MetroRiderLA

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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For Koreatown residents, the last few months have just been a Disaster. Yes, a Disaster. Capital D.

This Disaster comes about because of the bizarre amount of track work that needs to be done between MacArthur Park and Vermont/Beverly. On most weekday nights, a “diversion is in effect” on the Purple Line, one which diverts the Purple Line out of existence and turns it into a very heavy DASH shuttle. The usual Disaster involves running Red Line service like usual, while running The Subway Formerly Known as the Purple Line as a shuttle between Western and Vermont, stopping at the wrong platforms on the westbound segment.

The confusion this Disaster creates is somewhere between “unbelievable” and “insurmountable.” Sometimes, Metro announces the Disaster over the intercom. Sometimes, you can even understand the announcement. Sometimes, the Disaster is announced via the worthless LED screens. Sometimes, said announcement is even accurate - it regularly states that the Disaster will only occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, yet the Disaster occurs with regularity on Wednesday nights, including last night.

Inquiries as to what, precisely, brought this about have led nowhere. Metro appears disinclined to explain precisely what needs to be done in the Downtown segments of the subway which requires such a routing. Quite honestly, in the time that the Disaster has been going on, they could have built an underground five-star hotel between Westlake and Vermont.

Usually, not everybody understands what’s going on. Announcements are usually only in English, and often there are people who are, for example, not regular riders, or from out of town, and they invariably don’t understand the scale of the Disaster. Most nights I’ve been caught in the unflinching jaws of the Disaster, I’ve had to give detailed explanations to at least one person, and because it seems that Metro rank-and-file are not being told, precisely, what precipitated the Disaster, train drivers are themselves understandably becoming irritated, and their patience with questions has worn thin in recent weeks.

So, the question I therefore put to you. Does anyone have the slightest clue as to what’s going on?

My concern is that Metro is doing this because ridership east of Vermont may be low due to the relative lack of late-night attractions in Downtown. This may well be the case, and this may be a logical solution to the problem. However, they’re going to have to indicate a permanent diversion such as this on all maps, and they’re going to have to start using the correct platforms for westbound trains, because signage is only worth using if it is always accurate.

Can anyone shine some light on this issue? And for the love of God, can Metro start putting this on metro.net so that people can figure it out before they leave for the day? I’ve put in comments to Metro about this before, to have them apologize and assert that they will start putting the announcement on the website. Well, if anyone in the Taj Mahal is reading, I don’t see anything about the Disaster on the Rail Service Alerts page yet.

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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[tags]los angeles, mta, downtown los angeles, light rail, downtown connector, transit coalition[/tags]

About 70 people turned out to Metro’s lunchtime meeting for the Regional Connector alternatives analysis at the Central Library on Tuesday. The meeting room was a tad too small for the crowd, which spilled over into the hallway.

This was the first of two meetings. The next one is 6-8 tonight at the Japanese American National Museum. Map and transit access are available here. Public comments on the projects are accepted through November 21. The addresses are also listed at the aforementioned link.
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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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