MetroRiderLA

[tags] teen, wallet, metro, heartache [/tags]

Even heartache has a place on Metro.

In an event that spelled certain doom for any optimistic late night moods on the part of the Metro bus cleaning crew, one angst filled teen decided it was high time he clean out the ol’ 13th birthday wallet. And if the pile of notes and cards were any sign, this kid had an action packed last couple years. Discounts on appetizers at such date places as the Cheesecake Factory and CPK as well as automotive insurance companies named after any number of letter combinations that spell “easy” fell like leaves to the floor. Each one hassle free.

(more…)

[tags] metro tips, metro, tips, helpful hints [/tags]

Credit So Cal Metro via Flikr

As I said earlier, there are so many things, usually minor, that can make all of our Metro trips better ones. Some more minute than others, but all useful almost every day, for me that is. Therefore, read on and add on.

- It’s not a rare occasion that two busses will show up at the same time and then nothing for a while. The 720 is guiltiest of this. Three busses will show up at the same time and then nothing for ten minutes. Now the 720 is its own insane animal but this still usually works for it as well. So when two busses arrive at the same time never get on the first. It’s almost undoubtedly more crowded than the second bus and with more people means more stops and more stops means more time. Now one could argue that if you board the second bus and it has considerably less people than it’ll just end up passing the first bus and filling up too. Though this is theoretically true, starting with ten is always better than staring with fifty.

(more…)

[tags] metro tips, metro, tips, helpful hints [/tags]

Credit So Cal Metro via Flikr

There are hundreds of different things that can make or break a good metro experience, most out of the riders’ control, but others perfectly fixable. That is to say, different variables everyday can have adverse effects on your ride and with a few tried and true practices and hints those variables can be easily forgotten. For example: many times bus drivers will feel they must make a glacier of the desert and try to freeze out the bus. If you’re not prepared your bus ride can be a terrible experience and you’ll wake up with a stuffy nose the next morning. This is a common thing so most all MetroRiders are aware of this. Which means they also know that it’s easily remedied by simply bringing a zip up hoody or jacket or sweatshirt whenever you ride. No problem. But what about that back door of those articulated busses? What about those crazies a seat over? Read on for these and others and please add as many as you can think of for MetroRiders are a lot like Marines, we have to look out for each other.

(more…)

[tags] holly trolley, ladot, clubs, nightlife [/tags]

The Glorious Holly Trolley Returns May 3rd. Credit TinCanOrange via Flickr

Ever wonder what it would be like to ride around Hollywood on an orange feux trolley car that would take you to all the select locations of the bustling historic Hollywood? Take you to see where the who’s and what-have-yous party and dine and deify themselves with alcohol and TMZ videos? Well wonder no more for the one and only Holly Trolley has returned, and for the month of May, it’s free!

For those of you who are not aware of this entertainment wagon on wheels let me briefly explain. Last January Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti decided the best way to get people out of their cars and into the streets was to create a shuttle that would escort all of Hwood’s party elite (and not) from club to club and venue to venue. This would in turn cut down on Hwood’s weekend party traffic and make the city in general more of a transit/walkable place to party. Or he just had an extra $300k burning a whole in his pocket (pdf). But what Garcetti might not have expected is that this burdensome trolley, with the weight of the Hwood club scene on its shoulders, was against all odds from the off set. I remember watching some local news one night when this jovial bus was in marketing phases and the publicity it was getting was that of well intox’d bums yelling about how its just going to be a drunk wagon. Imagine that, even the inebriated street vagabonds weren’t feeling the poor Holly Trolley. But Garcetti didn’t let that get to him and on January 12th 2006 a new age was born.
(more…)

[tags] tagger, metro, pwn, scatchitti [/tags]

Sharpied up bus seat. Credit: CrunchyPickle via Flickr

As MetroRiders it is our honor and our burden to ride in busses filled and covered in un-provocative, uncreative, unoriginal and completely contemptible scratchitti and sharpie tags. We see it everyday and forget about it entirely. Dismiss it the same as you would a cat or more topically, the way the city has dismissed rail transit for so long. We sit in it and on it without a second thought because there’s no use in thinking about it because thinking about it is usually a frustrating and fruitless activity better served thinking about what your first course of action would be if the bum four seats over stopped singing and started spitting. But however fruitless an endeavor it is to think about all the terribly uninspired markings around you, what is one to do if you are witnessing the taggers in the act, making your efforts to forget and ignore near impossible?
(more…)

[tags] front door, metro, rear exit [/tags]

Why do people feel they must exit through the front doors while others feel they must stand next to them, blocking all traffic to get on?

What is it that makes passengers plunder and pillage their way to the front of the bus to exit when there is a perfectly viable alternative much closer and much easier to exit? In fact, it’s not only closer but it’s specifically recommended by the scrolling text and robot announcer and for obvious reasons. Meanwhile others stand at the front deflecting all passer bys with elbows and sneers as you try to inch by their bodies and bags at their sides. A less than easy feat even with the force of fellow riders pushing you in the back.
(more…)