MetroRiderLA

Decisions, decisions.

The December 2006 shake-up has seen Metro’s largest expansion of limited-stop service in 12 years. This expansion includes a brand-spanking-new Rapid line for Reseda Boulevard, Line 741.

The San Fernando Valley’s incessant whining for improving transit service out of proportion to actual ridership has again paid off.

And in the case of Reseda Rapid, quite handsomely.

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I’ve been thinking about this for while, but when sitting at my computer to post, it kept slipping my mind. So instead of writing anything at all I’d just end perusing other LA public transit sites. Today, during such a perusing, I came across the always sarcastic and informative Metro Mole and an article he wrote addressing some of the dirtiest bus stops in the county. Now I’ve definitely seen my fare share of dirty azz bus stops, the 14,18, 720 stop at 5th and Grand downtown comes to mind, but not really enough to truly break down which one rightfully deserves 2006’s Dirtiest Bus Stop Award. Though it should be in the running, along with under the 10 overpass stop at Fairfax and Washington. Both nominees if nothing else. But to my point.
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Our esteemed governor re-elect just donned his hard hat in celebration of another successful California currency bonfire.  Thanks to the dedicated sales-tax sacrifice of Orange County consumers coupled with prop 1B the bonfire was able to efficiently burn $550 million dollars!  But from the ashes arose something ginormous and to quote  schwarzenegger “spectacular”:  A glistening black phenix in the form of 2 new lanes on the Garden Grove 22 Freeway!  The new lanes will allow drivers to shave a whopping 15-20 minutes from their commute.

The project was implemented with a new style of public works development called “design-build” where the same contractor designs and builds the project allowing construction to begin before the design is complete.  Thankfully rail construction hasn’t been able to grasp this concept and is woefully behind, which makes me wonder, is it really even worth including in the transportation bill at all?  Why are we throwing away $4 billion dollars on this silly rail idea when we can add it to the $11.3 billion slated for highway/road improvement for a grand total of $15.3 billion!  And really, there’s no good reason to not skim another billion from those absurd earthquake safety improvements and $2.2 billion slated to retrofit and replace school buses.  After those simple number moves highway and local road improvements would have grand total of $18.5 billion, almost enough to build of the freeway of all our dreams: a double-decker interstate 101!

I’ve seen it one time before, though heard about it countless more. A bus and a car. Smashing it up. Screeching up some tires and messing up some traffic. The one accident I’d witnessed was years ago when I was still an idiotic driver. It was at the Southeast corner of Wilshire and La Brea. From what I could surmise, the 212 was stopped picking up/dropping off people and someone in a Jaguar decided it was taking to long, tried to speed around them to turn right just as the bus was going forward and BOOM… crasharinos. Glass and bumper alike splashing to the pavement. I cursed the moronic Jaguar owner for messing up traffic and for the rest of my ride home wondered what was next for the bus riders. What was to become of them? Though I was still unsure of Metro’s bus system, I assumed busses didn’t come more often then every 10 to 15 minutes. So what was next for these unfortunate riders? Were they at least going to get a free ride? Perhaps a free coupon to Chilis. Well today I found out first hand and this time, the bus was to blame.

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Today is a monumental day in my Metro riding experience, therefore I feel the need (albeit, def not necessary) to write a quick post to inform you all that opening a window isn’t all that hard. My civic duty if you will.

You see, since beginning my regular bus riding, going on 6 months now, I’ve never had the nerve to open a window. I’ve always wanted to, but for one reason or another I backed down and sat in the stale air of the filling bus. For the most part I just didn’t want to inconvenience the others around me. Perhaps they were quite happy with the windows closed and the petrified air that was coming from the homeless man’s bag of … stuff.

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John Scott is a familiar name throughout Los Angeles. Stickers promoting his web site have been affixed to Metro equipment, street furniture, telephones and newsracks.

Scott, it turns out, is a real person and not some post-modern hipster inside joke like Obey the Giant.

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