Buses
Streetsblog LA
An Interview with the Man Responsible for L.A.’s Bus Benches
As Damien has noted previously new bus benches are popping up around Los Angeles as new bench provider Martin Outdoor gets up to speed following the city council awarding the contract in August 2011.
March 2, 2012
The True Story of Metro’s Last Diesel Bus
You may have noticed all the hullabaloo Metro made in January 2011 about retiring the last diesel buses in its fleet. Metro even gave the final bus a new paint job before it was ceremoniously towed away at the press event. Actually this was a bit mis-leading because some of the contractors that run selected Metro routes were at that time still using diesel buses in some cases, purchased for them by Metro. I believe even those buses have now been retired.
February 21, 2012
Eyes on the Street: Find the Bus Benches
At the end of last year, the emails started trickling in. "There's a new bench at my stop." "They replaced the crappy plastic bench with something more durable. Yes, after months of witnessing the dismantleing of the old network of bus benches after the City Council voted to replace their old bench contractor Norman Bench with Martin Outdoor Media.
January 18, 2012
Holiday Greetings from the Governor to School Children: Get Ready to Drive to School
December 20, 2011
BRU to Metro: Let Public in on Civil Rights Remedies
Yesterday, the Metro Board of Directors discussed the recently released FTA Report detailing Title VI Civil Rights violations at Metro. The Source called the discussion "by far the liveliest part of the meeting," but it also showed ongoing confusion about what the report means and what is the best way to meet the complaints.
December 16, 2011
FTA: Metro Deficient in Five of 12 Civil Rights Categories
Yesterday, the Federal Transit Administration publicly released its Title VI Civil Rights Review of Metro that was completed earlier this year. The FTA outlines a series of deficiencies in almost half of its twelve civil rights categories. Metro insists these are minor issues that can be easily fixed while critics of the agency call the report "a crushing indictment of the MTA." The document is available as a word document off the FTA's website and a pdf off Streetsblog's Sribd Page.
December 13, 2011
With Full FTA Civil Rights Report Due This Week, Metro Plays Chess With Bus Service Changes
On Friday, Metro abruptly announced that it would be suspending changes and cuts to its bus service originally planned to go into effect yesterday until further notice. The about-face on the most recent round of proposed cuts and other changes happened so quickly that just the day before Metro announced the changes via press release and it didn't have time to forewarn members of its local Service Councils that approved the service tweaks of the change in plans.
December 12, 2011
Metro’s TAP System Moving Forward, But Some Snafus Remain for Bus Riders
Wednesday, Metro experimented with locking the gates at the North Hollywood Red Line station and unlike previous experiments with locking the gates, outside of an article on The Source, nobody seemed to notice. As with previous gate-locking experiments, there was little confusion among commuters. Most "Tapped" their way through the gate while those with paper or Metrolink tickets were aided by staff.
December 5, 2011
Bringing Poetry to Transit TV
When one thinks of TransitTV, those ubiquitous television boxes on Metro buses, there's many things that jump to mind. Poetry is probably not one of them. However, thanks to a new project by Freewaves' Out the Window series, a little bit of poetry is coming to a bus near you.
December 1, 2011
Headway Change? Metro Proposes Increasing Maximum Time Between Some Buses
Every year, the Metro Board combines its December and November meetings into one giant meeting in mid-December. One item, passed by the Board's Safety and Operations Committee in November is already raising concern from bus advocates and riders who are worried that a change in bus' headway times could lead to more crowded conditions.
November 29, 2011