THE LOS ANGELES METRO RAPID SYSTEM: DESIGNING RAPID BUS SERVICE FROM THE SIDEWALK UP

摘要

Planning for bus rapid transit systems is becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated. Especially in vast metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, such planning requires the bird's-eye perspective of aerial photography, and even the astronaut's eye perspective of satellite imaging. But no matter how large the overall scale, there is another kind of perspective which should not be overlooked: the sidewalk perspective of the bus rider. Indeed part of Metro Rapid's success can be attributed to the fact that the macro scale of operational planning was, from a very early stage, coupled with the human scale design of its graphics and its architecture. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Transportation Management and Design understood that no matter how compelling the statistical arguments for the Rapid program, its ultimate success would depend on acceptance by transit users, each making individual choices. The planning team recognized that those choices would be based on each person's direct experience of the service. In some cases, this experience would begin the moment someone walks out of his front door with the intention of using transit. The questions such a person might have are: How will I get to the station? Is it close enough to walk? Will I be able to find the station stop easily? Will I know which bus to get on? How long will I have to wait? Is it a safe place to wait? Is it clean? Where can I buy a ticket, and how much does it cost? Where do I board the bus? Is the bus clean? Quiet? Smooth? How will I know where to get off? Other individuals to be accounted for are pedestrians who just happen to walk by a station. Some may be local residents, others foreign visitors - in either case, how well does the station and its amenities communicate the service offered? Finally, passing motorists, especially those contending with heavy traffic and long commutes, should be addressed with a physical facility that makes bus rapid transit look like an attractive alternative to driving.