But the buses became overcrowded so quickly that the MTA deployed 20 more. Even with these additions, standees are a common sight, especially on the Wilshire-Whittier line. Demand has induced added service, and the added service appears to have induced growing demand. Further simple enhancements can speed these new buses even more. On crowded lines passengers may pay before boarding at the bus stop to significantly quicken passenger boarding, reducing the time that buses spend at stops.
Wider doors can allow for faster loading and unloading.
As ridership grows, so does the justification for increasing the green-light signal priority for Rapid Buses. To be most effective, Rapid Buses should be carefully integrated with improved local bus service to take passengers to and from places between Rapid Bus stops. These enhancements could give Metro Rapid Buses 80 percent to 90 percent of the speed advantage subways have over regular buses, at a tiny fraction of the cost. For the cost of just one mile of new subway, hundreds of miles of new Metro Rapid Bus routes can be created, reaching many more communities, and offering riders the benefits of a comprehensive network of service. If the taxpayer dollars expended on any of the recently opened rail transit lines in LA had been spent on Rapid Bus service instead, the entire metropolitan area could be blanketed with frequent, affordable service carrying many more transit passengers than today.