MetroRiderLA

• The bike/train debate goes on. Are bike riders classist? Racsist? Worse? Read more at The Bus Bench.
• Move a fourth of the freight from trucks to trains, save the world?
• What would you do with $40 billion big ones? Here’s what Metro would do.
• Is McCain’s disdain for mass transit the nail in his presidential coffin?
• CalTrain makes room for bikes on their trains, but even that’s not enough.

Image courtesy of kla4067.

• Villaraigosa says we might be 3.5 years from the start of a new subway.
• Amazing first-hand story of what happens when a Red Line train breaks down… for good.
• The Metro Mole returns with more scathing critiques of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority aka Metro.
• Another perspective on last week’s big transit circus at the Taj Mahal.

• LA Weekly doesn’t mince words when it comes to the Westside vs. SGV transit funding debate.
• Goodbye Pam from Santa Monica, Hello Mayor Villaraigosa.
• Eric Garcetti wants to lift the rush hour ban of bikes on trains.
• Metro buses are late 40% of the time and the yellow shirts won’t let you forget it.
• We’ve heard this one before: Washington Post columnist George Will thinks the solution to America’s transportation woes is simple, build more roads!

• Is it bad public policy that a 72-mile commute takes just shy of 3 hours? Methinks it’s a bad personal policy.
• Is the American Dream changing? Methinks it’s just reorienting to the lifestyle that offers the most freedom.
• Is a trip to San Pedro to ride the Red Cars a good idea for a “staycation”?  Methinks Pam from Santa Monica would approve.
• Are the train arrival times gone for good because of mean bloggers? Methinks they are just being fixed because of mean bloggers.
• Rail Riders Union wants a 1-cent sales tax to fund the Subway to the Sea.  Methinks…

• Looks like I’m not the only person into pegging car-culture conservatives as closet socialists! Check out this great article exposing the “Soviet Style Social Engineering” of the American car culture.
• Amtrak funding to increase by 28%, let’s hope they use that money wisely.
• Metro Citizens Advisory Council to hold a presentation with Metro about the transportation sales tax measure.
• Solar-powered GPS-enabled signs with next bus information could make the bus experience a whole lot nicer.
• Transit returns to Dodger Stadium next month, with game-day shuttles linking the stadium with Union Station.
• Riverside residents are getting stoked for the new Metrolink extension to Perris Valley.
• The grass is always greener on the other side: a Chicagoan dreams of a Los Angeles caliber transit system for her city.

• The illusion of control: in a car you’ve got control, in a bus you don’t. Or is that really the case?
• Angelenos dump the pump with gusto. Not hard with gas prices over $4/gallon.
• In Orange County, 10,000 people downloaded a free transit pass offered by OCTA for Dump the Pump Day.
• Metrolink hits 50,000 riders on Tueday, its highest single day ridership EVAR.
• A freeway is completed and traffic increases.