Sorry Bus Stops: Salt Lake City vs. McKees Rocks

Variety is the spice of Streetsblog’s Sorriest Bus Stop in America tournament, and today’s first round match introduces two bus stops that are each sorry in their own unique way.

So far, bus stops in Nashville, Cincinnati, and Beverly Hills are through to the second round. Voting is open until midnight for yesterday’s matchup pairing Pittsburgh against Revere, Massachusetts.

Now meet the contenders in today’s competition.

Salt Lake City

You may be wondering what’s so bad about this bus stop in Taylorsville, Utah, outside Salt Lake City. But there’s a good reason two people independently nominated it for this competition.

At first, this “appears to be a splendid example of a bus stop done right,” in the word of nominator Mike Christensen. “It sits upon a concrete pad with a shelter, bench, and even a trash can.”

But actually it’s terrible. The nearest crosswalk is 1,100 feet away, and what makes that really galling is what’s right across the street, Christensen says:

This bus stop lies along a five-lane wide stroad, where drivers typically speed along at 50 mph or more. The reason why the bus stop has undergone extensive improvements lies in the simple fact that it sits across the street from the headquarters of the Utah Department of Transportation.

Walking to Utah DOT headquarters from this stop using a marked crosswalk would require a 10-minute detour along a highway with no sidewalks. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who deserves the blame for sorry bus stops, but in this case it could not be clearer — Utah DOT.

McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania

This stop in McKees Rocks, outside Pittsburgh, offers bus riders nothing. No sidewalks. No shelter. Nowhere to sit. No trash can. And the turning radius at this street corner is so generous, it practically begs drivers to race through.

But the cherry on top is that “no pedestrians” sign which seems to be saying that bus riders aren’t allowed at this bus stop. Thanks to reader Sarah Quinn for flagging this blatant but fitting sign of disrespect.

This stop is served by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, but in this case it’s the engineers in charge of streets for the borough of McKees Rocks who shoulder the blame.