City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Good evening and welcome back to a regular meeting of the Burbank City Council on Tuesday, March 24th, 2026. Today's study session item is a discussion regarding the Burbank bus comprehensive operations analysis. Welcome to Karen Pan to please present the report. Welcome. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. Karen Pan, transportation services manager for Bourbing Bus. Uh we have a great asset in our community where we have the opportunity to provide a local transit system for over 30 years that can serve residents, employers, employees, and visitors. And with every great asset, it is best practice to change when needed, understand where our transportation gaps are, and find ways to better service uh existing and new population. Burbank bus provides a travel alternative to more than 100,000 people who commute into the city each day, as well as future residents of more than 12,000 housing units Burbank is planning to construct as part of the general plan and housing element goals. We are here today because in February 2023, council directed staff to remove a

third route for Bourbing Bus due to low ridership observed during post-pandemic recovery, the green route. In eliminating that green route, the council also expressed concern that Burbank bus may no longer be meeting the city's transportation objectives, especially given changes to the travel over the last several years. And this presentation is to show staff's analysis known as the Burbank bus comprehensive operation analysis, but referred to COA to save my breath. And staff is requesting approval on the Burbank bus COA, including reaffirming the city's service design policies, approving the four proposed bus route recommendations, implementing near-term improvements to the orange route with no budget amendment, and seeking additional opportunities of funding to secure. and once funding is secured uh implement the bus recommendations. The COA started in January of 2025 evaluating existing conditions, two community engagement phases and recommendation that will be shared during the presentation. The COA includes six components which we'll go over each one. So what Burbang looks like what Bourbing Bus looks like today is that there's two routes orange and pink. both runs uh during the weekdays from 5:30 to either 10 to 11 p.m. A fair is $1 uh compared to Metro which is a $1.75 and Bourbon Bus also offers free fairs to Burbank middle and high school students and eligible programs such as life and go pass. Uh this slide shows monthly ridership by each route and last fiscal year burbing bus provided close to 190,000 rout rides and pink route having the highest ridership. Uh the next slide shows ridership performance by the revenue hours meaning operating hours pre and postcoid to see if there's any comparison. And this shows ridership performance has slightly

decreased for orange route while pink route has slightly increased postcoavid. Uh through existing data, staff can also see average daily b boardings per hour. And this graph shows ridership highest during peak hours in the morning and close to the evenings. The next component of the COA also looks at who might benefit from better transit today. So from pooling census data, staff can use data available such as income and age and to make assump assumptions where transit might be needed. For example, someone with limited income or someone who is in high school might not have access to a vehicle today and may rely on other transportation modes. And this map shows demographics and characteristics where these residents may live. The heart the darker shade of green north above the five freeway and south end point of media district shows a greater need of access to public transit. And this tells staff where we should uh be focusing on in terms of education and marketing opportunities in that area to inform people about our public resource for Bourbank bus. The next component is where we are trying to go and this focuses on big data. Uh the big data that we used for this analysis was with replica. Replica is a third-party data that uses phone GPS data, public data sets from government, land use and transportation networks for updated routes, building and land use, and transport data on traffic volumes, bike and pedestrian counts. And this was used and we'll al also go over land use projects, travel pattern data, and as well as public and stakeholder input. and the first community engagement land use. Uh this map shows you blue dots of where approved and pending approval development projects are happening in Burbank and how many new

