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Chinese10 More Ways To Improve L.A.’s Public Transportation System
This past Saturday, David Markland over at Metroblogging Los Angeles wrote a little post called “10 Ways to Improve L.A.’s Public Transportation System” that sparked big discussion. Among his ideas are the removal of all street parking from major roads, a county-wide $3/gallon gas tax, car pool lanes on surface streets, a ban on using wireless devices in cars, and taxing valets and parking services 50%. Not all of his ideas are quite so militant, others like making wi-fi and cell phone service available to transit users and allowing food and drink on transit are a bit more realistic. Inspired by his post, I have decided to make my own top 10 list, strictly from a transit user’s perspective. I’m not going to attacking funding or car culture or large scale infrastructure issues, just some basic things that I think Metro could do to make the current transit experience a lot friendlier. Feel free to add your own list in the comments.
1. Benches at every bus stop. And not those crappy plastic ones that are made out of garbage can material either. Those things make the city look ugly and aren’t particularly comfortable. Nice, stylish, comfortable benches please. And plenty of them. We know the bus isn’t going to be on time, so please give us a chance to rest our legs while we wait. Bus shelters would be even better, but I’m trying to be somewhat realistic.
The Good. Photo courtesy of Spacing Magazine.
The Bad. Photo courtesy of Fire Monkey Fish.
The Ugly. Photo courtesy of Fred Camino.
2. Real-time arrival information displays at the bus stops of major lines. I noticed these all over in London. Imagine how much nicer waiting for a bus would be if you could just look up at an electronic display telling you its ETA. Imagine the peace of mind. We’ve seen electronic displays at Metro Rapid stops in Los Angeles, but unfortunately instead of displaying useful information (like the arrival time of the next bus) they typically display useless information (like the words “METRO RAPID BUS”). So my idea is for working bus information displays as opposed to non-functioning ones.
Right. Photo courtesy of MildlyDiverting.
Wrong. Photo courtesy of Rice and D.
3. Real-time arrival information displays at train stations. This one is even easier than the one above. We’re half-way there. Hell, we’ve been half-way there the whole time. Now we have hot new flat screen displays but unfortunately the information on them is no different than the sad scrolling LED displays of yore. Hey Metro, let me be honest: I know you really really don’t want electric powered bicycles on your trains, that much is clear, but please put that information somewhere else other than the multi-million dollar electronic displays that should be telling us which train is coming next and when exactly it will come!!! Thanks.
Note to Metro: Command-C, Command-P. Photo courtesy of Jan the Manson.
4. Choose a color scheme and stick with it. I like the idea of color coding buses. Rapids are red, locals are orange, express are blue. It’s a smart idea. Really smart. Maybe too smart. The thing is, if you’re going to commit to color coding buses, you gotta follow the color rules at all times. Other wise the entire systems falls apart. If the 400 buses are supposed to be express buses, and express buses are supposed to be blue, then why is it that the 439 is always a red bus, which should be reserved for the 700 buses, which are supposed to be rapids, which are sometimes painted in orange like the local buses. So what I’m saying is, if rapids are red, make sure all rapids are red. It’s that simple.
What’s wrong with this picture? Photo courtesy of LA Wad.
5. Allow food and drink on the system. I’m going to have to agree with Metroblogging on this one. Fact of the matter is, people bring it on anyways (as evidenced by the ample amount of sunflower seeds, spilled soda, and burger wrappers one comes across), so why bother. Plus, trying to regulate hunger is bound to be a losing battle. Instead, why not capitalize off hunger. Fry’s Electronics does it with those long checkout lines filled with all kinds of point-of-purchase snacks. Why not line the stations and bus stops with vending machines and food vendors and then use the money created to fix some of the other problems on this list. Here’s another idea: add more trash cans. Every train car should have one at the door and the stations should have plenty as well. Buses should have a trash receptacle that is more substantial and noticeable than the pathetic plastic baggie up front. To combat the inevitable slobs, simply make littering illegal. That’s right, instead of fining someone $250 for eating or drinking, fine them $250 if they make a mess with their food or drink. Problem solved.
