Rollsigns from Santa Rosa, CA
This mylar side destination
sign was originally dated
April 16, 1987. Since then,
one each of the
destinations on Route 2
and 11 were blacked out
with vinyl strips, and the
route 14 and second Route
3 exposures were added.
The sign has 33 exposures.
Its sign tag is shown below.

The image of this sign has
been enlarged to 1.5 times
that of most other sign
images on the website.

This rollsign was
donated to Rollsign
Gallery through the
will of the late John
McDonnell.
SANTA ROSA
P.O.NO.66160
D-8233-MA SGL. SIDE
4/16/87 TRANSIGN
Motor Street Car Service Inc., the city’s only urban bus service since August 1923, had discontinued operations in
December 1956 due to incurring too many financial losses. The city took ownership of the transit equipment and
turned it over to Chris Badenhop, a local taxi operator, who continued the bus runs for 17 months further before
terminating city bus operations completely by May of 1958. Residents pushed the city council to provide
transportation relief. The city still had its fleet of nearly obsolete, 1939-model buses, and the council attempted a
trial run with five of them. After about a month, the trial run ended due to high operating costs of the decrepit
buses. City council soon authorized $7,000 for two used buses from Reno, Nevada. Revenue immediately
increased with the more modern buses, and on Nov. 20, 1958, the Santa Rosa Board of Public Utilities adopted
an operating policy for the bus service, which they officially named the Santa Rosa Municipal Transit System.
Two years later, Santa Rosa acquired two more new buses, at a total cost of $22,653, from Pontiac, Michigan.
Santa Rosa’s transit system was a fairly unique government-private partnership, with the city owning the buses
and splitting income with the drivers who leased the vehicles. By 1968, Santa Rosa had six buses, along with
two jitney operations (a 5-cent cab or small bus) to serve a city population of over 44,000. On Jan. 8, 1974,
the Santa Rosa City Council held a public hearing to consider a project that sought financial assistance from
the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964. The project included the purchase of six new city buses, one of
which would be equipped with a hydraulic lift for wheelchair users. And new routes were planned to pass by
community medical centers to assist the elderly and those with disabilities to reach those facilities. By the early
1980s, Santa Rosa was a leader in lift-equipped transit service versus other systems in the state, and was the
first to become fully accessible by 1983 along with complimentary para-transit service. In July of 1985 the transit
agency changed its name to CityBus to better distinguish it from the Golden Gate Transit, founded in 1972, and
Sonoma County Transit, founded in 1980. The current operations of CityBus consist of fifteen local routes served
by a twenty-eight vehicle fleet. CityBus also offers a deviated fixed-route service and Santa Rosa ADA Paratransit.
The blacked out
phrase on Route 2:
"SONOMA AV."
The blacked out
phrase on Route 11:
"9th ST."