Called “la sombrita” (the little shadow), it is supposed, according to the public authorities, to provide a minimum of shelter to people waiting for the bus under a blazing sun. But it is above all the lighting powered by solar solar energy that motivated its creation.
A “little shade” to protect bus users from the heat is what the city of Los Angeles inaugurated ten days ago, attracting the wrath of those concerned. It must be said that the sombrita, is a kind of perforated skateboard about 60 centimeters wide, hung on top of a pole. “Small shadow” is certainly an understatement, because at the maximum, the device can shelter two people. So when a city councilor inaugurated, very enthusiastically, one of the four prototypes installed in town, Twitter went wild. One more example of the lack of consideration for users noted some, wasted public money criticized others.
Los Angeles is a sprawling city in Southern California known for its hot days. However, barely a quarter of its 12,000 bus stops have a bus shelter. Worse still: there is only a bench at every second stop on average and the metal sometimes burns so much that you can’t sit on it. It will be understood, in LA, kingdom of the car, public transport is treated as the last wheel of the carriage.
No ads, no bus shelters
An agreement had however been made a long time ago with JCDecaux. The French billboard giant has obtained the right to advertise at bus stops on condition that bus shelters are installed there. But in 20 years, he would have built only 660 of the 2,185 promised and, in general, in wealthy neighborhoods, where advertising is most likely to have an impact. Except that the median household income of 62% of transport users would be below 20,000 dollars, hence the anger of associations when the city decided to sign a similar agreement with another company. 500,000 Angelenos still use the buses on a daily basis.
There sombrita is therefore far from appearing to be a solution to the problem. The prototype currently costs $10,000, from design to installation. It’s already a lot cheaper than a bus shelter and the price will go down to $2,000 with the economy of scale. It installs in 20 minutes and doesn’t need tedious approval from local government, which can take months to arrive. It’s a non-profit organization that worked on the project, facing a lot of constraints: leaving a meter of space on the sidewalk, not settling anywhere, being durable, and easy to move. . The organization did what it could and readily admits that its pilot program could be improved.
A safer interest
But the shadow is not the real issue of the sombritaexplains an article from Los Angeles Times [article en anglais], partly defending the project. In 2021, THE DOT, one of the transport authorities, commissioned a study asking if these buses were fair for women. The current infrastructures, and even the routes, were, in fact, created for male users, proof of which is with the height of the seats, for example.
But now more than the majority of users are women. One of the first decisions taken in the wake of this report is to have authorized buses on certain routes, to stop on request and not necessarily at a stop, between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. This prevents users from walking too long alone in an area deemed to be at risk, in particular because urban lighting is rarely functional there. And this is one of the interests of the sombrita. The device is, in fact, equipped with a light powered by solar energy. What reassure a minimum the women forced to move alone in the dark. And if building bus shelters takes too much time or money, there are also plans to increase the frequency of buses, which would reduce the time spent waiting for them in the sun or at night.