Santa Barbara Essentials
- Tap credit card to pay
- Transit app is accurate
- Very poor frequency.
- Limited routes.
Pros
- Clean
- Fast once on board
- Tap payment
Cons
- Poor coverage
- Poor frequency
- Some routes are seasonal
Traveled April 2025
See Also
Getting Around: Carpinteria, CA
Riding: Nope!
Sometimes I get ahead of myself and think “Oh, I can take transit there!” I’d taken the Santa Barbara bus before, when I was in Carpinteria. It wasn’t frequent, but it got me there.
So when I was booking a hotel in Santa Barbara, it looked close enough on the map, and I neglected to notice that the bus situation was suboptimal.
There was a route, along the beach, to my hotel. When I say “was,” I mean “was, in the past.” The route has been suspended. Whether it was seasonal or gone forever was unclear. What’s clear was that it wasn’t running when I was there.
Of course, the sign didn’t tell me that it wasn’t running. Only the website had that information.
By the time I realized there was no bus, I had already walked a few blocks in that direction. I could backtrack and walk up a significant hill to catch a bus, or I could keep going.
I kept going.
This left me with a rather lengthy walk down an absolutely gorgeous beachfront path with crystal clear skies after the previous day’s rain.
Oh, the horror.
Parking Everywhere
I walked to the Santa Barbara pier that evening for dinner. The pier is about 1/3 pedestrian, and 2/3 cars. Yes, there are cars and parking on the Santa Barbara pier. Because nothing says “let’s take a stroll and enjoy the fresh ocean air” like a bidirectional procession of Chevy Malibus waddling over the wooden planks.
Bus
I did ride the bus the next day. It took me from my hotel to downtown. Thankfully it was coming soon, because it only runs once an hour.
Fares were free, because it was Earth Day. Hooray! It also let me off near a coffee house, a pleasant downhill walk down to the Amtrak station.
