Santa Barbara County Becomes Third District in Nation with Electric Commuter Bus

A Lot Riding on This ‘45-Foot Beauty’

This may be one bus, but as congressmember Salud Carbajal pointed out, it’s symbolic of a larger movement. | Credit: Caitlin Kelley

There it was, hovering over the crowd in orange all-caps: “GO GREEN.” That was the theme of the Friday, January 28, unveiling of Santa Barbara County’s first-ever electric commuter bus at the Avenue of the Flags in Buellton.

The “45-foot beauty,” as supervisor Das Williams dubbed it, makes S.B.’s transit agency the third in the nation to institute a long-distance zero-emission service, behind the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Antelope Valley Transit Authority.

There it was, hovering over the crowd in orange all-caps: “GO GREEN.” | Credit: Caitlin Kelley

Or, as Marjie Kirn, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG), put it during the ceremony, “Those other two agencies are much larger than us. So we’re the first small agency to do this.”