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Is it the best? Los Angeles also has a pretty great bus system (especially because it was all the city had to rely on for a few decades) - though Chicago does have higher ridership (EDIT- actually it does not have higher ridership). One thing to consider with Los Angeles is that there are multiple agencies that operate within the county besides the more ubiquitous Metro, including Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Culver City Transit, Long Beach Transit, LADOT DASH buses (run by the city of LA), and a bunch of smaller agencies (Burbank, Foothill, Gardena, Glendale, Norwalk, Montebello, Torrance).
The CTA barely covers much out of the city limits, a separate PACE bus system is for the Chicago suburbs. Los Angeles bus system covers the entire county.
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Does Chicago have something like the Rapid Buses here in Los Angeles? IMO that is one thing that sets Los Angeles apart from most other cities transit agencies (though I believe NYC has something pretty similar).
NYC has a handful of "select" routes, that have limited stops, pre-boarding fare collection and bus lanes. But no signal priority and not as many buses as Metro Rapid.
The CTA barely covers much out of the city limits, a separate PACE bus system is for the Chicago suburbs. Los Angeles bus system covers the entire county.
PACE only carries around 115K per weekday and that's over a service area of 5.6 million. Even though LACMTA operates in all of LA County it doesn't provide service to all areas, there are numerous other smaller bus operators within the county.
By adding either just Santa Monica's Big Blue bus system or Long Beach Transit's ridership with LACMTA buses it would exceed CTA and PACE's combined bus ridership.
LACMTA's service area population is 8.6 million, CTA and PACE combined is 9.1 million.
Is it the best? Los Angeles also has a pretty great bus system (especially because it was all the city had to rely on for a few decades) - though Chicago does have higher ridership (EDIT- actually it does not have higher ridership). One thing to consider with Los Angeles is that there are multiple agencies that operate within the county besides the more ubiquitous Metro, including Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Culver City Transit, Long Beach Transit, LADOT DASH buses (run by the city of LA), and a bunch of smaller agencies (Burbank, Foothill, Gardena, Glendale, Norwalk, Montebello, Torrance).
Does Chicago have something like the Rapid Buses here in Los Angeles? IMO that is one thing that sets Los Angeles apart from most other cities transit agencies (though I believe NYC has something pretty similar).
Yes almost every main street has an X bus that runs express and it runs express over much shorter distances. Many of them bypass city traffic and take Lake Shore Drive direct into downtown. Many of them also serve as feeders to and from major transit stations such as Belmont, Ogilsvy, Union Station, Lake. You've been able to track their real time locations on your phone for a good 6 years now. Many of the main bus routes also run 24 hours, just like the most busy subway lines. Taking a redeye flight by getting on the blue line at 4am and flying out at 6am to a destination city is a great convenience not found in many cities. In addition to buses, shuttles for particular condo buildings in Chicago are often offered. Not to be discounted as well are the availability of cabs, Chicago is 2nd only to NYC for cab fleets as well. Hailing a cab on the side of the street in Chicago is very common. The only other cities where I have seen such a large amount of cabs everywhere is DC. In SF I often found it hard to find one or had to call them if out at a bar past midnight.
They are also often lined up in many of the main transit hubs so you can choose to get somewhere faster if need be.
lined up at Ogilsvy a view from the edge
lined up at Merchandise Mart Rachel B
lined up with Bus and El in background
Ceoper blog
I'm pretty sure LA's Rapid bus system is more much more advanced than Chicago's Rapid/Express buses and for that matter any other bus system in the US as it was one of the first systems in America to implement BRT like features in its routes. Meaning it has more lines that feature such things as signal sychronization, queue jumps, real time arrive information, low-floor buses for faster boarding/exiting, etc..
Yes almost every main street has an X bus that runs express and it runs express over much shorter distances. Many of them bypass city traffic and take Lake Shore Drive direct into downtown. Many of them also serve as feeders to and from major transit stations such as Belmont, Ogilsvy, Union Station, Lake. You've been able to track their real time locations on your phone for a good 6 years now. Many of the main bus routes also run 24 hours, just like the most busy subway lines. Taking a redeye flight by getting on the blue line at 4am and flying out at 6am to a destination city is a great convenience not found in many cities.
