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 wor ...

. LADOT was created by city ordinance, and is run by a general manager appointed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, 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 most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

next to

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban ...

. 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 light ...

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, a ...

for Downtown Area Short Hop, the original purpose of the service. Since its launch in Downtown Los Angeles, 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 buses. Ladot-dash2

DASH routes include: * Beachwood Canyon (connects with

Metro B Line The Metro B Line is a planned bus rapid transit route in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The route will operate mostly on Lake Street in Minneapolis before crossing the Mississippi River into St. Paul and operating mostly on Selby Avenue and ending i ...

) * Boyle Heights/ East LA (connects with Metro J Line, L Line) * Chesterfield Square (connects with Metro A Line) * Crenshaw (connects with Metro E Line and K Line) *Downtown A: Arts District–City West (connects with Metro A Line, B Line,

D Line D Line may refer to: Transportation * Line D (Buenos Aires Underground), an underground line in Buenos Aires, Argentina * D Line (Los Angeles Metro), a rapid transit line in Los Angeles County, California * Line D (Prague Metro), a subway route i ...

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

, E Line, J Line, L Line, Metrolink and

) *Downtown E: Westlake/MacArthur Park– Financial District (connects with Metro A Line, B Line,

, E Line and J Line) *Downtown F: Financial District– Exposition Park– USC (connects with Metro A Line, B Line,

, E Line and J Line) * El Sereno/ City Terrace *

Fairfax Fairfax may refer to: Places United States * Fairfax, California * Fairfax Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California * Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California, centered on Fairfax Avenue * Fairfax, Georgia * Fairfax, Indiana * Fa ...

* Highland Park/ Eagle Rock (connects with Metro L Line) * Hollywood (connects with the

) * Hollywood/ Wilshire ( Larchmont Shuttle) (connects with

and

) *King-East (connects with Metro A Line, E Line and J Line) * Leimert/ Slauson (connects with Metro K Line) * Lincoln Heights/ Chinatown (connects with Metro J Line, L Line) * Midtown (connects with Metro E Line) * Northridge/ Reseda (connects with Metrolink Ventura County Line) *

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. H ...

/ Los Feliz (connects with

) * Panorama City/

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 The Metro G Line, previously known as the Robert Street Corridor, is a proposed bus rapid transit corridor, from Little Canada to West Saint Paul via downtown Saint Paul on Rice and Robert Streets. Robert Street is named after Captain Louis Robe ...

and Metrolink Ventura County Line) * Pico Union/ Echo Park (connects with Metro A Line, B Line and

) * Pueblo Del Rio (connects with Metro A Line) * San Pedro (connects with Metro J Line) * Southeast (connects with Metro A Line and J Line) * Sylmar (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 ...

) *

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

) *

Vermont Vermont () is a 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 to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

/ Main (connects with Metro J Line) * Watts (connects with Metro A Line and C Line) * Wilmington (connects with Metro J Line) * Wilshire Center/ Koreatown (connects with

and

)

Commuter Express

Commuter Express is an express bus 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. 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 series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, 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 o ...

'' 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, pipel ...

Transit authorities with alternative-fuel vehicles