The proposed changes affect the A, B, F, G, P, Q and Yolobus 42 routes
By MADELYN SEVIGNY — city@theaggie.org
The City of Davis and Unitrans have invited community members to provide feedback to current services through an online survey and outreach events where locals could learn about the proposed changes and provide feedback. One such event was the Oct. 25 Halloween Block Party, during which the City of Davis and Unitrans were stationed at the Davis Food Co-op to give community members and answer questions and offer in-person feedback.
The online survey launched Oct. 14 and is open through Nov. 14, allowing residents an opportunity to help determine new routes and schedules starting in 2026.
These proposals are updates to the current Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP), where Unitrans and the City of Davis review bus services and propose improvements every 10 years. This current SRTP began in 2024 and is set to continue until 2031.
Jennifer Donofrio, the senior transportation planner for the City of Davis, described how the proposed changes were made in collaboration with the city, Unitrans and their consulting team.
“[The consulting team] helped create the proposed changes based on feedback from Unitrans and feedback from the city,” Donofrio said. “They did an analysis of the system, they rode the bus […] and we provided a lot of data to them. [..] And, from there, they’re figuring out ‘Okay, well, here’s how people in Davis move. Here’s how people are moving on the Unitrans buses.’ Now, how can we build a system […] based on that data that they collected?”
Donofrio also explained what factors are taken into consideration when making proposals.
“We look at walkability, […] how close everyone is to a transit stop,” Donofrio said. ”We look at potential and new development, […] where Davis is growing, and then the density of Davis, different demographics. […] We want to make sure that we’re putting the routes where people live.”
The most recent draft recommendations will continue to be updated based on the feedback provided in the survey and through in-person events. The project is expected to be pitched to the Davis City Council in the summer of 2026, and the changes, if approved, will be implemented in the fall.
The goals of the current recommendations are to provide expanded service hours on weekends and more efficient routes for the community, according to the City of Davis website.
Here are the current proposed route and service hour changes:
In East and South Davis, proposed changes include routing the P and Q lines to no longer operate south of Interstate 80 and, instead, operate on the north side of the freeway on 2nd St. and 5th St.. This change would discontinue the A line and introduce new S and O lines to serve South Davis.
In Central Davis, the B line would be discontinued, replaced by the G line between Russell Blvd. and Alvarado Ave. moving from Anderson Rd. to Sycamore Lane.
The F line would be routed onto Catalina Drive, providing two-way service on 14th Street and F Street. The new R line would serve the area near Anderson Rd. and Alvarado Ave., which is currently served by the F line.
Finally, Yolobus Route 42 would serve Sutter Davis Hospital on John Jones Road. Service hours would also be expanded on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, moving the last departures to later times than they are currently scheduled.
Eric Wang, a third-year electrical engineering major and a driver for Unitrans, explained how the changes to routes and schedules would affect Unitrans employees.
“If you introduce new routes and you change the current routes […] most employees […] have to be trained on any new routes or changes that are implemented,” Wang said. “So all employees will likely have to go through a refresher or retraining process to get used to the new routes.”
Unitrans General Manager Jeff Flynn commented on how the changes to services have to be made without any additional funding.
“The short range transit plan is only addressing this key scenario of status quo funding,” Flynn said. “Unitrans is a really well used and often overcrowded public transit service. And unfortunately, there’s not funding available to expand service. So [what] this plan is really looking at [is] what are our current challenges and how do we best address those challenges within the current resources that we have today.”
Flynn shared how recent changes were made to services based on public outreach, which was conducted as part of the SRTP in fall of 2024.
“In winter we actually reallocated [based on survey results], and put more service into West Village,” Flynn said. “So that was [a] place where we immediately responded and were able to do something with the survey results.”
To review the proposals and provide feedback on Unitrans services, take the survey on the Unitrans website.
Written By: Madelyn Sevigny — city@theaggie.org
