Creating Partnership within Your Community with Victor Valley Transit Authority and Victor Valley College

Target Audience: For this specific campaign of our Low Carbon Transit Operations Programs (LCTOP), our audience was Victor Valley College (VCC) students.

Strategy Objective:In partnership with VVC, we launched a campus wide campaign during the 2018 fall semester to encourage more students to take advantage of the VVTA public transit service that is free with their student ID. To introduce the partnership between VVC and VVTA, our team participated in an on-campus event in which water bottles, cobranded by VVC and VVTA, were handed out to students to support the college's new hydration stations. During the event, VVC students were also recruited to participate in the transit campaign by being photographed for use in promotional materials. In the fall semester, a campus wide campaign was launched that used a variety of on-campus communication channels including banners, posters, handouts, information displays and social media ' all featuring photos of students.

Situation Challenge: Through our LCTOP grant with Caltrans, we were given the opportunity to help four transit agencies with their marketing efforts to increase ridership. One of the agencies that participated in this project was Victor Valley Transit Authority (VVTA) which has been experiencing significant ridership declines over the past year. VVTA's service area population is characterized by youth - 41% percent of the population is under 25 years old. There is high ridership among college students because VVTA has a prepaid pass program with VVC and has a transit center immediately adjacent to the college. However, there is significant potential for growth as the college is a destination for 11,500 students.

Results Impact: While it is too early to judge the long term ridership impact of this project, the short term impact on VVTA's visibility and awareness is apparent. VVC students moving around campus are now constantly reminded of their free transit option by bold banners and window coverings at six locations. There are six new transit information centers placed throughout the campus. And students are actively involved in promoting transit use to other students.

Why Submit: This campaign not only promoted transit ridership for a semester, but built a stronger relationship between VVC and VVTA. VVC is now an engaged and willing partner in the promotion of transit use among its students and many of the marketing tools created and implemented as part of the campaign will have long term marketing value. VVTA's brand awareness has been strengthened and we expect will result in increased student ridership going forward. Most importantly, this project has created a partnership between VVC and VVTA that will provide long term communication value and opportunities for on-going collaboration.