Written by Bob Nicholson | 10 April 2011

Finding and Following a Good Irrigation Schedule

Proper irrigation scheduling is one of the secrets to keeping your water bills down. Even if someone else maintains your landscape, it is important that you control the irrigation scheduling. Fortunately, excellent irrigation schedules are now available for both North and South County through the following links:

North County: http://templetoncsd.org/Library/Conservation/watering_schedule.pdf

South County: http://www.slocity.org/utilities/irrigationschedule.asp

Make sure your irrigation increases gradually: you will note that full summer schedules do not begin until June, and will begin to reduce again in September. Your irrigation needs can vary greatly from season to season, so sticking to a reasonable schedule will pay off by reducing your cost of living and by conserving one of our most precious resources.

Of course, you will have to understand how to operate your irrigation controller. Most controllers are located in a small box hanging on the wall in the garage, but some can be found outside. Instructions are often posted inside the door. If you have no instructions, you can usually download an instruction manual from the manufacturer’s website. 

When looking at your controller, keep in mind that the Run Time is the duration one particular station (irrigation valve) will run on each irrigation day. The Start Time is different because this is the time that all of your programming will cycle through. For example, if all 6 of your valves have a run time of 10 minutes each, one start time will run the entire program for each of those valves. A second start time will run the whole thing over again. Make sure you follow the operating instructions carefully, and your system will be your ticket to reduced bills.

Written by Sandra Marshall | 08 February 2011

As a solution to the unique problem of stranding passengers on some of the higher demand bus routes, particularly when Cal Poly is in session, SLO Transit added a Double Decker bus to its fleet last September. Originally the center of controversy when fare hikes were being considered, recent reports have it that the bus is a hit on the Foothill Route. Residents, students, the University and Council asked for a solution to reduce the leave behind problem and it appears to have worked. Now the challenge is to get more people riding the bus, all of the time, every day.
SLO Transit carries over 1,000,000 passengers per year. When faced with the problem of stranded passengers, the choice to use high occupancy buses was recommended and adopted in May 2009 as part of a Short Range Transit Plan for SLO Transit
High occupancy buses include Double Deckers and articulated buses, which run longer and often exceed 60’ in length. The Double Decker bus was purchased in lieu of a 60’ articulated bus mainly because all City bus stops and the Downtown Transit Center would have to be modified in order to accommodate a 60’ bus. Additional parking and tight corners would need to be modified to accommodate articulated buses. The Double Decker bus fits all of the existing bus stops in the City.
The 81-seat Double Decker bus replaced two buses more than twelve years old-and has greater seating capacity than two buses combined. Purchasing one bus, with seating capacity equivalent to two, leads to less maintenance, less insurance costs, more choices for riders and less pollution in the air.
The Double Decker bus is being used on 7 of the 8 routes--with the exception of Route 6b due to the height of the railroad bridge on Highland Drive. It serves Cal Poly and operates on Routes 4 and 5, two high ridership routes that served 470,000 riders combined last year. The use of the high capacity Double Decker bus is helping to reduce or eliminate the number of passengers stranded at bus stops during morning and afternoon peak operations. The bus can handle trips in excess of 100 passengers--including standees--on board at one time.
City General Funds were not involved in the purchase of the Double Decker bus. Ninety percent of the Double Decker bus was purchased with Capital Funds not available for operations, which means it was purchased with Federal grant monies not allowed to help run or pay for the City’s transit program. The Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and Proposition 1B Bond funded the remaining 10 percent of the Double Decker bus cost. Funds from the APCD were collected from environment impacts of new businesses built and set aside for the City to use toward lowering emission levels. In order to access this funding, the City had to destroy the engine on one of the buses being replaced so it could not be resold in California due to the current emission standards. The Double Decker bus uses cutting edge emissions technology, meeting all standards required in California. Proposition 1B Bond funds have been set aside for transit improvements.
Because of the type of Federal and State funding used towards the cost of the Double Decker bus, the purchase of Double Decker bus was not a factor of proposed transit fare modifications in October 2010. State funding used for operations--to help run or pay for the City’s transit program--have decreased by twenty-three percent since 2004-2005.  The fare modifications had no connection to the Double Decker bus project.  
Other agencies, such as UC Davis (Unitrans), have been operating Double Decker buses for many years and have just put into service two models, similar to that of the City, manufactured by Alexander Dennis.