America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Omaha vs. St. Louis

Had your fill of terrible bus stops? You better have room for more, because you’re about to meet the last two entries in Streetsblog’s 2017 Sorriest Bus Stop in America competition.

Get excited for a Midwest classic as St. Louis takes on Omaha. (Voting is still open for yesterday’s match pitting Seattle against Fremont, California.)

Remember that it takes teamwork to make a truly terrible bus stop. It’s not just the transit agency that’s to blame, but also the DOT (and, in a broader sense, the whole complicated history of bad decisions that undergirds car-centric development). To fix these bus stops, someone in government needs to take charge and coordinate between the agencies responsible for streets and transit.

Omaha

This stop, nominated by Chris Goodman, is marked only by that little blue sign on the left. This photo actually captures the stop from a flattering angle. Out of frame, the cross street has no sidewalk to speak of, he writes:

As you can see from the photo, the stop has no infrastructure at all aside from a sign. There’s no sidewalk on 96th Street at all and this particular intersection marks where W. Dodge turns into a divided highway.

What’s crazy about this bus stop is that anyone making a roundtrip will, at some point, have to dash across those eight lanes of speeding traffic without the benefit of a signalized crossing.

Agencies responsible: Nebraska DOT, Omaha Transit Authority.

St. Louis

This bus stop is under Interstate 70 where the highway crosses the Mississippi. Submitter Carrie Zukoski says this seems to be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing:

I notice the stop is under the [highway], but notice way beyond that is what looks like a couple of new benches, out in the elements. It’s not a new bus stop, so unsure why whomever placed the benches where they did couldn’t have at very least put them next to the bus stop.

Agencies responsible: Metro Transit, St. Louis Streets Department.