Is irony lost on Metro, or are they just trying to be funny? Photo courtesy of Fred Camino.
6. You work at Metro, you ride Metro. This goes along with Metroblogging’s idea that the Mayor and all City Council members ride Metro at least once a week. I think that if you work at an agency that urges people to ride the system, then you better walk the walk if you talk that talk. I don’t care how many requirements your lifestyle asks of you, if you can’t get around efficiently on the system, then why should we be expected to? I have a feeling many of the basic problems Metro Rider’s have would be solved very quickly if all Metro staffers were Metro Riders.
Riding the bus via TransitTV doesn’t count Board Member Villaraigosa. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Asher.
7. Run the trains all night. Trains are like a gateway drug for transit. If you start riding trains it’s likely that sooner or later you’ll be riding buses. Who knows, you may even find yourself riding a bike or, lord help us, walking. Worst case scenario, you may find yourself without a car. All thanks to a little ride on a train. People like trains. White people, black people, young people, old people, rich people, poor people, basically everyone but the BRU and people who have an unhealthy obsession with their backyards. And you know what, even those people really like trains. This is the reason you want to keep the trains running as much as possible. Get people hooked. Reducing drunk driving is another good reason.
A train junkie at night. Photo courtesy of Fred Camino.
8. Make bus/train seats more comfortable and more aesthetically pleasing. This may sound nit-picky, especially the bit about the aesthetics, but comfort and aesthetics are big selling points in the car-culture. If a person has to choose between a plush adjustable leather car seat with lumbar support and what amounts to a hard stadium bench with a pattern fit for a baby clown’s nursery, what do you think they will prefer? Now I’m not asking for reclining seats and ass-heaters… just some more cushioning and a fabric that doesn’t make my eyes bleed.
Case in point. Photo courtesy of Eleventh Earl of Mar.
I can’t say much about the pattern, but the seats on the London Underground are probably more comfortable than your couch. Photo courtesy of stevec77.
9. No more PDF’s on Metro.net. Get rid of them. Now. They are proprietary, they aren’t accessible, they are annoying, and they are stupid. While you’re at it, make metro.net usable.
Oh, that’s a readable and at all useful way to look at the system map.
10. Make TAP make sense. TAP has the potential to make using Metro a lot easier. Unfortunately, it looks like Metro is handling it in such a way that it will only complicate things. The main problem is that as it stands right now, TAP cards simply act as rechargeable monthly passes. In other words, it’s a monthly pass that you have to tap on some stupid thing. And according to Metro, if you fail to tap your monthly pass on the stupid thing, you can be fined as if you didn’t have a pass - even though you are in possession of a monthly pass. That doesn’t make sense. It offers no value and only adds inconvenience. What would add value? The ability to put a certain amount of money on the car that gets deducted each time you tap. Therefore you never need to worry about having exact change and you never have to worry about stopping at a ticket machine as a train is pulling away. If you tap so many times in a month that you’ve tapped the amount of a monthly pass, then the “smart” card stops debiting your taps until the month is over. TAP needs to make sense.
Give me a reason to TAP that doesn’t defy logic and I’ll gladly TAP. Photo courtesy of Fred Camino.
Discussion
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
I just can’t get behind food on buses. I can’t imagine anything worse than smelling someone’s fast food on the Metro.
Trash cans are a necessity, as are bus benches.
Running the trains all night would be brilliant, however. Your statement about trains being the gateway drug is spot-on.
The trick is to convince people to take a trip on the train as some kind of “novel adventure.” Then, try the DASH. It’s only a quarter and is always relatively quick. You have to ease people into it.
Incidentally, that other article mentioned wireless and cell service.
The Foothill Transit’s Silver Streak has free wireless service.
Lol. You haven’t ridden Metro much have you?
Oh for fast food the be worst smell on the Metro. A man can dream, can’t he?
Thanks for the comments Heather, and that’s right about the Silver Streak. A funny thing - I live right next to a Silver Streak stop, and whenever they are in range I can pick up their wireless signal for a few moments on my computer.
I cannot get behind uncovered food or uncovered drinks either. I was once on a MUNI bus in San Francisco where someone spilled their entire uncovered cup of coffee on someone else.
