The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced the selection of the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority (LAVTA) as the recipient of the 2020 Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award.

The annual award acknowledges excellence among public transportation providers in North America. In LAVTA’s 35-year history, this the first time it has received this honor.

LAVTA’s award is for rail or bus transit systems providing 4 million or fewer passenger trips annually. Agencies are evaluated by APTA’s Awards Committee based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria. The qualitative criteria include safety, operations and maintenance, customer service, financial management, diversity and inclusion, marketing, and community relations. Quantitative measures include ridership, cost effectiveness, and road call data.

Among the accomplishments which led to LAVTA receiving the award include:

• An increase in ridership of 12.1% over the two-year period from 2017 to 2019.

• The successful passage of a Student Mobility Initiative at Las Positas College (LPC) to fund unlimited access transit passes for all LPC students.

• Launching a Shared Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) project in proximity to the East Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station to help provide first and last mile connections with BART.

• Serving as executive and administrative support for the Tri-Valley — San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority (Valley Link), which held its first Board meeting in January 2018.

• Partnering with the city of Livermore to relocate and rehabilitate the Southern Pacific Railroad’s historic train depot for use as LAVTA’s Livermore Transit Center sales and operations building.

• Initiating Go Dublin, an on-demand real-time mobility alternative for Dublin residents utilizing a unique partnership with Uber and Lyft.

LAVTA and the rest of this year’s award winners will be honored at an APTA Virtual Meeting in October and again in March at APTA’s annual TRANSform Conference.