MetroRiderLA

• America’s Funniest Transit Videos: Shabby Los Angeles Metro Buses!
• Density must be centralized to be effective.
• The United States poor transportation infrastructure, and lack of a plan for the future, spells trouble for the economy.
• Car Accident: 75-year old woman dies after making an illegal left-hand turn into oncoming traffic.
• Wired takes a look at Metro’s Long Range Plan, and the challenges L.A. faces when it comes to mobility

Image courtesy of Telstar Logistics.

• Will California High Speed Rail be a boon to the Silicon Valley too?
• I don’t know if I’d call 1,100 miles of rail “quaint” (especially considering the scant 73 miles we have today), but the Daily News takes a nostalgic view of the Red Cars.
• A two-fer on the Blue Line: light rail continues its destructive attack on humanity.
• U.S. Transportation chief wants gas taxes gone, replaced with tolls and congestion pricing.

Is this the future of L.A. mass transit? Photo courtesy of ATIS547 via Flickr.

• The MetroMole awards Metro “America’s Least Communicative“
• Design flaw causes driver to run red light, T-boning bus and hospitalizing six
• Flood channel monorails?  LA Visions inspects.
• Plans to reinvent Broadway will be unveiled today.  Making the street car-free is a consideration.

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.