California Transit Association

1928

In 1928, the City of Santa Monica launched a bus service called Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. The name was officially changed to Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus in 1999.

Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus is a line department of the City of Santa Monica.

In the early 1900s, the Pacific Electric Railroad ran trolley lines between Downtown Los Angeles and neighboring cities. During a recession in 1914, a group of unemployed automobile owners began using their cars to compete with the railway in Santa Monica. These drivers charged riders five cents and were called "jitneys," a common name at the time for a nickel. In 1921, as the population of Santa Monica doubled, business boomed. The jitney drivers incorporated as Bay Cities Transit Company, and they were soon operating buses throughout the city. In 1928, the City of Santa Monica launched its own bus line and over 16,000 passengers rode the new buses the first week. They chose a blue color scheme for their buses and called their service Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines. The agency's name was officially changed to "Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus" in 1999, reinforcing its role as a cornerstone of the city's "Sustainable City Plan."

John F. "Jack" Hutchison – Director from 1967 to 1995. Member of the APTA Hall of Fame. Worked to create the State Transportation Development Act of 1971. Other notable leaders include John Catoe from 1995 to 2001 and Stephanie Negriff from 2001-2011.

BBB initiated early BRT service in LA County on Pico and Wilshire Rapid corridors. 100% natural gas fleet since 2013; since 2015 using only Clean Energy's "Redeem", renewable natural gas made from organic waste. First-last mile connectivity enhancements in Expo service integration plan adopted for implementation in early 2015.

450

18,200,000

20

BBB currently serves nine rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) lines at five different stations.

1. In April 2015, BBB received City Council approval for an 11% service increase in the upcoming 18 months to coincide with the opening of 7 new Metro Phase II Light Rail Stations in our service area. The plan features the following enhancements to BBB's service: • Six new routes designed to create new opportunities for Expo integrated ridership either through reformatting existing route segments, or travelling on completely new streets that show high probability of attracting strong ridership according to census data, key ridership locations, stakeholder feedback, and public feedback. • With our three rapid service corridors (on Pico, Lincoln, and Wilshire Boulevards) carrying an average of 55% of all daily riders, BBB will be increasing the frequency on rapid service and lowering the frequency on local service. • Other BBB routes will see changes to frequency, span, or route to provide better connectivity to Expo service, and four existing routes will be eliminated entirely. • New late night/weekend demand response service for last-mile needs outside of normal service hours or fixed routes. 2. To support the increased service BBB is adding new CNG-fueled motor coaches to our fleet including 30-, 40-, and 60-foot (articulated) buses strategically deployed where their configurations are most suitable for ridership and geography. 3. Where feasible, existing fleet along with all new buses has now been updated to include 3-position bike racks to further improve first-last mile connectivity to Expo Rail service. 4. Increasing and re-aligning service will include more than 200 new bus stops throughout our service area. 5. Technology enhancements being implemented to improve the customer experience include advanced fare collection technology (with TAP in use now for most fare products and other enhancements to follow), real-time schedule information powered by the NEXTBUS mobile application and GTFS open data for 3rd party developers, and implementation of Traffic Signal Priority on 4 corridors. 6. Staffing expansion to support Expo-integrated increased service, particularly additional motor coach operators but also other staff across BBB including operations, maintenance, customer service, and administrative.