MetroRiderLA

Image courtesy of alburn.binkley.

• Giving up everything for gas: more and more people are cutting out “non-essential” items like coffee, dining out, and vacations so they can afford the cost of gasoline, an “essential” item. Me? I’m eating out more than ever.
• The shocking truth about exurbia in the age of $4/gallon gasoline: “My fuel costs are more than my mortgage is by a couple hundred bucks”
• The brilliance of our national transportation system exposed: as gas prices rise, people are driving a lot less, which means less gas taxes are collected, which means money for infrastructure improvements and alternate modes is scarce.  Brillz. Faulkers.
• Megabus alternative? California Shuttle Bus to offer rides from L.A. to San Fran starting at $5.
• Grade separate Malibu!  Apparently the idyllic beach city is #1 in traffic fatalities and injuries.

Image courtesy of machoroboraza.

• Bush and Co. are starving mass transit just when the country needs (and wants) it most.
• A graphical look at the cost of a gallon of gas.
• Expo Phase 3? Eastward to Alhambra.
• Los Angeles home buyers starting to include public transit accessibility among their list of must-have amenities.
• Best reason yet to drive a Hummer: ” “If you get into an accident, nothing will happen to you. You’ll just kill the other person.”
• This one is for the web guys over at Metro. Please read.

• A Damien Goodmon video from earlier this year surfaces.  Comments ensue.
• Megabus bids adieu to the West Coast.  We hardly knew ye.
• Don’t worry drivers, money spent on gasoline is just 17% of the total cost of car ownership.
• Republicans don’t realize that money spent on gasoline is just 17% of the total cost of car ownership.
• Even though the cost of gas is only 17% of the total cost of car ownership, the price increase is leading more people to the Gold Line.  If these people choose to dump their cars altogether they could get back the other 83%.

Looks like MetroRiderLA has a double dose of Zipcar fun for you today. First Tyke’s story about dumping his Zipcar membership, and now my story about Zipping around in multiple Zipcars this weekend.

It may not be as initially shocking as “2 Girls, 1 Cup” but spending a weekend doing a lot of driving leaves me feeling the same: a little queasy, sad at the current state of the world, and asking myself “why the hell would anyone do that?”.

Before this holiday weekend, I had only taken out a Zipcar once since Flexcar became Zipcar and made a big poopy mess out of the whole L.A. car sharing scene. Due to the top secret political nature of that Zipcar outing, I never wrote about it. Luckily for all of you, this weekend offered me not just one, but two opportunities to take out a Zipcar and move about this city the way you’re supposed to: behind the wheel of your very own personal automobile. Vrooooom!

It all began innocently enough, my lady friend was flying into LAX and I was planning on hopping on a Flyaway and meeting her there as I would usually do. Unfortunately, her flight was coming in quite “late”, 11:30pm, and I feared that if I took the Flyaway, upon returning to Union Station, our trusty subway system would no longer be in service. Knowing that she would be accompanied by some heavy ass baggage and a healthy dose of travel exhaustion, I knew a 2.5 mile walk home from Union Station was nothing either of us were interested in. Nor were we interested in transferring to some stinkin’ dirty bus. I thought about the possibility of taking a taxi from Union Station, but the prospect of spending $15 to go 2.5 miles, plus the cost of the Flyaway, just didn’t sit well with me. It was too much money for too much inconvenience. So it was time to turn to the ultimate tool in modern luxurious ultra convenience: the personal automobile. Vrooooom!!

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