America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Broomfield vs. Kansas City
It’s Final Four time in Streetsblog’s Sorriest Bus Stop tournament. After two rounds, only the least appealing, most dehumanizing bus stops are still standing.
In addition to today’s contestants, a bus stop in Boston has advanced to the semi-finals. Voting remains open until midnight to determine the last slot in the Final Four — Silver Spring or Asheville.
On to today’s match…
Broomfield
This bus stop in Broomfield has taken out two sorry bus stops in Oregon so far — one in Portland and another in Hillsboro.
It’s not just the inept signage and lack of any waiting area amenities that make this a terrible bus stop, says submitter Aaron Schultz:
From the bus stop looking in either direction, you can’t see the nearest pedestrian crossing, not to mention there is no sidewalk, just a suburban Berlin Wall to demarcate homes from the road. The closest crosswalk to this stop goes to a residential street that dead ends in all directions.
Here’s another angle with a better view of the road:
Agencies in charge: Colorado DOT, city and county of Broomfield, RTD.
Kansas City
Kansas City’s entry overcame sorry stops in DC and St. Louis County to reach the Final Four. If you want to take transit to see the Royals, you will encounter this barren bus stop, writes Brian Curran:
This stop is in Kansas City near Kaufmann Stadium, where the Royals play. It’s located on the side of a multi-lane highway with no crosswalks nearby, and no place other than a vast grassy area to wait for the bus. There is no signage indicating exactly where the stop is either. An adventurous way to get to and from a Royals game!
The bus system in KC is run by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, which is run by a board comprised of appointed members from both Missouri and Kansas.
Since you can’t tell exactly where the bus stops, here it is marked up on an aerial view:
Agencies in charge: Missouri DOT, KCATA.
Which bus stop is the sorriest?
- Kansas City (50%, 159 Votes)
- Broomfield (50%, 156 Votes)
Total Voters: 315
Here’s the map of all the contenders.
I think the Broomfield stop wins the irony award, but for my money the Kansas City stop is the worst of the two as any transit stop should at the very least have some sort of signage indicating where it is.
Unless someone has seen a bus pick up there, I’m inclined to believe that is not the stop and the actual stop is at the south end of the parking lot. While not any better, at least there is a sign.
Is that the tiny blue sign with a triangle on it? I’m not able to read the text from the StreetView.
Just out of curiosity, were you able to spot the southbound bus stop sign? I don’t even seen a small blue sign with a triangle on that side of the street. (Maybe I just overlooked it.)
I submitted the KC stop, and it is indeed a stop! Me and some family took the bus to and from a Royals game when we were there. There’s no sign for the stop on the other side of the street (where we got dropped off for the game) either. The only way we were able to cross that road was that some state cops decided to stop traffic for us :/.
Man competition is pretty f-ing tight this year! Some great stops so far. Whoever the winner is, it’s gona be a doozy this year!
Then that is one sorry stop. This deserves to take the cake.
Broomfield FTW!