System May Signal Faster Bus Service

Sure, No. 4552 looks like any other MTA bus moseying down Ventura Boulevard. It’s when you ride a mile or so, hitting green lights all the way, that you begin to wonder if No. 4552 is charmed. But it’s no magic bus.

What you don’t see--a hockey-puck-shaped device nestled in the undercarriage--is the secret to why all the reds miraculously change as it approaches.

Every speed demon in L.A. would kill for a device that trips all the lights green.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing this technology for the city’s most sloth-like road beasts: city buses that bumble along, block by block, engorging and disgorging passengers.

“Anything to speed the system. Especially if it works,” said Clin Johnson of Inglewood, a recent passenger on No. 4552.

“I would like it fast,” said another passenger, Ana Martinez, of Los Angeles, whose daily trip from Western Avenue in Los Angeles to her job in Encino usually takes an hour.

Demonstration Project Planned for Summer

The MTA and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation are testing the technology behind the proposed signal-beating rapid bus system on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. Officials plan to debut a demonstration project next summer on regular bus lines along three corridors: Ventura Boulevard, Whittier-Wilshire and Pico-Cesar Chavez Avenue via Broadway and East 1st Street.

When the six-month demonstration project gets underway, the faster-moving buses will replace some regular lines that stop every sixth-tenths of a mile to pick up and drop off passengers.

“We want to accomplish about 15% to 25% savings in travel times,” said Rex Gephart, MTA project manager for transit planning.

Under the rapid bus system, a trip from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to Universal City, which now takes about an hour, would be pared down to about 45 minutes, Gephart said.

It relies on fairly simple technology to achieve those longer green lights or shorter reds: Each bus is fitted with a transponder that triggers data wire loops embedded in the street at regular intervals.

Each time a bus passes over a data loop, information about the bus location and speed is sent to controller boxes at intersections, then zapped by fiber optics to a Department of Transportation computer in the basement of City Hall.

The data are processed, then shot back to the controller box to change signal lights. It all takes about one second, said Sean Skehan, senior transportation engineer for the department.

Data Wire Loops Embedded in Street

Hundreds of data wire loops are embedded in Ventura Boulevard, and some regular MTA buses have been fitted with transponders for testing purposes.

On a recent day, bus No. 4552 moved smoothly along Ventura, the subtle light changes virtually unnoticeable to passengers and cross-traffic drivers.

“We want to speed buses, but we don’t want to affect the general traffic,” said Kang Hu, a city transportation engineer.

The estimated cost of the Ventura Boulevard and Whittier-Wilshire demonstration projects is $4.5 million, including sleeker bus shelters and real-time speed and location displays for passengers to track their bus’ progress, Gephart said. A price tag for the Pico-Cesar Chavez corridor was not immediately available.

Gephart said the MTA would have to prove to its board of directors that the demonstration project worked by achieving faster arrival times. If approved, the rapid bus system would be expanded to 13 other bus lines, including Santa Monica Boulevard, Vermont Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard.

Across the nation, the rapid bus concept is being studied as a way to make a “bus system that looks and feels like a rail system,” said Bert Arrillaga, chief of the service innovation division at the Federal Transit Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Federal Project in 10 Cities

The federal government’s own rapid bus project is evaluating 10 cities with innovative plans to upgrade their service, many of which rely on bus-only lanes. Los Angeles is not among the 10 cities, but it is participating in the federal project in other capacities, Arrillaga said.

The technology is available to vastly improve bus service, Arrillaga said, including “smart” fare cards that eliminate the slower process of handling cash and signal-changing transponders.

In Los Angeles, where transportation issues have fueled bitter debates between activists and government agencies, the rapid bus concept has received cautious support from the Bus Riders Union. But organizer Martin Hernandez said the group would oppose such a plan if it meant scrapping bus lines that stop every sixth-tenths of a mile. He said it would cause too much of a hardship on the elderly and the disabled, who rely on buses that stop at shorter intervals to take them closer to their destinations.

“We don’t want them eliminating the choices for people,” Hernandez said.

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Green Light for Rapid Bus

The heart of the rapid bus project is a system that either extends green lights or shortens red lights for buses equipped with a special transponder. The Department of Transportation and the MTA have proposed rapid bus lines for three busy Los Angeles corridors: Ventura Boulevard, Whittier-Wilshire boulevards, and Pico-Cesar Chavez via Broadway and East 1st Street. These rapid lines, which will be tested this summer, will replace some regular buses that stop every .6 miles along the same routes.

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Sources: Los Angeles Department of Transportation; Metropolitan Transportation Authority

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Speedier Route

The MTA is testing technology on bus routes along Ventura Boulevardin the San Fernando Valley that allows buses equipped with special transponders to turn signals green. MTA officials hope to shorten travel times for buses by at least 15% with the rapid system. A trip from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to Universal City would be shortened from about one hour to 45 minutes, MTA officials said.