How Long Is Too Long?

When it’s been 40 minutes do you hold your breath and go against all your low expectations of Metro to wait it out for that next Rapid? Or do you give in to failure and hop on the local? This question as old as time was posed this very morning while I fruitlessly waited on the often-maligned 714.

I only have to take this bus once a week but even that little bit gets under my skin. The true problem of the 714 lies in the fact that it only runs during “rush hour” which, according to Metro, stops at about 8:30am and 5:30pm. Now Metro may not say that but if one were to look at their “rush hour only” service they would see that the last busses during that period run much of their line well before rush hour is even close to being over. The 714 is no different. West bound or east bound, stops are past for the last time at 5:15pm and its no different in the morning. Busses are non existent after 8:45am and the only thing you can hope for is that the bus is running late, an insane proposition for fellow Metroriders but true all the same.

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714 • LADOT • rapid • rush hour service

Daily Transit Links Roundup for 6/5/08

• Union Pacific doesn’t want high speed rail in California, cites safety concerns.
• City Beat interviews transit sales tax advocate Mike Feuer.
• It’s time, once and for all, for America to get serious about public transportation.
• The Amalgamated Transit Union wants fuel costs for transit agencies to be subsidized by the Federal government.
• A deeper look at the fight for the Expo Line.

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amalgamated transit union • california high speed rail • city beat • Expo Line • marketplace • mike feuer • subsidy • union pacific

Daily Transit Links Roundup for 6/4/08

• LAist informs new MetroRiders and reminds long-time MetroRiders about the basics of “Metroquette”.
• Despite rising gas prices and rising transit ridership, Arnold still set on slashing transit funding.
• The new-and-improved Bottleneck Blog talks to Damien Goodmon about the fight over Expo.
• How to prevent people from taking mass transit Part 1 and Part 2.

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arnold • damiend goodmon • ettiquette • expo • funding • governer

This Train Departs Next

Metro slowly inches forward in providing its customers with essential transit information.  At Union Station, the fancy new Transit Passenger Information System (TPIS) displays have been updated at long last to include a tiny bit more transit passenger information.  The displays now show a message specifying which train on the platform will be departing next.  This information has the potential to help the somewhat minor passenger conundrum of trying to guess which train to get on if there are two trains waiting on the platform.  Unfortunately this information is only of use to those who are not traveling beyond Wilshire/Vermont as the displays do not inform passengers of whether the next departing train is a Red Line train or a Purple Line train.  As you can see in the photograph, the signage still implies the the train is headed to both North Hollywood and Wilshire/Western, and in fact in my mind the visual hierarchy implies that North Hollywood and Wilshire Western are the next upcoming station stops.  Criticisms aside, it’s nice to see Metro attempting to do a little bit more with these pricey displays, it may seem like a tiny step forward now, but it’s a step forward nonetheless.

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lcd display • next train • purple line • red line • transit passenger information system • union station

Daily Transit Links Roundup for 6/3/08

Image courtesy of igetrad.

• Metro wins at the Rail Rodeo, a competition to see which agency is  the best at rail maintenance, for the second year in a row. America’s Best!
• Wendy Greuel talks about the staggering costs of traffic congestion in Los Angeles.
• The United States gets a D+ in transit infrastructure which generally means people are stuck in their pricey gas-guzzling cars or on over-crowded buses.  Land of the free!
• Marketplace takes a look at the ridership/infrastructure gap. It seems the idea that transit is just for poor people doesn’t bode well in a era where everyone is poor because of pricey gasoline.
• Congestion pricing works! For the wealthy, L.A.’s freeways are suddenly fun to drive on again.
• Los Angeles used to be a two funicular town.  How the mighty have fallen.
• Santa Clarita Transit to add GPS tracking information at 35 busy bus stops.

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funicular • gas prices • gps • rail rodeo • traffic congestion • transit infrastructure

Daily Transit Links Roundup fo 6/2/08

Image courtesy of puck90.

• Pricey gas could lead to a better tomorrow.
• Air travel is no longer the default when it comes to long distance travel.
• The Los Angeles Metro Mole returns with more tales from the sordid side of the transit oriented lifestyle.
• As transit use sky rockets, so do transit costs, leading to higher fares and reduced service.

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fares • gas prices • metro mole • motorcoach • service reduction • Travel