Five Key Tips For Metro Regarding Safe Bus-Bike Interactions

Early last week, Michael MacDonald posted his helmet-camera video showing a Metro bus driver veering rightward into his path, then braking. The incident occurred on Adams Boulevard near Hauser. When MacDonald confronted the driver, he responds dismissively and closes the bus window.

The video bounced around the bike corner of cyberspace. It was picked up by Biking in L.A. who called it “a perfect test case for the city’s cyclist anti-harassment ordinance.” The footage ran on Univision and CBS.

There are other similar videos online. Below is one that took place on Santa Monica Boulevard, from YouTube user Wes + Bikes.

Though it doesn’t get recorded on video often, I can personally confirm that this sort of merge conflict happens to lots of L.A. cyclists very frequently, especially those of us intrepid enough to “take the lane” on L.A.’s busier arterial bus-route streets. Yesterday, I bicycled from Koreatown to Downtown L.A. and had two transit vehicles merge into my path, one a Metro Bus and the other an LADOT DASH Shuttle. Public agency bus merges are frequent, as they get over to the curb to pick up passengers, but I’ve also been cut off by plenty of private vehicles, especially near freeway on-ramps, and driveways.

When a bus is passing me and I can read the situation to see that the driver is moving right to pick up passengers, here’s what I do:

I brake, slow way down, until I am behind the bus.

I use hand gestures to tell the driver to keep merging rightward (sometimes it seems like the driver is expecting me to pass on the right, so they are braking, too, waiting for me.)

Pass the bus on its left. Though buses can seem big and full of momentum and threatening to cyclists, the good news is that they don’t have any doors on the left side, so, on the left, cyclists can pass fairly close to them with no threat of dooring.

Throughout this negotiation, I try to remind myself that every 40-seat Metro bus I encounter is roughly 20-50 fewer cars on the road. I try to sympathize with that Metro driver who’s doing her/his job navigating the same crappy traffic that I am.

I suspect this pass-left move will be more difficult for some of the very-fast-moving cyclists out there, but I think that slowing and passing on the left is generally the safest and least stressful way to go.

As Biking in L.A. reported, cyclists often report these incidents to via Metro’s formal complaint process, then hear nothing back from the agency. MacDonald filed a complaint, and, to date, has yet to hear back. The agency quietly impenetrably seals customer complaints in the bus driver’s personnel file.

In this case, though, Metro responded publicly. Well, sort of. While there was a tiny bit of media heat on this, Metro published this article on its The Source blog. Metro cited bus driver training materials – all the way from Chicago! The article concludes with Metro’s 5 “key tips” advice to cyclists.

I’ve been thinking about key tips, bike safety, buses, and all. Here are a few key tips I have for Metro.

5 Key Tips for Metro Interaction with Bicyclists: