East Bay next year, centers around a modern low-floor bus. One of the newer additions to AC Transit’s fleet, this low-emission bus incorporates state-of-the-art technology that contributes to cleaner air in the region, easier boarding for passengers, and greater operational efficiency within the system. It also will be adorned with an eye-catching “Partners In Transit” emblem that showcases the City of Oakland’s sesquicentennial logo — in celebration of the half-century relationship between the municipality and the East Bay’s public bus system.
The bus in Thursday’s ceremony is assigned full-time service on San Pablo Avenue, a busy transit corridor that will get Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) treatment beginning in 2003. BRT is an emerging concept that gives bus service all the attractive traits of modern streetcar systems, and it can be built much more quickly and at a fraction of the cost. The San Pablo Corridor project is one of the futuristic transit service improvements AC Transit will be discussing on Thursday.
Oakland is at the heart of AC Transit’s 390-square-mile service area, which is blanketed by a bus route network consisting of more than 150 local and transbay (to/from San Francisco) bus lines – dozens of which serve the many neighborhoods that constitute the City of Oakland.
This city has been home to the administrative offices of the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit’s formal name) since the mid-1950s – when East Bay voters created the publicly-owned agency and approved the bond measure to buy out the district’s predecessor, the Key System. Buses bearing AC Transit’s identity first rolled into service beginning in October 1960.