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I've been on some damn crowded, sardine-in-the can, packed-to-the-brim buses before; such as the 200 down Alvarado or the 704 down Sunset. Both exasperating, yet, nothing in comparison to the Pico-Union/Echo Park DASH on a Sunday afternoon.
"Can I ask, why are you taking pictures?" a woman asked me as I awkwardly moved my arm around in what must have looked like a modern dance as I tried to get an angle for a shot (you can see how great it turned out). I told her I wanted to show people how crazy this bus was. How, if it is a Sunday afternoon on a route that comes every 15-minutes for 17-hours straight, that a bus line can be so full? After all, a kid's face was smashed up against my chest every time we hit a bump, a man's armpit was in my face and a woman's head rested on my shoulder.
The inquisitive woman told me it is always like this on Sunday afternoons. How about during the week? No, nothing like a weekend apparently.
My goal was to get from the Westlake/MacArthur Park Red Line Subway Station to deep within Echo Park. The route is obviously popular, in demand and extremely useful. The frequent and consistent service of 15-minute headways from 5 a.m. to ten at night is close to genius. The desire to ride in something ready to burst at the seems is none at all.
DASH buses are old and clunky, making the scariest Metro bus look like NASA. On Metro, an automated voice tells you the next stop over the speakers (or the bus driver calls it out). On DASH, your lucky if you have any warning. On Metro, an arriving bus at a stop tells people on the sidewalk the end destination (e.g., Universal City or Union Station). On DASH, it says "northbound" or "southbound," confusing the hell out of the directionally impaired.
DASH is a great local connector and the Pico-Union/Echo Park line is in need of some parenting love from the City. City Councilmembers Garcetti, Reyes, Perry? This is your bus too.
It should be noted that the closer Echo Park came, the ridership dwindled allowing people to sit down.
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The Sunday schedule is actually 12-minute intervals (15 in off-hours). Weekday is 10-minute intervals (12 in off-hours).
Also been nice to see some hybrid-electric new DASH's rolling around.
are those dudes in the back seriously that tall?
guest 2, haha, no. They are on a raised platform and there is actually a sign there saying no standees on raised platform.
Thanks for the clarification Andy.
I was of the misguided belief that taking the No. 4 at 11 p.m. back to Silver lake from Westwood would be roomy and quiet. Hell no. By WeHo we were beyond capacity... at least until this reeeeeeeeeeeeally filthy and stanky homeless woman toting the requisite garbage bag with everything she owned got on and several people uttered a collective "Oh Hell No!" and bailed out the back door. I just mouth-breathed until she exited.
And yeah, same thing: by the time we crossed Western the population had dwindled significantly.
maybe the buses got held up by some selfish biker blocking one to prove a point.
True..at least the Southpark DASH never gets like that during the weekdays. Actually, the 33 gets like this every so often.. and more often than not.
Try riding the 754 south on Vermont and Wilshire. It reminds me of the "buses" in Havana.
The Pico-Union/Echo Park DASH started nine years ago. It was one of the consent decree lines agreed to by the Bus Riders Union and Metro.
After about three years, Pico-Union/Echo Park became LADOT's busiest DASH line.
The line carries about 12,000 boardings a day. The line, for such a short route, is amazingly productive. And before 1998, most of the crowding was on Metro Line 200 along Alvarado Street.
There's not much that can be done about the crowding on this line. LADOT wants to keep a standard DASH fleet, and doesn't want to expand beyond the 30-foot buses. Also, an audit earlier this year revealed a major deficit in LADOT's budget brought on by council members making too many requests for new routes. LADOT cannot add more service until this deficit is reconciled.
And keep in mind that LADOT and Metro are two separate agencies. LADOT is a city service, and is responsible for the DASH services, not Metro.
in this most transit-user oriented community, in which i live and use at least twice a day, it seems the need for more routes or buses is overlooked. i have not in the year that i have lived in this area been on any transit that was not at least full and most often embarassingly so.
Even though this is a DASH, not a MTA line, should it be an MTA line, or can DASH use larger or even the new articulated busses instead of the current standard DASH mini buses? If there is a need it shouldn’t it be filed if not by DASH by the MTA or another agency?
Is it right for the riders to endure continually over crowded busses when there is an easy answer and fix?
Alan Fishel
Clearly this should be converted to a Metro line.
Maybe they could contract it out (like they do on some lines, like the 96 or the 603) and use those "school bus" type buses. They're smaller than the average Metro bus, but bigger than these dinky DASH 30 footers.