The only thing more underwhelming than MTA’s bus system changes? LA’s MTA bus system change

[Deucey]

Here’s the PDF of all the proposals: 

Hot take version: Metro is eliminating bus stops and consolidating local, limited, and Rapid (SBS we call it in NYC) into local routes; eliminating service along corridors, and effectively doing a net service reduction.

I’m gonna soapbox here, but the best thing besides the consent decree that stopped Metro from having overcrowded buses like we have here in NYC was creating Rapid Routes (the 700-series bus routes). When I was a kid, taking the 40 local bus from Inglewood to DTLA with my father took roughly 90 minutes (same as now). When the 740 Rapid ran to DTLA, from DTLA to Inglewood took roughly 45 minutes. (I did this trip when I was applying to be LAPD in 2010-11.)

The 207 bus, when I lived on Western and 54th St, took roughly 1 hour plus to get to Hollywood Blvd; the rapid bus (757) takes 40 minutes - even in Rush Hour.

Now they’ll be combined hoping to split the difference. It’d be like combining the SBS and local but removing 10% of stops and a parallel route - like recombining both Bx41 routes and eliminating the Bx15.

Don't think I’ve ever seen anything so stupid. For once,  isn’t the worst.

/soapbox

[Lex]

If there's a link, it appears to be broken.

For clarity, I'm not on mobile.

[Deucey]

6 hours ago, Lex said:

If there's a link, it appears to be broken.

For clarity, I'm not on mobile.

Here’s the blog post instead of the direct link to the PDF:  https://thesource.metro.net/2020/02/06/maps-of-bus-routes-are-online-showing-proposed-changes-under-draft-nextgen-bus-plan-public-workshops-underway/

[Lex]

9 hours ago, Deucey said:

Here’s the blog post instead of the direct link to the PDF:  https://thesource.metro.net/2020/02/06/maps-of-bus-routes-are-online-showing-proposed-changes-under-draft-nextgen-bus-plan-public-workshops-underway/

I started looking at it, then stopped.

Honestly, even as someone who's never been out there, some of these seem rather outlandish, and the materials provided really do nothing to help resolve any confusion. (Incidentally, this plays into my disdain for color-coding bus routes by service type/using an extremely limited palette to indicate all routes.)

[Deucey]

14 hours ago, Lex said:

I started looking at it, then stopped.

Honestly, even as someone who's never been out there, some of these seem rather outlandish, and the materials provided really do nothing to help resolve any confusion. (Incidentally, this plays into my disdain for color-coding bus routes by service type/using an extremely limited palette to indicate all routes.)

Took me a while to grasp what they were doing at first since they didn’t make clear they were getting rid of the rapid/SBS buses. Once I saw that, I figured it was a service cut along the lines of the SI Express Bus modifications.

Its just stupid that the successful program that got folks in deprived areas to their jobs faster is being cut because gentrifiers couldn’t grasp both the route scheme and that if the bus is colored red that it wasn’t stopping very often.

Not to mention that the main issue was creating two-hour long bus routes in the first place.

Closest equivalent is fixing problems on the  by making  run local to 179th St.

[B35 via Church]

What did San Gabriel Valley ever do to these planners?

[Deucey]

On 2/9/2020 at 11:17 AM, B35 via Church said:

What did San Gabriel Valley ever do to these planners?

Kept their cars. SGV folks never took to the RTD/Metro buses. When I was a kid in LA (the RTD era), RTD gave up a lot of their routes to form Foothill Transit instead of cutting them because ridership was so low - compared to the rest of Metro LA County.

(Don’t get me started on how they built these trains to go from suburb to downtown first for new ridership instead of on the heavy ridership corridors where the ridership actually still is - Vermont/Western Av, the 405 or the Pomona Fwy.

But now they’re gonna spend the next 40 years getting to it. Sucks that the only way to get around LA without a car - the Rapid Buses, are going away.