residents are and will be built. Most developments are occurring on the outskirts of the city and the city is also working on four specific plans focusing on the needs of each neighborhood. Other projects that are happening in Burbank are the Metro Bus Rapid Transit BRT that'll pass through Burbank shown in yellow on the screen and Metroink also has a pedestrian and capital improvement at the Metro Link station in downtown. And so through that replica data, that big data, we can also pull trips that are originating in Burbank and where there are going to in Burbank. And the data shows that trips starting and ending in Burbank uh hit three key areas in the city. Downtown Burbank, Empire Corridor, and the media district. And then from there, we can see the age of travelers to those key destinations in those three major centers. Burbank age distribution is relatively similar for except in downtown area which has a slightly higher proportion uh of travelers that are 65 and older compared to the Empire and Media District and the Empire Corridor having a smaller portion of youth compared to the downtown media district. Uh we can also see trips uh going to the major centers. Uh so most of the activities are in the high and late afternoon reflecting changes in work patterns and even trips to meet a district that are steady until 3 p.m. We can also see those trips uh ma trips from those major centers by time and trips leaving the media district drops after 6 p.m. while downtown and Empire corridor drops off around 8:00. Uh we can also see trip purposes and trip purposes shopping is the highest in the Empire corridor and uh there's other purposes such as work and errands.

Uh to further understand where people are going, staff went straight to the source by gathering input from others as well. Staff talked to current bus operators, neighboring city bus operators including Santa Karita, Analopee Valley, Glendel Beeline, who is also conducting their COA right now, Metroink local leaders such as Chamber of Commerce, Home LA, Kiwanes, Burbank Transportation Management Organization, Senior Citizen Board, Youth Board, and representatives of the public. The survey was open for two and a half months to the public. Advertising during public announcement, social media where you saw my face uh every Monday asking people to take our survey and there there was advertisements at bus shelters and special presentation at community groups to tell them about the project and survey. Additionally, there were onboarding observations where we rode the bus to see the dayday activities on the bus and the bus stops. So common themes there's top six themes uh where across the board uh there was mention about maintaining services to downtown Burbank as well as the airport adding services to Magnolia Park and improving connections to other transit services and extended hours and this could be related to in the late in the evening as well as weekend service. The next component of the COA is what we heard and what we learned from the community. uh based on the data and community input, staff came up with different bus route uh designs. And so the second phase of the community engagement is to say, okay, we want to hear from you. We came up with these route. What do you think? And the second phase was refining those recommendations and we received positive feedback from various groups. Uh staff is here to provide the final recommendations to council for the service design policy. Staff is recommending to keep the policy for service design but slightly to update

the narratives. Uh we should still have services that is frequent uh operating all day meaning morning and night pointtooint as well as having regional transit connection. Now the official recommendation is our dream. The four dream is to improve the orange route to develop a north southbound route along Buenav Vista keep the pink route and monitor the BRT as well as move forward to a fully realized this realized system of having those three routes in Burbank. So for the orange route the proposed is the thick dark line and then the dotted line is where the current route makes the loop around the airport. So, if you're at starting from the North Hollywood station, uh through this proposed route, you would hit the airport, the Empire Shopping Area, Burbank High School along Glenn Oaks, south of Alama, heading towards Trader Joe's and Walgreens and making your way to downtown and having a better connection to Metro Link, Santa Clarita, Glendel Beine, as well as LA Metro's future BRT line along along Glenn Oaks and Olive. The second recommendation is the Bueno Vista route. the north southbound connection um and looking at attachment one of the attachments. So from the north it makes a small loop at the Hollywood way in Cohasset going down from Burbank North Metro station Woodbury University south along Bueno Vista and ending near St. Province Hospital North Alamita going north on Alama hitting major employers on Alama and to downtown having a similar connection to the orange and pink route. This fills the north south transit gap that we have today in Burbank and also connects to res residential areas of undeserved areas of Burbank bus and then connects to the media district and the empire corridor travel market and it

provides a birectional service. Uh the third route is to monitor the pink route. uh pink route uh is can be considered for the local tra travel due to the number of stops while BRT can be related to more of a regional trend travel due to limited bus stops. The fourth recommendation is to move towards a fully realized system uh where the routes meet service design policies and find funding sources to support the transit system. So after the second phase of community engagement was done, uh staff noticed that there was a strong po uh support and a connection that there was a major destination for the orange route. And so this was more of a conversation. Well, if we have to use existing funds today, what can we do to get closer to that dream? And so we've modified and provided a kind of a a a near-term solution where we can make a modified route to the orange uh ending at the Empire Center and making its loop back to the North Hollywood Center. So today, Burbank bus is 2.8 million annually. Uh the dream to fully transit system is 5.2 million. And I want to clarify that if we do add weekends, it would be closer to 7.25 million. uh adding more uh and then if we do the short-term uh orange route it would be either no cost or about 150,000 per year more depending on the number of stops frequency that we would need time to take a look at. Uh transportation commission has been involved in this uh effort and we've had three meetings with them. They voted in favor of the COA and the listed recommendations. And this concludes my presentation and happy to answer any questions. Um I'm also here with my colleague Jeremiah

Rose from Fair and Peers who took on this journey with us and drafted the COA. Great. Thank you for the presentation. Um colleagues, any questions, comments? Who would like to start? Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Um, no questions. Um, I just want to um really applaud staff for being creative in coming up with the additional route. I mean, it's really important to reach the Empire Center given that it's a really busy areas. We know that um a lot of sales stacks generate from Empire. So, it's good to allow um our residents or people who are visiting Burbank to go through the entire route and um I I'm definitely in support of having the bus going all the way the orange route, the one you presented today. Uh, of course hoping in the future that we can have additional funding that we can expand and offer option two, three, and four. Um, but as you indicated here, looks like a total of $5.2 million for everything. But that's not impossible, right? We can definitely work towards that goal sometime in the near future or in the future. I shouldn't say near. So, thank you for presenting this.

Thank you, Council Member. Council member Wati, do you have You're good. All right. Council member Press.

Um I just had one question. Uh this is way back when I think this was our very first council meeting when we looked at this, but um one of the things that I believe uh former council member Schultz and also uh Mayor Takashi, you brought up were looking at um our ride share systems here. So Uber, Lyft, and also Metro Micro and seeing if there was a way to get their data and study their patterns of travel. Did we ever end up looking at that to to inform kind of the routes here? Thank you for that question. Um, for this project, uh, we communicated with LA Metro about this project so they're aware of it and how it compares to the work that they're doing, whether it's the BRT, Metro Micro. Uh, we do have writership information about Metro Micro and it shows that it's been steady for the last 3 years on what they see with their wrership in Burbank. Um right now it's about 3 to 5,000 uh rides per month for Metro Micro in the last 3 years. So that number is very similar to Orange Route where we're hitting about similar numbers. Uh what is great about the Orange Route today is that it's the only transit system that has a connection from the NO station uh to the airport. And so um because of that um resource for the community, it's valued to keep Orange route and make some modifications since Metro isn't able to meet that needs. Uh but we do have similar numbers uh in terms of like the number of ridership compared to Metro Micro and for compared to Pink Route, uh Pink Route is about like around 10,000 rides per month. So it's

kind of double compared to the metro micro.

And in terms of the route, do we have any data on and and this may may not be a set number. It may not be that there were any patterns, but did were we able to see if there was any kind of repeated rides like boy folks are really riding Metro Micro in downtown a lot or uh not with Metro Micro. Uh but we do have it with our data itself in the COA. It outlines the existing data tool that we have to see the number of boarding alignments that happen at that specific stop. And so we'll highlight how much of a demand is at this bus stop versus that bus stop. So we could see that there's definitely uh a lower number of rides that are happening along Buenav Vista and Burbank Boulevard. And most of the stops occur at those major destinations like the airport and the no station.

And what about use of a ride share? Because I think what we were looking for last time was to see if there are any patterns like people keep taking Ubers from the hillside to the airport, right? Is this a gap that we could fill? Were we able to talk with them to see if they were willing to share some of that data?

Do you want to help answer that? Yeah, thanks for the question. Um, in a general sense, the patterns that people use Lyft and Uber for would be captured by the replica data because that's a much broader data source that captures a sample of everybody's trips and includes some uh app-based data that would be similar to what Lyft and Uber do. Um, in our work, um, as a consulting firm, Lyft and Uber tend, uh, not to share their, uh, specific trip data, even if they sort of anonymized it. It's not generally, uh, available for us to use on a project like this.

