MetroRiderLA

Photo by elemenoh_’s via Flickr.

The L.A. Straphanger has made a list of his Top 10 L.A. Transit Gripes. Now there’s nothing inherently unique about a blogger griping about transit in Los Angeles, but the Straphanger is a transit blogger who’s definately got some sense about him, so his list is pretty respectable as far as these types of posts go. (more…)

Over at Blogdowntown, poster David Kennedy relays a tale of how he and his wife attempted to go car-free a few years ago. As residents of Downtown LA, they were in the fortunate position of being located in the transit center of Los Angeles, and were able to live a virtually car-free lifestyle (they left their car parked and only used it when absolutely neccessary) until the arrival of their first daughter, because as David states, “I’ve found that being a parent involves a lot of unplanned activty which comes up on very short notice where a car is the preferred way to go.” I’ve always felt that having children would be the wildcard in living a truly car-free life in Los Angeles for the reason David mentioned, but with the advent of Flexcar, perhaps the actual owning of a car can be avoided.

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This is interesting.

A commenter on a Curbed LA post about Damien Goodman’s ambitious-yet-improbable plan for a $40 billion rail transit system in Los Angeles posted a link to this website that shows the world’s subway systems represented graphically and to the same scale. (more…)

Photo by So Cal Metro

The public transit lifestyle and the car-free lifestyle walk hand-in-hand. If you’ve decided to go car-free, it’s very likely you’re living a public transit lifestyle, and likewise if you’ve embraced public transit you’re probably on your way to becoming car-free.

Jillian over at Metroblogging Los Angeles has caught wind of an event called Life Can Be So Car-Free presented by C.I.C.L.E., a non-profit organization that promotes a “bicycle-lifestyle”. (more…)

Note my play on the MTA’s “Go Metro” marketing campaign. Now multiply that sort of wit by a thousand and you get the idea of what you are dealing with when you read the insights of the Metro Mole. I’ve had a link to the Metro Mole’s blog over in the Transit Links section since this site’s inception, and I’m sure many of you have checked it out, but for those who haven’t, this is the time.

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The gadget blog, Engadget, posted a particulary offensive story yesterday about the implementation of free WiFi internet access on a few Bay Area bus lines. Apparently AC Transit, a transit authority in the East Bay, is in the testing phase of a system which will allow riders to log onto the internet from their laptops, free of charge, as they ride. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, and a smart way to grab new ridership from business commuters. A majority of the cars cramming up our streets are from business people coming to and from work, business people who can’t do their precious business safely while driving a car. A WiFi enabled bus would be an attractive option for a business person who could check her email, catch up on the news, and check her favorite transit blog on her way to work.

But Engadget is skeptical. They reveal the “glaringly obvious” error in this thinking:

“You’re asking to be mugged if you’re happy with pulling out your prized laptop on a city bus.”

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