Yeah most of the major lines in Los Angeles have some sort of Owl Service.
One thing to note - in Los Angeles there is a huge difference between Express buses and the Metro Rapid Buses. The Rapid Buses on Ventura Blvd and Wilshire Blvd are the two best and were the pilot lines for the Rapid Series - unfortunately it sounds like in some ways the expansion of the Rapid Series was "dilution by expansion": Human Transit: when expansion is dilution
Express buses are basically just regular Metro buses that go on the freeway or run weird circuitous routes, typically into downtown Los Angeles. I don't think they get much ridership, and as a result are typically the first lines to get cut.
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Originally Posted by sav858
I'm pretty sure LA's Rapid bus system is more much more advanced than Chicago's Rapid/Express buses and for that matter any other bus system in the US as it was one of the first systems in America to implement BRT like features in its routes. Meaning it has more lines that feature such things as signal sychronization, queue jumps, real time arrive information, low-floor buses for faster boarding/exiting, etc..
One thing to note about all LA Metro buses - they are tracked with real-time updates (though admittedly the "real-time" is pretty optimistic, usually by 30 seconds to a minute or two). As far as dedicated lanes, the Orange Line has a dedicated lane, and the Silver Line runs in the HOV Lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways - There is a project underway that will give the Wilshire Blvd Rapid Bus (720) dedicated lanes during rush-hour, will probably be a huge improvement.
I'm pretty sure LA's Rapid bus system is more much more advanced than Chicago's Rapid/Express buses and for that matter any other bus system in the US as it was one of the first systems in America to implement BRT like features in its routes. Meaning it has more lines that feature such things as signal sychronization, queue jumps, real time arrive information, low-floor buses for faster boarding/exiting, etc..
Possibly, but it still would make a weak addition to a comprehensive transit system considering Chicago's or DC's other merits.
Possibly, but it still would make a weak addition to a comprehensive transit system considering Chicago's or DC's other merits.
Well considering Chicago's bus system carries more people than it's rail system I wouldn't really call it a "weak addition" if Chicago were the implement a similar system on a similar scale. When it comes to bus systems LA has arguably the best and most advanced and is a model for large systems like CTA when it comes to bus transit improvements.
Possibly, but it still would make a weak addition to a comprehensive transit system considering Chicago's or DC's other merits.
I wouldn't say a weak addition - it's obviously not a subway but just about as good as it gets for inner-city bus service that is not full-fledged BRT. And because of its existence, plus all the other municipal bus agencies in the LA area I feel pretty confident with the argument that LA has the second best bus service in the country - and most likely second most busy. It would be interesting to see some comparisons of daily ridership for a few of the lines in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and DC.
I wouldn't say a weak addition - it's obviously not a subway but just about as good as it gets for inner-city bus service that is not full-fledged BRT. And because of its existence, plus all the other municipal bus agencies in the LA area I feel pretty confident with the argument that LA has the second best bus service in the country - and most likely second most busy. It would be interesting to see some comparisons of daily ridership for a few of the lines in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and DC.
Who do you think has the best bus service in the country?
I wouldn't say a weak addition - it's obviously not a subway but just about as good as it gets for inner-city bus service that is not full-fledged BRT. And because of its existence, plus all the other municipal bus agencies in the LA area I feel pretty confident with the argument that LA has the second best bus service in the country - and most likely second most busy. It would be interesting to see some comparisons of daily ridership for a few of the lines in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and DC.
If the buses go at a decent speed, then it works fine to me. It's possible for a bus in light traffic and limited stops to be close to subway speed. I think the Wilshire Corridor is slightly busier than NYC's busiest bus routes. Of course, the subway routes carry far more people than even the busiest bus routes. Some more listings of busy routes elsewhere in North Ameica:
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