Trolley systems promise to ease summertime driving pain
When the Pageant of the Masters opens in Laguna Beach this summer, Lu Neely hopes to ride to it for free on the city trolley.
Make that trolleys, plural. And cities, plural, too.
Dana Point, just south of Laguna, launched its own summer shuttle service on June 26. Passengers who hop off by the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, where the trolley officially begins its route, can wait a few minutes and then board the Laguna trolley, which makes its southernmost stop near the same hotel.
For Neely and her family, that will amount to less frustration behind the wheel during Laguna’s art festival season.
“We always would drive, park in the lot pretty far away and still wind up taking the trolley, the Laguna Beach trolley, from the parking lot down to the pageant,” the retired teacher said as she and her daughter sat on the Dana Point shuttle during its first-ever ride.
Orange County, as a whole, is light on free public transit. Of its 34 cities, only three offer trolleys. In addition to Laguna and Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano has launched a weekend trolley service this summer. Two of those services overlap, which may mean brisker summer business for the traffic-heavy area around the festival grounds.
For most the summer, the pageant, Art-A-Fair and Sawdust Art Festival bring thousands of locals and tourists to the southern stretch of Laguna Canyon Road near Pacific Coast Highway. Those who bring their own cars have to prowl for a space at the city’s public lots, which are located near the trolley stops.
Laguna Beach’s deputy city manager, Ben Siegel, sees great benefit in the Dana Point program.
“We think it’s a good economic development tool for our local businesses and for the festivals to be able to move people into the community who don’t have to drive their vehicles and find parking,” he said.
The Laguna trolley service, which boasts a fleet of 25 vehicles, operates seven days a week during the summer and on weekends for the remainder of the year. The trolleys feature open-air sides and operate on three routes around the city.
By contrast, Dana Point service offers trolleys in name only. The city hired Professional Parking, a Signal Hill-based company, to provide four shuttle buses, which are designed to resemble old-style woodies.
The city used a seven-year, $2.3-million Orange County Transportation Authority grant to launch its trolley service, and it must maintain an average of 10 riders per trolley per hour to keep the funding. Brad Fowler, Dana Point’s director of public works and engineering services, noted that the first weekend had been promising: ridership averaged 25 people per hour Friday and Saturday, though it dipped to 13 on Sunday.
If the trolley service proves popular enough this year, Dana Point plans to bring in standard trolleys next summer.
“We would prefer to have the open-air experience here on the coast,” Fowler said. “It attracts greater ridership, and it will get used more if we have an actual trolley.”
The first Dana Point excursion began at noon Friday. Seven people, including the driver, boarded the vehicle near the Ritz-Carlton and headed off on a nearly hourlong trip by the beach, parks, shopping centers and other landmarks.
One older couple who boarded midway through the route said they planned to take the “trolley” to the library. At one point, the driver asked passengers if they were enjoying the ride, and a woman hailed the “nice air conditioning” on a hot day.
Jorge Olamendi, owner of the Mexican restaurant Olamendi’s, said Monday that the trolley service, which stops near his business, had given him a prosperous weekend.
“I would say we had about 10% more than what we usually have,” he said. “They [customers] said how convenient it was. Now they can have all the margaritas they want and don’t have to worry about driving.”
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A Tale of Two Trolleys
Laguna Beach and Dana Point now both feature free summer trolley services — and they intersect in front of the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel at 1 Ritz-Carlton Drive in Dana Point. Here are the basics:
Laguna Beach
Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily (9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 4); ends Aug. 30
Seats per trolley: 21 to 34
Routes: 3
Selected highlights: Art-A-Fair, Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters, Sawdust Art Festival, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Playhouse
Number of trolleys: 25
Number of stops: 48 over all three routes
Frequency: 20 minutes
Pets allowed? Service animals or pets in carrying cases only
Surfboards allowed? Yes, 6 feet or shorter
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Dana Point
Hours: Noon to 10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays, plus 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Labor Day; ends Sept. 7
Seats per trolley: 20
Routes: 1
Selected highlights: Doheny State Beach, Dana Strand Beach, Capistrano Beach, Doheny Village, La Plaza Park
Number of trolleys: 4
Number of stops: 15
Frequency: 15 minutes
Pets allowed? Service animals or pets in carrying cases only
Surfboards allowed? Yes, 6 feet or shorter