Although some people feel that the changes to the Golden Empire Transit bus routes hinder their days by causing them to walk farther to get to a bus stop, others feel that the changes are an improvement.

The GET has had the same bus route for over 25 years now. The city of Bakersfield has grown dramatically since those 25 years that’s why the new route was implemented to the system on October 2012.

According to Gina Hayden who works for GET, some of the new routes were moved onto larger streets like Chester Avenue to make it more convenient for the bus drivers as well as the people who ride the bus.

In 2010, GET spent almost a year gathering data, seeking information on where people mostly got on and off the bus.

In 2011, they had a draft map to ask people who ride the bus where they would start and where their destination is.

They also went to the transit center and had a booth at the fair including having one at Bakersfield College.

Hayden said, “There’s no other point in doing this except to make it a better system for our customers.”

During the beginning of the change, GET received numerous complaints because the two major routes, buses 21 and 22.

Bus routes 21 and 22, which were supposed to run every 15 minutes, had a lot more people using those routes than the transit anticipated.

They have since added buses to those two routes to make it more convenient for their customers.

GET wanted to let the system run for a year and made sure they knew what was going on before they made any new changes.

According to Hayden, GET did surveys to ensure satisfaction, which a survey last month showed  that most people were happy with the new route.

BC student Enrique Garcia has been riding the GET bus transit for three years. He said that it works for him because he now takes one bus to get to school rather than two buses like before.

When there is a new system, you see a drop in people riding the bus, which GET saw, but now the system is starting to see people riding the buses again, according to Hayden.