Wilshire bus lane on track (for now)

The plan to add bus-only lanes on Wilshire Boulevard remains alive, but it sounds like it will be a while before we see them (maybe beyond 2012):

The first phase of a proposal to build a bus-only lane on Wilshire Boulevard may be eligible for a $27-million federal grant, the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee learned today. A request to apply for the grant, in partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will be before the council next Wednesday. The first phase of the project calls for repairing the curb lane between Fairfax and Western avenues; traffic signals and signage; widening Wilshire between Barrington and Federal avenues; and removing curbs between Selby Avenue and Westwood Boulevard and Selby and Comstock Avenue. "To date, this is the most promising option we’ve found to make our plans for a dedicated bus lane along Wilshire Boulevard a reality," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, chair of the Transportation Committee. (CNS)

Comments

[Jane]

"Granted metro needs to make some major improvments but I can only imagine how thankless that job is." Mike

I agree with most of what you said, but MTA has a thankless job...lolol....

Teachers have thankless jobs, nurses have thankless jobs, people in the military have thankless jobs, people at the MTA who plan the rails and throw darts at the board in regard to bus scheduling get paid lots of money. The MTA is one of the most bloated useless bureaucracies in Los Angeles. I'm saying that remembering that we have LAUSD and the lovely King Drew Hospital.

If the MTA ran King Drew they would have brought back the plague.

The MTA is the most (if you look at the numbers) inefficiently run public transits in the whole country.

Jane

[mike]

It is time we stop treating our bus riders like second class citizens to the people who drive their cars. We need a lot more bus lanes to supplement what I hope will be an increasingly larger rail system. The bus lane will not replace the need for the subway but it will make the ride more sane in terms of time. Everyone talks about how it is going to make their car trips harder...what about how hard it is for the people on the bus whose trip takes twice as long as yours? Why can't they have it just a little bit better? it fails to amaze me how selfish people can be. Bus lanes are used worldwide and they make sense on densly traveled corridors like wilshire. Subway makes more sense but....yea....I guess this city lacks foresight.

Bottom line is we need lots of bus lanes to improve the service. For those people comlaining about service....are you really suprised that a bus can't keep a schedule? It is stuck in the same traffic you are, making it just as difficult to plan to the minute as it is for you. Granted metro needs to make some major improvments but I can only imagine how thankless that job is. Everytime they try to improve service (rail lines, bus only lanes, etc.) they are combated with opposition from people who drive.

[Jane]

"A common debating tactic is to use the argument that makes your opponent look the worst.

Like ... use examples of trips using bus lines with such low ridership that the service is infrequent" Kym

That's pretty amusing Kym.

What's the excuse for the 180 or 181 or the 2 and the 4. What's the deal with the 'whenever i feel like it' service on the 180 and 181. There are lots of people who take that bus. It goes from Pasadena to Hollywood through Los Feliz, Atwater, Eagle Rock, Glendale, at least two high schools are on the route. What's your excuse for the deplorable service on that line. Then lets go to the 2 and 4 the Sunset bus that takes all of the people who don't have money into places where people do have money to clean, guard, and strip for them.

What's your reasoning behind the MTA and the deplorable service on those very popular lines Kym?

How many little pieces of paper with gold stars does the MTA give to you to be their cheerleader?

Jane

[Robert]

I agree with Shaum. Find the money to build a SUBWAY and do it NOW. It's really un-American to lack all ingenuity to accomplish something which other cities have done.

[Jan]

Japan is experimenting with a new bus to make public transport more efficient.. http://cardevotion.com/Article/149/The_Dual_Mode_Bus_Train.html I've tried to take the bus in LA, but find the transitions between metrorails and busses daunting.. I'd love to see this thing on our streets

[JoeyM]

Unfortunately, additional bus lanes will do nothing but further ensnare traffic. They're useful only in that they can provide a funding source for road repairs--otherwise they often remove one existing lane for traffic, making congestion worse. I fight traffic by driving less, by planning my routes carefully to avoid both congested areas and making multiple trips. I also keep a car downtown and a car in hollywood for short trips--and take the subway often between the two, a case in which owning two cars means keeping one off the freeway!

[Dusty Reed]

Get a small motorcycle, say 90 or 125 CC. California is an ideal place to ride a motorcycle. You do not need a Harley to get around. I did it for 3 years in Simi Valley. The small amount of time it rains and you need to do the bus is not even a problem. Gas costs are much lower too. Motorbikes are the poor mans ford in asia, and given california taxes and gas costs, most of you fit that category.
Of course, you could move to the middle east like I did and enjoy $1.70 a gallon prices. That is probably not a viable option for most of you.
Dusty

[tomsail]

BE SMART--DUMP THE CAR(S)!

AMERICANS: GUILTY OF EXTRAVAGANT OVER-INDULGENCE--TOO MANY CARS

It is time for local governments to start increasing the taxes on multiple-car ownership--a progressive tax. If a household owns more than one car, there should be an increasingly higher annual tax percentage on every car after the first one.

This would be a fair way to encourage a reduction of cars on the road, to increase revenues for bridge, road, and transit system improvements, and to fight Global Warming.