Food I don’t mind if it’s covered, but with all the potholes, I wouldn’t want someone eating Chow Mein or a Burrito on a bus. I have no problems with covered drinks now, provided they hold them and not set them on the floor.
But, there is a fast food/snack/drink stand at Santa Monica/Vermont on the northwest corner which seems to do pretty good business.
In general, I’d love to ride cleaner MTA buses.
I’m not sure why, but I ride 1/2 Big Blue Buses and 1/2 MTA Buses. The Big Blue Buses are always cleaner. The Rapid Buses are cleaner than the local buses which are at times disgusting. Is it a labor issue? Not enough cleaners?
I cannot see why Big Blue Buses, which are growing more crowded since the MTA stopped running local service out there other than late nights, can stay clean and the MTA buses cant.
Re: Drinks. I just wish Metro would come up with a coherent and rational policy about drinks. I carry a commuter mug with me that I’d have to try pretty damn hard to spill, but I figure that eventually I’m going to get a County sheriff who hasn’t met their quota for the month. It’d be good to see Metro clarify that.
Re: BBB. I think that a) they care more and b) they have fewer busses with a more controlled schedule. I also regularly take the 1 from the Windward roundabout back into Santa Monica, so I’ve noticed that they seem to have fairly long layovers and the busses seem to get some basic cleaning then too (drivers picking up stray trash, that sort of thing). But I would say that in general SM has a bit more resources that they allocate to those issues. I think Metro considers it a good day when they have no accidents and few breakdowns, and given the scope of service with the lack of resources, I can’t say I blame them, the BRU and the County have pretty much hamstrung them in terms of revenue.
Foothill Transit always seems to be generally cleaner than Metro, also, but Metro is as a general rule more reliable (barring the Silver Streak, which I adore.)
It may seem minor, but I agree with #4, sticking to a color scheme. When I first got here, I was a little confused by how the color’s worked, and how the systems do or don’t work together…but the colors should be easy to fix. Would it be so hard to have the purple line have some purple on it (and so forth). The first time I rode the trains here I got on a purple line train thinking it was a red line train because it had red all over it! I know, that seems pretty stupid to me too, but to someone trying Metro the first time…(and maybe never trying it again if it doesn’t take them where they want to go…)
This is awesome. I’m so excited to see so much conversation about this issue.
Charge a fair price for the services provided.
What? I can’t hear you. I didn’t say full price, I said fair price. Is there anyone conversant with the problems willing to say out loud that the current fare structure is fair? No, the best we can expect is excuses why the current unfair structure is better than any alternative.
food on public transportation is tricky. in theory, yes, it’s a great idea and another potential selling point, but food is really messy and people are even messier.
I think if you create a culture where food is okay but messes are not, it can work. We have to get people to realize that the Metro is theirs and to treat it as if it was their own property. Like I said in the post, the buses and trains are already messy with food, and it’s illegal. To me the war on food is like the war on drugs. It may be well intentioned but it’s really not solving many problems. And I really think plentiful trash cans could solve the problems of slobs… it may not stop them from littering, but if I saw some trash on a seat and there was a waste basket right near by I’d throw it away myself.
Also, Metrolink allows food and drinks and their trains are spick and span. Perhaps they have a greater respect for the service?
In NY people eat on busses, it’s pretty much fine. Metro should also have customer service people, like they have in normal places. DC which is the murder capital of the United States (at least at one time) has customer service people.
I think also the bus drivers and metro conductors should know the neighborhood of the train or bus they are driving. Drivers don’t know anything about connections or even where basic streets are. Metro should pay me for the all of the tourists that I have had to explain the bus system to out here.
Real time eta, so easy and doable and you don’t need an expensive screen to do it. NY uses a cheap LCD screen.
And I second the if you work at Metro, you ride Metro all of the time or at least to work. If you can’t do that, then why should you be allowed to work there…
Browne
As often happens when idealists comment on areas where they have limited knowledge and expertise, many of Mr. Markland’s ideas are either unworkable or have so many logistics problems as to be essentially non-implementable.
