New Golf Cart-Style Shuttle to Operate Up and Down State Street in Downtown Santa Barbara
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A new small shuttle system is about to be rolling in downtown Santa Barbara. It will be called the State Street Loop.
It is a project that’s been months in the making after many suggestions to help those who can not comfortably walk from the waterfront to the top of the promenade district around Victoria Street.
SWEEP SB, located in the Funk Zone, is providing the vehicles under a limited contract.
The funding is coming from the City of Santa Barbara’s special tax called Measure C, designated for infrastructure improvements. Also from a driving force with planning, promotion and funding is the group Friends of State Street.
“We want people to get from Victoria Street down to the waterfront and back and experience State Street all along and all of the great things it has to offer,” said State Street Master Planner, Tess Harris. She was standing by a cart at the Farmers Market Saturday answering questions from the public.
“It is a more open-air feel,” she said. “It is just an exciting experience in and of itself.” At the same time, “the MTD shuttle will still run on Anacapa and Chapala Streets and down to the waterfront,” said Harris. That seasonal program runs Memorial Day to Labor Day from Friday through Sunday each week.
Sharon Rich with Friends of State says three electric golf carts will start the service with some trials this week, but the official start will be next week. It will run Thursday through Sunday.
“It has five seats for passengers and one for the driver,” she said, for a total of six. “This will be going very slow, it will go 7-8 miles an hour so we can share the location.”
The shuttle options were looked at across the country and this system was right in the city.
They are small enough and narrow enough to fit “in the bike lanes,” said Rich. It will go slow and “follow all the rules of public transit.”
It will be in a shared space on the streets.
“It allows people to move around this corridor, this historic corridor,” said Rich. She expects people to use it more than once, sometimes in a day, and you will really get to know downtown State Street,” she said.
Business owners on the top end of the promenade have, in many meetings, encouraged ways to get the public from the waterfront to the blocks around the Granada Theatre, Arlington Theatre, library plaza and the blocks around the courthouse.
Harris says a shuttle system is a top priority in many similar downtown areas. “A lot of downtowns have these golf carts or shuttle trolley systems and we are excited to bring it to Santa Barbara and it time to try something a little bit new and exciting and and we hope you hop on and enjoy the ride.”
The stops for the Loop riders will be marked on the ground, not on pole signs.
Some of the features include:
FREE Rides for all passengers.
Electric shuttles with accessible boarding
Continuous loop service along designated stops from Cabrillo Boulevard (Dolphin fountain) to Victoria Street
Service Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12pm-7pm
Estimated Loop Time: 15-20 minutes roundtrip
For more information go to: Friends of State Street