This progressive tax would also provide the revenue needed to lower or eliminate the cost of transit passes.

Additional help in establishing an effective, voluntary, plan can be found in the new book:

"HOW TO LIVE WELL WITHOUT OWNING A CAR" by Chris Balish....

"With all the media hype about Climate Change, Traffic Congestion, and Oil Addiction, there aren't many out there talking about doing something really worth while about the major culprit--the CAR. This book has a great, completely voluntary, plan that not only helps to achieve National Energy Independence, but also helps all people to achieve Personal Financial Freedom."

EXAMPLE: We are all familiar with Car Rentals, but how many know anything about the rapidly growing Car Sharing Companies?

[Jim Barrett]

Sorry to hear about your lousy bus system. Reno Nevada has a great bus system. One can get anywhere within an hour and get to most places in less than half an hour. Bikes are always good, especially if you are willing to buy bike riding clothes. My three layer rain pants cost $100.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

A common debating tactic is to use the argument that makes your opponent look the worst.

Like ... use examples of trips using bus lines with such low ridership that the service is infrequent.

How about this example: Sherman Way/Woodley (near Van Nuys Airport) to Pershing Square, trip made this morning -- not even a weekday! -- in one hour, 15 minutes via two buses and the subway.

I'd like to see you bike THAT trip as quickly.

[Givingup]

After dealing with service cut backs and price increases, I've finally just given up.

I'm getting my drivers license at the advanced age of 34 (never needed one back east-ever), and will buy a cheap car. I rarely go beyond the "180" bus route circle just because it takes so damn long via the bus. Even if they do build some subwaydohickey, an earthquake will come, move the track by 5 inches, and blam. Back to hoofing it on the bus. As it is, I'm being priced out of the city where I work - eventually I'm going to have to long haul it like everyone else.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Mikeosito, while you are at it, find out why it is legal to park a car/truck in the bicycle lane? And, since this is true, find out why bicycles cannot be parked
in the car lanes. Turnabout is fair play.

[Jane]

The bike idea is great, but what if you're old? What happens when you get 55 and your back hurts from having to work at jobs with no health benefits and even though you got hurt, you had to go to work anyway, because you had to pay for stuff. Stuff like food and shelter.

The MTA busses are unreliable. I wish the MTA would get a clue. They are wasting their resources. They are putting way too much into the rails and not maintaining or even making sure the system they do have in place works properly.

There is no way the Sunset bus (2 and 4) should be as crowded as it is, but it is for reasons. To this day I'm confused as to why they don't have more busses going down Sunset. If the busses came regularly people could even take them to the bars and not kill people driving around drunk. To people who are 35 that seems crazy, but say you went to USC or UCLA and the busses actually worked, you'd be in the habit of taking busses to do fun things and to maybe even go to work or school. I went to college out here if the busses would have worked I would have gladly traded in the expense of having a car for taking a bus that worked. I now take public transport as my way of consciously trying to help the environment, but the MTA makes it really, really hard.

The MTA makes taking the bus so unpleasant for everyone that no one raised in LA even thinks that it can ever be an option for anyone, but poor people.

The the rails don't go everywhere and they never will. The busses are suppose to, but for some odd reason the MTA doesn't believe in that thing called a schedule or planning.

Jane

[Johnny]

I've ridden on LA & Santa Monica busses for years, and don't seem to have the same problems so many people seem to say are rampant. Granted, I schedule meetings and such to avoid high traffic times, but I'd do that in my car as well. And they're not the crime-wridden mobile hellholes a lot of people make them out to be. It takes me a bit longer than driving, but it gives me time to think and concentrate, and that's more important usually than getting their 20% earlier.

[LAofAnaheim]

Yeah.....but remember, a bus only lane will go a HECK of a lot faster than a bus mixed in with regular traffic. Bus only lanes will complement not substitute rail. Refer to transit planning in Paris, London, New York, Athens, Madrid, Chicago, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New Delhi, Munich, etc....

Don't be scared people, bus only lanes are great for transit planning as well. As long as we don't place the long-term solutions, i.e. rails!

[Shaun]

how about you build a SUBWAY while you're at it?!? If we have to wait till 2012 for a bus lane, how long for the subway? 2050? 2100? Good god, find the damn funding for the subway now and have it under construction before 2012!

[Mikeosito]

Check it out: to go from Beverly and Virgil to Fountain and Virgil sans car takes:

15 min. by bike (stopping at 7-11 and browsing the magazines and getting a hot dog.)
2 hours plus by bus. (Usually I just give up waiting for a bus or taxi and just hoof it.)

My point is that the MTA is totally unreliable. It has also taken me (literally) several hours to go by bus from Echo Park to Silver Lake/ East Hollywood. And on a Saturday afternoon it took more than 3 hours to travel from Sunset and Vine to Sunset and Virgil, not because traffic was so bad but because the buses just don't run. Unacceptable. I'm convinced that the best way to get around Los Angeles is by car. If you cannot afford a car, by all means get a bike. Riding the bus is simply not an option, and at 5 bucks a day, it's certainly no bargain either.