DASH Downtown
DASH provides a cheap, clean alternative to driving to and from the city, but doesn’t run often enough
By ROBB FERRIS
Staff Writer
Noah
Toomey and Billy McIntyre step off the DASH and turn toward the front door
of their apartment complex.
"I take the DASH
all over," said Toomey, a senior majoring in architecture who lives in the
Metropolitan complex downtown. "Sometimes on weekends I'll take it up to
the Coliseum to see football games, because it's cheaper and you don't have
to deal with traffic. You can take it downtown, if there are events
downtown. It's really easy, it just loops around everything."
Catering to
corporate employees, local residents and, more recently, USC students, the
DASH buses have been running all over downtown for several years. Downtown
transportation programs like the DASH (Downtown Area Short Hop) will
continue to expand and develop in the future if there is a demonstrated
need for them, said Philip Aker of the Los Angeles Department of
Transportation.
Lately, with
USC's steady expansion and more USC students living downtown, demand for an
affordable public transit system has increased, said Bing Cherrie,
associate vice president of planning at USC. Students ride the buses to and
from the campus and often around the city on weekends.
The development
of new housing complexes, shopping malls and other attractions have drawn
more students into the downtown area who would not otherwise see it as a
suitable place to live, Cherrie said.
The recent
growth in downtown transportation has been structured around other growth
in the community, Aker said.
"We found that
80 percent of the people living in one development in the area do not work
downtown," Aker said. "Some people are opting to live downtown as a choice.
There is something happening downtown and businesses are looking for
services that can accommodate the people in the community."
Historically,
downtown has unsuccessfully tried to compete with surrounding cities and
communities such as Santa Monica, San Pedro, Long Beach and Orange County,
Aker said. But he said he thinks this will change with the construction of
the Sports and Entertainment District near the Staples Center and other
revitalization projects downtown.
DASH buses run
short routes through different neighborhoods, stopping about every two to
five minutes. At 25 cents for a one-way fare, the DASH is a less expensive
alternative to the MTA buses, which run more than $1 for a one-way ticket.
In 1996, the
DASH bus system was changed to answer an increased demand by the USC
community and Exposition Park area. A new Route F was designed that circled
around the USC campus and then followed Figueroa Street downtown into the
Financial District. The route was developed despite the fact that there was
an existing MTA bus route almost identical to the proposed DASH route.
"The Department
of Transportation was hesitant to put a DASH route on Figueroa by USC,"
Cherrie said. "MTA routes and DASH routes are not usually supposed to
overlap."
The operation of
a second bus service is not met with approval everywhere. Cynthia Rojas of
the Bus Riders Union of Los Angeles said the BRU does not support the
operation of the DASH buses, but supports the idea of a community bus
system.
"In some places,
people try to organize their schedules to allow them to jump off an MTA bus
and onto a DASH bus. If one is late, then the other one might be missed,"
Rojas said.
In addition to
decentralizing, the DASH contracts to private companies, which are not
required to pay their workers as much as a government organization and thus
can operate on a smaller budget.
Still, a new
DASH route was implemented along Figueroa Street, mostly because the buses
were clean and cheaper than the MTA.
McIntyre, a
senior majoring in sociology, does not ride the DASH on weekends because he
owns a car. However, he rides the buses loyally during the week to and from
school, because it is easier and more cost-efficient than driving to and
from the Metropolitan, where he lives.
"It picks me up
right in front of my building and drops me off at school," he said. "It's
cheap and fast."
The buses are
clean, devoid of the usual chewing gum on the seats and tagged windows.
Many students say the system is safe as well.
Other students
point out that the buses that service the USC area do not operate as
frequently as those on other routes, and can sometimes come too late or too
early.
"It can be a bit
of an inconvenience sometimes," said Dan Port, a sophomore majoring in
creative writing. "I mean if you miss your bus or if it shows up late, you
will probably be late for class or whatever."
Port, who lives
in Promenade Towers, does not depend on the DASH; he carpools with friends
to school a few times a week and rarely rides the bus on weekends.
However, he said
he might consider taking the DASH later on, especially to sporting events
on or around campus.
Now the DASH
runs into the early evening during weekdays, usually stopping service at
6:30 p.m. That is a big drawback, especially for USC students, faculty and
staff, Cherrie said.
"I think most
people hope that the DASH would consider expanding its hours of operation,"
he said. "There are many requests coming from students, especially graduate
students (regarding later hours of operation)."
The LADOT has no
plans yet to expand the hours of operation or the routes, even in
anticipation of the new Staples Center entertainment complex. Aker wants to
see a demand for later hours before DASH commits to anything.
"We don't want
to run a bunch of empty buses at night for a few weeks and see if people
decide to ride them," he said. "We need to see that there is a need for the
service, that businesses are building restaurants and theaters downtown and
that people are frequenting them."
Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 144, No. 55 (Wednesday, November 14, 2001), beginning on page 3 and ending on page 7.