TAKEN FOR A RIDE … BUS THAT IS
By Matthew Hetz
To catch a bus to ride is pretty basic after the preliminary work finding which bus route(s) are needed for the trip. In the sprawl of Los Angeles, usually more than one bus is needed to complete a trip.
Then you consult the schedule(s), dress for the elements, put on walking shoes, and find the bus stop(s) needed.
Pretty basic, but there is more than meets the eye. Take, for instance, a bus stop.
Bus companies, such as Metro, Culver City, and Santa Monica, are only required to place the sign for the bus, and maybe the route number. Beyond that, bus benches and shelters are placed by cities.
The benches are in the open air. Shelters have a roof, which give the rider protection from the elements, such as rain, dampness and fog, and a hot sun.
The best shelters have not only a roof but also sides. These sides keep the wind out, and when it’s raining and windy, these shelters serve a great service. Bus shelters are evidence of a decent and caring society giving shelter to bus riders.
They are now called “Street Furniture,” and in parts of West Los Angeles and Venice, they are being attacked.
The problem is that in the city of Los Angeles bus benches and shelters are funded through advertisements on the benches and shelters.
Culver City has their own shelters, which are a bit narrow and only have a roof, no sides.
Santa Monica’s bus shelters are only placed downtown, and have a tall roof and also are without sides.
The City of Los Angeles, and this where the problems arise, does not place its own shelters, but rely upon ads to fund them. But these do have a roof and sides-optimal protection from wind blown rain.
The ads on the bus shelters are a bone of contention from local residents who feel the ads detract from the value of their neighborhoods. I doubt these people are bus riders, and have had to stand at a bus stop in the rain where there is no shelter. I have stood in the rain and wind at bus stops without shelters, and it is not pleasant.
For years I worked for a life insurance company in Santa Monica. To get there by bus I rode the Culver City No. 6 northbound on Sepulveda Boulevard, and got off at Santa Monica Boulevard to transfer to a westbound MTA or Santa Monica Bus. The trip home was the reverse.
After standing in the rain on more than a few occasions at this transfer point, I began the journey through the labyrinth of city and county governmental offices to secure bus shelters at the Sepulveda and Santa Monica Boulevards intersection.
It was through this journey that I found out that the City of Los Angeles funds bus shelters through ads on the shelters. I think it took a month of phone calls to finally get to the right department in the City of Los Angeles. Then, it probably took another month of calls to this one department to plead my case.
One of the obstacles, I was told, was the source of electricity for light the shelters. It seems that at this intersection there wasn’t one. I argued that along the sidewalks are street lights whose power supply could be tapped into.
After receiving word that it just isn’t done that way, the shelters, without notice, appeared at the intersection, with lights. I think this was about six months later, at the earliest.
I don’t know if I set new policy at city hall, but it was an empowering and uplifting feeling to see these shelters now in place.
I used these shelters and blessed their existence during the rains, particularly the heaviest downpours with blowing wind.
I was later laid off from the life insurance company, they moved out of state. I did not need to transfer buses with frequency at Sepulveda and Santa Monica with until I began a teaching job in Santa Monica and needed to transfer buses again at this same intersection. This was just before the completion of the renovation of Santa Monica Boulevard with Sepulveda the western boundary of the job.
During the renovation, the bus shelter for westbound Santa Monica Boulevard traffic, in front of the Mobil Station, one of the shelters I fought for, was removed. That stop, minus the shelter, was moved west across the intersection, where it is today.
After the completion of the renovation this shelter was not replaced.
The shelter on Sepulveda for southbound buses, which I fought for, was retained, and what is most curious, is that a new shelter, never there before, was put in for northbound Sepulveda buses. Both of these current shelters have ads.
After seeing that the two Santa Monica Boulevard shelters were gone I began a series of phone calls and Internet searches , and finally landed at the offices for Fifth District Los Angeles City Councilman
Jack Weis.
After explaining to them that these two shelters, which I shepherded through the placements, were gone, I asked when they would be returned. The problem, I was told by the city council office, was
that local residents, neighborhood committees, councils, organizations and so on have stopped the returning of the shelters because of the ads which would be placed on them.
The vague answer was that there is some agreement between the developer who worked on Santa Monica Boulevard and the city on the size of the bus shelters along Santa Monica. They would be higher than the standard shelters and are not being put in place due to opposition from the neighbors.
This explanation is repeated by the office of current Fifth District City Councilman Paul Koretz.
This is most puzzling since at this same intersection around one-hundred yards from the missing bus shelters are the shelters on Sepulveda, north and south, which have ads on them. I completely fail
to see the logic here.
These Sepulveda Blvd. bus shelters with ads are at the same intersection, but shelters are not allowed on Santa Monica Boulevard? It will rain on Santa Monica Boulevard as it will on Sepulveda Boulevard, the wind will blow on both, the sun will bear down on both boulevards, but we bus riders are only allotted shelters for Sepulveda Boulevard? What am I missing?
I recently took buses to Century City to see a film. I noticed that there are no bus shelters on heavily traveled Santa Monica Boulevard for bus riders coming and going to and from Century City, and yet, there is a bus shelter with an ad at Century Park East and Santa Monica Blvd. Again, why can there be a bus shelter with an ad at one street of this intersection and not another?
For those readers who are not familiar with worthiness of bus shelters, I recommend that you take a walk in the rain. Leave your houses or apartments, and in the rain, the heavier and windier the better, take a walk. I do recommend an umbrella and overcoat, and rain boots if you have them. Walk to the nearest busy boulevard, and just stand on the sidewalk near traffic for fifteen minutes, about an average wait time for a bus during the day. At night the wait is longer.
Try to stay dry. Try to keep the wind from collapsing your umbrella or ripping it out of your hands. And to get a truer sense of what it’s like to catch a bus in the rain, carry something in your arms.
Then think how much better life would be, how a decent and caring society behaves when we bus riders have a bus shelter while waiting for a bus.
The new, shelterless, bus stop for westbound traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. at Sepulveda is in front an office tower. There are no close-by doorways to duck into, no building overhangs to get out of the rain. Just a planter and some tall palm trees which do not offer shelter.
And the winds whip between these office towers, turning a small breeze into near gale force winds.
Once, at this shelterless stop, during a downpour with winds, I sought shelter under the awnings on the next block. When the bus approached, I ran across the side street towards the stop. The wind was so strong it blew rain sideways into my ear, and nearly destroyed my umbrella. The eastbound shelterless stop can be as bad in the rain.
Both east and westbound bus stops are major stops, and shelters are desperately needed as they are in Century City and along Santa Monica Boulevard.
I don’t think these bus shelters with their ads are lowering property values, but the missing shelters are making life miserable for a lot of people, bus riders, some of whom are elderly, handicapped or just tired after a long day.
They need to be returned, now.
(Matthew Hetz has been a transit rider since 1992, is a member of the steering committee for Friends4Xpo, belongs to various grass roots organizations, is a member of L.A. Council District 11 Transportation Committee, is a composer, and is the president/executive director of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra in which he is member of the 2nd Violin section.) -cw
CityWatch
Vol 8 Issue 9
Pub: Feb 2, 2010
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