About the only thing the Rapid adds to a limited-stop bus that runs all day is signal priority;
And even the purported benefits of "signal priority" are never realized.
First, it only extends a green light by ten seconds or shortens a red by the same time or a little shorter. Then, the computer measures the level of traffic on the cross street. If traffic becomes too heavy on the cross street by lengthening the green, the priority is canceled. Third, the city that controls the signals metes out permission to Metro based on a headway. That is, only one bus every 15 or 20 minutes gets permission. So nearly all of the Wilshire Rapids, at 2 minute headways during rush hours, get no benefit from the signal priority. And traffic intersecting Wilshire is so bad, the transponders are effectively turned off at hours when the most people ride them.
Metro effectively predicates the success of the Rapid program on the premise that it is successful as long as the public is not on to the game. I'm the only heretic to see that all Rapid gives L.A. is red buses. Bus rapid transit is effectively a "Mad Libs" solution to public transportation, in that applicants can receive capital money to do whatever they wish as long as it uses buses. BRT was supposed to be capital-intensive investments in public transit using buses as the vehicles as opposed to rail. The Orange Line is a proper application of BRT. Rapid is not.
Here's why.
Metro already runs a non-Rapid class of services, that provides a similar service to red buses, only without the red buses. They are called Limiteds, and they are line numbers 300-399. (As an aside, Metro defines "Express" as a line that has a segment running for at least 4 miles nonstop, typically on a freeway. Limiteds make fewer stops, but they are not Expresses. Many Express buses act like local buses off the freeway.) Limiteds are distinguishable by a segment of route where the buses only stop where a transfer can be made to an intersecting bus line. The one key difference between a Limited and a Rapid is that a Rapid has been limited on the entire length of its route; a limited has stretches of route (usually at the ends or within downtown L.A.) where it serves the same stops as a local. Otherwise, they are indistinguishable.
Now let me relay an interesting story about Rapids and Limiteds. Keep in mind that Rapid's project manager is Rex Gephart. This was a conversation I had with him over a decade ago, four years before the start of the first "Rapid" routes.
Gephart attended a service change meeting in Koreatown to give a sneak preview of route modifications for the next year. I was in attendance. One of the route proposals involved adding a new limited-stop line to Line 37 on Adams Bl. Line 37 also continues as Line 14 on Beverly Bl. Adams was getting a limited-stop line while Beverly was not. I had asked Gephart why, and told him that if Adams is getting a fast limited-bus, Beverly should, too.
Gephart told me that one of the biggest public misconceptions about the Limited stop service was that it was "fast." He says limited stop buses can be fast, but the speed is more of a byproduct rather than the goal itself. He doesn't care how fast a limited bus is over a local. He's not a scheduler or a driver. What drives the need for limited-stop buses is
how crowded a local line is. Limited-stop buses are pressure-release valves to the locals, because riders who are making transfers will opt for the limited and riders who are completing a trip (either using only one bus or going to their destination) will choose the local. Limiteds end up faster because they make fewer stops and carry fewer people than the local. Planners and schedulers, though, are not targeting Limiteds with improved speed in mind. Otherwise, every line can have a Limited just because it improves speed. Instead, when a Limited is proposed for creation, planners have to look for both heavy passenger loads
and concentrated activity at transfer points. Only when a local demonstrates sufficient characteristics in both will it get a Limited.
I would like to think both Gephart and I walked away learning a lesson.
My lesson was that I gained insight into methods used by Metro, and how it runs and evaluates its service. I knew what makes, and does not make, Limited buses.
Gephart may have heard a bus rider say he noticed that limited buses were faster than locals. Hmm. Interesting. Maybe Metro should try adding a speed component into Limited stop buses, and run it by Marketing to sell its speed.
But I cannot go around saying definitively that I invented Rapid bus, because like Al Gore's "I invented the internet" meme, it creates a misconception and makes the sayer look like an ass.
Then again, there is no limited-stop on Adams. But there is a Rapid on Beverly. It has to make you wonder.
