Last summer Megabus chose Los Angeles as the second hub for the English coach operator’s American market. Soon after the service debuted, MetroRiderLA took Megabus on a short jaunt from Union Station to San Diego. The fare, speed and ride quality on that service left a helluva first impression. That was a two-hour journey, mere child’s play for an operations manager.

But what about taking the big blue bus — no, not that one — to its limits? How well can Megabus do when traveling across California, from the congested megalopoles of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area? And, more importantly, is the Megabus concept catching on here as it has in the UK and the Chicago hub?

A trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco is scheduled for 7 hours, 15 minutes. This won’t take nearly as long to read.

Let’s ride.

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A 10-part miniseries!

Featuring a cast of thousands!

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This picture is not from today’s wreck, but one in 2007. Courtesy of waltarrrrr via Flickr.

Imagine, if you will, a traffic signal. Now imagine that the red light is lit. What do you do? You stop. Why? Because it means that cars are crossing in front of you and if you were to not heed the red light, your would be struck by the passing cars. Now imagine a traffic signal, lit red, with a gate in front of it physically blocking the intersection and bells clanging loudly. The point cannot be driven home any further.

Yet, time and time again it seems that people, from the same species that invented the traffic signal and the crossing gate and the cars and trains and city that they reside in, cannot for the life of them manage to comprehend these direct messages that clearly imply “do not cross”. And so they do cross, which invariably leads to them being hit by a Gold Line train or a Metrolink train.

Such incidents happened on this very day. According to CBS2. com, two people were taken to the hospital today after a 73- year old driver decided to ignore that which she’s had 73 years to learn, and drove under a lowered gate crossing arm only to be hit by the coming train. Luckily it seems no one was seriously injured, the driver and a train passenger were taken to the hospital for minor injuries, but her Lexus suffered major damage and the train suffered moderate damage. While we wish the driver a swift recovery, we do hope someone gives her a remedial lesson in the children’s game “red light, green light”.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune presents us with another tale of train vs. car, this time with a Metrolink slamming into a big-rig trailer that was conveniently backed through the crossing gates and onto the tracks. Only one of the 500 passengers on board the train was injured, and the train suffered minor damage. The trailer hit a nearby storage company resulting in damage to several of the storage units. In addition to taking out the crossing gate, the trailer also took out the traffic signals… but is seems that people don’t pay much attention to those things anyway.

Around the country the tobacco enthusiast is reeling with each and every new tax placed on their most beloved accouterments. What was once an enjoyable fashion statement is now a financial black hole. But unlike the private auto enthusiast things don’t seem to be looking up.

Even though gas prices are skyrocketing and no matter what the politicians say, will probably never drop below $3/gallon nationwide again, at least the car owner still has the extremely sleek and produced television ads with the latest in mograph technology to make even a Kia Sophia seem sexy. Not to mention this weekend is the Martin Luther King Jr. sales event—finally—and interests rates are being slashed slashed slashed to make room for the ’08’s. Because as we all know, Dr. King loved his cars.

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Siel over at the L.A. Times Emerald City blog asked me to offer my opinion on a recent anti-rail op-ed piece printed in the L.A. Times entitled “The MTA’s Train Wreck“. In classic style, I did just that… for paragraphs and paragraphs. Here’s a little sample:

…Herein lies my problem with the article by Mr. Moore and Mr. Rubin: they still see transit as little more than a welfare program for those who can’t afford cars (aka, “the poor”). I see transit as the solution to The Traffic Problem. Transit ridership increases or decreases don’t matter in regards to The Traffic Problem if the only riders are those can’t afford cars in the first place. And in Los Angeles, because of The Traffic Problem, transit can no longer be seen as a welfare program. In other cities, perhaps, but in Los Angeles traffic is The Problem, and if The Problem isn’t solved it’s likely we’ll all end up needing some sort of welfare. But this is the beauty of public transit: it doesn’t discriminate. I can’t just go pick up some food stamps, but I’m free to hop on any bus or train. So transit has the potential to be a both a way to help give mobility to those who can’t afford a car AND solve The Traffic Problem by getting those who can afford cars out of them. The big issue, of course, is how to get those people out of their cars.

I can tell you right now: buses ain’t gonna cut it…

Go check out the post on Emerald City for the whole shebang.

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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