Big Blue Bus' 80th anniversary celebration

The above's actually a cake! Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus celebrated its 80th anniversary with music from Blue Notes and cake for all on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica earlier today.

Perhaps due to the appeal of free cake, an impressive crowd -- including a couple Santa Monica council members and many city employees -- congregated at the celebratory event. Longtime BBB employees received commemorative plaques; one employee has been with the BBB for 40 years!

The big announcement at the event came from Geoff Wardle of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, who said that the college will work with the BBB to help design new and improved buses. To that end, Wardle said a new blog will be launched to showcase the process as well as to solicit feedback from riders.

Attendees also got to watch an 8-minute film on the 80-year history of the Big Blue Bus, screened in a vintage "New Look" bus. Apparently these were the latest thing in public transportation back in 1959, though the one at the event was built in 1986.

Photos by Siel

Comments

[Browne]

Now if only METRO could get a clue and put as much effort into it's busses as it does into it's rails. I'm not anti-rail, but I am anti not making an effort to the public transit you currently have that can work.

That Miss Traffic Contest was rather...well if you don't have anything nice to say blah, blah, blah.

Browne

[KateNonymous]

Will the redesigned buses have more seats? I know that one of the drivers on my bus line said that last time BBB got new buses, they asked the drivers for input--and the drivers said that the older style (above) that seats more passengers was what they'd prefer. Those seat upwards of 50 people, and the newer types seat about 34. No wonder the aisles are so crowded!

Surely there's a way to design buses that have more capacity and have better disability access. I hope that the Art Center designs buses that are more functional, and not just prettier.

[Dan W.]

Big Blue Bus is a class act. Their high quality of service allows many people in the area to live high-quality transit oriented lifestyles.

My suggestion, extend the 14 to the north to the Getty and to the south to Fox Hills Mall, and raise the fare to $1 or $1.25, so they can bring back free transfers and have more frequent and more late night service.

Kudos to the Big Blue Bus!!!

MTA, please let the BBB extend the new Rapid 7 to Wilshire/Vermont.

[Scotty]

KateNonymous, the only way to get more seats in today's buses is to buy articulated buses, or 45 foot buses, like Metro has purchased. On a high floor bus, like 5180 above, you sit high and also above the tire wells. On a low floor bus, you sit between the tire wells, and the space above the wheel wells is wasted. Check it out the next time you ride a low floor bus. Also, due to the Americans With Disabilities Act (thank you George Bush, Sr.) bus companies need to accomodate up to two wheelchair patrons at one time. That eats into more seats taken away. 34 seats is about all any standard 40 foot bus has today, and can not be controlled by the BBB. In fact, back when General Motors introduce the bus (like 5180) in Sept., 1959, the buses had up to 53 seats, but accomodated no wheelchairs, and had no wheelchair lifts.

[Ken Ruben]

Hi:

I was at the ceremony with others that I knew, and actually BBB wants to extend the Super 7 to Wilshire and Western (and make it a Rapid 7) but there has not been yet an approval from MTA for this.

This is based on conversations I had with various BBB officials at the event.

---"Ken" Ruben---
Director-at-Large
Southern California Transit Advocates
http://www.socata.net

[Dan W.]

"I was at the ceremony with others that I knew, and actually BBB wants to extend the Super 7 to Wilshire and Western (and make it a Rapid 7) but there has not been yet an approval from MTA for this."

--------------

I spoke to an MTA official at a recent MTA presentation of the draft Long Range Transportation Plan and she seemed hostile to the idea. One of the sad things about transit in Southern California is that the municipal operators and the MTA are very protective of their "turf". This is why we have forced transfers at Wilshire/Westwood and Pico/Rimpau.

The deal that should be made is to allow the BBB to take the Rapid 7 to Wilshire/Western (or even Vermont) and the MTA to extend the Rapid 761 south to Pico/ExpoLine. The other possibility which is less likely is to let the MTA extend the MTA 730 to Santa Monica, with the BBB providing the local Pico service. The precedence is already there. The MTA 720 and 704 provide rapid service between Westwood and Santa Monica and the BBB 1 and BBB 2 provide the local service.

The MTA is the real stumbling block here to letting the BBB extend to Wilshire on the Rapid 7. Send your support for letting the BBB go to Wilshire/Western to customerrelations@metro.net and let your elected officials you want them to step in an legislatively end these "turf" disputes. The only thing that should matter is convenience and service of the ridership.

[Bigblueboy]

Hey, I say to Big Blue Bus give Metro a run for their money.