Opinion: Growing Irvine Connect – Including ALL Irvine Residents In The Development Process
Residents who most need public transportation were left out of the process of designing the Irvine Connect public transportation system.
After consulting with Irvine City staff, I learned that the process of ascertaining Irvine Connect ridership and bus routes included trip counts of major Irvine roadways and by community outreach through the city website, community meetings, newspaper articles and social media. It appears that it was assumed that drivers who drive through high traffic conditions would prefer public transportation over driving their cars. It also appears that it was assumed that most residents consult the city website and routinely communicate by means of social media.
I live at Regents Point which is a senior community. Many of our residents either do not drive or prefer not to drive. Our community Wellness Committee has found that seniors who no longer drive tend to feel isolated from their community activities and resources and become depressed which in turn adversely impacts their physical and mental wellbeing. Regents Point residents were not contacted by the City to assess our need for public transportation. However, we conducted a poll of residents which had 106 respondents 92 of which stated they would use public transportation. They also listed over 25 desired destinations located in the City of Irvine and on the UCI campus. Our administrator, social worker and I met with City Staff and presented them with our poll results.
Seniors, members of the disabled community, people who do not drive or prefer not to drive, people whose primary language is not English and people who do not own cars were not represented by trip counts.
Due to lack of transportation, residents who do not drive nor have access to cars could not attend public meetings.
Seniors, members of the disabled community, people whose primary language is not English most likely do not routinely search Irvine’s website or communicate by social media on commonly used media sites or read local newspapers
Irvine Connect must grow in order to meet the needs of Irvine Residents. The City must connect and communicate with all of Irvine’s residential communities
The City needs to connect with all Irvine residents by going to where the residents reside, attend church, Syogogue or Mosque or by using media common to the various resident communities in order to ascertain their need for public transportation and their needed bus route destinations.
The city could also bring residents who do not drive to planned community meetings by providing them with Irvine Connect transportation adventures. The meetings should be well advertised festive events offering treats and Irvine City souvenirs in exchange for resident participation. Banners advertising the community events should be placed on major street corners throughout Irvine and in front of community meeting locations. Notices of the events should be sent to senior community facilities, large apartment complexes, HOAs and posted in village community centers, parks, and in City libraries.
By working together the City Of Irvine and its residents can create an outstanding public transportation system that is responsive to the needs of all Irvine residents.
1 Comments
CCW
December 20, 2024 at 12:16 amDefinitely agree that we should expand Irvine CONNECT and definitely agree that Regents Point/UCI area should be a consideration given the readily transit-supportive community there. But let’s not act like Regents Point/UCI is somehow more entitled to city transportation than any other group. Let’s be fair here; places like Orchard Hills, Portola Springs, and Great Park are all complete transit deserts, while UCI and central/south Irvine generally have access to OC Bus routes, particularly Route 167. Let’s also not act like seniors are somehow being underrepresented in local politics. Seniors have meetings with city staff and are by far one of the largest groups that has the time to consistently show up to city council meetings, plus having exclusive access to TRIPS.
There should be a broader discussion about transit in Irvine. Should we further support OC Bus and the county’s larger, existing, interconnected transit network to better support Irvine and its residents’ interconnected lives throughout the county? Should we establish our own transportation agency to better support local needs? If we expand Irvine CONNECT, where/how would we do so? What about schools? I would argue students are up there with seniors in being transit-supportive and reliant—should we focus on funding more buses like we did in Quail Hill with other high schools that don’t have transportation options (e.g. Northwood High School, which has no access to an IUSD-funded bus, Irvine CONNECT, or OC Bus)? How can we further encourage students and seniors to use the transportation methods we provide for them? I get that you want to highlight the need to include seniors in this process, but we also can’t lose sight of the need to actually be inclusive of, as you put it, “ALL Irvine residents.”
I recommend taking a look at Agenda Item #3.5 at the February 13, 2024 city council meeting for a staff report regarding initially proposed community circulators using OCTA grants that would connect to the Irvine CONNECT route and theoretically go to UCI, John Wayne, or Bill Barber Memorial Park.
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