The Stinking Problem With L.A. Metro’s Seats
Now you know what that smell was.
By Benjamin Dunn
Los Angeles Metro. It stinks. Literally.
Step into a train or bus during rush hour and you’ll find yourself gasping for fresh air by the time you get to your destination. I’ve never really understood the concept of upholstered bus and subway seats. A public transportation system is supposed to get you from Point A to Point B quickly, safely and efficiently; comfort should only be considered as an added bonus.
While Metro may have hoped that the upholstered seats would serve as an amenity to riders, they ultimately fail this function. In fact, they make the typically arduous commutes even worse. They hardly add any comfort and the permeable fabric absorbs anything that touches them, creating serious hygiene problems. After a few years of riding Metro, I’ve seen everything from blood, to alcohol, to someone’s dinner leftovers covering these seats. Despite Metro’s best efforts to clean out the filth that accumulates everyday, the trains still greet Angelenos with a stench that’s sure to wake up any groggy-eyed passenger in the morning.
With all the humidity and grime that builds up during rush hour as hundreds of thousands of people cram into trains and busses, the seats also serve as the prefect breeding grounds for insects and bacteria. Don’t believe me? When BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) began service in the 70s, the seat cushions had a wool cover to make the trains “living room on wheels.” That didn’t work out so well. The agency ran a test on some of its seats back in 2011, and found fecal, skin borne bacteria and mold infesting its seats. A BART spokesman even said the results were “not surprising,” since daily ridership is over 400,000. Metro, with its massive network of bus and train lines, has a weekday average of 1.3 million boardings. It’s not a stretch to say that some of those same bacteria and mold live on Metro’s seats. Once after a short ride on the Expo Line from USC into Downtown, I found myself covered in flea bites as soon as I got off the train.
While some argue that upholstered seats prevents graffiti and etching, a thin layer of fabric and cushioning isn’t going to prevent a vandal from damaging the windows, walls and seat edges. It’s actually relatively easy to rip apart the seat cushions. There’s a reason why the world’s best public transit systems in Asia and Europe all use molded seats.
Even though upholstery is often associated with comfort and style, municipalities shouldn’t bring it out and cover buses and trains with it. The general population simply can’t be trusted to maintain and uphold cleanliness on public transit. I’d rather take a nicer smelling train and a molded plastic seat over one that reeks of the vomit and beer that a fellow passenger poured onto the seat last night. As Ray Mealleady, managing director of transit seating company USSC Group puts it, “For many, clean is the new comfortable.”
If keeping some kind of cushioning is necessary, switch out the cloth for a vinyl or impermeable kind of fabric. Once BART made the change, walking in between a wool and vinyl covered car was like night and day: I felt like I could finally breathe comfortably on a BART train. Besides offering passengers a more hygienic environment, the seats save BART money since the vinyl last longer and don’t require constant dry cleaning. As Metro expands its service through multiple corridors with the Regional Connector, Purple Line Extension and Crenshaw Line, it needs to provide a hygienic environment to encourage more Angelenos to ditch the car and take public transportation. Nobody wants to sit on a filthy seat that could potentially get them sick.
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