MetroRiderLA

Welcome back to another installment of L.A.’s first, best and only examination of commuter bus options in the metropolis … What A Rush.

There are three reports for this month, two of which are available for reading. The third was an attempted exploration of Metro Line 489 on September 26, but the bus never showed up. Readers were screwed out of a good read as much as What A Rush was screwed out of a good ride. Give Customer Relations some hell and tell them that the 3:32 p.m. trip never arrived.

Take a ride after the jump.

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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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The first time I heard it, I thought there was an injured animal stuck under the tracks. I walked up and down, but didn’t see anything. But the sound, that sound, THE SOUND.. it haunted me. But when I returned weeks later, the sound remained. How could this injured animal still be under there? It has been months since my first visit and the sound remains. And I don’t think its an injured animal anymore
I’m talking, of course, about the Civic Center redline stop. The station’s art features some very cool and very creepy levitating/ falling human bodies. Overall, I’d say it’s one of the quieter stations, but there is this crazy echoeing chirp you can hear while waiting. You can hear it ever 30 seconds or so.. sometimes it sounds like birds chirping.. but sometimes it sounds almost mechanical.. robotic.. evil. It always creeps me out.
What is up with the mystery sound of the Civic Center stop? Is it a ghost? An art instalation? A job for Scooby Do and the gang?

So many routes, so little time. Only two rides are profiled for August, one from LADOT and one from Metro.

Read all about it after the jump.

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I finally started taking transit to work, only a month after I promised. I’ve got a real hook-up at work. I paid only $41 for an EZ pass (normally $58) plus I get a credit of $2.75 everyday I take the bus to work. It takes about an hour riding the 30 to pico/rimpau then the santa monica 7 to Pico/Motor. I’m usually no condition to read in the morning so I take in a little Transit TV, which is where I saw something very very exciting:
Transit Date
It was a short commercial for a dating service the MTA is setting up, but is not yet active. I did a limited scour of the MTA site and found nothing, so part of this post is a call for information.
The other reason is to publically state I will sign up and test the Transit Date service for the benifit of readers and, well, myself.
I love tamales.

Please post any info

Ahh, San Diego.

There’s a lot to love about it. It’s room temperature 300 days out of the year, Sea World makes it fun – and profitable – to watch an orca belly flop, the zoo is vast and beautiful and it was ahead of the curve in the central city and public transit renaissances.

Only, this is about the cities north of it. At least it’s in the same county. And the city’s attractions make a more interesting lead than saying the North County cities are remarkable for being military towns that do not have tattoo parlors and rancid prostitutes as their economic base.

The way to explore San Diego – city or county – is by public transportation. The meager service and exorbitant fares are made up by excellent planning and scenic routes that are fun to ride.

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