Buses

About 15 years ago I remember the Riverside Press-Enterprise ran an article on how being a bus driver is one of the most hazardous occupations in Los Angeles. This came to mind when I heard that Omnitrans Coach Operator Lawrence Kester had died from stab wounds sustained while on duty on Friday, May 7.

The Obama administration plans to award $775 million in bus transit grants this summer, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) chief Peter Rogoff announced yesterday during a transit industry conference in Ohio.

(Author's note: this write-up was delayed when I was hit with a particular vicious bout of flu that made me bed ridden for 9 days. But since no one in the media (including Metro's own bloggers!) attended it is still timely and informative as the sole coverage of this event. - DG)

This weekend the Times profiled one of Los Angeles' many bus riders, focusing on a young woman who chooses the bus over the car to commute from the Westside to Beverly Hills.  The rider, Jacquelyn Carr, authors her own blog about her riding experiences at Snob on a Bus, and both the blog and the Times article tell a charming story of a woman who first takes the bus because she feels she has to and ends up integrating herself into the culture on the Westside part of the Metro 720.

By now you may have already read about the Bus Bench's effort to write a review of every transit stop in Los Angeles.  In addition to coverage at The Bus Bench, which has been publishing for four years, it has also earned praise from LA Loyalist, Curbed and The Source. 

Thanks to an excellent submission by Enci Box last year, we've had a couple of great discussions on women's safety on the streets, both for cyclists and pedestrians.  However, we haven't spent nearly as much energy discussing safety for bus riders, especially women bus riders.  Fortunately, Planetizen Editor Tim Halbur sat down to have an in-depth discussion of this issue with UCLA Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris.  You can read the full interview at Planetizen, and I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in this issue as both Halbur and Loukaitou-Sideris do a great job.  For those without the time to read the full interview, here's an except.

For much of the last year, Los Angeles' transit riders were spared much of the suffering caused by the Governor and legislature's decisions to eliminate transit funding in the name of partially closing the yawning chasm which is the state's budget deficit.  However, those days are long gone.  Already we've seen a large service cut plan passed by the Metrolink Board of Directors.  Today we see the outline of a coming massive service cut for LADOT's DASH, Commuter Express, Charter Bus, and City Ride bus services.

Just a reminder: Metro has its semiannual shake-up this Sunday, Dec. 13th.