Metrolink to switch to RFID tickets

KPCC is reporting that Metrolink and Metro have worked out a solution to the faregate debacle-- All Metrolink tickets will be embedded with an RFID chip to allow passage through Metro faregates.

Didn't we just get rid of expensive, hard-to-manufacture fare media?

A much more sensible solution would be to allow Metrolink riders to pay for their fare with their TAP cards, and set up participating transfer agencies to detect and accept those Metrolink fares. This would also give suburban bus agencies outside of LA county an incentive to start accepting TAP, which I could see unifying the transit system of all of Greater Los Angeles, much like the Clipper card has knit together much of the Bay Area. But, for whatever reason, Metrolink seems as dead-set against using TAP for fare collection as Metro is set on the inane quest to lock their faregates.

That said, it is Metro's dumb decision to spend all this money on turnstiles. I hope they're paying for the new tickets.

Just a quick thought...

but am I the only transit geek that gets annoyed when people call Metrolink "the metro"? Because it happens ALL THE TIME. You get on the train and someone talking loudly on their cell phone says to their conversational partner "Yeah, I'm on the train... you know, the metro... to LA..."

Metrolink is a thing. Metro is also a thing. They are two totally different things. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and probably only mine.

"No transit" from people who should know better.

I've written before about people who use the words "No public transportation" to mean "No rail service." I saw an example today from people who ought to know better: Rail-Volution, a transit/livable streets conference that will be coming to LA soon. I received their brochure in the mail today. One of their "mobile workshops", on Tuesday, will be held at LAX and will talk about Metro and LAWA's plans to bring rail to the airport.

In the talk's description, the first sentence is "LA has no direct transit connection to LAX."

That's obviously false. I've ridden the FlyAway bus, which travels directly from downtown LA to LAX, several times. It stops at two places: Union Station and the airport terminals. That's as direct as it gets. There is also a shuttle which directly connects the Green Line's Aviation station to the terminals, and a shuttle which connects the LAX City Bus Center to the terminals. The LAX City Bus Center is served by the LA Metro 40, 42, 111, 117, 232, 439, 625, and 715, the Santa Monica 3 and Rapid 3, the Culver City 6 and Rapid 6, the Beach Cities 109 and the Torrance 8. The Green Line Aviation station is served by the Metro Green Line, the MAX 2, 3, and 3x, the Culver City 6 and Rapid 6, the Metro 120, the Beach Cities 109, and the Santa Monica 3 and Rapid 3. By my count, the airport has 20 direct transit connections.

What you meant to say, conference organizers, is that the airport has no direct *rail* connection. However, you can have valuable transit service without rail. Please be more specific.

Reminder- No Labour Day Bus Service!

Best of luck getting to those barbecues, folks. There will be no bus service on Labour Day- which is tomorrow, Monday the 5th. Both RTA and Omni are shut down. Riverside Special Transportation (for seniors and the disabled) is also not running. Metrolink is only operating the Antelope Valley Line, on a special holiday schedule. OCTA and Metro will run on holiday schedules, while Foothill will run on a weekend schedule.

If you need to get around Riverside, the bike lanes will be open. You can also pick up a ZipCar at UCR, if you can snag a reservation. Riverside's three cab companies are available at:

Company	Tel.
AAA Inland Empire Cab	1-888-333-TAXI (8294)
Yellow Cab Riverside	951-286-6666
Happy Taxi	951-781-TAXI (8294)

For inter-city transportation, Greyhound serves San Bernardino, Claremont, Santa Ana, Anaheim and LA. Amtrak also has one train daily to LA, leaving at 5:53am from the Riverside-Downtown station (south platform, over the bridge) and returning at 8:03pm.

Good luck!

Art for Transit Geeks

Via Curbed LA, a new art installation is going in at LACMA:



Not only is this sculpture every little kid's dream- seriously, thousands of matchbox cars and several toy trains thrown in for good measure- but the artist notes that he's trying to make a statement about the coming end of the car-centered city. The crowded lift ramps evoke traffic-snarled freeways, and the noise (judging from the video) echoes the aggravating din of car-choked city centres.

LACMA is transit-accessible! Take the Metrolink in to LA Union Station, followed by the Purple Line to Wilshire/Western and the 720 to Wilshire & Fairfax. Admission is $15, $10 students and seniors, free on second Tuesdays. This might be a great outing for Metrolink's new Weekend Pass, just $10 for the whole weekend including local transit transfers.

