DASH Bus Cameras Now Catch Cars Parked in L.A. Bus Lanes and Stops

For 60 days, car owners get a warning in the mail. After that, cars the cameras catch can get a $293 citation from LADOT.

Leave your car in a Los Angeles bus stop now, and the next DASH shuttle that pulls up will record it.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation switched on cameras on its DASH buses Monday, Streetsblog L.A. reported. For the first 60 days, the owner of a car caught in a bus lane or at a bus stop gets a warning letter. Starting Jan. 2, 2027, the same catch brings a real citation, and each one costs $293.

So the grace period runs two months. The letters during that stretch are only warnings. The ones after it are bills.

The city says the point is the bus, not the money. LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo said a car parked in a stop can keep the driver from safely lowering the wheelchair ramp and can force the bus out into traffic, City News Service reported for NBC Los Angeles. "Keeping bus lanes and bus stops clear of illegally parked vehicles is essential to ensuring that DASH buses are on-time and accessible for the people who rely on our service," she said, according to NBC Los Angeles.

LADOT points to Santa Monica as proof the cameras work. It set that city's numbers for March 2026 against August 2025, the first full month Santa Monica sent out unpaid warnings. LADOT says bus-lane parking violations came in 52% lower in March, and bus-stop violations 40% lower.

LADOT also says New York City's cameras sped buses up by as much as 36% on some crowded stretches of road. And it says 91% of drivers ticketed there haven't gotten a second ticket.

DASH isn't the first fleet here with these cameras. It joins Metro, Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus and Culver City Bus. Metro's version launched in November 2024 with the same 60-day warning period, and it now covers Lines 70, 212, 720, 910 and 950.

The easy mistake is mixing up two camera programs. The city's new speed cameras launched within a week of these and also started with 60 days of warnings, Streetsblog L.A. noted. The speed cameras stay in one spot on the street. The bus cameras ride along on the buses, and they only catch cars in the lane or at the stop.

Here's how a catch works. Each bus has two forward-facing cameras behind the windshield that spot and record a car blocking the lane or the stop. A person at LADOT looks over every possible violation before a citation goes out.

The letter goes to the car's registered owner. If a friend borrowed the car and left it at the curb, the mail still comes to the name on the registration.

Metro's camera tickets show where the next step leads. Metro's program page sends drivers caught in the city to the LADOT Parking Violations Bureau, where they can watch the video, contest the citation or pay it online. LADOT staff review the footage from both fleets.

If a $293 ticket would sink your month, LADOT says low-income drivers can get payment plans.

The warning letters keep coming until Jan. 2. After that, the same photo costs $293.

Source: la.streetsblog.org, retrieved November 2, 2026. Other sources: nbclosangeles.com, metro.net.