So to my surprise yesterday, when I went to take the bus home (I had cycled all the way into work along the pleasant route I described here and here), a completely new bus design pulled up! It seems that while I was on walkabout, for a month, the MTA made some further improvements. It's one of those excellent "bendy buses" (as I like to call them), and it is a completely new design that is rather large and spacious. Together with the new 757 route on Western, (see below) these are the first Metro Rapid routes they have put them on (they first started using these buses on the Orange dedicated commuter line in the valley), and they're excellent. It's much more like riding the subway than a bus, as the ride is very smooth. Also, there's even more room under the seats for things like my Brompton, and yes, there are bike racks on the front (as is usual all over the MTA) for those larger "regular" bikes everybody else uses).
(In the picture of the interior, the reason there's nobody on the bus is becaue I took at 6:15am today, and it is at the start of the route. Within 15 minutes it was being used by several people.) This continues to defy the lie that everybody tells about there being no public transport in Los Angeles. See my earlier remarks about that here. In other news, the Exposition Line has now been fully approved!! See my report on this exciting public transport project (which will ultimately result in my being able to step out of my office and take the subway all the way to the beach) here. The news about the final approval can be found on the MTA website here, along with raftloads of further evidence that there's public transport in this city. Finally, there's been another Metro Rapid line started, running along Western. This allows for more quick North/South connection of the middle of the city, and also connects up two branches of the subway's Red Line. Red Line? Subway? Yes....take a virtual tour of the lovely stations, here. So, maybe I'll see some more USC people coming to work on my route? Come on...give it a try! -cvj