Park[ing] Day LA this Friday

This Friday, livable streets activists of all stripes will be building tiny, temporary parks in public parking spaces across Los Angeles, in order to call attention to the way that cars have been allowed to usurp our public spaces. I'll be touring these parks this Friday, and I hope to see some of you all out there.

I'm going to start by visiting the Streetsblog LA space at 11555 National Blvd. near Santa Monica, then go hit up the UCLA space in Westwood Village (1130 Westwood Blvd). After that, I plan on heading to Hollywood and winding my way down through the various spaces along the Metro Red Line corridor, and then heading home. I strongly encourage you all to join me!

You can find more information, as well as a map of planned Park[ing] spaces, at http://parkingdayla.com.

Summer Transit HOWTO: Museums, Zoos and Other Attractions

The third and final part of my Summer Transit HOWTO series will cover museums, zoos and other attractions in the southland. You can also find and read part 1- amusement parks and part 2- beaches and the outdoors.

As in earlier instalments of this series, all directions are from downtown Riverside.

First off, why not start locally? Downtown Riverside is a veritable treasure trove of museums. The Riverside Metropolitan Museum, the Riverside Art Museum, the UCR-California Museum of Photography, and the Mission Inn Museum all reside right downtown. If you're reading this post after this October, you'll also find the UCR-Culver Centre for the Arts, which will contain the Sweeny Art Gallery among other things. Best of all, you can visit all four of these institutions combined for under $10- the Metropolitan Museum is free ($5 suggested donation), the UCR-CMP is free until September 1st, the Riverside Art Museum is $5, and the Mission Inn Museum is $2 (not including the tour). The Metropolitan Museum, Riverside Art Museum and Mission Inn Museum are all within a block of each other on Mission Inn between Market and Lemon. The UCR-CMP is on the Pedestrian Mall just past University.

Further south in the City is the California Citrus State Historic Park. This working citrus farm celebrates the economic legacy of Riverside and the surrounding region, and is a great place to snag cheap, farm-fresh oranges as well. Best of all, there are no fees for pedestrians or cyclists. Take 1, 10, 12, 13, 14 or 15 to the Galleria at Tyler (1 is usually the quickest, followed by 14) and grab a Hemet-bound 27 to Magnolia & Dufferin, or take the 22 to Van Buren and Trautwein and catch the Riverside-bound 27 in to the same stop. Barring that, the park is only a block or two from the excellent Victoria Avenue bikeway- just take 14th street to Victoria, turn right and keep riding.

The San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands is an excellent institution, with an extensive natural history collection that shows the geological and biological past of the Inland Empire. At only $8, it's a bargain. Take Omni 215 to Mt. Vernon & Centrepoint, then cross the street and grab the Redlands-bound Omni 19 to Redlands & Nevada. Walk north on Nevada to Orange Tree Ln, then west on Orange Tree until you get to the museum. There are also a number of museum remote sites that you can visit- check Google Transit for directions.

For the rock star in you, there's the Fender Museum of Music and the Arts in Corona. The museum is a short walk from the North Main-Corona Metrolink (91 and IE-OC Lines), or you could ride the 1 to Belle & 6th, walk over to Main & 5th and catch either the 3 or the Corona Cruiser Blue Line to the stop adjacent to the Corona Plaza shopping centre, within half a block of the museum.

If you like trains, like I most obviously do, you can visit the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. Wandering around their extensive collection of the golden age of both passenger rail and streetcars- including what's left of the Los Angeles Electric Railway and Pacific Electric fleets- is free, but on weekends, the museum operates some of their equipment. An all-day pass to ride costs $12. To get there, take the 22 to Perris Transit Centre, walk west on 4th street to A, turn left and walk about a mile to the museum. However, if it's a weekend, you have the option of arriving in style- the museum trains run from 11am to 5pm, and you can simply purchase your ticket at the Perris Depot (adjacent to the Transit Centre) and ride the rails to the museum. (I previously wrote about the OERM, and took lots of pictures on my last visit.)

