Tour bus operators and city officials have reached an informal agreement as part of a plan to eliminate traffic congestion from buses and passengers crowding city streets.
City officials met with the half-dozen major tour bus companies that operate vacation tours originating in Monterey Park and traveling throughout the Southwest and California.
The bus companies agreed to load and unload on off-street locations and to separate these spots as much as possible. The operators also agreed to have buses depart before 8:30 a.m. and to return to Monterey Park on staggered schedules.
"The problem was that 10 to 12 buses would be in one place, loading up on a Saturday morning, blocking visibility and with pedestrians running all over the street to get to a bus," said Assistant City Manager Stan Soo-Hoo.
"The idea was to address the problem and not overreact in a police kind of way." Bus operators last year complained that city officials had arbitrarily issued citations to buses that had allegedly committed zoning violations by improper parking on city streets.
