MetroRiderLA

Via CurbedLA I discovered this now ancient video (from 1991) provided on YouTube by the Metro Librarian.

Yesterday was the Thai New Years’ Songkran Festival, an event in East Hollywood (Thai Town) that has become increasingly popular in the four years it has existed. The celebration spans many blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, from Western Avenue to Vermont Avenue, and the combination of free admission, delicious food, cultural events, and Thai boxing means that those blocks are filled to the brim with over 30,000 people. I’ve personally seen the event grow in scope and popularity, as Thai Town was my first neighborhood in Los Angeles, and I moved in just in time for the first of what would become a yearly event. It’s really one of the funnest cultural events in the city.

The Hollywood/Western Red Line Station is ground zero for the Thai New Years’ Festival as the intersection of Hollywood and Western is where the road closures and festival begin. Parking in East Hollywood, and Thai Town in particular, is limited and tight, thus the Red Line is a popular way to get to the festivities. I rode up from Downtown around lunchtime and the majority of the people on the train exited at Hollywood/Western and headed towards the festival. It was inspiring to see so many people using our transit system. It was a cacophony of races, classes, and ages… a testament to the unifying power of transit and of a good food-based cultural festival.

Metro was a sponsor of the event, but I can’t say that they heavily publicized it or that they had a major presence at the event. No matter though, people went Metro on their own accord in droves. And why not? A quick train ride with family on friends on a warm spring day sure beats sitting in traffic and searching for parking.

Or does it?

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Good news for the clubbers and MetroRiders in general, according to this press release[PDF] I received from Metro, starting in May the Red Line will run nonstop Thursday night through Sunday morning thanks to a program Metro is calling “Metro L8Nite”.

Yes, that’s right, L8Nite. As in, “late night,” get it?

The copy in the colorful press release is just as ridiculous as the name. Using words like “party peeps” and “hipsterific”, Metro is obviously targeting a very specific demographic with this campaign, skewing towards the young and trendy members of Generation Y. According to the press release, starting Thursday nights at midnight, Red Line trains will run every half hour, until, one can assume, the regular schedule starts up again. Apparently this will be the case Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The catch is you have to buy a “Metro L8Nite Pass” which will be available at the ticket vending machines for $8. Another innovation Metro seems to be pulling with this campaign is having “Metro Bouncers”, which I think is just a “kewl” way of saying fare checkers, in place after midnight to make sure the club goers aren’t cheating.

The best part of this all? It’s coming in just over a month. It seems Metro is timing the start of this program with a big party weekend, Cinco de Mayo. I imagine if they promote this right, things are going to get really wild on the Red Line that first weekend of May.

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“Gold Line, Pasadena” Image Courtesy of Nevin.

I leave the house five minutes just before

the scheduled time the bus is set to arrive.

I got my pass, schedules and the map

within my pocket just waiting to board and go.

It’s one more minute

I see it down the street.

It’s right on schedule, not often

but this time has managed to arrive within the slotted time.

I board and grab a book

I’ll read along until I get

to the transfer point so I can get

the Blue Line and then the Red.

I love the Metro if you can’t tell

and try to speak about it to other people

you could say it, I guess

I try my best for them to use it and convert.

© Rogelio Gomez

Image courtesy of tatianes.

• Falling dollar, rising gas prices.
• Man found chillin’ on the Red Line tracks.
• Big Blue Bus meetings set out to connect the service to the subway.
• Tips on how to make buses faster.

Before moving Downtown, East Hollywood was my ‘hood. To me, it’s the original transit oriented ‘hood because of its proximity to the Metro Red Line and ample bus service, along with its lack of ample parking which led me to dump my car and birth MetroRiderLA in its place. The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has put together an informative video listing the various transit modes that serve the neighborhood and outlines suggestions on how to improve mobility in East Hollywood. I think every neighborhood should do the same.