Schedules Rarely Posted at MTA Bus Shelters

Every time bus rider Randy Smith sees another giant glossy visage of Tom Cruise or that goofy kid with orange slices over his eyes, he feels annoyed.

It’s not that the 46-year-old janitor holds any grudges against the latest glamour guys of the silver screen. He just can’t stand all those commercial posters at bus stops, he said, when there’s a dearth of useful information for bus riders.

“It would be nice to have a big map to let us know where we’re going, instead of this big movie ad,” the Santa Monica resident said. He blanched at a Hollywood bus shelter announcing the new Robert Altman release on one side, and an airbrushed image of Cruise for “Vanilla Sky” on the other.

“Is there a bus coming soon?” he said. “Is there not another bus for an hour? This is where bus information should be.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest bus operator in Los Angeles County, has about 18,500 bus stops. About 500 of them, or 2.7%, post schedules and routes, according to the agency.

In comparison, more than 1,100 of San Francisco’s 5,000 bus stops, or 22%, display schedules and routes. Around New York City, at least 85.7% of the five boroughs’ 14,000 bus stops are so equipped, a city transit spokeswoman said, and the rest will have the information posted by June.

In Los Angeles County, the MTA is adding more information displays at bus stops. Because the agency doesn’t own the shelters or benches, which are controlled by whatever local government owns the land underneath, it installs “cubes”--oblong metal and plastic boxes with information on each side--on bus stop poles.

The MTA is adding 150 cubes a year to its stops, said Warren Morse, the agency’s deputy executive officer of marketing and customer relations.

At that rate, it could take 120 years to equip the entire county. But the MTA has no such aspirations.

The agency will install just 400 more information cubes on heavily used routes and transfer points. Spokesman Rick Jager said there are no plans at this time to equip the remaining 17,600 stops because installing and maintaining the displays is labor-intensive and costly.

Rider advocates have other theories.

Having schedules posted for everyone to see “would put some responsibility on them as to when the buses would arrive,” said Manuel Criollo, an organizer for the Bus Riders Union. “Buses are often late. One way they try to hide that is by not posting any information.”

According to a 1996 study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council, displaying helpful information for customers at bus stops promotes ridership, takes pressure off drivers and reduces customer complaints.

Two-thirds of transit managers surveyed believe that on-street information is an effective and necessary part of a transit system. But many were also concerned about the cost.

“If you put it out, you have to maintain it, make sure it’s accurate all the time,” said Paul Larrousse, director of the National Transit Institute of Rutgers University.

The MTA information cubes cost at least $120. The agency did not have figures on maintenance costs.

In comparison, the DASH bus system run by the city of Los Angeles displays route and schedule information on colorful fiberglass signs that cost about $7 each, with labor costing “not much more than that,” said Phil Aker, supervising transportation planner for the city’s Department of Transportation. About 400 of DASH’s 1,600 bus stops have the signs, and LADOT plans to equip all its stops with them by the end of the year.

Transit experts say research shows that a lack of posted information discourages people from taking the bus because they fear getting lost, wasting time and dealing with the unfamiliar.

“What we find is that the problems are the worst for occasional riders and those new to the area,” said Brian Taylor, director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies.

MTA staffers say the agency tries hard to provide information to riders through other means.

Pamphlets of routes and schedules are supposed to be on every bus--though riders say they’re often missing. Folding maps detailing the region’s public transportation system, including every bus line, Metrolink and Metro Rail, are distributed through Nix Check Cashing outlets. Would-be riders can dial MTA’s toll-free help line, 1-800-COMMUTE, or tap into www.mta.net to plan trips online.

“The information at bus stops is meant for reassurance, not for trip planning,” MTA spokesman Marc Littman said. “The ideal trip planning is done ahead of time. That’s why it’s important to check beforehand, ... to check over the phone, to check with the Internet.”

Smith, at the Hollywood bus stop, looked puzzled when asked about bus schedules in cyberspace. He doesn’t even have a telephone at home.

“Which transit-dependent person has a computer?” said Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition.

Sometimes, what information is displayed makes riders scratch their heads.

Darryl Giddiens, a 39-year-old Tujunga man who works for a telephone survey company, is perplexed by why some bus lines exhibit more information than others, even those at the same stop. “It just seems random,” Giddiens said.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, many Metro Rapid bus stops have digital displays, touted as cutting-edge technology capable of flashing real-time updates.

Recently along the two Metro Rapid bus lines on Wilshire and Ventura boulevards, the $3,500 electronic signs appeared to be in deep freeze, perpetually displaying the words: “METRO RAPID BUS” rather than vehicle arrival times.

Rex Gephart, project manager for Metro Rapid, concedes that the digital sign system has had problems.

The digital signs along the Wilshire line have not been turned on, he said, and only the Ventura line’s work at the moment.

At a Tarzana stop, 20-year-old Vanessa Martinez guffawed at a frozen digital display, saying it hadn’t worked for weeks.

Impatient to find out when the next bus might come, the Northridge student and other riders sometimes run into the street to see if one is on the horizon.

“I know you’re not supposed to do that,” Martinez said, adding she has seen horizon-scopers nearly get mowed down by oncoming traffic. “But what else are you supposed to do? It’s so frustrating just standing here.”