If your tastes run more to the warm and fuzzy, the Santa Ana Zoo may be just the thing. Joseph Prentice, the man who donated the land for the zoo, did so with the stipulation that the City of Santa Ana keep at least 50 monkeys on site at all times. At an adult admission price of $8, that's 16 cents per monkey. Take the Metrolink IE-OC Line to Santa Ana station, then either walk the ~1.2 miles to the zoo (east on Fruit St., then right on Eastwood Ave., left on 4th St., right on Grand, left on 1st and right on Elk) or catch the OCTA 59 on Santa Ana Blvd. (just walk north on the Metrolink platform to the street, then turn left) to Grand & Chestnut, then cross the street and walk east on Chestnut to the zoo.

There are, of course, plentiful museums and attractions in Los Angeles. For all of these, you'll need to ride the Metrolink to Union Station. On weekdays, take the Riverside Line directly there. On weekends, you'll need to ride the IE-OC line to Orange and then the OC line north, or take the Omni 215 to San Bernardino, walk or take the Omni 4 to the San Bernardino Metrolink and ride the San Bernardino line to LA. All directions for the following attractions are given from Union Station.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles features a wide variety of, well, contemporary art. The museum is spread across two sites. The MOCA Grand Center is located at Grand & 3rd, a short walk from the Civic Center station on the Red and Purple Lines. From the station, walk northwest on 1st to Grand, and then southwest on Grand to the museum. For the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, take the Gold Line towards Soto and get off at Little Tokyo/Arts District. Walk northwest on 1st and turn right at the plaza between the buildings. Adult admission is $10 and is valid at both sites, and admission is two-for-one with your valid transit ticket. (Note- to get from one to the other, just walk the ~6 blocks down 1st street, or take the Metro 30 from Broadway & 1st to San Pedro & 1st.)

The Los Angeles Natural History Museum and the California Science Center are both located in Exposition Park, across from the USC campus. Each have enough science-y goodness to delight any geek or geek in training. Take the Metro Red or Purple Line to 7th/Metro Center and catch the LADOT DASH F from 7th/Flower to Exposition Park. Note that this part of the route is a turnaround loop- to go home, board at the same stop where you were dropped off. Dani and I got stranded in Los Angeles once because we didn't know this. (With the newly-completed Exposition Line, simply transfer to that at 7th/Metro, exiting at either Expo Park/USC or Expo/Vermont.) Show your valid transit ticket for $2 off admission to the Mummies of the World exhibit at the Cal Science Center.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits are on opposite sides of a park from each other. Satisfy your curiosity about the art of the past century, or the flora and fauna of the last Ice Age, with one convenient bus trip. Take the Metro Red or Purple Line to Wilshire/Vermont, then catch the Metro 720 or 920 Rapid to Wilshire & Fairfax. Walk back the way you came to get to the Page Museum. LACMA is behind the field of street lights.

Griffith Observatory is an astronomy geek's dream. The site has been a centre for public education about the stars since the turn of last century, and continues to stun visitors after its recent renovation. Unless you're a big, big fan of hiking, this is a weekends-only trip. Take the Metro Red Line to Vermont/Sunset, then grab the LADOT DASH Griffith Park Shuttle, which will take you straight to the observatory. This route is not in Google Transit, so do your own trip planning.

The Huntington Library in San Marino, CA is an art museum and botanical garden of the highest calibre, and has one of the most popular museum free days in the area (1st Thursday, reservations required, August is already sold out). Unfortunately, it isn't terribly easy to get to on transit, but if you feel like 1.5 miles worth of walking, take the Metro Gold Line to Allen and either start walking south on Allen or catch the Pasadena ARTS #10 to Del Mar & Allen, then start walking.

Finally, Los Angeles also has a zoo. Take the Metro Red Line to Universal City, then the Metro 96 to the zoo. Keep your transit ticket- it's good for $3 off the $14 adult admission charge.

Oh, and a special mention to a location that ought to be on here, but isn't- the Getty Center Los Angeles is one of the premiere art museums in the country, if not the world, and it's free. So why not include it in this guide? The transit trip to the Getty is over 5 hours. With Metrolink being Metrolink, by the time you get to the museum, you'd have a whole half an hour there before having to turn around and come back- barely enough time to ride the tram from the entrance gate to the museum grounds. For the curious, it's a ride on the Red line to Universal City, then a trip on the 750 to Ventura/Sepulveda and the 761 south to the museum. DO NOT TRY THIS, unless you have somebody bringing you home. If you want to take transit to the Getty, advocate for the Subway to the Sea- phase one of the Purple Line will bring riders to Wilshire/Westwood, where you could catch the 761. In the meantime, you could snag a ZipCar.

