MetroRiderLA

[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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• The cost of building the Expo Line is going up!  Phase 1 might not even make it to Culver City.
• A  Santa Monica opinion on the progress of Expo Phase 2.  Refreshing!
• Weho Represents!  Over 120 passionate people show up to Westside Expansion Meeting in support of a subway under Santa Monica Blvd.
• History Lesson: How rail brought life to the Inland Empire.

• Preaching to the choir: driving is bad for you and the environment
• As transit’s popularity increases, so does its financial costs
• New Amtrak stops at Metrolink stations in Orange and Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo
• More on the fight to grade seperate the Expo Line to save the teens

[tags]flexcar, zipcar, merger, los angeles, car sharing[/tags]

Whatever you call it - lovemaking, boning, the horizontal mambo, knocking boots, or corporate merger - there’s nothing quite as beautiful as when two become one. The lucky lovebirds in this case are Flexcar and Zipcar, two car-sharing companies that aim to change the way we think about getting around. Many Los Angeles MetroRider’s are familiar with Flexcar due to its growing presence in the region (there are currently 151 Flexcars in Los Angeles). Zipcar is popular in cities like Boston and Chicago… combined the two cover New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, London, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Philidelphia. Phew.

The plan, like most couplings, is to take the best parts of both companies and make the resulting service better than the originals. The new company will be called Zipcar as Flexcar sacrifices it’s naming rights for the greater good. I think this is a good idea because Zipcar seems to have more name recognition that Flexcar. Every time I told a friend from other urban areas that I was a Flexcar member, they would always say “Oh that’s called Zipcar here”.

As a current Flexcar member I’m really excited about this merger… I can only see good coming out of it. I really love Flexcar, but there were always some issues with their system, and after browsing the Zipcar website and reading up on some of their literature, it really seems like they’ve got it down. The reservation system seems to have a nice Google Maps interface and from what I’ve read there’s a mobile interface for making reservation, which is something Flexcar lacked. For Los Angeles, Flexcars will be transitioning over to Zipcars in January of 2008, and current members will be sent a Zipcard to replace their Flexcar Smart Card and be given some free driving credits just for activating their new cards.

More Info:

• Press Release: Zipcar and Flexcar agree to merge
• FAQ for current Flexcar members
• Seattle Times: Flexcar merges with rival Zipcar

• Damien Goodmon leads the (pricey) fight to make the Expo Line safer for high school students.
• MetrobloggingLA thinks that the Red Line is missing a vital stop in the Valley.
• The Boi from Troy wants the Red Line Extension to zig-zag in order to hit more hot-spots, including WeHo.