MetroRiderLA

So this post is for general discussion, and contains a couple gold-related themes.

1) The Gold Line. So I experience for the first time the “express” service to Pasadena. First, and though this is partially my fault for not noticing immediately, it’s pretty confusing that it only stops at Memorial Park going one way. Guess who had to walk to Colorado Bl. from Del Mar. *raises hand*.

Why are they doing this? This isn’t New York, they’re not clearing up tracks by running express trains. It cuts an astonishing 5 minutes off the trip to Sierra Madre Villa, and has to leave some pretty torqued off people who are going to the other station who suddenly find their rush hour service cut back. Why is this a useful service? I’m having trouble seeing it. They’d do the gold line more of a service telling the people on Marmion Way to get a grip than they are with this one.

2) Where’s the gold? I spent 2 weeks here in August, and got stopped by a Sheriff checking passes probably every 2-3 days. I’ve been here 3 weeks, and haven’t been on a train that’s been checked. Do I just have fantastically bizarre luck, or is LASD on permanent vacation? I ask because, in all of the noise about that Pershing Square fiasco a few months back, I’d hate to see that MTA really was losing money because LASD had abandoned checking tickets, and people had noticed and relied on this abandonment.

(Picture taken by myself, hosted by Facebook.)

[tags] sell,car,sold,craigslist,car free,los angeles[/tags]

As of last Friday I officially no longer own a wasteful and unnecessary automobile. It feels good. It feels great. It feels… right. Here’s how I did it.

First and foremost, what kind of car do you have? This will automatically decide your audience and therefore your approach. If you want to get rid of a Lexus or a Ford Escort Wagon your steps will definitely be different, though the end goal the same. Getting rid of the burden/headache/pollutant/financial black hole that is an automobile in Los Angeles, California.

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For myself, a recent transplant from Phoenix via New York by way of Boston, I’d had a great deal of trepidation about being car-free in Los Angeles. I mean, what’s the first thing Zonis think of when they think of their distant cousin, six hours to the west? Cars and crime!

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Photo courtesy of ballookey via Flickr.

I don’t feel so good.

You see, today, for the first time in months, I drove. A car. Do I feel bad because I went against the ideals of the “public transit lifestyle” by driving a car today? No. Do I feel bad because transit-dependent people in this city can’t experience the freedom of being behind the wheel of their own personal transportation device? Hell no. I feel bad for one reason and one reason only: I drove.

And driving, in this city at least, SUCKS.

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While riding to work today a mega emo chick boarded the bus with headphones in and black hood up. Her tight jeans barely made it to her label-less black shoes and her eye make up was heavier than the depression she was desperately creating. However she was for the most quite attractive and she sat near enough to me to accidentally stare at her breasts, if one can accidentally stare at such things. But being in a rel I courageously moved on to other points of interest on the bus. Like the man who couldn’t decide to take his sunglasses off or leave them on and continued to remove and replace them for the better part of thirty minutes.

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[tags]expo line, mta, nimby, cheviot hills[/tags]

Spent a couple hours last night at the first Open House MTA put on for Phase 2 of the Expo Line, located in Culver City (the open house, not the line).

Probably a genius move on MTA’s part putting on an Open House format rather than a formal presentation. If there was a speaker at the front of the room, explaining the situation, there would have been a focus for the ire of the NIMBYs; someone to to squawk and complain at. I won’t say they would have been shouting, since I was probably shouting more than them, I just tried to explain that I am not yelling, I am merely passionate about my position.

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