MetroRiderLA

• Looks like I’m not the only person into pegging car-culture conservatives as closet socialists! Check out this great article exposing the “Soviet Style Social Engineering” of the American car culture.
• Amtrak funding to increase by 28%, let’s hope they use that money wisely.
• Metro Citizens Advisory Council to hold a presentation with Metro about the transportation sales tax measure.
• Solar-powered GPS-enabled signs with next bus information could make the bus experience a whole lot nicer.
• Transit returns to Dodger Stadium next month, with game-day shuttles linking the stadium with Union Station.
• Riverside residents are getting stoked for the new Metrolink extension to Perris Valley.
• The grass is always greener on the other side: a Chicagoan dreams of a Los Angeles caliber transit system for her city.

• Millennials and Baby Boomers join forces in forgoing the suburbs for the many ammenities of urban life.  Hey Gen X, you suck!
• Hey ladies, despite conventional wisdom, cars aren’t the safest way to travel.
• A journey on America’s “oddball novelty”, Amtrak, presents a compelling look at the failure of American passenger rail.
• The Gold Line Foothill extension is exactly the kind of transit Los Angeles doesn’t need.
• Lusting for cars from the seat on a bus.  Car advertisements get heavy rotation on TransitTV.
• Pam is back! Join the Metro Interactive chat today at noon to discuss “beautiful rides, such as the Metro Line 2 bus down Sunset Boulevard”.

• Terence Jeffery, a cartarded conservative nimrod, is my new comedy hero.  His defense of Americuz “free-market transportation” system is a laugh riot.  Terence buddy, read this and then go eat your slice of pizza and be quiet, cuz I’m not buying it.  Cartard.
• Los Angeles freeway bike rebels garner national attention.
• Orange Line to keep going… all the way to the Chatsworth Metrolink Station.
• Amtrak president Alex Kummant gets real in a great interview with Reuters.  A must read.
• Los Angeles rail ridership up from a year ago, but bus ridership is down.  Dear car-culture refugees: fear not the bus.
• Thousand Oaks bus system offers Google Transit and NextBus technology to help riders figure out where they are going and stay on schedule. Nice!
• Hey, remember when Austin’s CapMetro went up against Miss Traffic and won?  Well they’ve pwned Metro again by launching an official agency blog.  Nice!

Image courtesy of mac steve.

• House passes $15 billion bill for Amtrak funding.
• New and improved Amtrak Coast Starlight beats major airlines in schedule reliability.
• Shocking. Conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation doesn’t like Amtrak subsidies, prefers oil subsidies.
• Wait, the ghettoized lowest-common denominator bus based mass transit systems in the U.S. can’t handle the surge of new car culture refugees? Really? Wait. Really?
• People in America’s heartland finding out that with rising gas prices making them forgo meat and church donations for gas money, the no-alternatives freedom of car culture is actually quite binding.
• There was a time where there was mass transit and pedestrian congestion in a lively and active downtown Los Angeles. Yuck!

• Seniors in Long Beach attempt the Transit Oriented Lifestyle, but elements of the car-culture like wide roads and quick traffic signals make it difficult.
• A look at potential changes to 1st and Alameda courtesy of the Downtown Regional Connector.
• The true gas holiday – this summer it’s estimated that summer travel by public transit will increase by 35%.
• Rail transit transparency: Amtrak shares on-time performance data with customers.

• Four reasons why rising gas prices are hurting public transit.
• The O.C. to spend $12 million studying monorails and trolleys for the area.
• Megabus about to bail from Los Angeles confirming stereotype that Angelenos love their cars.
• Save mass transit, save the world.
• Amtrak needs to get on the wi-fi tip and quick.  Strike while the iron’s hot!
• L.A. Visions provides an update on the Downtown Regional Connector.