Simulated Bus Produces Real Respect

“Are you trying to hit that?”

Lesley Attanese is a professional back-seat driver, so I suppose she has to ask questions like that, but, hey, I was trying my best. It was my first time behind the wheel of a county bus, so was it really unreasonable for me to ram a building or two?

Of course, if you want to nit-pick, I suppose it was a bit inappropriate for me to be laughing and gunning the engine in an attempt to actually drive through the building.

The good news for the world is that the bus I was driving was a fake one--in fact, it was part of an elaborate computer simulator and about the size of a large loaf of bread--and there is zero chance that Attanese and the other training folks at the Orange County Transportation Authority will ever let me try out a real bus. And after sampling the challenges of driving a bus, even a fake one, I wouldn’t even want to try.

The Vehicle Maneuvering Simulator is an amazing device, and, according to Attanese, a wonderful way to give trainees a realistic driving experience without risk or wear and tear on buses. An OCTA spokesman said the $307,000 device, the only one of its kind west of the Mississippi, even saves money in the long run, reducing insurance and repair costs. Other agencies have also expressed interest in renting time on the system.

More important, the thing is just really cool.

The VMS is spread out over two rooms. One room is filled by a miniature city fashioned from plywood and plastic and its downtown streets have only one moving vehicle: a OCTA bus hooked up to wires, cameras and a mechanical arm that allows it to cruise up to bus stops, over railroad tracks and into parking lots. Or, if you want, smack into buildings.

The other room has a re-creation of a bus dashboard and driver’s seat. Video screens that act as windshield and side mirrors show images captured by the tiny, pen-size cameras affixed to the toy bus in the next room. The effect is you feel like Ralph Kramden cruising through the “Land of the Giants.”

The console of a bus is very different from a car, and it was a challenge to remember that my blinkers were foot-activated and that buttons changed gears. Stopping took a lot longer than with a regular vehicle. The hardest thing of all, though, was judging turning distances. The rear of my bus kept clipping walls and cones. I did get bonus points from Attanese when I remembered to stop before crossing a railroad track.

“I failed a guy yesterday for not stopping,” said Attanese, who was a bus driver for four years before switching to training in 1994. “There may not be a sign there warning you [about the railroad track], but you better be stopping.”

Thankfully, I didn’t hit any of the action-figure-sized residents of the city. “They’re all wearing bathing suits,” Attanese pointed out. “The designers are back East and they just figured that all Californians walk around in bathing suits, I guess.”

The weirdest part of my bus driving experience in Toytown? Well, passing by the dead bug that was the size of a suitcase was a bit unsettling, but not nearly as strange as finally driving on an Orange County street where there was absolutely no traffic.

METROLINK DERAIL?: Since its birth six years ago, Metrolink has enjoyed quite the pleasant ride. Steady growth, a rider-friendly reputation, good on-time performance--all ingredients to what seemed to be a nifty Southern California success story.

But last week a very different image emerged, and it was accompanied by an abrupt shake-up at the very top of the young agency’s leadership.

Metrolink’s director, Richard M. Stanger, stepped aside and two of his top executives were placed on paid leave pending an evaluation of management. While officials said the changes were spurred by “philosophical differences,” its seems more than coincidence that the moves came on the heels of a scathing 56-page report that criticized the agency for a host of problems.

The far-reaching audit of the agency’s effectiveness found alarming mismanagement patterns with contract bids, billing, in-house training, employee records and hiring. Employees--and worse, the employees of contractors--have been running up big bills with cellular phones, pagers and cars with little oversight, the audit found.

The problems go beyond wasted money. The audit warns that some of the lapses may have compromised employee confidentiality, opened the agency up to potential lawsuits from contractors and created an environment ill-suited to handle the rail system’s growth.

How does this affect the 5,100 daily commuters who hop aboard Metrolink’s busy Orange County line? Hard to say. Officials at Southern California Regional Rail Authority say the changes were made with an eye to the future and improving management to shepherd Metrolink to the next level. The system, one of the fastest-growing commuter-rail networks in the nation, is expected to enjoy a 16% ridership growth in the next year alone. Only time will tell if the leadership change was made too late.

One thing is certain: Orange County is a key to any Metrolink success. Not only does the Orange County line account for the largest share of the rail system’s 27,000 riders, the evolution of the county from suburban center to job hub has prompted Metrolink to later this month add trains running from Los Angeles south into Orange County for workers who buck the traditional commuter flow.

“We’re really excited about Orange County,” said David R. Solow, who was named interim director of Metrolink after the big shake-up. Solow is well acquainted with the local rail line: He’s a Laguna Niguel resident and a regular rider. “We’re looking forward to the future here. The report shows we have work to do. . . . We’ve had growing pains.”

The Roads Scholar wants to hear your insights, stories and questions about traffic, the commuting experience and Orange County transportation issues.

You can call him at (714) 966-5724, send e-mail to geoff.boucher@latimes.com or mail letters to him at The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626. Please include your full name, hometown and phone number.