Will Metro's WiFi Plans Finally Inspire Angelenos to Take the Bus?

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Back in 2012, our sister site Curbed pointed out that, unless completely carless, Angelenos rarely voluntarily ride the bus. If only Metro could find a way to make the bus transit experience suck less, maybe our city would have more "discretionary" riders so shopping center parking would be less of a pain and freeways wouldn't be constantly clogged? (Though, let's face it, they'll never not be jammed.) Now that folks are less opposed to jumping on the subway (with pants or otherwise), Metro has finally, possibly figured out how to get the same action on its buses: WiFi!

Metro spokesperson Jose Ubaldo tells local blog LAist the following that "lab testing of equipment from leading Wi-Fi vendors was successfully completed." Regarding timing and quantity, he Ubaldo reveals that "during the upcoming quarter up to nine buses will be outfitted with Wi-Fi using evaluation units supplied by three vendors [...] Evaluation and testing will continue through the following quarter to assess customer usage, coverage, reliability and potential for expansion."

Potential for expansion! We'll keep a watch on progress and will pray that all these new bus riders will keep their pants on.