1. I have said this many times, and I guess I will have to continue saying it many times until it sinks in: Metro does not own the bus benches and shelters, with the exception of those located at Metro Rail stations with bus plazas (and I think Universal City and North Hollywood are the only two of those left). The responsibility for benches and shelters belong to the individual cities, not to Metro. And they refuse to be told what to do by Metro, as Bernard Parks found out when he tried to get the Metro Board to adopt a “universal shelter plan”. The cities basically told him where to get off. So, I invite Mr. Markland to try getting all 88 cities in Los Angeles County to adopt his idea … at least that will keep him busy for the rest of his life.
2. Electronic displays work fine in the limited application that Mr. Markland cites as an example. But in a far-flung system like Metro, it would require an infrastructure costing as much to implement as the subway extension down Wilshire. Guess which I believe is more important.
3. The only reason the “next train” portion of the new Metro Rail screens isn’t working yet is, I am told, because all the stations have to have the screens in place before it can be turned on. You may not like that answer, but it does show that Metro had the idea in mind when they approved the new screens.
4. I’ll make a deal with you. If there aren’t enough buses of the “right” color available, because of breakdowns, etc., I’ll just cancel that bus run. Yes, it would be ideal if every line could have the right color bus, but when that isn’t an option, I’d rather have the wrong color bus out there serving the public. (Oh, and 439 isn’t a “blue bus” express line; the blue buses are only used for lines that do not also operate in local service along streets. Only 450 and 577 use blue buses.)
5. Do you know why Metro prohibits eating and drinking on buses? Because there are too many passengers who won’t clean up after themselves. And so those of us who are able to be responsible have to suffer because of a relative handful of slobs. The idea of making the fine applicable to littering rather than eating sounds good to the average listener … until you ask who is going to enforce the fine? The bus operator? (Allowing food and drink works on Metrolink because the passengers do clean up after themselves — when you pay a premium fare you tend to treat the service better — and because there are conductors to enforce the rule.)
6. It is not practical to insist that every Metro employee ride Metro. I know at least two Metro employees, at management levels, who live in Orange County. (At least they ride Metrolink, though.) And how would you expect the bus operator who pulled in the last bus that goes past his division to get home? You may be encouraged to learn, though, that Roger Snoble moved, not long ago, to a residence that is walking distance to the Gold Line, and that is how he commutes to/from Metro headquarters now.
7. Until there are sufficient resources to maintain the interconnecting bus service with Metro Rail 24/7, there is limited value in running rail itself all night. I might change my position on that once the subway extension opens, though.
8. The reason the seats are the way they are is for practicality. The
“non-aesthetically pleasing” pattern is to discourage tagging, and the seat design allows for easy replacement in a matter of a few seconds if a seat is tagged, slashed, or otherwise ruined. Guess what people surveyed cared about more than a comfortable seat? Not sitting in one that has been defaced!
9. What planet has Mr. Markland been living on? PDFs are a universal file format now! The “example” of the system map is a paper tiger. Using the controls on Adobe Reader, I can magnify the map and scroll to whatever section I need to look at. I suspect most people know how to do that.
10. If Mr. Markland had taken the time to read any of the Board reports on TAP (oh, I’m sorry, those are only available as PDFs, so I guess he couldn’t read them), he’d know that TAP has the capability to be both a monthly pass and a stored-value card. In fact, it has the ability to adjust “on the fly” between those modes, so you could deduct one fare at a time until you hit the amount of a daypass, then it would stop deducting … or until you hit the amount of usage equal to a weekly pass in a seven-day period, etc.
Armchair quarterbacking always makes me crazy.
Having gone back and re-read David Markland’s original post at Metroblogging, I realized that I have attributed some of Fred’s remarks here to Mr. Markland. I apologize for that misattribution and transfer all of my criticism to Fred, as required by context.
The above ideas are not Mr. Markland’s, they are mine Kymberleigh. I’m the armchair quarter back in this case. You can read Markland’s ideas by clicking this link.
Now for my rebuttal…
First off, keep in mind that I said these are IDEAS that would improve transit for Metro Riders. Whether they could or would ever be realistically implemented is irrelevant. I mean, if I was to list REALISTIC ideas we’d get PDF’s and LCD monitors that display useless info.