As always, standard disclaimers apply. Plan your trip carefully, and make sure you're not so lost in your outing that you miss the last bus home. RiR is not responsible for bad trip planning.

Welcome back... to reality.

I'm writing you all from aboard the Metrolink OC Line, on my way home from a whirlwind vacation. First, I hit the Bay Area via Amtrak to see my best friend graduate from CSU East Bay, and then we drove across the country together in order to move her to her new school, Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY. Both of these metro areas have excellent public transport, which I used extensively. Well, a few hours ago I landed in Los Angeles, and I was immediately jolted back to reality. The experiences of airport transit in my departure and arrival cities was markedly different, and I think that a lot of the problems with transit usage here in southern California stem from these differences.

I flew out of LaGuardia this morning. This is the smaller and more poorly-connected airport in New York City, with no rail leading to the airport. (JFK, by contrast, has a direct, but expensive, rail connection to both the NYC subway and the Long Island Railroad.) Despite this fact, the experience using transit at LaGuardia was surprisingly smooth and inviting. Bus connections to the airport were advertised at each subway station they served, with line numbers and directional signs. At the airport, concise information displays offered information on each line serving the area, and the rail lines to which they connected, and stood next to comfortable bus shelters. Inside the terminal stood MetroCard vending machines, allowing passengers to purchase their transit fare without even leaving the airport.

Contrast this with the experience of riding a city bus from LAX. First off, city buses do NOT serve the airport terminals. To get to the admittedly plentiful city bus service at LAX, you have to ride a free airport shuttle- and that shuttle makes no mention of its transit connections, with a destination sign succinctly reading "LOT C". Signs in the terminal itself did not point to the location of city bus service- riders were simply required to know that "LAX Shuttle- Airline Connections" buses connected to both the rail station and the bus centre. Once on the shuttle, transit riders face a 20-odd minute ride, as the shuttle makes several zig-zagged passes through a large remote parking lot before finally stopping next to the bus centre. The stop at the centre lacks a curb or the attractive signage that all of the other parking lot shuttle stops had. The bus centre itself is isolated, dirty, and features several pornography vending machines, but no restrooms and little shade. Fare vending was not available, and I shudder to think of the fate of visitors seeking to buy a Day Pass- which, as we all know, can only be put on a TAP card on Metro buses, and yet Metro buses do not sell TAP cards. Despite decent way-finding information, fare information was conspicuously absent- riders on the 439 Express (which I took) would have had no way of knowing that the fare to downtown was $1.90, rather than the usual $1.25.

The difference here is clear. New York expects a substantial amount of visitors to use their transit system, and so enables them to do so with plentiful information, helpful fare payment, and attractive signs and stops at their port of entry. Los Angeles expects visitors to rent cars, and car rental shuttles were indeed plentiful and attractive. The only people who are expected on LA buses are the folks who work at the airport, and even then probably only those who are economically disadvantaged- they are therefore undeserving of anything more than the most basic amenities.

Southern California, we need to do better. You'll notice that none of these criticisms address the service provided at the LAX bus centre- in fact, aside from the hourly express route that I was waiting for, it seemed that bus service was in plentiful supply to all major corridors. Matters of signs and the like are not huge, ongoing costs- they cost a little bit of staff time to do it right, and an understanding of what transit patrons are looking for at any given location. Transit centres are costly, but they are often paid out of federal funds, and building attractive transit centres is usually no more costly for a local agency than building unattractive ones. It is not a shift of funding, but a shift of priority that is necessary here. We must stop treating public transit as something that only poor people ride, and start treating it as they do in New York and San Francisco- a system that the general public (and indeed, often the upper-middle class) can use in comfort and respectability. More than moving money, we must move minds- and after that, the money will follow.

Cheaper Airport Bus

A few weeks ago, I posted a how-to on getting to the various airports in the Los Angeles metro area. Surprisingly, it's been one of my more popular posts. I'd like to add a few methods for getting to LAX for the cash-conscious, after learning that the swanky FlyAway service is a spendy $7.

There are two bus lines and a network of rail that link LAX to Union Station. They're going to be less comfortable, more crowded and slower, but also significantly cheaper.

