There's A Better Way to BART!

Target Audience: The Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) provides transit services to the Tri-Valley area of the East Bay, serving the cities of Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton. There are two Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations in the LAVTA service area, both located in the city of Dublin. Parking at both stations is typically at capacity by 7am on weekdays. The target audience for this "Better Way to BART!" campaign was commuters who would like to travel via BART and who either currently spend time searching for parking at the station or who have been frustrated by the lack of parking availability and given up. This multi-media campaign used radio, digital, direct mail and an individualized marketing outreach effort to target Dublin residents who lived in proximity to or Rapid Route 30R.

Strategy Objective:Five campaign components: 1. Individualized marketing - Door-to-door outreach targeting 2,700 households within 1/4 mile of Route 30R. 2. Direct mail - Targeted direct mail piece sent to 5,000 residences near Route 30R with an offer of a free week of rides for visiting a specially designated web page. 3. Geo-fenced digital served to residents and businesses in the target zone. 4. Tabling at community events including weekly Farmers' Market, the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Festival and BART Stations 4. Radio Traffic Report Sponsorship - Ads on traffic reports on the only station that provides Tri-Valley specific traffic reports to target local commuters who may have the option of riding BART. 15-second spots focused on the difficulty of parking at BART and the convenience of Rapid bus service.

Situation Challenge: Parking availability at the East and West Dublin/Pleasanton BART Stations is typically non-existent after 7am on weekdays. LAVTA has two high frequency bus routes, the 10R and 30R Rapid services offering 15 minute weekday headways with limited stops. Both are scheduled to provide timed transfers to both departing and arriving BART trains, dropping passengers right at the station entrances. The purpose of this campaign was to promote the fact that there is a better way to get to the BART Station than by driving and hunting for parking. This year's campaign primarily focused on the Rapid Route 30R, which serves both BART Stations. We especially wanted to target residents within walk distance of the route so we used focused direct mail, door-to-door outreach and geo-fenced digital ads.

Results Impact: Average weekday ridership on the Rapid Route 30R increased by 11.3% from 1,939 per day in September 2017 to 2,159 in September 2018. Some other results/impacts of campaign elements: Individualized marketing - Just under 1,200 of the 2,700 households contacted were engaged by trained Travel Advisors and 545 expressed interest in receiving additional transit commuting information. Tabling events - Over 2,000 individuals were provided with information about Rapid bus service to BART. Direct Mail and digital - there were approximately 300 responses to the direct mail piece and the targeted digital ads.

Why Submit: This comprehensive campaign contained a number of diverse elements and has to a ridership increase of over 11% in the past year on the Rapid Route 30R serving the East and West Dublin/Pleasanton BART stations.