Riders Play Waiting Game When It Comes to Bus Shelters

Dear Street Smart:

Why don’t we have shelters at all the bus stops in the San Fernando Valley?

With all the money being spent on new rail systems, this would seem to be a small expense.

I’m so tired of gridlock. I would definitely ride the bus much more often if I didn’t have to wait in the hot sun. If riding the bus became more palatable, more people would do it. There must be other people who feel like this.

Carol Limahelu, North Hollywood

Dear Reader:

Throughout the sprawling city of Los Angeles, there are precisely 937 bus shelters. Roughly 25% of these are located in the Valley.

How these locations were picked and why there aren’t more shelters is a tangled story of politics, commercial considerations and lots of bureaucratic red tape.

Here’s the condensed version:

In 1987, the city awarded an exclusive 10-year bus shelter contract to Gannett Transit. Gannett pays for the construction and maintenance of shelters. The city approves the building plans and locations, and gets 8% of the gross revenue from advertising placed on the shelters--or a minimum of $300,000 a year.

And, oh yes, new shelters must be doled out as evenly as possible among the 15 City Council districts.

The lighted shelters, which require underground electrical hookups, are not cheap. They cost about $8,000 to $10,000 apiece. Gannett pays workers to visit each shelter two or three times a week to empty the trash bins, sweep up trash and remove graffiti, says Richard Wannemacher, a company spokesman.

He says the company tries to put up 50 new shelters a year, mainly where many bus riders, drivers and others are likely to see the ads.

But the company must follow strict city rules. For example, a bus shelter can only be placed on a sidewalk at least 10 feet wide. This rules out residential areas with narrow sidewalks.

A shelter can’t block visibility at an intersection or be too close to a driveway or a power pole. It can’t be placed over a manhole--for obvious reasons. And an adjacent store owner’s objections can halt its construction.

If you want to lobby for a shelter at your favorite stop, call your City Council member’s office or Gannett Transit at (213) 222-7171, ext. 220.

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Dear Street Smart:

In at least two places along the Glendale Freeway, or California 2, there are signs declaring that it is the Frank Lanterman Freeway.

Who is Frank Lanterman, and why was the freeway named after him?

Also, are there other any other Los Angeles freeways dedicated to people?

Jim McGlynn, Tujunga

Dear Reader:

Frank Lanterman, who died in 1981, spent 28 years in the California Assembly. He was known for his blunt manner and his work in reforming the state’s mental health programs.

When the La Canada Flintridge resident retired from the Legislature in 1978, his colleagues voted to honor him by giving his name to a stretch of the Glendale Freeway between the Ventura and Foothill freeways.

Don’t feel bad if you never knew this. Caltrans recognized the name change in 1978 by placing a plaque along the Holly Drive on-ramp in Glendale. But until recently there were no Lanterman signs alongside the freeway itself.

At the request of several local lawmakers, Caltrans recently posted two Lanterman Freeway identification signs along the highway itself, says Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid. This coincided with the opening of Lanterman’s former house as a museum.

And yes, a few other Los Angeles-area highways have a famous person’s name attached.

The recently opened Glenn M. Anderson Freeway, also called the Century Freeway, was named for a retired congressman who pushed for its construction. Interstate 10, locally called the Santa Monica Freeway, is also known--not too widely--as the western end of the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, which apparently has no eastern terminus because no other states joined the Columbus bandwagon.

Sometimes, highway honors come and go. A case in point: In 1971, the state Legislature dubbed California 90, which runs from the San Diego Freeway to Marina del Rey, the Richard M. Nixon Freeway. In 1976, two years after Nixon resigned the presidency, the Legislature renamed it the Marina Freeway.

Draw your own conclusions.

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Dear Street Smart:

Who do your write to or call to report a railroad crossing in terrible disrepair?

On Roscoe Boulevard at Canoga Avenue, the railroad crossing has large potholes so bad that traffic in both directions can only go over the tracks at a couple of miles per hour.

Scott Spreckman, Encino

Dear Street Smart:

When are the railroads going to resurface the crossings on Devonshire Street, Lassen Street and De Soto Avenue in the Chatsworth area? At these crossings, drivers must slow down to 5 m.p.h. or less.

And I don’t mean the railroads should just fill in the potholes. They should do the job right.

Southern Pacific, Amtrak and Metrolink trains all use these tracks.

Ronald Bierer, Frazer Park

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Dear Readers:

First of all, don’t call city street maintenance workers about bumpy rail crossings. The railroad that owns the tracks is responsible for them and an area two feet on either side, says Art Minazzoli, a city street superintendent for the West Valley.

The railroads are worried that street workers, who are unfamiliar with train operations, might inadvertently create a hazard. So they prefer to maintain the crossings themselves.

The trouble is, there just aren’t enough railroad workers--or enough money--to keep every crossing in tip-top shape. Consider that Southern Pacific Transportation Co., which owns much of the track that runs through the Valley, has 15,000 miles of rails in 15 states.

“There has to be a system of prioritizing what gets fixed,” says Mike Furtney, a Southern Pacific spokesman. “Which means we’re not always as quick as the people who drive over (the crossings) every day would like us to be. But we do the best we can.”

If you believe a bumpy crossing should be bumped up higher on the priority list, Furtney suggests you write to Southern Pacific Lines, 1200 Corporate Center Drive, Monterey Park, Calif. 91754; Attention: Regional Engineer.

Or Furtney says you could call the Southern Pacific regional engineer’s office at (213) 780-6951.

Metrolink has purchased some of Southern Pacific’s Valley track for its commuter trains and is responsible for those crossings. Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo says most of these have been upgraded. But if you want to complain about a Metrolink crossing, call the system’s toll-free number, (800) 371-LINK, and report the problem to an operator.

If you call Metrolink, they’ll tell you whether the crossing is theirs or Southern Pacific’s.