MetroRiderLA

You just knew it was coming, didn’t you? “Coalition sues in bid to block MTA fare hikes,” which roughly translated means “the rail-hating BRU’s at it again.” Memo to Eric Mann and co.: I’m a local public transit rider, and you most definitely don’t represent me - and I ride the bus each and every weekday.

…might just be your MTA dollars going down the drain. Wonder why there’s no money for new MTA projects? Sure, there are many reasons, but $13.8 million jury awards against the MTA don’t help…

I take transit every weekday, from the SGV to the financial district downtown: usually one Foothill Transit bus and two Metro trains (Gold and Red lines). I generally have no (major) issues with either the FT buses or the Metro trains. I do, however, have a pretty big issue with Metro buses.

I only ride Metro buses rarely, but I see them all the time, working in the financial district, and have increasingly noticed an appalling habit nearly every metro busdriver seems to have. That’s the two-pronged thinking that a) a yellow light (and sometimes even a red) means “Speed up and race through the intersection,” and b) honking somehow makes it okay. These busdrivers - and this includes DASH buses, too - ALL seem to think that if you honk, thus alerting someone - in theory - that you’re rushing through a yellow-changing-to-red, that makes it alright and no one will get hurt. I’m honestly amazed I’ve yet to see a pedestrian (or maybe a bike messenger wearing an iPod) get hit by one of these errantly speeding multi-ton missiles. Downtown is a heavily pedestrian area, thanks to its concentration of office buildings, yet these busdrivers seem to have qualms about speeding through intersections as if not making a stoplight will completely throw them off schedule. As if Metro buses are generally on time, anyway!

I can’t be the only person to have observed this, can I?

(By the way: hi there, I’m a new contributor and longtime reader of MetroRiderLA. I’ve lived here (just east of Pasadena) for 2 1/2 years, and have utilized transit for most of that time to get to and from work (I’ve worked in Glendale and downtown Los Angeles) on a (week)daily basis.)