Credit: Metro Library and Archive Flickr stream.
See and order all the RTD gear in the online Metro Shop.
The RTD was one of the predecessor agencies to Metro and has found it’s way into L.A. lore and pop culture. Nicknames (justified or not) are numerous, but “rough, tough and dangerous” is perhaps the most famous.
The logo, btw, was designed by well-known graphic artist Saul Bass, who had quite the career. From Wikipedia:
During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.
Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T‘s globe logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines‘ 1968 jet stream logo and United Airlines‘ 1974 tulip logo, which became some of the most recognized airline industry logos of the era. He died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Los Angeles on April 25, 1996, at the age of 75.[1]
The following are just some of the new RTD gear in the Metro shop. Use promo code RTDvintage for a 15 percent discount.
Categories: Go Metro
Anyone remember riding the green RTD buses? I do.
A fie on the bureaucrat(s) who decided MTA was better.
Y’all should’ve made the sweaters and shirts in black, I would’ve bought those so fast….
Can I get “Rough, Tough, and Dangerous” printed on the back? Fine, I’ll buy the shirt anyway.
Hi Thomas;
I’m sure there are some local print shops that could fulfill your request 🙂
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I really miss that name RTD and its logo. Today’s MTA is so generic sounding and common everywhere.
A great and well run agency where transit expertise was obtained via experience not test books. It was replaced by those who knew nothing about transit except the construction of the plagued Blue Line that over twenty years later is costing taxpayer billions of dollars to bring up to the industry standards that should have existed when built.
Experienced management were terminated replaced by bureaucrats that have ruined the transit agency.
The Blue Line never made it to the beach although the Pacific Electric was able to do so ever the same right of way. The Expo Line hasn’t reached the beach although the Pacific Electric was able to so. The Gold Line missed East L.A. College by several blocks. The Green Line was supposed to go to LAX but missed it and instead meanders to the south-east. The Red Line terminates at a isolated location in the Valley where there is no major venue as a destination other than the Orange Line and an auto dealership.
There is no physical connection between the Blue Line and the Green Line allowing inter line connection including one seat ride to LAX. The same is the case between the Expo Line and the Crenshaw Line. And if the Gold Line is severed as proposed the Blue Line- Gold Line will have two major yards while the Expo Line – Gold Line with be serviced by one small yard in Santa Monica. I suspect there will be an attempt to solve the problem after the connections are made instead of prior to the opening of the changed lines much like the way they attempted to handle the Blue Line / Expo Line current terminal at Seventh and Flower at the last minute.