Big Blue Bus

The impetus for the creation was a fare increase on the Pacific Electric interurban trains between Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines was founded on 14 April 1928,[3][4] and launched its first route, choosing a blue livery. Culver CityBus was founded in 4 March 1928, making it the second oldest municipal bus line in California[5] and the oldest public transit bus system still operating in Los Angeles County.[3] San Francisco Municipal Railway began streetcar service 28 December 1912.[6]

Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines kept its base fare at 10 cents for a long time. The Santa Monica bus connected with the Los Angeles Railway streetcars at Pico and Rimpau Boulevards in the Mid-City section of Los Angeles. That historic terminus point has become an important transit center in Los Angeles simply because it is the point where thousands of bus riders along Pico Boulevard must transfer to continue their trips eastward to Downtown Los Angeles or westward to the Westside.

The Big Blue Bus is considered one of the best bus services in the Los Angeles area. The system won the American Public Transportation Association’s Outstanding Transportation System award in 1987, 1992, 1997, 2000 and 2011. The Big Blue Bus did not raise its regular fare above 50 cents until 2002, when it became 75 cents. In contrast, most public bus lines in California were charging fares of a dollar or more well before 2000. There was no monthly pass until August 2010[7] except for the EZ Pass,[8] and unlike other EZ Pass agencies, Metrolink fare media are not accepted. However, allowing for the inevitability of traffic delays on weekday afternoons, the Big Blue Bus system provides frequent and convenient service to most neighborhoods in its service area. Many routes serve UCLA.

The Big Blue Bus was one of the last transit agencies using the GMC New Look buses; they were retired in 2005. Big Blue Bus received the last New Looks ever built. The last one built, #5180, was driven off the property in May 2013 after being donated to the Museum of Bus Transportation in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which preserves the bus. It was also the first transit agency in the State of California to use the Grumman-Flxible Model 870 advanced design transit buses equipped with Lift-U wheelchair lifts beginning in 1978, and the third customer after Atlanta's MARTA, and the Connecticut's Department of Transportation's CT Transit's order of these buses. These buses never experienced the same chronic structural problems that plagued these early vehicles that were also sold to other transit agencies. These were also the very first production buses built with wheelchair lifts before ADA effectively became law of the land in 1990.

For 20 years until December 1999 Santa Monica Bank ran a series of humorous ads on the back of the buses. Examples include "Old and wrinkled is beautiful. Especially in large denominations", "Go invest, young man", "Was it his eyes? His lips? His jumbo CD?" and (the final one) "After 20 years on the bus, we've reached our stop". The campaign ended as the bank was absorbed by U.S. Bank.[9]

The system was started by former Brentwood resident Rudolph F. Brunner, who later sold the system thinking it wouldn't amount to any more than a few dollars a week.

On November 20, 2012, a Big Blue Bus turned left in front of an oncoming motorcyclist, which resulted in the 25-year-old man's death. The accident occurred at approximately 10:33 a.m. at the triangular intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Marquez in the Pacific Palisades. Only buses are allowed to make the left turn, a maneuver that has been determined to be too dangerous for other vehicles.

On June 7, 2013, Bus 4057 of Big Blue Bus was among several vehicles fired at during a thirteen-minute killing spree that left six people dead, including the gunman, and four others wounded. Three women suffered minor injuries aboard the bus, one from shrapnel-type injuries and the other two from injuries unrelated to the gunfire.[10] Approximately two dozen people were inside the bus at the time of the shooting. The attack on Bus 4057 marked the first time a Big Blue Bus came under attack by a gunman in its 85-year service.[11]

A Big Blue Bus in Westwood.

Big Blue Bus operates 14 local routes, 4 Rapid routes, and a couple of the local routes go into the Los Angeles City which are the 7,R7,3, R3 and the R12.

• # Sunday schedules are operated on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
• ‡ On the non-rapid routes, weekday trips between 7am and 8pm serve UCLA Transit Center / Hilgard Terminal; weekday trips from 8p-7a and all weekend trips serve Charles E Young/P2 Hub (Charles E. Young Dr. between Westholme Ave. and Manning Ave.). Rapid 12 always serves Charles E Young/P2 Hub.[12]

Ayer, Bob. History of Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus. Santa Monica, CA: City of Santa Monica, 1992.

Media related to Big Blue Bus at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Google Map of Routes (last updated 2007)