This was identified as a need nearly 20 years ago. When other agencies had started doing it, even Amtrak Business class, and cell phone service, when I was working on ITS programs. Folks were getting real time traffic and we were beginning to put in bus tracking systems.

LACMTA's program focus priorities these days has seemed to be more about chasing the "flavor of the week" in transportation planning. Punishing the "evil" auto user, with road diets, take a lane bus lanes that don't save any travel time, but create more congested arterials, burn more gasoline from that "stop and go" traffic congestion, which results in more CO2 emissions, and "punishes" "petty bourgeoisie" "evil" auto users "complete streets" horsecrap has been that yplatest "flavor" recently.

Meeting real "user needs" of there riders, like more frequent and reliable bus service, through restructuring much of the 1950's route structure, to better connect to the expanding rail system with shorter high frequency "feeder" buses, or things like cell service and wifi, or even "quality of life" law enforcement, like keeping drunks, bums, fare evaders, and criminals out of the stations, and off of the buses and trains, has not been an apparent priority lately. And it shows...

The fixations with "bus lanes" is a result of blaming slowing traffic and slower bus speeds for declining bus ridership on MTA's long and slow 1950's bus routes. The MTA's own data suggests that the real reason for a decline in MTA's bus routes is not from slower bus speeds, but rather a function of 50% of those "lost" former bus riders switching to faster more frequent MTA "trains", and most of the rest from immigrants getting drivers licenses. Local bus systems (Pasadena ARTS, Glendale BeeLine, Cerritos on Wheels "COW") have shown no such losses.