Okay, thank you. I figured that might be the answer, but it was worth an ask. Um, other than that, I don't really have questions. I just think I, you know, I know it's quite a hefty dollar tag, but if we had to pick one, to me it feels like the the orange route feels like a priority right now given that it really reaches into downtown Burbank and into those areas that are in need, while the the pink route seems to be steady. And we also have the BRT that's coming in place. So that really seems to be the the area that reaches downtown Burbank, which seems to be where a lot of writership is looking to go.

Yeah, that's all I have. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Yeah, and thank you so much for putting so much thought and attention and thoroughess into this process. Um, and you know, as a bus rider, regular bus rider, seeing the the COA is very exciting to me, and I'm glad to see that the transportation commission voted 70, that the community was very favorable. I I think it, you know, one of the one of the hopes I've I've had over the years is that there was some kind of circulator around the city. And this threeline kind of triangle sort of, it does essentially the same function. and it allows for a circulator while also connecting pointtooint two points in each in each route important areas. So, um I think it was a it's a very smart uh route and eventually when the blue line is added going up a Vista is a is a is a gap in our transportation system. We do have the 222 from Metro going up Hollywood way which I think a lot of people do take but it's so far west of the um Empire Center and it's not down near the media district. So there's a gap in the middle and the blue line absolutely covers that. So I appreciate that. Um I do have some questions about the orange line and the near-term solution. I'm curious about a lot of thought and it seems like a lot of um concentration and um looking for feedback was about the the the ultimate orange line option. Um but I'm curious how did you get to this near-term solution version and why did you choose this version versus keeping the old orange line or going straight to the new orange line which is the one that the folks seem to appreciate.

Thank you for that question. Uh so for orange route, orange route was uh there's two main components. The data shows that there is that need to get to those destinations and make that connection and through the engagement whether it was the first or second phase of it. Uh there was a lot of good feedback and relatability to be able to go to those destinations. And we realized that through that effort, uh, that's what we're missing today with the orange route. They understand it goes to the airport and that's great, but there was there was no other connection that they could make along the Buen ais Buenav Vista and Bourbank Boulevard. Uh, that was able for them to be able to go to. uh we do have small writerships at those stops and because the data shows that there isn't that much and that maybe if we have a better connection along that on the Bua Vista uh maybe having a longer connection from the north southbound would be a better solution than providing a small segment just through the orange route where you where you can't really meet any of those destinations and so we took that into consideration from the community feedback where a lot of people made that connection to the Empire Corridor and say great I can go there afterwards and the conversation became of okay well we're hearing a lot of great feedback about Orange Route but what can we really do today knowing that we can't afford all the extension to downtown and so uh we had the opportunity to figure out like if we were to stop somewhere with our existing budget where could we stop at is it closer to the Empire Avenue near REI Is it going to be closer to all the way to Walmart? Uh what are the challenges and obstacles getting along to Empire Avenue? Uh how does that

compare to other bus routes that are along that route? Uh especially with LA Metro. And so we came to where we think is a good place. Uh we still have to test it out uh to see if it can work and the limited amount of you know opportunity and resources there. there is a lot of traffic there and so we have this really great opportunity once you get to Empire Avenue you make that loop around Val Prada uh because it also hits other major employers as well as hotel before you actually get to the airport and so knowing that what our existing resources are based on the community feedback and that data that's what we came up with as a concept but again we'll still need to test it for a few months to see the safety of it the reliability ility on the time performance before implementation. So, it'll probably take a couple of months after approval uh or after any other recommendations to be for it to be implemented. We'll need to create bus stops for it. Uh we'll need to communicate with LA Metro and other transit agencies about their bus time schedule like what works because we want to be able to have that connection. So if someone were to take LA Metro and but they also want to use Bourbank bus, we don't want them to wait two 10 minutes, 15 minutes, it we wanted them to wait as short as possible. And so we'll need that time to look at schedules, coordinating with other transit agencies to make sure that that route, that loop works out.

