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ChineseSo Long Consent Decree
Though I feel I should leave this post up to some other MetroRider’s that have been taking Metro for years longer than I have and therefore have had to deal with the BRU’s pet project throughout, I also wanted to make sure this was up. And since I’m not doing much at work today, there’s no better way to spend the day than relax and take in a grand future of the MTA now that the debilitating Consent Decree has been lifted. And though there’s a laundry list of things we could all bash the MTA for, I’ve decided to take a day off and smile, naively thinking everything’s gonna be all right. And since this news is just about everywhere I’ll keep this short and sweet, like I hope the Decree’s departure will be.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
Don’t count on it. The BRU has 30 days to appeal this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That’s probably the most liberal appeals court in the country (nothing wrong with that, since I am liberal myself). In this case, I would prefer that they leave this decision in place. The consent decree has been an albatross around the MTA’s neck for the past decade. And I am willing to cough up a fare increase; the last one was 13 years ago.
Bring on the Purple Line!!
it still blows my mind that the BRU thinks the fares shouldn’t go up. of course i’d love for things to be as affordable as possible, but thinking metro fares should just stay the same forever is completely moronic. 13 years!? thats amazing. now accept the good graces that we’ve all had for those years of cheap ass fares and move on. not to mention, i’m sure even when the fares do go up there’ll be programs to get all the people that do ACTUALLY need (though of course many will take advantage even when unnecessary) discount metro passes will get them. so quit you’re over-dramatic bitching BRU and accept the death of the decree.
check this:
interview with both sides of the conflict.
i understand some of the criticisms of the BRU. but give them the credit they deserve: the consent decree added hundreds of ‘clean fleet’ buses, introduced the ‘Rapid’ bus lines, increased frequencies, and more. There have been great improvements to the system that the consent decree triggered. Can the BRU be myopic? Sure! They’re an interest group like any other. But romanticizing a ’subway to the sea’ at a cost of billions so that we can feel like New Yorkers– isn’t that myopic romance as well?
Nevitate:
I agree. Romanticizing the subway is stupid.
But building it is quite smart.
Good thing nobody ever romanticized driving down a freeway. Now let me go put on my Beach Boys albums.
I think the dream of building the “subway to the sea” has a lot more to do with building an effective way to get around in a city clogged with automobile traffic than a desire to feel like a New Yorker. I sincerely hope that no one wants to spend money on the subway for such a trite reason (although I think that’s what the BRU would like everyone to believe, that the subway is nothing more than an amusement park ride for rich whites). The fact is, anyon, whether rich or poor, black or white, who has ridden a bus in Los Angeles and ridden a train in Los Angeles knows which is the more effective, effecient, comfortable, and reliable service. Now maybe the BRU doesn’t think minorities deserve such things as comfort, effeciency, and reliability, but it doesn’t really matter any more because the decree is over and now money can be spent on rail, which in a city clogged with street traffic, is far more effective than even the best bus service with a million bajillion buses.
Nevitate wrote:
i understand some of the criticisms of the BRU. but give them the credit they deserve:
At most, the Bus Riders Union can claim 50 percent credit. No more. MTA agreed to cooperate, and it was MTA that had to find ways of complying with the consent decree.
the consent decree added hundreds of ‘clean fleet’ buses,
Most of them being unnecessary. And, the agencies had been on a quest, albeit quixotic, to find an alternative fuel to diesel. There was a period in the early 1990s known as the “fuel-of-the-month club,” where the alternative fuel bounced from electric trolleybuses to methanol to ethanol to compressed natural gas, which is now the standard. Yet all these fuels had less reliable engines and burned less efficiently than low-sulfur diesel combined with a modern engine and emission-control combo on buses.
introduced the ‘Rapid’ bus lines,
The Bus Riders Union only deserves credit for slowing down the Rapid program, and absolutely zero for its implementation or growth.
And slowing down more Rapid lines is not a bad thing. Metro’s original plan was a “zero-growth” Rapid system, where Rapid runs would be created by cutting local service in half. This happened on Line 217, where 317 and 717 trips were created from 217 trips. Both ran every 25 minutes. The special master ruled against Metro for doing this.
But going back to the essence of the Rapid program: sorry, but limited-stop bus service has been around for a couple of decades before there even was a Bus Riders Union. Oh, and limited-stop bus service began growing in 1994, two years before the consent decree.
[...]
Can the BRU be myopic? Sure! They’re an interest group like any other.
The Bus Riders Union is an interest group like any other in the way Mao Tse-Tung’s Red Brigades were an interest group like any other.
Eric Mann himself would frown upon you classifying him or his organization by those terms. The hard left (Marxism and its offspring) categorically rejects bourgeious knowledge.
But romanticizing a ’subway to the sea’ at a cost of billions so that we can feel like New Yorkers– isn’t that myopic romance as well?
Nevermind that Wilshire Boulevard has the ridership and population density to support a subway, and surface traffic that makes underground travel necessary.
Romanticizing a subway to feel like New Yorkers is no better or worse than expanding a bus fleet by turning poor, minority bus riders into fetish objects.
Just fighting self-indulgent statements with self-indulgent statements.
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