SHUTTLE HEADED FOR PARKLAND TRANSIT TO TARGET SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Next summer traffic-weary Valley hikers and sunbathers will be able to hop a bus to Zuma Beach, the Backbone Trail, Malibu Creek State Park and other hot spots in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The National Park Service will launch the Heart of the Park shuttle system to transport people along a 20-mile loop through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area - the nation's most visited national park.

The goal is to cut traffic and parking problems on remote rural roads while opening up the national park to carless Angelenos.

``We have the ability now to make mountains accessible to people in the inner city, especially the San Fernando Valley,'' said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the national recreation area.

``And it's the environmentally right thing to do in terms of the message of when you're in national park or a national recreation area, consider leaving your car at home,'' Smeck added.

The $3 round-trip shuttle will run on the weekends at 30-minute intervals. Visitors can park at trailheads or the Malibu Creek State Park parking lot and catch the shuttle. The system also connects to Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus line 161, which runs from Canoga Park to Westlake Village, and line 434, which runs from Union Station to Malibu.

That MTA connection is crucial to open up the parkland to youths, the elderly and people who do not drive, said Bart Reed, executive director with The Transit Coalition.

``We just don't have a lot of transit to recreation,'' Reed said. ``We spent literally hundreds of millions buying the land in the Santa Monicas, and here's the tangible piece connecting people and the parks.''

The Heart of the Park Shuttle will cost about $250,000 a year - with roughly $100,000 a year collected from riders. The shuttle is a three-year demonstration project to see whether visitors will use the system. Federal dollars are covering the bulk of the cost, with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy chipping in as much as $200,000 for the first year.

Park officials figure roughly 30,000 people will use the bus system, based on visitor surveys.

The loop will take riders along Pacific Coast Highway and through beautiful stretches of chaparral-covered hills dotted with sandstone formations. Rangers will occasionally ride on shuttles to point out ecological and historical features.

``We hope this shuttle system will become a destination in and of itself,' Smeck said.

Some people are skeptical that Angelenos will leave their cars at home and choose to take the lengthy MTA bus ride to the shuttle. ``Nobody takes the bus to hike,'' said Ron Webster of the Sierra Club's Santa Monica Mountain Task Force. ``I suppose it could work, but I somehow feel it wouldn't necessarily get a lot of use.''

At 153,000 acres, the national recreation area is the largest urban national park in the world. Its 46 miles stretch along the Santa Monica Mountains from Point Mugu State Park to the Hollywood Bowl. It is the most-visited park in the nation's park system, with 33 million people using the recreational local, state and federal parkland each year.

The Park Service is increasingly looking at shuttle systems to handle the visitors, vehicles and air pollution in famous spots such as Yosemite and Zion national parks. But Santa Monica Mountains officials are hoping to lure more visitors, including inner-city families that otherwise might not have access to the parkland.

The National Park Service has already ordered five compressed-natural-gas shuttle buses. Officials have selected 13 shuttle stops along Kanan Dume Road, Mulholland Highway, Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road, where they'll build modest, shaded bus stops and information kiosks.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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HEART OF THE PARK SHUTTLE

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist