Revolutionary Waste-Free Buses Set to Hit the Streets

In what sounds like a headline straight from a satirical publication, Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation recently issued a plea to its bus passengers: refrain from defecating on the buses. It is a request that highlights a rather pungent issue within the city’s public transportation system.

As far as official policies go, this particular approach is less than effective. The unfolding scenario should be a source of embarrassment for Mayor Karen Bass, the City Council, and LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo, who are now called upon to implement more robust measures. Rather than simply requesting that passengers report such incidents, there is a pressing need for tangible enforcement and oversight to address and ultimately eradicate this problem.

The current strategy involves LADOT’s “See Something, Do Something” campaign, which features videos that play repeatedly on buses. These clips remind riders of basic decorum, instructing them not to drink, not to smoke, to purchase a ticket, and, quite notably, not to defecate. However, as these reminders loop endlessly, the need for a more practical and enforceable solution becomes increasingly clear.

Moreover, they should act to end the bus pooping –– through meaningful enforcement and oversight –– rather than asking riders to report those who defecate nearby.

LADOT’s “See Something, Do Something” videos ask passengers –– on a loop –– to behave on the bus: Don’t drink, don’t smoke, buy a ticket, and don’t poop.

The campaign echoes a similar approach on LA Metro, which airs, on similar loops, requests that passengers refrain from sexually harassing others on the train.

This is what we’ve come to on Los Angeles public transportation?

It’s a wonder any woman, or any civilized person, really, would want to ride LA public transit, given a lack of safety, reliability, and basic sanitation.

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This is the largest city in a state whose governor boasts incessantly about “running” the fourth-largest economy in the world. 

LA taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars a year on city buses.

And Bass, the council and Rubio-Cornejo can’t do better than feces-strewn buses and cartoon PSAs?

It’s a shame.

And it reflects a complete collapse of standards.

The city needs to end its permissive approach to uncivilized conduct. 

The left uses terms such as equity and social justice to rationalize all manner of favoritism and leniency, and it’s wrong.

The bus feces predicament points to a broader need, as well: Bass and the council should address the causes of homelessness in LA –– specifically, mental illness and substance abuse.

Instead, they shovel billions of tax dollars into a homeless industrial complex that enriches developers and nonprofits while doing little to move people off the streets long-term.

Memo to City Hall, and to voters: None of this is serving the people of Los Angeles.

The mayor and council need to give the streets back to residents and public transportation back to the public.

In what world is stool on the bus seat OK?

Clean it up, LADOT.

And we don’t just mean the poop after it’s been left.