MetroRiderLA

The public transportation industry — in this sense, the agencies and their various suppliers — is very small and essentially a closed market, yet it sustains three major magazines focusing on the trade.

One is the Southern California-based Bobit Business Media-published Metro. It publishes monthly and bi-monthly, and covers transit news as well as profiling a manager. It has a sister publication, School Bus Fleet, for student transportation.

Mass Transit Magazine’s philosophy is “Better transit through better management.” It places more of an emphasis on the management angle, yet it reads very similar to Metro. It has a news feed on its front page. It is based in Wisconsin.

Another long-standing publication is Bus Ride, based in Phoenix. It gives a stronger emphasis to private motorcoach (intercity and charter) operations.

All are useful for gaining some of an inside perspective to transit management.

I found out via Lifehacker that Google Maps quietly updated their New York City maps to include prominent buildings and subway stations, and apparently they’ve done the same for Los Angeles! Now all we need is Google Transit support and we’re all good.

Don’t forget: TMIV’s Google Earth KML files for Metro Rail

An atta-girl! goes out to Carole Brown, chair of the Chicago Transit Authority. Her blog, Ask Carole, gives a what’s-up on service and maintenance issues affecting the nation’s fourth largest transit system.

Her item comments generate very high traffic, though many messages are the mundane “Why didn’t my inbound bus show up at 7:30 a.m. today?” variety. Yet it’s still unique to see an agency head interface directly with the public.

Some of the adorable artwork from the site that doesn’t quite adore Metro Rail: I Hate You Metro Rail.

Today I discovered a website that’s not shy about wearing its heart on its sleeve (or URL as the case may be)… the aptly named I Hate You Metro Rail.

I Hate You Metro rail tells the harrowing and sad tale of young Johnny Buckleweed of the Buckleweed clan, a family who lived in a city with excellent public transit but for unknown reasons wanted to move to a city with piss-poor public transit. And so the Buckleweeds move from New York City (this is an assumption on my part, it’s never fully revealed in the story) to Los Angeles, only to lose their matriarch in a train stop abduction/murder that could have been prevented had the Metro Rail arrived on time as promised. Thus Earl and 10-year-old Johnny Buckleweed are left to fend for themselves in what presumably must be the worst city in the entire world for rail transit. Poor Buckleweeds.

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WMATA’s Next Bus Interface.

The Metro librarian, Matt Barrett, has come through yet again with information on another tool that has the potential to change the way we “Go Metro”. A few days ago Matt was invited to check out a demo of a new webtool from Metro that will give real time estimated “next bus/train arriving” info via web and/or cell phone. His thoughts?

“It won’t be perfect when it rolls out, but it looks like a decent starting point.”

Let’s take a look…

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PublicRoutes offers an alternative to the Metro Trip Planner. But is it better?

Matt Barrett, the Metro librarian, has discovered what may very well turn out to be the ultimate alternative to the Metro Trip Planner, at least until Google Transit includes Los Angeles.

PublicRoutes is a new web service that offers online directions for any mode of transportation, be it bus, subway, train, ferry, tram, walking, driving, etc. Cities currently supported are Chicago, Dallas, NYC, Philadelphia, and of course, Los Angeles. Mark Sellouk, CEO of PublicRoutes.com, says of his service:

“The Los Angeles area has always been plagued with tremendous traffic and public transportation represents an easy, efficient alternative for saving time and money…What we provide at PublicRoutes.com is a single source to help anyone – tourists, residents, commuters – determine the fastest and most accurate way to get where they’re going by car, bus, rail, or walking. All a person needs to do is have a destination in mind and PublicRoutes.com will take care of the rest.”

Does PublicRoutes live up to the PR, and more importantly, does it push the Metro Trip Planner into obsolescence?

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