Longview Transit

Safe Ride Home
Longview Transit, in partnership with R&K Distributors - Your Local Budweiser Distributor, is preparing to provide a "Safe-Ride-Home" on New Year's Eve. The partnership allows FREE rides to be offered to anyone within Longview city limits on New Year's Eve.

Rides can be scheduled simply by calling Longview Transit at 903-237-2287 ext. 10.

Transportation service will be available to or from any Longview destination. The service is offered to the general public to include individuals that have had a couple drinks or those that simply do not want to drive that evening. The service will begin around 8:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve and continue until approximately 3:00 a.m. the next morning. Longview Transit will even allow trips to be scheduled in advance; reservations can be made a week in advance.

The objective of the program is simple: to provide a safe and easy alternative to getting behind the wheel on New Year's Eve. We want everyone in Longview to have a safe ride home.

It is only the financial contribution of R&K Distributors that make this safe alternative possible. Longview Transit is proud to partner in this endeavor to keep the City of Longview and its citizens safe on New Years. Organizations that share a concern for safe streets and are interested in helping promote the Safe-Ride-Home service are encouraged to contact Longview Transit at 903-753-2287 or email us.

Pedestrian Transit Master Plan
Longview Transit and the City of Longview have been exploring ways to increase the use of public transportation and to improve pedestrian connectivity throughout the community. The City and Longview Transit are interested in developing a comprehensive strategy that will identify transit and pedestrian improvements to increase the walkability of the community and to encourage increased access to the transit system.

Under FTA guidelines the capital streetscape-transit access infrastructure within ½ mile of a fixed-route bus stop or station, is eligible for federal funding. Longview transit is seeking to build upon the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) LCI guidelines that encourage transit access, infill development, and sustainability. The following tasks are proposed in a comprehensive pedestrian-transit access planning process:

• Public Outreach & Stakeholder Involvement
• Existing Conditions Inventory - current land uses and pedestrian level access
• Transit Assessment - review routes, bus stops, trip patterns, and passenger trip volumes
• Capital Cost Assessment - cost of improvements for pedestrian/transit connectivity
• Quantification of Benefits - air, quality of life, and economic benefits
• Recommendations & Project List - proposed improvements
• Financial Implementation Strategy - short and long range federal, state, local funding strategy
• Categorical Exclusion - environmental assessments, historical preservation
• Letter Of No Prejudice - request to regional FTA office protecting local investment in planned transit capital improvements

The objective of this study to begin in the Spring of 2012 will be to utilize existing and/or future transit routes to create an associated Pedestrian/Transit Master Plan for an initial Livable Community Initiative target area, within federal guidelines, which will better connect the surrounding land uses to transit stops and terminals to create increased ridership, and a more walkable community. The proposed planning activities will attract federal support to make pedestrian level improvements that will improve the quality of life and increase access to transit services in our community.

Bus Shelters
Longview Transit is in its infancy compared with other providers around the state. We began servicing the Longview area with public transportation in 2003. Unlike many older peer providers across the state we are still developing our infrastructure including passenger stops and shelters.

Because of the numerous regulations Longview Transit is required to follow these passenger amenities can be quite expensive. In many cases, Longview Transit can identify special Federal Funds that will pay for a majority of the project, if we can find the remaining funds locally.

Please let us know if you or your organization is interested in helping us place passenger shelters along our routes. Whether in the summer heat or winter rain, shelters are a practical way of making our system more usable and convenient for our riders.

Longview Transit and the city of Longview have identified 14 locations for future bus stops - Eight (8) locations for bus shelters were identified in a New Freedom proposal awarded October 2010 in the amount of $100,000.00. Six (6) shelters half of which are awaiting installation and the other half are on order scheduled to arrive Spring 2012.

A total of Fourteen (14) shelter locations have been identified along current routes.
The (14) locations are identified below:

1. Whaley and High (route1)
2. Judson and Yates (route 2)
3. 4th & Pine St. (route 2)
4. Judson and Commander (route 2)
5. Lake Lamond & Jasper Ct. (route 3)
6. Gilmer and Wal-Mart (route 3)
7. Pine Tree and Evergreen (route 3)
8. Eastman Rd. in front of Texas Department of Human Resources (route 4)
9. Scenic Dr. & Thelma St. (route 5)
10. McCann and Loop 281 (route 5)
11. Marshall and Fagan (route 6)
12. 107 Kodak Wal-Mart (route 1)
13. Mobberly @ Cotton (route 6)
14. Eastman @ Access (route 6)

The new bus shelters will be solar powered with information kiosks for bus maps and other information.

Advertising
Longview Transit NOW offers the opportunity to advertise your business on the outside of our buses. Support public transportation while you advertise your business! Longview Transit offers many unique and affordable forms of advertising.

A bus can be transformed into a large, eye-catching, full color graphic that promotes your business everyday. The best part is this advertisement MOVES!

Monies brought in through advertising directly support the community and public transportation.

We are still looking for our first bus advertiser in Longview. The first ad on the outside of our buses is sure to make the biggest splash!

Spanish Translation Website
Because of budget constraints Longview Transit was unable to originally purchase a Spanish translation of our web pages. This is an add on to our new webpage that we believe is appropriate and will definitely help us serve our Spanish speaking community better. We are budgeting for this add-on but are not able to purchase it at this time. If you or your organization are interested in making this Spanish translation available sooner rather than later please contact us.