Metro Rapid is a bus service in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, operated as part of the

Los Angeles Metro Bus The Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Metro Bus operates in the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, and th ...

system. Metro Rapid service was introduced in the early 2000s to provide faster service on major corridors in Los Angeles, with stops spaced approximately apart. The first Metro Rapid lines featured physical infrastructure improvements, including signal priority at intersections in the City of Los Angeles, and enhanced bus shelters. The service was initially popular, expanding across Los Angeles County. Despite the service's initial popularity, service was cut on some major corridors in response to budget difficulties in the early 2010s. A major reorganization of the Metro Bus network, the NextGen Bus Plan, was proposed in 2019. Much of the Metro Rapid network was suspended in 2020, as part of the broader impacts on transit from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and most Rapid lines were not reinstated. The changes from the NextGen plan, implemented beginning in 2021, merged most Rapid lines back into their local counterparts.

Service

Metro Rapid service is a

limited-stop In public transit, particularly bus, tram, or train transportation, a limited-stop (or sometimes referred to as semi-fast) service is a trip pattern that stops less frequently than a local service. Many limited-stop or semi-fast services are a co ...

bus service, with characteristics of bus rapid transit. These characteristics include off-board fare payment on some lines, enhanced bus stops that are spaced farther apart than corresponding local services, and signal priority at some intersections. The lack of dedicated bus lanes for Metro Rapid service has led scholars to describe it as " BRT-lite," as opposed to "bus rapid transit" or "full-service bus rapid transit."

History

A delegation from the Los Angeles city government, including Mayor

Richard Riordan Richard Joseph Riordan (May 1, 1930 – April 19, 2023) was an American businessman, investor, military commander, philanthropist, and politician. A decorated Korean War veteran and a member of the Republican Party, Riordan served as the 39th ...

, visited the Brazilian city of

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Southern Brazil. The city's population was 1,773,718 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the larg ...

in early 1999. The civic leaders were impressed by Curitiba's comprehensive bus rapid transit system, the Rede Integrada de Transporte, and sought to replicate it. By the summer of 1999, planning was underway for a pilot program of bus rapid transit service on two corridors: Wilshire Blvd/ Whittier Blvd and Ventura Blvd. The establishment of Metro Rapid service followed a 1996

consent decree A consent decree is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case). Most often it is such a type of settlement in the United States. The ...

, the product of a federal lawsuit brought by a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Bus Riders Union. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that Metro's large subsidies for rail construction and operation, relative to its expenditures for bus service, were discriminatory. Metro Rapid service was one part of Metro's proposals to improve bus service, approved by

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Donald T. Bliss. In addition to introducing Metro Rapid service, Metro expanded local and express bus service, purchased hundreds of new buses, and lowered bus pass prices. Wilshire Western 720 stop

Metro Rapid service on the two pilot corridors began in June 2000, opening on the same day as the Red Line extension to

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

. Both lines were immediately popular, generating ridership growth of 25% in their first 90 days of operation. Travel time was improved by over 20% on both lines, aided by the signal priority at intersections in the City of Los Angeles. Customer satisfaction increased relative to the previous local and

bus services, and the Rapid service quickly captured over 60% of bus ridership on both corridors. Following the initial pilot program of two lines in 2000, the Metro Rapid system expanded quickly. 6 lines were in operation in 2003, expanding to 26 lines in 2010. This rapid expansion was followed by significant reduction, with 5 Rapid lines cut in 2011 due to a budget crisis. The NextGen Bus Plan, a Metro initiative to redesign its entire bus network, proposed to eliminate most of the Metro Rapid network beginning in 2020. Implementation of the NextGen plan was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused service cuts independent of the network redesign. In the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in late 2020, service was reallocated from Metro Rapid lines to local lines. A December 2020 service change eliminated 6 lines, and much of the rest of the network was proposed to be eliminated by 2021. The NextGen plan included the construction of over of new bus lanes across Los Angeles, a feature notably absent from the Metro Rapid system since its introduction. As of 2024, three Metro Rapid lines remain in operation, serving the Wilshire Blvd, Vermont Av, and Van Nuys Blvd/Sepulveda Pass corridors.

Perception and criticism

A 2009 study by the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute found that the public perception of Metro Rapid service was better than that of Metro's corresponding local bus services, and similar to the Blue Line. However, Metro Rapid service was perceived as lower-quality than Orange Line BRT and Metro's other rail services. Transit planner Jarrett Walker, who is unaffiliated with Metro, criticized the rapid growth of the Metro Rapid service on multiple occasions. Walker characterized the system as "diluted," commenting that Metro Rapid lines introduced after the first two lacked the bus stop amenities, service frequency, and signal priority that defined the two initial lines. Walker nonetheless praised the system for the attitude it represented, describing it as "a remarkable effort to step up mobility all over the city in a very short time."

Service

History

Perception and criticism

Routes

Current Metro Rapid routes

Rapid routes operated by other agencies

Former routes

References

External links

Further reading