What is CET doing to ensure buses are clean?
COIC and CET continue to enhance the cleaning of our buses and facilities using anti-viral cleaning solutions and wipes on all high-touch surfaces on a daily basis. Staff are sanitizing the operator area, rails, seats, doors, grab handles, and other high-touch surfaces. Buses are also pulled out of rotation to receive a full disinfectant spray. Touch points such as door knobs, restrooms, fixtures, brochure holders, and chairs are being sanitized multiple times per day at CET’s facilities.
What is CET doing to ensure social distancing on buses?
The lobby inside Hawthorne Station is only open for customers to use the restroom and customers are asked to exit immediately after using the facility. CET has ended ticket sales at Hawthorne Station until further notice for the safety of customers and staff. If you must use an intercity provider (such as Greyhound), please purchase your tickets through the provider’s website and print your tickets at home.
CET continues to offer fareless boarding across all services (Bend Fixed-Route, Community Connector, Bend Dial-A-Ride, and Rural Dial-A-Ride) to reduce interactions between passengers and drivers and eliminate cash exchange. Staff marked off rows of seats with signage to ensure adequate social distancing for passengers. Additionally, major routes in Bend are being serviced by CET’s Gillig buses with rear-door boardings only to ensure space between the drivers and passengers.
Why is CET requiring face coverings for passengers?
In response to new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CET required all passengers to wear a face mask or other facial covering before boarding a bus beginning Monday, April 20. This action helps protect our employees and passengers by mitigating the spread of COVID-19. CET drivers were required to wear masks/coverings starting Wednesday, April 15.
Can I use my shirt or bandana to cover my face?
Any cloth or paper material such as a scarf, bandana, mask, or long sleeve shirt that covers the nose and mouth is acceptable to use on the bus.
How will face coverings be enforced?
The requirement to wear a face covering is similar to other rules on the bus and will be enforced accordingly. Staff are educating riders about this requirement and drivers are providing sterile and individually-wrapped face masks and bandanas for riders to use free of charge. Security staff at Hawthorne Station are helping to enforce the face covering requirement when people are boarding buses. Passengers should only be using transit to make essential trips such as to a job, doctor’s appointment, grocery store, or pharmacy and everyone needs to have a destination to ride. CET drivers are doing their part to educate riders about this requirement and remind them to bring a face covering when they ride the bus.
What has been done to educate riders and the public about the face covering requirement?
CET staff have encouraged riders to wear face coverings or masks when boarding the bus through the following initiatives:
- A press release issued on April 15
- On-camera media interviews with KTVZ and Central Oregon Daily on April 16
- Notices posted at all major stops and facilities, as well as inside buses
- Updates on CET’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages
- A newsletter sent to more than 1,000 riders, partners, and stakeholders
- A text alert that was pushed out to nearly 700 subscribers
- Handing out free face masks and bandanas to passengers who do not have one
