MetroRiderLA

Which is slower? Traffic in Los Angeles when it’s raining or the Red, Blue, Green, Gold, and Orange Lines in any weather?

The SM BBB10. Photo from Flickr courtesy of Charlie Brewer.

Looking for a way to get some faith back into your fellow man? Well why don’t you hop on the next BBB10 and give humanity another try.

The other night on my way home from work the BBB10 I was traveling on stalled out in the middle of the 10. The bus driver made a valiant effort to get us going again but no amount of turning the beast off and back on again was working. The flashers were going and each time the bus driver turned the bus back on we’d get about thirty feet out of her before dying. I was near the back and aside from one gentleman who was getting quite ancy and loud the only annoying thing occurring were the selfish drivers that wouldn’t let us over to get on the shoulder. No surprise there of course for we all know that if you’re looking for the worst in human nature simply watch and listen to motorists at their best. From surface streets to freeways, LA drivers have perfected road rage.
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This won’t be a long-winded breakdown on my part about how this (the title above) is a false statement but instead I’ll quote a small bit from “How To Be Free” by Tom Hodgkinson below.

…the Austrian writer and philosopher  Ivan Illich once calculated that if you add up all the time you spend on the car, including the trips to the garage and the time spent earning the money to buy the fuel and maintain the vehicle, and divide by the number of miles you travel, then your average speed is 5 mph. You would be faster on a bicycle. 

If nothing else it’s a pretty good way to look at the myth that private automobiles are more convenient and faster than public transit or biking.

With all this talk about the Westside alignment, some heated, some humorous I feel that a great disservice is being made to the many fine residents of this city. And I’m not talking about the “obvious” crime element getting speedy and timely access to Los Angeles’ upper gay echelon to do their misdeeds, nor is it our children’s and baby’s safety (like it is elsewhere, lolz) or environmental racism (again like it actually is elsewhere, lolz 2x). But something a great deal more important. Something far more drastic of an oversight than imaginable.

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Aside from weekly street cleaning, parking is a complete nightmare. Credit Flickr my f_cking photos’.

There are a lot of things in this world that I’ve regretted. That I try to forget from my past. Events I would rather have not partaken in. Ideas I should have never let come to pass (but his sister was just so hot). And in the end the only thing you can do is be positive and try to learn from all of your past mistakes so that such things don’t happen again. Whoever spoke at your high school graduation probably said it; followed by an evening of intoxication at some stranger’s house you might have sat next to in Marine Biology. Whose carpet got ruined and mother’s votive candles got stolen, and the next day I learned I never need that many votive candles lit at once again.
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[tags]halloween, metro, red line, costumes, los angeles, hollywood[/tags]

Pork chops are always strapped for cash, good thing Metro now takes debit cards. Credit Flickr jesusskateboarding.com

Didn’t dress up this year? Didn’t get a pillowcase and beg for candy only to be let down by an apple? Didn’t think, you know what, I’m going as an ironic icon from the early ’90s? Answer no to all of these? If so then I hope you at least decided to ride around on Metro’s pride and joy Red Line last night because boy oh boy was that a site to see.

As we’ve all been accustomed to by living the public transit life, the Red Line, though packed to near capacity during peak hours, nights are usually much more docile. Nights greet our beloved subway with a calm hand and soothing massage. She’s (our subway’s, like boats, female) not working all that hard and is allowed to cruise through the serene LA underground in comfort. Sure, some guy might be eating sunflowers and spitting the shells out on the seat next him, and a group of kids might be swinging around on her hand rails like strippers, but for the most part, she’s got it made in the shade. However, most nights are not Halloween nights. Cuz on Halloween nights, bitch has gotta work.

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