MetroRiderLA

Before moving Downtown, East Hollywood was my ‘hood. To me, it’s the original transit oriented ‘hood because of its proximity to the Metro Red Line and ample bus service, along with its lack of ample parking which led me to dump my car and birth MetroRiderLA in its place. The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has put together an informative video listing the various transit modes that serve the neighborhood and outlines suggestions on how to improve mobility in East Hollywood. I think every neighborhood should do the same.

Via a comment on Streetsblog LA’s recent post about bike parking at Dodger Stadium I found this awesome Streetsfilm about free valet bike parking at the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants:

I was shocked to find out that over half the people who attend Giants games get there without a car. I bet under 1% of Dodgers fans get to games without a car. The AT&T Park’s website lists public transit directions before car directions in the Getting To The Park section. The Dodgers website, on the other hand, has its own special mini-site dedicated to parking with FAQ’s, safety tips, traffic info, and other such crap that would be irrelevant if they made it easier to get to the stadium without a car. Pathetic.I wonder what kind of overall cost savings (internal and external) the ballpark and stadium sees by having more that half the people attend games without a car.

Click the above image to watch the commercial.

I found this commercial for the Madrid Metro via the Carfree USA blog.  This stunning ode to urban life and subterranean transit shows that in some places the kind of money and time that goes into car advertisements also goes into promoting mass transit.  According to the Wikipedia entry on the Madrid Metro, the 12 lines that serve Madrid’s 3.5 million people (6 million in the larger metropolitan area) span 175 miles and make it the 8th longest urban rail system in the world.  Los Angeles, a city of 3.8 million people and a metropolitan area of 12.9 million people comes in 18th place, with 73 miles of urban rail.

Contrast with:

• Metro TV Spots 

[tags]greensumption, youtube, hypocrisy, sustainable, green, eco, save the polar bears[/tags]

Feeling guilty about your carbon footprint? Wish there was something you could do to help? Greensumption is the answer!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft5SSIfmeKU[/youtube]

via Carfree USA Blog

[tags]west hollywood, metro, los angeles, westside, westside extension[/tags]

Metro has released a new and informative video covering the public scoping process of the Metro Westside Extension Transit Corridor study. The 16-minute video, guided by Judy Litvak and David Mieger of Metro, describes the the area, the process, and the possiblities for the Westside Extension. Unfortunately the audio clips out of the video about 2/3 of the way through. I appreciate Metro attempting to communicate with its customers this way, it definitely beats midday meetings in far-off locales, but hopefully they nail down the technology better next time.

[tags]metro, los angeles, commercial, advertising, television spot[/tags]

Your new Metro spokesperson.

Metro has recently created six television spots to further promote their burgeoning transit system and attract new riders. These spots feature a rather stocky balding man (some might refer to his demeanor as “douchey”) interviewing MetroRiders from all walks of life about why they “Go Metro”. The spots are well produced, and although the interviewer is annoying at best, I find the spots effective in presenting Metro as an attractive alternative to driving. Will the ads help boost ridership? That remains to be seen, but I’m a big believer in the power of advertising to influence the masses. I think just seeing a well-produced commercial on TV will legitimize Metro for some people

Has anyone seen these on television yet? What do you think about the ads?

Links to each individual spot after the jump…

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