Is this L.A.'s most uncomfortable bus?

That's what LAist's Zach Behren's calls the Pico-Union/Echo Park DASH bus. And from the looks of his picture (above), he might be right. More:

My goal was to get from the Westlake/MacArthur Park Red Line Subway Station to deep within Echo Park. The route is obviously popular, in demand and extremely useful. The frequent and consistent service of 15-minute headways from 5 a.m. to ten at night is close to genius. The desire to ride in something ready to burst at the seems is none at all. DASH buses are old and clunky, making the scariest Metro bus look like NASA. On Metro, an automated voice tells you the next stop over the speakers (or the bus driver calls it out). On DASH, your lucky if you have any warning. On Metro, an arriving bus at a stop tells people on the sidewalk the end destination (e.g., Universal City or Union Station). On DASH, it says "northbound" or "southbound," confusing the hell out of the directionally impaired.

Comments

[lsm]

Pray this is not the future of public transportation -- although it is too often the deplorable present. If driving automobiles deteriorates over the next twenty years in LA as much as it has over the past twenty years, I will not stick with my car; I will invest now in building decent public transportation so I and my children can have a viable alternative to the increasingly hellish experience of having to drive a car.

[Transit Planner]

The answer is simple. Increase frequency or use bigger buses. I wonder if these were former Metro routes ?

[45 lbs.]

If this is the future of public transportation, no thank you.
I'll stick with my car.

[Steve]

Part of the reason PU/EP is so crowded is because the fare is still only 25 cents. It's the same reason why Downtown DASH E is overcrowded starting from 6am and throughout the day. People are willing to walk a longer distance if it's cheaper than riding Metro even if Metro is the more direct or closer option.

DASH sticks with 30 foot buses because it is designed to be a community feeder service into Metro; sometimes that means making tighter turns on narrower streets. The buses on PU/EP are low floor, manufactured from 02/03 and they are putting new ones on as well (06 - you can tell by the new DASH 'Shamu' paint scheme). None of the buses are equipped with GPS, so no automated announcements.