Quote:
Originally Posted by jmecklenborg
LA's bus system is very good by U.S. standards. The problem is that the buses get snarled in rush hour gridlock. Light cycle after light cycle with no movement.
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In my experience the buses were actually pretty nice during the period when they weren't collecting fares (sadly that ends later this month). Boardings were fast, stop times at bus stops were relatively short, and buses often came at 5 minute intervals or better on key corridors. What I really like was how in the past 2 decades Metro basically put a high-frequency bus service on most of the main arterial roads of the city, and with rapid buses with limited stop services. Ridership is pretty high on these buses, especially the 720 bus along Wilshire (which I can see now why they are prioritizing building the Purple Line extension).
The problem is right now, even as rail ridership grows, bus ridership declines. I think one of the issues is LA's current anemic pace at rezoning for higher density housing around transit stops. They recently produced a promising rezoning plan for the next 8 years, with the aim of upzoning 243000 parcels across the city, many of which are around transit stops, for additional capacity of up to 1.4 million new units of housing in order to meet their 486000-unit RHNA goal by 2029, so maybe the declining transit ridership could turn around during this decade.
Here's a link to LA's 2021-29 Housing Element Plan:
https://planning.lacity.org/odocumen..._High_Res..pdf