Okay, here is the first of the "Unusual" stops.  This stop is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of Los Gatos, California.  This stop serves an elementary school (K-5).  This stop has the following improvements:  Crosswalk, Asphalt Pad, and Fence.  The fence was installed to keep the passengers from falling down the side of the mountain into the bushes, including poison oak.  For more stops on this route, click here.

Okay, it isn't the whole stop, but this sculpture is located at a bus stop in Mountain View, California.  The stop is located next to the Middlefield Light Rail Station.  Yes that is a boy and girl riding a croc., or maybe a gator.

It is always fun to see a bus stop with a "No Stopping Any Time sign attached to it.  This is addressed in the California State Vehicle Code which does allow this at a designated bus stop.

This stop is located at Bowers and Warburton in Santa Clara.  The sign is attached to the signal standard and hidden behind the pedestrian walk sign.  This type of sign installation has a local nickname, a "Tom Shreeve Special", named in honor of a former city traffic engineer who didn't want any more signs installed in his sidewalks so the signs got attached to whatever was handy.

Sometimes passengers find that the stop doesn't have a bench and provide one themselves.  This one drifts around the stop, and sometimes at the stop across the street.

Sometimes stops get killed in action.  This one was cut down in its prime by the people installing the shelter at this location.  The stop took several days, and complaints, to rise from the dead.

The World Famous San Diego Zoo (ed: that's the full name) operates the "Kangaroo Bus", which operates on a loop through the zoo.  This is a combination tour and shuttle route (there is a standard tour bus as well), but the "Kangaroo" name comes from the fact that you can "hop on and hop off".  Each stop is numbered, with the exception of a new stop at the giant panda enclosure.  This is Stop 1, located at the zoo entrance.  Picture and text provided by Ray Mullins.

This stop does have a slight problem on the back of the sign.  It seems to have an upside down bus, and two phone numbers.  More embarrassing is the fact that it is on the commute route of one of VTAs bus stop maintenance people.

This stop isn't that unusual, but it does have an unusual neighbor, one of the local Mushroom Farms.  There is a rather rare smell in the air at this stop.

This stop is mostly normal.  Except the sign appears to be attached to the pole using tape.  Well, I suppose it works.  They later fixed this.  :-(

Okay, the stop isn't that unusual, but the bus sure is.  Yes, that is a Greyhound bus at the Susuin City/Fairfield Amtrak Station.

Vallejo Transit takes security at their transit centers seriously.  They install guard shacks at them.

This is an unusual shelter located at Hwy. 7089 & Gil Ranch Road in California.

Somewhat unusual in that it is located in the middle of a freeway interchange.

This standard looking stop, located in Alviso, California, is unusual in that in 1982 it was approx. 10 feet under water due to flooding.  The equipment carried by the person in the picture is GPS equipment for doing an inventory of the bus stops.

This picture is many years old, but it is still an interesting picture of a stop shrouded in fog on the California Coast near Big Sur (Bixby Creek Bridge).  This stop is only used during the summer by Monterey Salinas Transit on a route (22) that connects Monterey with Big Sur.  Picture supplied by L. Didier.

This is what the above stop looked like in the summer of 2000.  The area is under construction so the stop has been relocated back a ways.

Okay, construction is done.  Picture by G. Araki.

The view from the stop.  Picture by G. Araki.

Not all stops get shelters with roofs.

A seriously wounded sign.

Sometimes you have to bug the people who clean up the stops.  This one is filthy.

Okay, I can see multiple systems serving the same transit center, but here are five of them on the same pole at a bus stop.  This stop is located at Eastbound El Camino Real, Farside Palm (University) in Palo Alto.  The five systems/services are:  Stanford Marguerite, SamTrans, VTA, the Dumbarton Express, and the Palo Alto E Shuttle.

Another district seems to have taken up the idea of placing a simple bench at their stops.  All it needs now is a trash can and and ash tray and it is ready for Light Rail service.  Picture by G. Araki.  From hence forth this type of stop improvement will be referred to as a "Jim Unites Special".  As of May 2001 the chair was still there.  It was later replaced by a more standard bench.  :-(

Okay, here is the first upgrade to this stop.  A shelter has been installed.  Okay, we confess, this is a staged picture.  The one above is not.

This stop is installed behind the fence in Concord.  The property behind the fence is Buchanan Field, an airport.  I guess you can catch a plane at this stop.

It is not often you see signs designed to hold information for multiple districts.  This one includes Santa Rosa Citybus, Sonoma County Transit, and Golden Gate Transit.

This is a combined bus and rail stop in Auburn.  Please note the lack of sidewalk, the shelter, the "benches", there is a trash can and a Porta-Potty.  This station is under construction.  Another Jim Unites Special.

Sometimes the locals rename a stop.  Honest, we are NOT responsible for the name of this stop.  Picture by G. Araki

Okay, is this a) A Space Alien, b) A Mushroom od strange color, c) A trash can.  Only Merced County Transit knows for sure.  Picture by G. Araki.

This is an older style Greyhound sign.  This one is located at the intersection of Saratoga Ave., Saratoga-Los Gatos Rd., Big Basin Way, and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd. in Saratoga California.

Okay, Jimmy has struck again.  This one was found by G. Araki.  This one has since been upgraded.

Okay, so Jimmy has been branching out to Canada.  This one was found in Ottowa by C. Leech.

Cluttered stop in Watts (South Central LA), near Wilmington and Imperial, just outside of the Blue Line station. (MTA, but not DASH makes stops closer to the platform as well).
The green sign is for a LA County operated shuttle bus that runs through the unincorporated area of Willowbrook, just south of the station.
Due to ongoing construction on the overpass in the background, this sign may be temporarily blocked or moved. This picture was taken in mid-2001.
Picture & text by C. Hobbs.

Stop at Westwood/Weyburn, near UCLA. Combo MTA-Culver City-Santa Monica-Santa Clarita.  Picture & text by C. Hobbs.

There is a small mob waiting for this bus at the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose.  This is back in the days when the buses made a u-turn in the driveway.  The bus is an old Gillig-Neoplan.  Picture by G. Araki

Could this be another one?  Yes, it is!  Another Jimmy Special, this one is located in the land of Sacramento RT.  Found by G. Araki.

This stop was found by G. Araki out on Hwy 299 between Euruka and Redding.  Now Amtrak buses do not operate along here, so what is this sign doing here.  Greyhound does operate along here last I heard.  Okay, Amtrak did operate along this stretch (operated by Greyhound, has been discontinued) but this was not one of the stops listed.