If you're a bus snob and you insist on going by train, you can ride the Red Line to 7th/Metro, the Blue Line to Imperial-Wilmington/Rosa Parks, and the Green Line to Aviation/LAX, where a free shuttle bus (the G shuttle) will take you to the airport. Total cost $3.75, due to increase to $4.50 when fares go up July 1st.

If you don't mind buses, you've got two choices. The #439 Express bus leaves from Dock 1 at the Patsouras Transit Plaza at the back of Union Station, leaving every 45 minutes on weekdays and hourly on weekends, from 4am on weekdays and 6am on weekends through 9pm. It'll take 50 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic, and cost you $1.85, due to increase to $2.20 on July 1. It'll drop you at the LAX City Bus Centre, which is connected to the airport by the free C shuttle bus. (UPDATE: Commenter cph notes that the 439 is slated for cancellation 12/2010.)

The second choice is the #42 local bus, which leaves from Chavez & Vignes (about a block north of the Patsouras Transit Plaza) at least half-hourly from 5 am through midnight. (After 8pm, riders must use route #40 at Chavez & Vignes, and transfer to 42 at Broadway/7th.) It'll take around 70-80 minutes, depending on traffic and time of day, and cost you a lovely $1.25, due to increase to $1.50 on July 1. Like it's express cousin, it'll drop you at the LAX City Bus Centre, where you can connect to the plane via the C shuttle bus.

Late at night, Metro's Owl service does provide service from Chavez & Vignes to LAX, via lines 70 and 40, with a short walk between Grand and Broadway on 7th Street. It'll cost you $3.75, due to increase to $4.50 on July 1, take approximately 90 minutes, and drop you at the LAX City Bus Centre. However, I should mention that this means walking about downtown Los Angeles in the middle of the night. Flyaway runs hourly, 24 hours a day, and this blogger recommends you spend the extra few dollars for the safe ride to the airport. Of course, Metrolink doesn't run that late, so Inland residents probably won't need to worry about it.

Cars Suck

That's the title of a diary on Daily Kos this evening. I agree with every word. Read it, and apply its lessons to your life now.

TAP Cash Purse

I'm not usually the first to break news about Metro operations in Los Angeles, but I discovered something when coming home from Long Beach on Monday morning. I was able to load my (rarely used) TAP card with stored value, in increments of $1. I then used that stored value to pay for not only my own transit on the card, but for a paper ticket for my wife (who's not bus-crazy enough to have her own TAP card).

Now, there has been no official (or even unofficial) announcement of this new feature from either Metro or the TAP contractor, Cubic. However, at both Transit Mall Blue Line station in Long Beach and 7th/Metro Center station in downtown Los Angeles, I was able to load cash value on to my card. (I only actually loaded any in Long Beach, but because of the novelty of this feature, I tested whether the machine would present me with the option downtown.) This may be an indication of a roll-out across the system, a mis-configured software push, a pilot program, or any of a number of other possibilities, but I will say that it was helpful in my travels yesterday. I also can't speak to whether or not this service is available at Metro customer service centres or on board Metro buses. Foothill Transit and Culver CityBus have offered stored value for some time.

LA transit bloggers, go forth and confirm at your local Metro Rail/Orange Line stations.

UPDATE: When I was in LA for Park[ing] Day (9/17/2010), I tried to do this at the Union Station Gold Line platforms. I was not successful, and I still haven't heard anything from Metro or Cubic on the subject.

Perspective, Metro?

I'm posting this from the Metro Blue Line, returning home from Long Beach. (Currently passing through 103rd/Kenneth Hahn station.) I've noticed something about the stations on the Blue Line. There are, as far as I can tell, three named stations on the line: Pico-Chick Hearn, 103rd-Kenneth Hahn, and Imperial/Wilmington- Rosa Parks. Now, at 103rd and Pico, you'll see the dedications appear prominently on all station signage. Anywhere you see the name of the station, you see that dedication. This is NOT, however, the case at Imperial/Wilmington- Rosa Parks. The automated announcements clearly refer to the station as "Rosa Parks", and there is a plaque there commemorating the civil rights activist, but the station signage lacks her name.

Why is this? Why do Mr's. Hahn and Hearn get their names on the signs, when Ms. Parks does not?
Now, Rosa Parks is a name familiar to any school child, but I had to look up the other two. Kenneth Hahn was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and an ardent supporter of the 1960's civil rights movement. (Okay, he can get a train station.) Chick Hearn was an especially prolific basketball announcer.

