While we were in the Los Angeles area, I tried out their new “bus rapid transit” in the San Fernando Valley that feeds the subway serving Universal Studios and Downtown. I understand they saved about 20% when compared to cost estimates for light rail. Cost overruns ate that up in real life. It was built on an abandoned RR bed ending up with a shar 7b p left turn onto the city street for several blocks to a side of the street terminal. The articulated busses are painted grey and blend into the concrete sound walls and are hard to see at cross streets. Cross streets are “protected” by traffic signals, supposedly tripped by the busses. On my Eastbound trip, they only worked that way about 20% of the time. At about 30% of the public crossings, the driver came to a stop, no matter what color the light was as she was gunshy about the cross traffic. They T-boned and killed a woman talking on her cell phone the first week of operation and everyone was wary. At the rest of the intersections, the light was red for the bus. On the Westbound trip, the driver really pushed the bus. As a result, it porpoised so badly that the standees had to hang on for dear life. The articulated design ducked and dove at the slightest dip in the roadway. If you want to counter the pro-bus folks, tell them to go take a ride.

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“If your ancestors hadn’t scrapped the interurbans,
you would be home now!”