Wheels is a public bus service in the Tri-Valley region (southeast Alameda County) of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It is operated by the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA). Wheels operates local and limited-stop service in Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore, with limited service into Contra Costa County along Interstate 680. The LAVTA was formed in 1985; service began in Dublin and Pleasanton in 1986. In 1987, it took over the 1978-opened Rideo service in Livermore. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 1,019,400, or about 4,500 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2023.
Routes
As of November 2023[update], Wheels operates 12 regular routes. This includes two Rapid routes (10R and 30R) with limited stops and frequent all-day service, and two express routes (20X and 70X) with limited peak-hour service. Fifteen additional routes, numbered 501–504 and 601–611, operate a small number of trips to serve schools.[3] The primary transfer hubs are at Dublin/Pleasanton station (served by BART) and Livermore Transit Center (served by ACE).
1 Gleason/Hacienda
2 East Dublin/Fallon Middle School
3 Stoneridge
8 Hopyard
10R Pleasanton-Livermore
14 Pleasanton-Livermore
15 Springtown
20X Vasco
30R Dublin-Livermore
53 Stoneridge
54 Hacienda
70X Pleasant Hill
History
A preserved Rideo bus in 2019
Rideo local bus service in Livermore began on August 7, 1978.[4] In 1984, Dublin and Pleasanton began planning a local bus system, which Livermore was initially apprehensive about joining.[5][6] In May 1985, the three cities plus Alameda County formed the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) as a joint powers authority.[7] The Metropolitan Transportation Commission provided initial funding in September 1985.[8] The new bus service, branded as "Wheels", began operating in Dublin and Pleasanton on July 1, 1986. It initially had nine buses operating on hourly headways, which ran on weekdays and Saturdays but not Sundays.[9][10] Rideo was merged into Wheels in July 1987.[7]
A new maintenance facility was opened in September 1991, serving the 34 buses delivered the previous year. Paratransit service began in January 1996. Wheels began connecting to regional rail service with the introduction of BART service to Dublin/Pleasanton station in 1997 and ACR service to Livermore in 1998. Route 70X service between Dublin/Pleasanton and Walnut Creek began in January 1999.[7] Until June 27, 2009, Wheels operated All-Nighter route 810 between Bay Fair station and Livermore.[11]
In 2004, the BART I-580 Corridor Transit Study found that a BART extension to Livermore would not be feasible. Instead, the report recommended a rapid bus network serving the Tri-Valley.[12] Construction on the "Tri-Valley Rapid" project took place from November 2009 to December 2010.[7] Service on route R, which ran between West Dublin/Pleasanton station and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via Dublin, began on January 24, 2011.[13] The weekday-only route operated every 10 minutes at peak and 15 minutes off-peak.[14] It included some bus rapid transit elements like wider stop spacing, signal priority, and queue jumps.[15] On August 13, 2016, local route 10 was converted to Rapid route 10R. It ran between Dublin/Pleasanton station and Livermore via Pleasanton. Route R was rerouted via Las Positas College and renamed route 30R at that time.[16][17] By 2019, the two Rapid routes represented half of Wheels ridership.[18]