1. I don’t care who owns the street furniture. Bus benches at every stop would improve transit. It’s sad that it’s impossible as you note, but Jesus why should it be so hard.
2. London, another sprawling city, has the electronic displays all over, it’s quite extensive. And of course, as I noted, the ones we have they can’t even get to work.
3. I have no doubt eventually Next Train info will show up on those screens, and once that happens the experience will be improved. Until then, they are useless.
4. So you’re saying the 439 is a Rapid Bus? That’s what the color tells me. Not what the number tells me though. The number tells me it’s a blue bus.
5. Who enforces the no food or drink policy? Why couldn’t they enforce the no littering policy?
6. Of course it’s not practical.
7. I think there’s plenty of value, for many people live along the rail lines and the continued growth of the Transit Oriented Developments along the lines will be bolstered by 24 hour rail service, regardless of 24 hour bus service.
8. I always suspected that but I still hate the pattern.
9. I live on Planet HTML and CSS and accessible web standards. This point is actually my number one pet peeve. PDF’s are AWFUL. I’d rather they used flash (ugh). PDF’s are universal? I can’t look at PDF’s on my phone (a relatively advanced Helio Ocean), I have to have a proprietary program in addition to my web browser (Acrobat Reader), I can’t copy/paste the information, the system map is so unwieldly as a PDF that even on my quad-core Mac Pro that I do 3D animation and motion graphics on the machine struggles to load all the imagery when I zoom in. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it, PDF’s suck. Imagine if every post on MetroRiderLA was a PDF instead of HTML. The Transit Coalition does this for their newsletter and it BLOWS.
10. I have the TAP brochure (#08-0197MR) that I picked up from the LADOT Transit Store just the other day (hell no I didn’t download the PDF, there should be a full HTML site for TAP by now). It clearly shows and states that “adding value” to TAP simply means either adding a $17 weekly pass or a $62 monthly pass to the card. No where doe it say anything about it acting as a stored value card.
Bottom line, this post was meant to be nothing more than armchair quarterbacking, and I think that many of the ideas should be looked at and addressed by either Metro or 3rd parties. They are certainly a lot simpler than building subways or raising gas taxes to $3/gallon. And they could go a long way to improving the transit experience for the rider.
Here’s an item for consideration in improving the usage rate of the metro system (and then, possibly funding improvements to the actual system).
(Please note: This is meant with the same esprit d’armchair quarterbacking as the original post)
Since our culture seems so obsessed with monetizing every aspect of society, we should encourage small business revenue streams ON the metro. Rather than just a small office/home office, there could be a small office/mobile office.
I saw the efficacy of this theory in action on an eastbound 33 just last week. A young lady in veterinarian scrubs was rolling blunts in her seat on the bus. During my portion of the trip, she sold one to a passenger for $20 (not to me … no, seriously).
Now that’s a useful metro trip that economists can fully support as it exhibited acceptable multitasking, successful monetization and a build-out of the customer base.
I’m still wondering why it is that every possible idea to improve transit except one is being considered. I don’t think there is a single person here who doesn’t think transit would improve with more money. I’ve seen dozens of ideas as to how to get more money to transit. Why is raising fares not an acceptable point of discussion? Is it that the real issue is more transit not better transit?
You win the Comment of the Day Award, Kenya. Nice job. I say legalize, and use the sales tax from blunt sales to fund transit improvements.
A couple notes.
-Fred, you didn’t have to go all the way to Vancouver to find good bus stops, I was catching the 4 at Grand and Cesar Chavez, and found the stop to be at least as good as the sample photo you posted. Kinda nitpicky, but at the same time posting the “good” as something from outside LA could be taken as an implication that there is no “good” within the region, only “bad” and “ugly”. How about a goal of updating all the Rapid stops to “good” status? Maybe they can even include speakers that play Ennio Morricone’s theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on loop.
