MetroRiderLA

Last Halloween the king of Los Angeles car-sharing and friend to many a MetroRider, Flexcar, announced that it would be merging with Boston based rival Zipcar, combining their powers like The Planeteers to form the Captain Planet* of car-sharing companies. Well, a little over two months later, Zipcar has arrived in L.A.

I received my stylish Zipcard in the mail today and activated my account which nabbed me $25 worth of free driving credit just for being an old Flexcar member. I’m eager to use up that credit as soon as possible, having been a Flexcar member for over a year the curiousity to see what’s new is overwhelming. Overall, I was very pleased with Flexcar, the system wasn’t flawless but the customer service was good and when the system worked (and it did the majority of the time) it was a breeze.

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The North San Diego County Transit District has put off the opening of its light rail line, Sprinter, originally scheduled for this Sunday. No start-up date has been announced.

Some of the final touches, such as parking lot striping, are not complete. The California Public Utilities Commission still has not given the OK on the line’s safety measures.

See also:

• San Diego Union-Tribune: Sprinter rail service won’t start on Sunday (brief)
• North County Times: Sprinter start may be pushed back again
  

[tags]red line, metro, los angeles, fare gates, green line, subway, light rail[/tags]

Fare gates on the Boston Green Line. Photo courtesy of iandavid via Flickr.

To the surprise of possibly no one, the Metro board voted to install fare gates at Metro Rail stations. According to a recent Metro report, 5% of Metro Rail riders do not pay their fares, resulting in $5.5 million a year in lost fare revenue. The estimated cost to install barriers on the Red and Green lines, as well as “select” light rail stations? $30 million to install and $1 million a year for operations. Only one person on the Metro Board, Richard Katz, voted against the project, calling it “a great boondoggle”.

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• Travel+ Leisure Magazine put L.A. in last place due to its poor mobility.
• What’s next for the eastside?  A Gold Line to Whittier perhaps?
• The L.A. Times takes a look at the other subway to the sea.
• Cars fight back! Siel at Emerald City notices an ad trying to get people off the bus and into cars.

[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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So the LA Times is now reporting (whether by skillful reporting or by error is beyond me - can someone who has the time to attend these meetings tell me?) that instead of the “Purple Line,” LA is considering building the “Pink Line” first. (Pink line being shorthand for our prior discussions about a route that branched at H&H, went down to Santa Monica Boulevard by some fashion, and continued straight to Santa Monica).

Again, this is just my personal opinion, but I have to say, this is a pretty fantastically bad idea.

I very much like the idea of a “pink line” and think that it will help complete the circuit in the Westside; Expo, Purple, and Pink would, with the possible addition of a Sepulveda LRT, create a comprehensive rail system throughout Downtown and the Westside.

But I’m not at all convinced at the concept of building the “Pink Line” first. it’ll basically create a sideways “S” across the Westside; I’m not at all convinced that someone would want to go from Union Station, to Wilshire/Vermont, up into Los Feliz, over to Hollywood/Highland, only to cut back southwest again to Santa Monica. Anyone smarter than me want to calculate how long that would take? I would have to think over an hour. Starts to make the #920 or the Santa Monica #10 look attractive, and to people who drive now, won’t get many people out of their cars, aside from folks in WeHo, who clearly benefit.

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