Rapid Bus Is Quick to Win Over New Riders

Cruising through a series of green lights, his face reflected in the bus window, Michael Johnson couldn’t stop grinning.

The 50-year-old grocery checkout clerk used to endure 2 1/2-hour bus commutes from his Universal City home to Sylmar. And then he heard about the Metro Rapid bus line zipping back and forth across the southern San Fernando Valley.

“I changed jobs so I could take this bus,” said Johnson, who estimated that his commute to the Vons supermarket in Tarzana now takes 35 to 40 minutes. “This is the best thing they have going.”

In a year and a half, riders like Johnson have made Los Angeles County’s two Metro Rapid lines so popular--despite complaints of overcrowding and reduced service elsewhere--that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has added buses and may roll out 23 more lines.

And how much more rapid are these buses?

Johnson’s recent ride in a red-and-white rapid bus, just after the morning rush hour, from his Universal City stop to Tarzana took 32 minutes.

A test ride the next day by a reporter, following the same 12-mile route along Ventura Boulevard, about the same time--but on a regular bus--took 13 minutes longer. So, Johnson probably cut his travel time 29% by taking the rapid bus.

Not So Rapid at Rush Hour

But rapid buses still crawl in heavy traffic. Rush-hour comparisons along the same stretch suggest that a passenger would have saved only six minutes by taking a rapid bus.

Along a second rapid route, a 15-mile test ride from the downtown jewelry district to Santa Monica Pier took one hour and 17 minutes during rush hour. A regular bus took 16 minutes longer.

Metro Rapid has reduced passenger travel times along its two routes an average of 25%, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

One 16-mile route runs along Ventura Boulevard from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to the Universal City Red Line subway station. A 26-mile line runs along Wilshire and Whittier boulevards, from Santa Monica Pier to Montebello.

Since the two lines opened, ridership has surged 40%, with one-third of the increase coming from riders who had never used mass transit before, the MTA reported. The agency has boosted the Ventura Boulevard line, which now ferries 10,000 riders a day, from 16 to 22 buses. The Wilshire/Whittier line, with 45,000 passengers daily, has been beefed up from 58 to 80 vehicles.

The 23 lines that the MTA is considering adding include routes on Vermont Avenue, Van Nuys Boulevard and Venice Boulevard. The agency also hopes to replace its fleet with bigger buses.

Though Metro Rapid charges the same $1.35 fare as regular buses, some riders say they pay a higher price in other ways.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other passengers in front of the yellow safety line, Daryl Walter said rapid buses are almost always unbearably crowded during rush hour. The 21-year-old Museum Square office coordinator also said fellow riders can be rather nasty at times.

“People push. I’m like, ‘That’s so New York,’ ” said Walter, swaying back and forth as the bus barreled toward downtown. “They just need more buses.”

Some Service Has Been Cut Back

Overcrowding is a common complaint among Metro Rapid passengers, said Cynthia Rojas, a lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union advocacy group. She also believes that the MTA has reduced some other service to benefit Metro Rapid.

A route favored by some domestic workers commuting to Brentwood was cut after the Wilshire/Whittier line opened, Rojas said.

“[The MTA] claimed it was a duplication of service. But what happens is people who take [that line] now must take two buses instead of one. You have to deal with changing buses and transfer and waiting time.

“We very much are in support of a rapid bus,” Rojas said. “What we do not support is cutting back.”

The MTA said that line was cut back because only 90 people a day were using it.

“It just isn’t fair to the rest of the public to have empty buses . . . when we need those buses for thousands of people,” said Rex Gephart, project manager for Metro Rapid. “We can’t serve everybody.”

Others who feel underserved are those who live tantalizingly close to a rapid route but not near enough to merit a stop.

Terese Garcia, 40, a day-care worker in West Los Angeles, doesn’t like to take “El Rojo”--as many Spanish speakers call the rapid red coach--because regular buses make more stops and are more convenient for her.

Her home is four blocks from the closest rapid stop, she said, much too far to trudge with shopping bags and her 5-year-old son in tow.

Metro Rapid saves time by skipping the less-used stops preferred by riders like Garcia, reducing waiting time through its frequency and signal-changing technology that allows its buses to hit fewer red lights.

The rapid lines’ transponder system turns red lights green up to 10 seconds quicker and keeps the signal green for up to 10 seconds longer, said Sean Skehan, project manager for the city Transportation Department.

Right now, the transponders work only in the city of Los Angeles, which cooperated with the MTA by making its signals compatible with the technology. The agency is talking with Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, whose red lights still ignore rapid buses.

Riders Say Buses Can Still Bunch Up

The transponder technology is also supposed to space buses apart so that they don’t “bunch up,” Skehan said.

Passengers say they don’t believe it works that well.

It is a common sight to see two rapid buses--both half full--at the same stop. At times, three rapid buses rumble together like a pack. One rider said he once saw four rapid buses bunched up.

Still, reducing commuting time by any amount is a good thing, others say.

Bryan Morgan, a 29-year-old contract analyst, sometimes walks 20 minutes to a rapid bus stop in Woodland Hills to ride to work at Universal Studios. His entire commute--cold morning hike included--is still shorter than it would be on a regular bus from a closer stop. “It’s worth it,” Morgan said.

Johnson, the checkout clerk, said: “Other buses: It’s stop, go, stop, go, stop, go.” With the rapid bus, “it’s almost as good as having a car again.”