Last year in early January I was pleased to see that the MTA had improved things dramatically by changing the express buses (Metro Rapid) on my route from normal buses to those lovely long spacious ones – essentially two normal buses joined together with a giant hinge to allow the bus to bend and go around corners. That’s a crude description, of course. They still come equipped with bike racks (just like the typical LA city bus), and my Brompton fits under many of the seats quite easily. There’s a whole lot of space for everyone, and the buses are very well designed indeed. One of the amusing aspects of the sudden change was watching everyone’s behaviour. For about a month or so, and markedly in the first week, people would act as thought the second half of the bus did not exist. No, really. They would walk down the bus to the hinge, and stop. If there were no seats left in the first part, they’d stand in the first part. So there’d be just me and a couple of others in the second half (post-hinge) of the bus, with the bus driver yelling at people to move down the bus and use the space. It was rather funny, but its all changed now, and these buses have been rolled out (literally) onto many routes around the city now, and more rapid routes have opened up as well.
Although I feared that the fancy flat screen TVs they later installed would be blaring advertisements at high volume all the time, they never went to high volume, and in fact sometimes show educational TV for a significant portion of the programming. (I still expect that the latter will change a lot when they realize how many people are using these buses, but it is still rather a pleasant surprise to see some images on the bus that might trigger some thinking about the universe, or directly inspire a child to find out more… maybe even pursue a career in that area…. you never know where these things lead.) Here’s a shot I took back then during a programme on the Hubble telescope’s wonderful pictures:
What happened then is that I simply got spoiled. After the rapids stop running at about 9:00pm, if I’m coming home late from work it was always less than ideal coming home on the local. The seats are not as good for putting the bike under, and since they are running less frequently at that time, and stopping at every stop, the locals can be quite full. With the added lack of a luggage rack on those buses, his would lead me to sometimes feel as though I’m a bit in the way with the Brompton – just as anybody would with large bags of shopping or a suitcase. Not good.
Well, a year later, and almost on the same date, I noticed that they’ve put the long buses on the local service too! This is fantastic:
My guess is that they’ll put these on lots of routes around the city over the coming months. This is altogether a good sign, I think, since it is showing a relatively rapid response on the part of the MTA to the needs of the public. There have been a lot of significant changes of this sort over the last couple of years. The system is not in decay, it is being improved rapidly. Usage is increasing steadily, putting more pressure on to improve things, and it is happening.
This is th effect I keep trying to explain to everyone who will listen. Please use the public transport system whenever you get a reasonable opportunity. Even if you do not consider it to be very good. Your contribution makes a difference, since it will actually contribute to making it better. Then you’ll perhaps use it more. Your usage makes a difference. I’m hoping, for example, the the frequency of services on the subway will be increased soon, since there are still too many long waits on the Red Line. Before, it was just a few people waiting for so long, but not any more. There are lots of people waiting, and not just at rush hour any more. Perhaps they’ll respond to this, and push the frequent service well into the evenings as well. So do find the occasion to leave your car behind and take a bus or a train, even if it takes you a bit longer, and if you maybe have to walk a few blocks to the stop. (This applies to other cities besides LA, of course!)
I can’t wait to see what new major features they introduce next January!
-cvj
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Bendy buses in London are terrible–they don’t fit in the roads and traffic flows and are fairly terrifying for cyclists trying to get around them and continue to live. I don’t mind them in US cities where the roads are straighter (never even thought of having an issue with them in SF where they have both ‘lectrickery and diesel versions) but when they killed the routemaster routes and replaced half of those with bendy buses, I wept. Double deckers are double plus good — esp. since the modern ones can cover the bases like wheelchair accessibility.
When the bendies were rolled out, it didn’t take Londoners long to realise what a great fare-dodging opportunity bendies are. 😉 (sadly) And the routes that are nearest to me are two of the most rammed bus routes in London, so I don’t think people were afeared of the back bit — but there was basically no choice about the matter with the madding crowds. The turntable bit is the dodgy part that everyone avoids even now, though.
There are some bi-articulated buses in Germany, apparently. I am amazed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendy_bus (for photos)
I didn’t get to take a bendy in LA, but they look cool, sort of like trackless trams. Shiny. And while I’m wibbling, the one thing that really impressed me about the LA buses was that the flatscreen displays that you mention have a little map sidebar that is a MS Local Live map updating in realtime to show where you are going. That is simply genius and was dead handy for a noob like me. TfL should rip that off wholesale.
Helge….. we have those signs, but there are also signs saying do what the driver tells you…..
Seriously, we only chatted when the bus was not moving… mostly. And it was for a short time since I was also concerned about safety issues and politely broke off the conversation.
cheers,
-cvj
Hi!
Thanks walter…. “Bendy buses”… I remember the term because for a while, I was pretty sure that I’d invented the term and it took off and became common parlance. Long before theyy made it to London, I saw them in Geneva and came back all enthusiastic about them, and called them “Bendy buses”. Many years later I heard the term being used once they arrived in London. Always wondered about that.. but I imagine that people went through exactly the same processes I did in their heads (sharing the same culture) and coined the term independently. Or maybe there is some other earlier source I don’t recall?
Let me know about your bandwidth issues if they persist. I’ve taken snap off by default, leaving it only on choice links. So it is being used sparingly and there should be little difference from the normal operations..
Cheers,
-cvj
OK, I’ll de-lurk! I came by Asymptotia looking for LaTeX help on blogs, and learnt a lot. Then I started dropping by for interest. I’m from UK, working in Singapore, and the Snap links yesterday visibly chewed up bandwidth – the page loaded, and then it was obvious that a lot else was loading, presumably the thumbnails. SE Asia lost a lot of bandwidth to the US following a recent earthquake off Taiwan and repairs are underway on six or more cables. The buses are great, known in London as “bendy buses”. An excellent read over my morning coffee. Thanks.
That sounds like a cool experience, I have never been called out over the speaker system of a public transport system. But one thing I wonder about, is that all our public transport system has signs “don’t speak with the driver”, but he calls you out. You have such signs?
And indeed it’s a funny “old” world. We have to talk about the old.
Helge
Hey Helge!
Long time since I’ve heard from you! Not too late to comment on the delurker post and give everyone a shout-out. As to mad bus drivers….. yes…. they exist. The drivers here are more or less pretty good. And often very friendly and helpful.
Amusingly, there’s one who now knows me so well that he greets me “Hi Professor! How are you? Where’s that great bike today?!” (on days when I don’t have the bike, for example.) This all resulted from a conversation which began one day with him asking me about the bike in the middle of a journey over the bus’ speaker system. I was just sitting there like all the other passengers, and between announcing stops he said something like “excuse me sir, but where can you get a bike like that?”. So I went up and talked to him, and explained a bit about it.
Funny old world.
-cvj
I hate buses. But I am spoiled by subway and tram. 😉 I just didn’t manage to say anything on delurkers day (or was it a week) and am no feeling bad. It’s just that I am used from Vienna, that bus drivers are madman…
Not to scare anybody, the buses on top look loveley, so follow Cliffords advice.
Helge