Riders Leave Traffic Behind on Metro Rapid Bus

The first to board the 6:30 a.m. Metro Rapid bus Monday morning was Jerome A. Treiman, a 49-year-old state geologist who caught the 750 line on its first stop at Owensmouth Avenue and Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills.

He is the guy--every bus and train line has one--who sees you looking forlornly at a map and asks, “Where are you going?” Then he rattles off enough route numbers to convince you he is a math professor.

A soft-spoken man with a gray ponytail and wire-rimmed glasses, Treiman has been a bus commuter for 20 years, defying the myth of the car-addicted Angeleno.

“This saves a lot of wear and tear on myself and my car,” he said. “This way, I can read or take a nap instead of fighting traffic.”

The Metro Rapid bus speeds along Ventura Boulevard using a signal changing transponder to keep the traffic lights green. From the moment Treiman hopped aboard in Woodland Hills, he never saw a red light. On its maiden commute, the 50-person bus with raised rear seating filled up fast.

The Metro Rapid is the first American mass transit system to use the special transponders on such a large scale, said Ed Scannell, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The bus line was designed to cut down on traffic and pollution caused by cars in the absence of a subway line serving points west and north of Universal City.

The only other Metro Rapid bus service is the 720 line, which runs 26 miles along Wilshire and Whittier boulevards from Santa Monica to Montebello.

The Ventura Boulevard line runs 16 miles and is served by 20 buses. It is expected to cut the average Los Angeles car commute by one-quarter, especially along the 101 Freeway, because fewer drivers will be on the road, MTA officials said. For example, a one-hour commute would be reduced to 45 minutes.

By the time the bus left the Reseda Boulevard stop in Tarzana, the seats were half full. By the Van Nuys stop, a few riders had to stand, clutching the gleaming rails.

As the bus filled, Treiman greeted a few of his fellow travelers, some of whom he knew by name. Some transportation experts believe public transit serves the same purpose as public space, bridging the city’s ethnic and cultural divides and giving residents a chance to feel part of a greater whole.

Yet Peter Gordon, an urban planning professor at USC, does not buy that line.

“Seven billion dollars later, there are less people on public transit in Los Angeles than in 1985,” he said. “Have you seen New York? Have the subways there turned that place into a city of brotherly love and tolerance?”

But Treiman remains convinced the bus line provides a sense of community among riders.

“We help each other figure out which way to go or we talk about work,” he said. “I’m willing to talk to strangers.”

Commuters who would otherwise be sitting in SUVs and sedans listening to their radios in silence talk to each other on the Metro Rapid bus.

Chris Blake, a 25-year-old African American, started taking the bus six months ago when his car engine blew out.

“It’s more relaxing,” he said. “You can kick back and prepare for the day. And this Metro Rapid seems to be better than the regular line with the speed, and when we get the subway it will be even faster.”

Nancy Yousefan, a 50-year-old Persian, boarded the bus for the first time Monday. She used to spend three hours a day commuting from her home in Encino to her job at a West Covina nursing home. She said she will never drive to work again.

Her bus emptied at Universal City, where riders descended on escalators to the Red Line subway. On the other side of the rail, a crowd surged up the stairs to catch westbound Metro Rapid buses. Pressing through a small crowd on the subway platform, Yousefan was impressed.

“It looks like New York or something,” she said.

Inside the train, Treiman sat down and started reading the newspaper, occasionally stopping to chat with Blake. About 10 minutes later, the train dropped him off downtown at 7th and Hope streets. Treiman filed out with scores of riders and walked to his office building, which sits on top of the subway station.

The trip from the western edge of the San Fernando Valley took an hour, which isn’t much less than it takes by car. But bus and subway riders said their commutes were much less stressful because they didn’t have to contend with traffic.