Santa Rosa CityBus Honored for Enhancing Transit Accessibility for Youth

The 2024 Sonoma County Mayors' Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities recently honored Santa Rosa CityBus for its outstanding efforts to enhance transit access for transition-age youth. Each year, this committee celebrates businesses and agencies that promote a more inclusive environment for individuals with disabilities.

Santa Rosa CityBus, part of the City's Transportation and Public Works Department, operates 15 fixed routes and offers paratransit services citywide, providing over 1.4 million rides in FY 2023/24.

A pivotal development in transit accessibility came in 2021, when the Santa Rosa City Council unanimously approved the CityBus youth program. This initiative, initially funded by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's Transportation Fund for Clean Air grant program, provides free, unlimited rides for youth up to 12th grade. Recognizing that typical youth transit programs often exclude older teens who are completing high school, Santa Rosa CityBus expanded its definition of youth to include all those through high school, supporting transition-age youth who typically face barriers to mobility. Since its launch in July 2021, the program has been a resounding success, growing from 245,000 rides in its first year to 425,000 rides in FY 2023/24.

Following the success of this program, free transit access for youth was expanded in 2023 to include CityBus, Sonoma County Transit, and Petaluma Transit through a grant from the Sonoma County Climate Resilience Fund awarded by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. In 2024, the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) system also began to offer free fares for youth riders.

Santa Rosa CityBus www.SRCityBus.org

About the 2024 Sonoma County Employment of People with Disability Awards

The Sonoma County Mayors' Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities honors businesses and agencies in our community which help to demonstrate the value inclusion of people with disabilities bring, not only to the community, but also the businesses themselves.

During National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), the Committee celebrates the value and talent workers with disabilities add to America's workplaces and economy. NDEAM takes place annually each October, but its purpose is to confirm their commitment to ensuring disabled workers have access to good jobs, every month of every year. That's the spirit behind this year's official theme: "Access to Good Jobs for All."