Wait, what?

Yes, here in Los Angeles, Metro treats a basketball announcer better than a famous civil rights activist. Something's wrong here.

2009: The Year in Transit

As we say good-bye to the noughties, I'd like to take a look back at Riding in Riverside's first full year in operation, 2009.

In January, La Sierra University joined U-Pass, Greyhound service was struggling to remain in the city, and RTA was trying to overcharge day pass riders.

In February, we got the first announcement of the 2009 service cuts, the stimulus bill pumped money into IE freeways, and Greyhound stranded me downtown.

In March, I got a statement from the Mayor on public transit, dug up evidence of RTA's RapidLink project, and discovered the wonders of grocery delivery.

In April, the first seeds of the multi-modal transit centre were planted, Councilwoman Hart said some stupid things about Greyhound, and I made my endorsements in the City Council elections.

In May, I tried to turn readers into riders, commented on the proposed Short-Range Transit Plan, and Omnitrans deprived people of barbecue.

In June, I laid out my proposal for a Riverside light rail, Google Transit for RTA went up for the first time, and our late-night service was cruelly taken away.

In July, LA Metro joined Google Transit, the City Council made a dumb decision about parking fines, and RTA's data fell out of Google Transit, because it was apparently requiring transfers somewhere north of Guam.

In August, I talked about my trip to NYC, the City Council approved what would become Riverside Go Transit, U-Pass, and took a clear step towards the multi-modal transit centre, I proposed my solution to Metrolink capacity issues, and I gave an interview with a local podcast.

In September, Omni saw a fare hike, the first RTA service ever to run past midnight began service, and OCTA disconnected the 794 from, well, everything else.

In October, I reminded folks about transfer policies, called out a Congressman for hypocrisy, and celebrated my 23rd birthday with official news of the new multi-modal transit centre.

In November, I reported on upcoming Dial-a-Ride policy changes, Riverside became a Bronze-level bicycle-friendly community, and the Corona Transit Center broke ground. Also, Los Angeles celebrated the opening of the Eastside Gold Line Extension.

In December, SANBAG started studying Victor Valley express bus options, Metrolink proposed draconian service cuts- and then did nothing about them, and the Riverside Go Transit program launched, offering cheap bus passes to all Riversiders.

Looking forward into the new year, service changes are coming on January 10th, and we can hope for progress on the Riverside transit centre and the Perris Valley Line, both of which cleared significant hurdles in 2009.

Also, readers should know: Greyhound has NOT left Riverside. The new signage on the Greyhound building downtown, marking it as a police station (which it is), does not mean that service to the station has ceased. The station is open 7am-3:30pm and 6pm-9pm daily.

I'd like to wish all my readers a happy and prosperous new year, and I hope for a better transit system in 2010.

The BRU Model

The Bus Riders' Union released a report in April about "The BRU Model" of transit- their argument that bus service benefits riders more than rail service. Somehow it made it on to the Metro Librarian's blog today. Now, let me first state that, while they're undoubtedly valuable and tenacious allies, and their victory on Metro's Consent Decree was nothing short of monumental, the BRU annoys me. The idea that building rail corridors and articulated buses is racist is an exaggeration at best. I got to reading their report, though, and something immediately jumped out at me.

This isn't the BRU Model. It's the Toronto Model.

The Toronto Transit Commission runs a system of three subway lines, one elevated rail line, 11 streetcars (in the traditional sense, like Muni's Metro) and 160 bus lines. Now, I've never ridden the TTC (never been to Toronto, but if somebody wants to buy me a ticket...), but I've seen several reports on Canadian transit from the late 80's and early 90's that cite it as an excellent example of a properly-run grid system. On most major lines, headways are no more than 10 minutes, allowing riders to transfer between these lines easily. When ridership warrants, lines are converted to rail. The whole system is designed to run with frequent headways to minimize transfer time and provide convenient travel options for riders. This is what the BRU proposes for Los Angeles- bus routes be re-programmed to run frequently
This is a great model to use, if you want to build a grid transit system like Metro and TTC have constructed (as have Muni and OCTA, by the way- Muni does it well)*. However, it's the rest of the report that brings up that typical BRU-annoying-me feeling. They point out the cost of rail infrastructure (quoting, BTW, $150m/mile for surface LRT, a very highball estimate- but, to be fair, I quoted a pretty lowball estimate in my Magnolia Streetcar post), but they fail to point out the considerable cost of bus infrastructure. Once a rail line is constructed, the operating costs of that line drop dramatically. Buses need gassed up every morning, and typically wear out much faster than a rail vehicle. The lifetime of a transit bus is on the order of a decade (according to FTA), while Metrolink runs cars that have seen over 30 years of use (Comet cars, originally from NJ Transit, now owned by Utah's FrontRunner) every single day and sees few problems. New York's subway also runs many aged trains, the oldest being the R42 series built in late 1969-early 1970.