-I think a good compromise would be to allow food on rail lines; the ride is smoother and maintaining cleanliness seems within the realm of practicality. I have long been of the opinion that metro stations should allow small stores (news stands, maybe even food stores) at some of their busiest stations. Kymberleigh will probably jump in and tell me about how that will never make money, but similar approaches do in fact make money in the European metros of Brussels, Munich, and Vienna, among others.
-I wholeheartedly agree with Fred on his rebuttal #7, though i think the trains should only run every 1/2 hour or so. Even hourly trains would be a huge improvement.
-The PDF thing is going a bit far. How else are you going to display the system map online? You’re the expert, what other formats are there? Anything other than a vector-based format would be a disaster. I for one don’t mind the PDF, it allows easy zooming and scrolling, even if I do have to sell out to Adobe’s evil empire. Maybe I’m just biased because I do alot of work with that odious application, Flash. Hows bout we keep the full system map in PDF and get the “12 minute” map changed to a nice big JPEG?
Excuse the snark, but have you ever heard of this tiny little web app called “Google Maps“? I don’t know, I think it’s coded by a few college students in their free time.
Anyways, yah, Google Maps. Or Microsoft Live Local. Public Routes. Get the rail lines on these types of maps first, then work to get every bus line on them. Add interactivity. And a trip planner. These things are the future. PDF sucks. Leave the PDF maps and schedules around only for those who want to print something.
Here’s some examples of Google Maps and transit routes in action:
-NYC Subway
-MetroMapr.com
-Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority
-Plan a trip using the NYC Transit Trip planner and click the map link
All of those are for rail lines, but a google maps of the many bus routes shouldn’t be impossible, just takes more work. But I’m sure a group of dedicated people could make it happen. Here’s an example of a small bus system at University of Michigan using Google Maps.
And as for schedules? C’mon! It’s shameful that they can only be found in PDF’s. Sure, a high-tech Google Transit style solution is ideal, but at least just make some HTML tables with the schedules! It seems most transit agencies don’t get this. Almost every one links to PDF schedules. F THAT!!! One agency that does it right is actually very near by… good ol’ Long Beach Transit. Check out how they handle their schedules: Long Beach Transit Routes/Schedules. I’m sorry, but from an end-user’s perspective, that just beats the crap out of this.
One of the main rules of interaction design is REMOVE OBSTRUCTIONS. An obstruction is something that gets in the way of the user’s interaction experience. You’ll note that all websites that link to PDF schedules map have something in the vein of the following disclaimer: “Metro Timetables are in PDF format and are subject to change without notice. Adobe® Acrobat Reader plug-in required for viewing. ” That is a warning that there is an obstruction. A disclaimer should not be needed to access such basic information.
Here are some links from usability websites about PDF’s:
-PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
-PDF’s are evil, lazy, slothful and sinful
-Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility
-When to use PDF
The overwhelming consensus among interaction professionals and web usability experts is that PDF’s are good for nothing more than printing.
Thanks for filling me in on the Google.
I noticed that the DC metro was the only official site to use the Google, and that for the system maps it defaulted to PDF. So did Long Beach. The Ann Arbor bus system did display routes, but only one at a time and for a small system. I think that a full system map on the Google would be just as unwieldy as a PDF; the NYC map was beginning to drag for me, and that was only with the subway. Furthermore, maps based off of the Google are anchored to scale which can serve as an impediment. The DC map as well as the LA map all have inserts for downtown, on the Google you would have to zoom to the highest setting for individual lines to be apparent. I think that the Google would serve as an excellent supplement to a full system map, as your example of the DC has proven, and a great way to find out how best to get from point A to point B. On the other hand, I have found the system map to be useful if I know for sure that I have to be at point B at a certain time and would like to then have lunch at point C, but wouldn’t mind point D, which as it turns out is two stops away from my favorite coffee shop at point E.
Also, I didn’t mean for my for my defense of PDF system maps to extend to schedules, they are impossible in PDF. Long Beach’s schedule is lookin good, perhaps PDFs should still be available for people who are actually going to print them, but offering them as the primary timetables is ridiculous. On a somewhat related note, Long Beach has some damn good bus stops and can be added to the list of local “good” bus stops that could have been used instead of Vancouver. There’s even a covered stop with an arrival time display at PCH/Ximeno, an area which would otherwise seem completely subservient to the car culture.
