MetroRiderLA

[tags] metro tips, metro, tips, helpful hints [/tags]

Credit So Cal Metro via Flikr

As I said earlier, there are so many things, usually minor, that can make all of our Metro trips better ones. Some more minute than others, but all useful almost every day, for me that is. Therefore, read on and add on.

- It’s not a rare occasion that two busses will show up at the same time and then nothing for a while. The 720 is guiltiest of this. Three busses will show up at the same time and then nothing for ten minutes. Now the 720 is its own insane animal but this still usually works for it as well. So when two busses arrive at the same time never get on the first. It’s almost undoubtedly more crowded than the second bus and with more people means more stops and more stops means more time. Now one could argue that if you board the second bus and it has considerably less people than it’ll just end up passing the first bus and filling up too. Though this is theoretically true, starting with ten is always better than staring with fifty.

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[tags] metro tips, metro, tips, helpful hints [/tags]

Credit So Cal Metro via Flikr

There are hundreds of different things that can make or break a good metro experience, most out of the riders’ control, but others perfectly fixable. That is to say, different variables everyday can have adverse effects on your ride and with a few tried and true practices and hints those variables can be easily forgotten. For example: many times bus drivers will feel they must make a glacier of the desert and try to freeze out the bus. If you’re not prepared your bus ride can be a terrible experience and you’ll wake up with a stuffy nose the next morning. This is a common thing so most all MetroRiders are aware of this. Which means they also know that it’s easily remedied by simply bringing a zip up hoody or jacket or sweatshirt whenever you ride. No problem. But what about that back door of those articulated busses? What about those crazies a seat over? Read on for these and others and please add as many as you can think of for MetroRiders are a lot like Marines, we have to look out for each other.

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[tags] holly trolley, ladot, clubs, nightlife [/tags]

The Glorious Holly Trolley Returns May 3rd. Credit TinCanOrange via Flickr

Ever wonder what it would be like to ride around Hollywood on an orange feux trolley car that would take you to all the select locations of the bustling historic Hollywood? Take you to see where the who’s and what-have-yous party and dine and deify themselves with alcohol and TMZ videos? Well wonder no more for the one and only Holly Trolley has returned, and for the month of May, it’s free!

For those of you who are not aware of this entertainment wagon on wheels let me briefly explain. Last January Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti decided the best way to get people out of their cars and into the streets was to create a shuttle that would escort all of Hwood’s party elite (and not) from club to club and venue to venue. This would in turn cut down on Hwood’s weekend party traffic and make the city in general more of a transit/walkable place to party. Or he just had an extra $300k burning a whole in his pocket (pdf). But what Garcetti might not have expected is that this burdensome trolley, with the weight of the Hwood club scene on its shoulders, was against all odds from the off set. I remember watching some local news one night when this jovial bus was in marketing phases and the publicity it was getting was that of well intox’d bums yelling about how its just going to be a drunk wagon. Imagine that, even the inebriated street vagabonds weren’t feeling the poor Holly Trolley. But Garcetti didn’t let that get to him and on January 12th 2006 a new age was born.
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Peacing da f#$k out.

Hey MetroRiders, in the midst of accusations of dishonesty, internet annoyances, spam bombs, transit bullsh#@, Los Angeles bullsh#@, and general malaise, your blog leader Fred Camino (that’s me) has decided to take week hiatus from blogging (and blogs in general) to brush the dirt off his shoulders. In the meantime look at those links over on the right for all sorts of Los Angeles transit blogginess and other great stuff. Oh, and enjoy that picture of cars up above.

Tune back in next week, hopefully I’ll be in the mood to contribute again.

[tags]yelp, metro rider la, los angeles, san diego[/tags]

Fred’s three-month odyssey to complete Southern California transit stations on Yelp is complete! Fred’s 300th review is of a San Diego Trolley station, marking the completion of transit on a round number. Moreover, San Diegans have shown Fred love by making the entry of the Old Town Transit Center the Review of the Day on April 8!

All Metro Rail, Metrolink, San Diego Trolley and Coaster stations are now entered. And now, more lists are coming.

The progress (as of April 30):

• 300 reviews (219 are firsts)
• 446 useful, 26 funny and 177 cool votes
• 44 friends
• 38 compliments

If you sign up and get your own Yelp account, link up Fred in your friends account.

[tags]los angeles, metro, mta, lacmta, fare[/tags]

Metro has struggled to add service, both as the result of increased demand and judicial mandates, while bringing down costs. The agency anticipates a subsidy shortfall. If subsidies cannot be increased, services must be cut or passenger fares must rise.

Does Metro have merit in raising its fares? Most riders are obviously going to say no, especially because most of Metro’s riders are too poor to pay higher fares. Politicians serve on Metro’s board, and would not want to deal with a voter revolt if fares are increased. In light of circumstances, fare increases have merit. However, MetroRiderLA, being an information and analysis provider for the transit using community, opposes the agency’s fare proposal because it demands very high fare increases at once and is trying to deliberately price passes high enough to destroy demand in the hopes of cancelling passes in the future. The fare table shows the obtuseness of transit agency bureaucrats who never comprehended the hardship it poses on riders. The site hopes that the plan, like a Los Angeles Times editorial suggests, was cynically stage-managed to make the board agree to a smaller fare increase and look like heroes in the eyes of the public.

A fare increase is warranted, and MetroRiderLA has proposed a different fare schedule that is easier on the riders’ pocketbooks and would still bring Metro’s financials in line. It calls for smaller incremental increases across a two-year period and a flattening of pass categories by Metro only selling EZ Passes, thereby justifying higher prices with the added value of riders being able to ride Los Angeles County’s most important bus systems.

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