The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, commonly referred to as LADOT, is a municipal agency that oversees transportation planning, design, construction, maintenance and operations within the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. LADOT was created by city ordinance, and is run by a general manager appointed by the

Mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of the City of Los Angeles is the official head and chief executive officer of Los Angeles. The officeholder is elected for a four-year term and is limited to serving no more than two terms. (Under the Constitution of California, all ...

, under the oversight of a citizens' commission also appointed by the mayor. LADOT is best known for providing

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

to the City of

. It currently operates the second-largest fleet in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

next to Metro. It consist of over 300 vehicles, serving nearly 30 million passengers a year and operating over 800,000 hours. LADOT also develops the

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic lights ...

timing and

transportation planning Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that ...

for the city. Actual road maintenance and construction is provided by the Los Angeles City Department of Public Works. LADOT performs many transportation related duties, with six main operating groups: Parking Enforcement & Traffic Control, Operations, Project Delivery, Parking Management & Regulations, Transit Services, and Administration.

Current LADOT transit services

DASH

DASH is LADOT's system of neighborhood circulator bus services. DASH buses serve to provide localized service in a neighborhood, and for passengers making longer trips, acting as a feeder to the countywide Metro Bus and Metro Rail system. The name DASH started as

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Downtown Area Short Hop, the original purpose of the service. Since its launch in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is a ...

, DASH has expanded to 27 other neighborhoods in the City of Los Angeles. DASH buses are or long, making it easier to navigate in dense neighborhoods with narrower streets and tighter turns compared to a typical transit bus. All buses in the DASH fleet are powered by either low-emission CNG or

Propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as ...

engines or are zero-emission

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. In 2018, the National Renewable Energy Laborator ...

es.

DASH routes include: * Beachwood Canyon (connects with Metro B Line) *

Boyle Heights Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

East LA East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purp ...

(connects with Metro J Line, L Line) * Chesterfield Square (connects with

Metro A Line The Metro A Line is a bus rapid transit line in the Twin Cities, Minnesota operated by Metro Transit. The A Line operates primarily along the Snelling Avenue corridor and travels through the cities of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Falcon Height ...

) * Crenshaw (connects with

Metro E Line The Metro E Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Edina. The route will operate from Southdale Center Transit Center in Edina, Minnesota to Westgate station in St. Paul. Running mostly on France Avenue, Hennepin ...

and

K Line is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...

) *Downtown A: Arts District–City West (connects with

, B Line, D Line, E Line, J Line and L Line) *Downtown B: Chinatown– Financial District (connects with

, B Line, D Line, E Line, J Line, L Line, Metrolink and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

) *Downtown D: Union Station–

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand ...

– LATTC (connects with

, B Line, D Line, E Line, J Line, L Line, Metrolink and

) *Downtown E: Westlake/MacArthur Park– Financial District (connects with

, B Line, D Line, E Line and J Line) *Downtown F: Financial District– Exposition Park–

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

(connects with

, B Line, D Line, E Line and J Line) * El Sereno/ City Terrace * Fairfax * Highland Park/ Eagle Rock (connects with Metro L Line) *

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

(connects with the Metro B Line) *

/ Wilshire (

Larchmont Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...

Shuttle) (connects with Metro B Line and D Line) *King-East (connects with

, E Line and J Line) * Leimert/ Slauson (connects with Metro K Line) * Lincoln Heights/

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...

(connects with Metro J Line, L Line) * Midtown (connects with

) * Northridge/ Reseda (connects with

Metrolink Ventura County Line The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system. The line is the successor of the short lived CalT ...

) *

Observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. ...

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

(connects with Metro B Line) *

Panorama City Panorama City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. It has a generally young age range as well as the highest population density in the Valley. Ethnically, more than half of its population was born a ...

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, ...

(connects with Metro G Line and

) *

Pico Union Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to ...

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known f ...

(connects with

, B Line and D Line) * Pueblo Del Rio (connects with

) * San Pedro (connects with Metro J Line) *

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

(connects with

and J Line) *

Sylmar Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and th ...

(connects with

Metrolink Antelope Valley Line The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The northern segment of the line is rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soledad C ...

) *

Studio City Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...

(connects with Metro G Line) *

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

/ Main (connects with Metro J Line) *

Watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People * Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' * Watts family, six cha ...

(connects with

and C Line) * Wilmington (connects with Metro J Line) *

Wilshire Center Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in the Wilshire region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The name "Wilshire Center" is a relatively modern moniker that refers to much of the eastern portion of the Wilshire Community Plan area (CPA), ge ...

Koreatown A Koreatown ( Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have ...

(connects with Metro B Line and D Line)

Commuter Express

Commuter Express is an

express bus Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications ...

service, consisting of 15 routes, all but one running during rush hours only. Service started in 1985. Fares are based on a flat rate for travel on streets plus an extra charge based on the distance traveled on freeways. Most Commuter Express buses are or MCI D-Series motorcoaches, offering a more comfortable ride on these longer routes. All buses in the Commuter Express fleet are powered by low-emission CNG engines. Route 142 operates more like a normal transit bus route, operating daily at all hours, using more typical transit buses. The route was previously operated by

Long Beach Transit Long Beach Transit (LBT) is a municipal transit company providing fixed and flexible bus transit services in Long Beach, California, United States, in other communities in south and southeast Los Angeles County, and northwestern Orange County. L ...

. Routes 419, 423, 431, 437, 438, and 448 are former Southern California Rapid Transit District lines that were transferred to LADOT. Unless otherwise noted, all services operates towards Downtown LA during the morning rush and from Downtown LA during the afternoon rush. For the purposes of this chart, closed-door means that customers are not allowed to use buses for local trips and open-door means that customers are allowed to use buses for local trips.

CityRide

CityRide is a program for individuals in the city of Los Angeles, aged 65 or older and for qualified disabled persons.

In popular culture

The transit agency makes a cameo appearance in the ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, until ...

'' episode "Hooray for North Hollywood Part 2", where Dot Warner spots an LADOT bus, thinking it was named in her honor. She then sings gleefully about it, but Yakko corrects his sister, telling her what LADOT actually means. Realizing her mistake, Dot nevertheless finishes her song on a positive note.

Fleet

References

External links

Los Angeles Department of TransportationTrafficInfoDepartment summary, p. 36
{{DEFAULTSORT:Los Angeles Department Of Transportation Public transportation in Los Angeles County, California Bus transportation in California Transportation in Los Angeles Transportation in the San Fernando Valley Transportation in Los Angeles County, California

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

Transit authorities with alternative-fuel vehicles