Good response johnny. PDF maps are obviously a better option than say JPEG maps or flash maps, but I still think someone can/should/will be able to figure out how to create a Google Maps interface that can handle the entire system. Perhaps with “layers” that can be turned on/off for each line/route. Kind of like what happens on Google Earth.
I’ve basically replaced using the System Map PDF to figure out transit lines around specific addresses (like when I do Transit Oriented Weekends) with using the Public Routes maps feature. It allows you to enter an address and see all the bus and train stops in the vicinity of that address.
Here’s an example of the Public Routes map vs. the PDF map of the same area:
(The routes served by the stops show up on mouse over.)
And this:
Criticism and rebuttals accepted, Fred (and you may have noticed that I caught my error in attribution while you were writing your post).
I’d like to point out, in your comparison of maps, that you are comparing apples and oranges. Your preferred map shows all the stops, but not which lines run on the street; the Metro map shows the available service but not the stops themselves.
I think the average user, if unfamiliar with an area, would want to know what lines are available and where they go; I do not consider you to be “average” as you are much more knowledgeable.
Answers to your other rebuttals:
Blame the marketing people for not thinking 439 is a blue bus route. They came up with the multiple colors and they got to make the rules. (I don’t agree either, FWIW.)
The “no food or drink” policy is “enforced” by the bus operators by basically denying boarding when someone tries to bring an open container or is eating from an open package. That’s a lot easier than enforcing a no littering rule, because then the operator has to constantly watch the passengers’ behavior. (On rail, of course, the deputies and fare inspectors are the enforcers, so it would be just as easy to have one rule or the other.)
I happen to like PDFs, but I do understand that PDAs don’t. My guess about interfaces with Google Maps is that what you propose isn’t available in the specs, for which you can blame Google, not Metro.
And … just because the stored value function of TAP has not yet been put in service by Metro, it doesn’t mean the function doesn’t exist and won’t be available down the proverbial road.
Ms. Richards I am surprised. You of all people should know better than to use inflammatory language like that. Surely all here know you meant to say “… further down the track.” It is simply troll baiting to to so much as imply that anything good could possibly be down the road.
[tongue firmly in cheek]
One sure way to improve public transit in LA is to oppose NIMBYs like Damien Goodman and the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association who hold projects hostage to their own irrational fears and grandstanding.
My 2 pennies.
Rob, I was choosing my words based on the fact that there are more miles of road-based transit than track-based transit. The fact that the latter carries more passengers per route mile never factored into that choice of words.
[tongue also firmly in cheek]
The Google system actually works very well. It does not slow down when transit information is entered because it does not have to show every line. That slowdown that you mentioned when looking up New York’s rail lines occurs when someone makes a map that shows every line at the same time. There is a better system on Google where public transit is programmed like the road, so if you want to get to one place from another you can choose to get directions by PT instead of by car. I think that either San Jose or San Francisco already has this in place, you should try it out and compare it to Metro’s system.
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How about having restrooms available at all train stations and transit center and hubs?
I’ll tell you what I would like to see: customer centers at the system’s busiest transfer points.
MTA’s coverage area is huge. Yet there are only four customer centers? There should be a customer center at every major transfer station. Union Station is a good start. But what about Metro Center, Rosa Parks, Vermont/Wilshire, or any of the major bus transfer points throughout the county? Why are they so few and far between?
Of course, I know the reason. Same reason as always: money. It just seems like, if the system is serious about customer service, it should bring the customer service to the busiest places. With all the transit riding I do, I have to make a special trip to the grocery store to buy a monthly pass?
Use London and New York as an example. It seems insane that in a place as large as Los Angeles, we think so small as to not realize that adding customer service will increase ridership.
My morning rant.
Kymberleigh Richards: I must comment about the PDF issue. I don’t like them much, mainly because of their sluggishness and lack of interactivity. But they are portable, and can be read on Palm-based PDAs, either via the internet or pre-loading them ahead of your trip. Maybe having both options (Google Maps and PDFs) is a reasonable solution?