Public Transit Policy, Analysis, Advocacy and Education
Newsletter of the Southern California Transit Advocates
Vol 7, No. 10, October 1999

Disclaimer: The Southern California Transit Advocates is not affiliated with any governmental agency or transportation provider. Names and logos of agencies appear for information and reference purposes only. 

Our latest excursion/study tour had as its focus local municipal transportation systems. In many areas of Los Angeles county these are the main providers of service and we set out to explore the quality of service and connectivity. On the morning of Saturday July 31 members Anthony Loui, Mike Baron, Armando Avalos, Charles Powell and Dana Gabbard rendezvoused in downtown Los Angeles at First and Main. Per the itinerary planned by member Chris Ledermuller (who wasn't able to participate due to a schedule conflict) we were there to catch the Gardena Transit line #1 schedule to
depart at 9:30 a.m. President Gabbard brought a dozen doughnuts and exorted everyone to have two or three.

At 9:35 a.m. we boarded our first bus, a TMC RTS. Going through the east side of downtown L.A. the bus steadily boarded passengers, becoming almost full by the time it entered the Harbor Freeway for the express segment to Gardena. Anthony Loui pointed to a L.A. bound Gardena #1 we spotted while on the freeway and questioned why the Gardena buses use the Harbor Transitway northbound to Los Angeles but not southbound to Gardena. After exiting the freeway we went along a stretch of Vermont Blvd. with a nicely landscaped median that is an old Pacific Electric right-of-way. Boarding and alighting was quite active, especially between connecting Gardena routes. We deboarded in downtown Gardena at Gardena Blvd. & Vermont and made our way to Berendo and Gardena Blvd. to catch Gardena line #4. This location includes benches and trees for shade and could be thought of as a modest transit center (one could wish for
signage and transit maps). It was pointed out by Charles Powell that Gardena schedules still refer to RTD and inexplicably the map doesn't label Main Street in Gardena.

Due to a misunderstanding we had been given interagency transfers but the Gardena line 4 driver accepted them when we boarded at 10:48 a.m. This was another RTS. We had been worried about whether we were in the right location to catch the bus due to the less than readable map in the Garden Transit schedule. Ridership was modest. The bus was running about 10 minutes late and we were concerned about making our connection with Torrance Transit line #5 at Manhattan Beach & Crenshaw. But we were able to deboard and dash across the intersection just as the Torrance bus pulled up to the stop at 11:10 a.m.

The Torrance bus was a Gillig. About 8 passengers rode the short segment of the line we took. Our main object was connecting at Crenshaw and Torrance Blvd with the workhorse of the Torrance system: line #3. By the way, Torrance now has route maps at major bus stops (much like Santa Monica and Culver City).

At 11:25 we boarded Torrance line #3 (another Gillig) and rode it to the Long Beach Transit Mall where it terminates. This line has extremely healthy ridership. At Harbor/UCLA Medical Center there were 6 boardings. At PCH/Wilmington 12 boarded, and 7 boarded at PCH/Avalon. I counted 19 passengers when we were at Terminal Island.

In Long Beach our itinerary had us take a lunch break at PCH/Ximeno via Long Beach line #172 and then continuing to Norwalk Green Line station. The party decided Pine Street near the Transit Mall was a more appealing location to dine at.

Armando worked out our alternative plans so we could still connect with Norwalk Transit as in the original itinerary. We caught Long Beach line 173 at 1:35 p.m. It quickly became apparent the bus was running extremely behind schedule. And heavy ridership while in the business district just made it slower. 14 passengers boarded at Pacific/8th and 15 got on at PCH/Long Beach Blvd. Needless to say the New Flyer low floor bus has a standing load during this part of the route. Ridership outside downtown was much lower. But the #173 has a convoluted route and the driver seemed to not be trying to recover down time. It was clear we were not going to make our connection with Norwalk Transit. At 3:03 p.m. we arrived at Norwalk Green Line station.

After a brief huddle it was decided to defer exploration of the Norwalk/Montbello/Santa Monica/Culver City systems for another trip. We boarded the Green Line and began to disperse.

It was educational to explore service operated by some of the smaller operators, whose role in our regional system will be only more critical in the coming years. My thanks to everyone who participated and to Chris Ledermuller for planning it.