MetroRiderLA

A reader tipped us off on Foothill Transit’s hip new guide book for riders. You can check out pix and a quick review of the book on Heather’s blog, With These Hands.

The cover of the “Bus Book” injects some green into Foothill’s usual blue and white color palette, no doubt to capitalize on the eco-sustainable-green movement that has been sweeping the globe. Wavy green flourishes follow the path of a Foothill Transit bus like vines, and flowers, birds, and lush fields of grass are seemingly emitted from the exhaust. The ecological theme continues inside the booklet with the slogan “Fresh Air, Fresh Fares” used to highlight Foothill’s fare tables. According to Heather, the bulk of the book, the schedules, lack the flair of the cover, but still retains a few elements of green iconography.

I guess it’s not surprising that some of the best aspects of our region’s transit agencies are their graphic design and promotional departments, given the creative nature of Southern California. I’ve long said Metro’s designers have created a canon of work that is more often than not far better than the service it promotes. And although Foothill Transit’s Silver Streak might look like it belongs in space rather than the streets of SoCal, the graphics team definitely hit the right chord with this Bus Book.  Unfortunately, like so much transit design and promotion, for the most part it’s only preaching to the choir.

Image courtesy of atanas.

• “We are no longer being deprived of the finer things in life like the luxury of not having to drive everywhere.”  I like this article about L.A.’s burgeoning transit awareness… a lot.
• Want to reduces your carbon footprint? Take transit.
• Transit agencies are doing all they can to go green.
• Babes on Bicycles vs. Creeps in Cars
• AAA urges New Yorkers to drive less. Huh!

• Celebrate Earth Day with Metro at  Union Station! Metro is sponsoring a free concert with Latin singer/songwriter Carina Ricco.
• Get a Carectomy this Earth Day!  It’s actually a very painless procedure since a car is not actually neccessary for human survival.
• Attention Metro: Environmentalists are your friends. Identify them, work with them, make them make you look good.
• L.A. takes on San Francisco in the race to be the greenest big city in the state of California.
• Metrolink introduces a new partially electric “green” locomotive just in time for Earth Day.

Some of the swag at Metro’s online store is going green. Metro has added a new t-shirt, baby onesie, and lanyard with an eco-twist to their retail mix. The t-shirt, made of certified organic cotton, features the bold statement “I Ride For A Greener LA” printed in white on the sage colored fabric. It’s not as cool as a Prius, but for $19 it allows you to non-verbally communicate to the world just how much you care about Mother Earth. The Future Metro Rider Onesie (link takes you to a hilariously large image courtesy of Metro’s funky online store) is perfect for all you moms who want to show other moms just how much your rugrat cares about the environment. $15 will get you this lush certified organic cotton baby poop (100% biodegradable) receptacle. Last but not least is this slick black Metro Lanyard($6), made of 100% recycled soda and water bottles. Wear it around your neck, or whatever you’re supposed to do with lanyards, and know that your last bottle of Fiji water potentially went on to a better life.

The larger question brought about by this new product line-up is: does anyone actually buy stuff from the Metro Store?

I’ll confess. I have. Metro nerd that I am, I bought a few posters, a lapel pin, and a retractable badge holder or two for when I worked in the office (both badge holders promptly broke). I have to imagine though that I’m in the minority. Will Metro really sell enough t-shirts to recoup their investment (however small) in certified organic cotton? Do enough people buy their babies Metro apparel to ensure that there’s not boxes of organic onesies sitting in some warehouse until the end of time? These questions and more can be answered in our newest poll:

Image courtesy of Fire Monkey Fish.

• Transit Oriented Development in North Hollywood is almost done. Ignore the 700-space parking lot plz.
• Art students in Santa Monica join forces with the Big Blue Bus to promote a greener lifestyle.
• Cabo this is not: students gather in San Francisco for spring break in support of California High Speed Rail.
• Here’s an idea: if you want to go green, don’t get a “green car”, just don’t get a car.

I apologize for the lack of regularly scheduled posting this week.  Amidst travels and the feast-or-famine nature of the motion graphics industry, I’ve neglected MetroRiderLA this week.  Thanks to Tyke Johnson for picking up the slack with some entertaining lifestyle stories.  Here’s a list of links for discussion.

• LAX Bus Fleet goes green with new CNG buses.
• Coastal bus from Ventura to Santa Barbara proves to be surprisingly popular.
• Westside Service Sector spares some bus service from the chopping block.
• Bicycle advocate takes a look at the fare gate conspiracy.