142 | Business World Magazine |
March 2014
And it’s the standards of the ridership –
which includes college students at UCDavis
and professionals who work downtown in
the capital district – that keep organization’s
bar in a state of perpetual raise.
“We have a very intelligent ridership cli-
entele, so the levels are kept pretty high,” he
says. “Plus we have employees with a lot of
interests and a board of directors that’s very
supportive of us doing the right thing.”
The perfect storm of lofty aspirations and
in-house cooperation have made the Yolo or-
ganization a model of in-front-of-the-curve
innovation – both environmentally and
otherwise – for much of the 32 years since
it broke from the regional transportation
provider and began contracting bus services
with the private sector, a decision Bassett
claims has saved taxpayers more than $50
million.
Yolo transitioned from a joint powers
agreement run by Yolo County to a separate
authority run by a board of elected officials
and senior staffers. In 1996, the state legisla-
ture and governor approved creation of the
district, whose appointees come from the
four cities in Yolo County, the Yolo Coun-
ty Board of Supervisors and representatives
