[1] The first Metro Rapid lines featured physical infrastructure improvements, including signal priority at intersections in the City of Los Angeles, and enhanced bus shelters.

These characteristics include off-board fare payment on some lines, enhanced bus stops that are spaced farther apart than corresponding local services, and signal priority at some intersections.

The civic leaders were impressed by Curitiba's comprehensive bus rapid transit system, the Rede Integrada de Transporte, and sought to replicate it.

The establishment of Metro Rapid service followed a 1996 consent decree, the product of a federal lawsuit brought by a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Bus Riders Union.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that Metro's large subsidies for rail construction and operation, relative to its expenditures for bus service, were discriminatory.

The NextGen plan included the construction of over 30 miles (48 km) of new bus lanes across Los Angeles, a feature notably absent from the Metro Rapid system since its introduction.

[2] Walker nonetheless praised the system for the attitude it represented, describing it as "a remarkable effort to step up mobility all over the city in a very short time.