This might be the worst bus stop I've encountered
Street view from Google Maps:
Street view from Google Maps:
Bus stop doesn't get used
"See?! No one wants to use public transit. We should build another lane."
Coming from a city with a working transit system to a city with shitty transit, that has been the defense.
"Why invest resources to something people don't use?" They said to me, as I literally use the thing they don't want to invest in.
Better explain why pedestrian crossings are stretched so much instead of being on shortest trajectory to other side
I hate shortened crossings. Pedestrian crossings should follow the flow of pedestrians. Bikes shouldn't have to slow down to make sharp turns just to cross the street. There should be crossings that go in a sensible line.
Crossings should be safe for humans and bikes. Meaning, they should be short and bikes should not be ridden across intersections if no bike lane
If there's no bike lane, and bikes can't ride across intersections, how on earth are bikes supposed to get around at all?
Get off the bike and push it.
I know, it's not a great solution but think about it - if you're on a bike you're faster than a pedestrian and there's a high chance a car won't see you if they aren't already stopped (assuming there's no traffic light to regulate traffic).
Doesn't matter if the car sees me, I'll see the car. I'm always careful. Any time my attention is compromised, I do get off. When I'm healthy and cautious, I ride.
I also thought it was a bit of a wild request for bikes to only cross where bike infra exists. If we can't make progress in driver behavior, we should build more mode separation to contain the thousand pound death machines in their own physically isolated section of the street. At no point should we be compromising bicycle or pedestrian mobility. We have a right to the street also, and it's the cars who have trouble co-existing with the other modes of transportation without murdering a bunch of people.
Bikes belong in the road.
If you're in a pedestrian path with a bicycle, you should be dismounted
Given that's not the law in my country, I have to assume that it's your personal opinion. And your personal opinion that I should risk my life just to get to the grocery store is fucked.
Your personal opinion is that you should risk the lives of pedestrians by riding a vehicle in their path?
Its not about laws, its about morality.
Weird thing is that you can ride slowly and safely while passing pedestrians.
Making a general statement like this is just completely ignorant of the reality of living in cities where car drivers HATE bikes and will absolutely kill you if you try riding in the road.
Yes. I also think doctors should risk the lives of patients by prescribing antibiotics for bacterial infections. This is a risk because some patients have undiagnosed penicillin allergies. There is always a level of acceptable risk. Given that nobody has ever been killed by a bicycle they weren't riding in my country, I find the risk acceptable. The pedestrians on the route I take have a higher chance of dying from lung cancer due to car pollution, PER CAR, than from me killing them.
I mean, getting hit by a bike hurts, but it doesn't kill you. Still, I'm not a fan of people endangering and inconveniencing others so they themselves can be safer either. But that's what people are like. That's one of the reasons everyone should be pro bike lane, even if they don't cycle.
I've been in cities where the "bike lane" was a "Parked car door zone"
Some of these cities literally made it illegal to not ride in the bike lanes. Not everyone should be pro bike lane, especially when they're death lanes
I meant that as in 'everyone should be pro creating safe bike lanes'. Sorry I wasn't clear
In my area, bikes are allowed on all sidewalks except for a street-bounded square around the downtown core where we must ride in the street. When on the sidewalk, we are expected to yield to pedestrians. This works in practice, mostly due to low volume of bikes and pedestrians, and in some places 12 food wide sidewalks specifically designated as class 1 urban trails that even allow some ebikes. In practice, this works okay but you are definitely forced to have little micro interactions with people to negotiate sidewalk space or signal your intentions. Cyclists go to the sidewalk as a last resort because it's often not a comfortable place for us to ride, just less likely to get us killed. I will never understand cyclists who don't ring. It's a bad look for our ability to share space. Unlike cars, bicycles and pedestrians are close enough in speed to occasionally mix.
I do agree that in city centers and high traffic areas, riders should dismount.
To optimize the intersection for car traffic. Or maybe rather to minimize signal wait times.
If pedestrians could take the shortest path, it would roughly double the size of the intersection in both width and height. Which then requires clearing times on each signal pass to be longer. Which ultimately makes everybody wait longer at the intersection, including pedestrians.
So, that is one possible explanation. I guess you didn't really ask for one, and maybe I should also add that it's just that; an explanation, not a justification.
Had to go on street view for myself. I now have a single screenshot of the bus stop on feliz and the one on crystal, both in the same direction on the same road. Who did this and why??
Fun side note, the crystal stop has a sign that says "public transit gets you LA'd". Amazing
LA bus transit is amazing. It's cheap, regular, the driver regularly waives you through if you don't have the correct change, and if you're disabled, the driver will get out and strap you down himself to ensure you get to where you need to be.
Coming from UK/Europe perspective, the LA bus system seemed a little dirtier or sketchier than the ones I'm accustomed to... but the service was stellar.
The google street view photo may be misleading, there's a bus shelter beside the bench. It's not great as it doesn't protect from street noise, but at least provides some shade.
I’m less worried about the sun (a very real concern in LA, but I don’t leave the house without a sun jacket) than I am about the 12 lanes of traffic surrounding it without any kind of barrier. I always see shattered glass leftover from previous wrecks at big intersections like this, it’s not something I really want to be near as a pedestrian if one happens while I’m there.
Hey, I know a pretty similar bus stop in Hamburg, Germany: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SMa5unXew4uAfVtPA
Can confirm, it sucks to wait there. Hard to reach (always tempting to risk your life for catching the bus), noisy, stinky, plus ours has bicyclists zooming through the isle.
It's pretty versatile, no? The bus can come from either diagonal and go in more ways than a normal stop could.
I'm not saying that's good, but I feel like I've seen far worse. Like the ones that are just a pad of cement and a pole with a bus sign. There might be nearby businesses to indicate where people could go when they use the bus, maybe a desire path, but no actual pedestrian infrastructure.
It does look miserable but if the bus stop was before the landing then would it not prevent cars trying to take the turn before the island?
I believe car drivers are capable of waiting 15 seconds while vehicle which most likely transports multiple times more passengers dropping/picking those passengers. Car drivers wait hours in traffic jams for themselves, can wait a bit for bunch of people in a bus
@Lysergid @OlPatchy2Eyes Is it a scheduled stop? Having a bus sit there for 5 minutes when it is running fast would really suck. But I'd need a lot more than such a screen shot to know if this is a horrible stop or one that just looks silly.
There is a lot that goes into where stops should optimally be.
Why sit there 5 mins? This looks like normal city bus stop. Bus arrives at scheduled time, picks up passengers and takes off. I believe great ‘merica supper power nation can manage what Eastern Europe nations made happen years ago. Yes you may have few mins delays but it’s not a disaster.
If for whatever reason it must sit there for long time bust stop should be in a bay