The hippest, happiest bus drivers Southern California ever did know

These 1980s Employee-of-the-Month photos are a tribute to blue collar Angelenos

Thurmon Green, January 1983’s Southern California Rapid Transit Department Operator of the Month. (Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library/LACMTA Archive)

Think of Los Angeles, you think of cars, right? But what about buses? What about the public service, the schedule of transit coursing (or crawling) along L.A.’s car-thronged arteries, from Sunset Boulevard to Imperial Highway, from Foothill Boulevard to the PCH. These bus-driver portraits cast municipal transport in a starring role alongside Tinseltown’s Cadillacs, Beemers, and soft-top Corvettes.

Sporting perms, sideburns and sunglasses, some of these operators might look like extras from Boogie Nights or Inherent Vice. But they are, in fact, just regular, working men and women. They’re exemplary too; each was the recipient of the Operator Of The Month award from their employer, the Southern California Rapid Transit Department (RTD).

Dressed to impress (as much as one can in scratchy uniform), these drivers photographed in the office and behind the wheel are a welcome, if unusual, counterpoint to a city whose folklore is based on glitz, glamour, and celebrity fetishism.

Thurmon Green, SCRTD Operator of the Month, Jan. 14, 1983. (Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library/LACMTA Archive)

The RTD was created in 1964 and served Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties (it later became the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LAMTA). It wasn’t a bad place to work. Drivers got free rides anywhere in greater L.A.; uniquely, RTD offered free rides to family members and children of all employees too. No wonder they’re smiling.

These photos are from the Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive at LACMTA, which is the largest transit operator research collection in the United States. Cementing departmental pride and projecting a human face was necessary for RTD at the time, thanks to the massive agency’s reputation for throwing its weight around. (In one turf war with Long Beach Transit, RTD refused to honor the cross-town tickets which traversed both companies’ turfs.)

Looking over these photos, one wonders which routes the men and women drove. What did they see and who did they serve? Of course, any rose-tinted view of SoCal public transit is kept in check by the fact that L.A., despite much effort and hand-wringing, hasn’t managed to achieve a robust public transit system. Are these portraits the forgotten past of a generally disparaging present? Are bus drivers still this classy? Or is it just nostalgia that bestows nobility? Will Uber drivers ever achieve such cool?

All images courtesy of Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.