Okay. Do you happen to know if to your point about metro, are there any metro buses that go from the um the airport bus station to Empire Center that this would be possibly overlapping with? Yes, let me just double check. I know it's part of attachment two, but let me just triple check so I don't misspeak. is coming to mind right now because I'm wondering as you're looking that up, I think it's a great idea to to extend out to the Empire Center because that's clearly a point of interest for folks. Yeah.

Um at the same time, you know, I I want to I'm a little bit concerned with uh if it gets implemented because it probably will be a few years, maybe a year, couple years before we start expanding it out, being able to move. So, it'll become even though it's near-term solution, it's temporary, it'll be there long enough to to to be, you know, a route people get used to and that we know data with. And I would hate to see it become I mean, it's not really being used. So, we don't want to extend it because it's not being used anyway since we've had this great route that actually probably will be, you know, based on what people are giving feedback that going to to downtown will work really well. I would hate to see the numbers from this if they're low because they're overlapping with Metro to then be a reason not to extend it.

True. Uh, good point. So, for Metro, there's the 165 and the 294. Um, but then again, I would work with Metro to see what their schedule looks like versus ours. We'll still need to create our schedule to see what it looks like. And the good thing about our local transit system, uh, common things that we'll do is that if it doesn't work out and we've done all the outreach, marketing for it, uh, we would come back to council. Uh, and it is possible to do it within a year or whatever we think is best to end that service, maybe go back to the old way or maybe think of another way. And uh we do have that opportunity and we've done in the past to have that flexibility. Uh of course we don't want to change it too much because it causes confusion to the public. Uh but we have done it with previous routes.

Okay. Yeah. And I think um you know that that section there I'm curious what what uh whether folks take it from the airport to Empire Center. Let's say they have a layover for three hours and they want to just pop over to the Empire Center, you know, do some shopping and then come back or have something to eat or whatever. um or they're here for they're sitting at the Marriott or something and they want to just go over there and they don't want to walk um that kind of thing. Be curious. But um if if we do if and when we do implement this near-term solution, it'd be great to have maybe partnership with the airport that they can signal or or advertise to folks who are coming into the airport that hey, the Empire Center is just a bus ride away. I don't know if that's already done or not, but I think that would probably help with the success of the route and to make folks aware who maybe um wouldn't otherwise think of taking the bus to the MRI center. They take an Uber or something, but the bus is just right there.

Yeah, thank you for that comment. Uh it's definitely a discussion with the airport. Airport knows what we're doing with this project and they're also helping us uh to improve our wayfinding signs to get the airport to get to the airport. And we're also in discussions about the new airport that's happening of where that bus entrance is and how does it relate to Bourbing Bus. But yeah, good point. Uh that's definitely part of uh meeting wrership goals and making sure that people have that better connection.

Great. And then my last question is about the upcoming Olympics and uh the Orange Line and its future connection to downtown Burbank. Um for international travelers, folks are coming in who are, you know, staying downtown or going downtown Burbank and they may come into the airport. Um any thoughts on a timeline to try to see if we can at least extend the orange line, if not add the blue line because that's blue line's a stretch goal or the longer term plan, but maybe extend the orange line by the 2028 Olympics to have that ready. Yes, good point. I think all of us are interested in finding resources as soon as we can, uh, to make this a dream and so, uh, it would be great if we could aim it before the Olympics. Uh, so yeah, taking notes. Okay, great. Thank you. Excellent work on this. This is, uh, I think the community, at least all the feedback I got from the bus riding community that I heard, they're very, very happy with this goal eventually. Of course, we all want it faster. we want to be able to jump on that bus and get around the town easier, but the the steps toward it and all the work that you put towards this this plan is is well received. So, thank you so much for doing this.

Thank you. All right. Any other last thoughts? Okay, then that is the end of our study session. So, we will take a looks like about a 20 minute break before we start our regular council session at 6. All right, see you at 6.