Eric Richardson [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Spring street gained a peak-hour bus lane last year as part of the removal of the northbound contraflow lane. From 7am to 9am and 4pm to 6pm there is no stopping on both Spring and Main between 1st and 9th.

At the time of the removal I wrote an opinion piece criticizing the plan (though not the contraflow removal) and asking that peak-hour parking be allowed in order to narrow the roadway and slow speeding traffic. In a meeting with LADOT I was told specifically that this lane was vital to keeping traffic moving, and that the traffic count data could not support taking the lane out of service during rush hour.

It's nice to see how unofficially opinions change.

For the last few months the evening restricted hours have seen Spring street between 6th and 7th become a favorite stopover for Commuter Express buses waiting to make their runs. The buses park and sit for fifteen to twenty minutes as the drivers nap or get out to patronize one of the eateries on the block. The driverless bus shown here has been sitting for at least fifteen minutes in the heart of the 4-6 restricted hours. Traffic meanwhile, is never so heavy as to demand the curbside lanes.

I'm all for LADOT employees eating at Downtown establishments, but it's entirely hypocritical of LADOT to say that traffic conditions demand the lane and then block it up with their own out-of-service buses. One of the two needs to change. Either off-duty buses need to be cited for parking in an active bus lane, or we need to get that peak hour parking back on the streets of the Historic Core.

Update (5:25pm): The bus pictured just pulled away, having sat blocking the lane for about a half hour.