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Sorry Bus Stops Round 1 Matchup: A Golden State Battle of San Diego vs. Beverly Hills

The conditions for transit riders at these two sites in California say a lot about the status of bus riders in the U.S.

By Angie Schmitt

9:59 AM PDT on August 16, 2018

Sorry Bus Stops Round 1 Matchup: A Golden State Battle of San Diego vs. Beverly Hills

We’re continuing our tour through America’s sorriest bus stops today, as we match up two new cities out of the 16 finalists in this year’s competition.

Earlier this week, Nashville knocked out Houston for the first spot in the second round. Voting is still open for yesterday’s matchup, Cincinnati vs. Ann Arbor.

Today’s pair of sorry, sorry stops comes to us from the state of California, pitting two well-to-do, car-centric cities that should know better. So in this corner, it’s …

Beverly Hills

Even in a famously wealthy suburb, officials did not make waiting for the bus comfortable, or at least safe, at this stop at 9907 Sunset Boulevard. The anonymous reader who submitted the entry writes that the stop is 700 feet from the nearest crosswalk. And that’s unacceptable because wealthy suburbs are in some ways even more likelier to need good bus stops:

The domestic workers in these people’s homes take the 2 and 302 to get to get to work daily from poorer neighborhoods like Hollywood — and are left on a dirt patch with no safe crossing anywhere, and nowhere safe to wait.

This stop is served by LA Metro’s 2 and 302 routes, but Metro can’t be blamed for this five-lane road with no sidewalks. And in the far corner…

San Diego

Nothing like waiting for the bus on an island in the middle of a freeway exchange! We can always count on San Diego for an entry in this competition and this year is no different. This stop is located at Taylor Street and Interstate 8.

“It’s unsafe to get to and breathe at,” said Rose Margaret Kelly, who submitted the stop, which serves the 88 Bus from San Diego’s MTS.

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Angie Schmitt

Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.

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