This bus-rail duality is, however, unnecessary. Both modes have advantages- buses can cast a wide net, bringing passengers from every corner of the city to nearly every other corner, while rail has the advantage of separate right-of-way, low operating costs and a factor of prestige that encourages dense development. The BRU proposes that transportation funding be shifted from the current balance- 80/20 in favour of roads- to one that favours transit by the same amount. Assuming that we would not see a commensurate reduction in overall transportation funding, the amount of money available for transit projects in this scenario would not call for inter-modal rivalry. As I already pointed out, the cost of one small widening project in San Bernardino is nearly 10 times RTA's annual budget- that's capital and operations. If a substantial portion of highway funding were to be dumped into public transit, we would not need to choose between rail and buses- we could have both, every 10 minutes, everywhere. And probably for free.



(UPDATE: I've now actually been to Toronto, and it really does work exactly like this. Quick transfers between routes running along every major street.)

*(In case you were wondering, RTA's system is not a grid system. It's a hub-and-spoke system, and there is a Canadian model for that, too- it's the Vancouver model. I've actually ridden on Vancouver's TransLink, and perhaps I'll discuss it soon. Omnitrans in the East Valley is also a hub-and-spoke system... Omni in the West Valley, I think, tries to be both and succeeds at neither.)

On the train in NYC

So it's been over a month since my trip to New York, and I'm finally getting around to writing about transit lessons learned there. Let me first say that New York is the most transit-accessible city in the country, and it shows. I never once felt constrained by my choice to take a transit-centric trip there. While I did spend most of my time in Manhattan, and I am told that the situation in the outer boroughs is somewhat different, I found New York's transit infrastructure to be convenient, ubiquitous, and auto-competitive. I'll go into what that means in a bit.

My first observation of New York's transit system came upon my arrival in Manhattan's Chinatown (Allen & Canal) at just after 1 in the morning. It was absolutely astounding to me that Google Transit quickly provided a transit routing to my hostel off of 126th and 5th Avenue, nearly 10 miles away. The realization, after perusing the NYC subway map, that every line (not service, but line) runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, was amazing and slightly shocking. And then I walked the wrong way on Canal Street and screwed it up.

Instead of ending up at the Canal St. (N, Q, R, W, 6, J, M, Z) station, I ran into the East Broadway (F) station. I bought a Metrocard and proceeded to try and find my way through the system based on a wall-mounted map on the platform when a train arrived. I boarded it without the slightest idea where I was going, and I made this clear to other passengers on board... when, to my surprise, a NYC metro operator emerged from the rear cab of the car and gave me directions to the uptown 6 train. Service with a smile at 1 in the morning- fantastic.

Fate would surprise me yet again, however, at Broadway and Lafayette station (B, D, F, V, Downtown 6). In what appears to be the only instance of such a situation in the NYC subway system, the uptown 6 train, which is in the same station box, is only accessible via a separate entrance on Bleeker St. This is probably not a big deal to New Yorkers, who are used to it, but for a sleep-deprived tourist at 1:30 in the morning... not fun. I managed to get aboard the train, with help from a hot dog vendor, and got to bed around 2:30.

I won't relate ALL the tales I have about the subway in New York, but I will summarize a bit. I smacked into the turnstile 5 times, got on the train going the wrong way thrice, and declared many times that this system was the first that had me thoroughly confused, in all my years of riding transit. I've figured out DC, Vancouver, LA, San Francisco, Vegas, Paris and Barcelona, but New York tried my powers of map-reading and my sense of direction.

Why is this? A few reasons. First off, the New York system is designed with the assumption that a fare pays for a trip, not a boarding. The fare for a ride on the subway is $2.25, but that includes pretty much all the subway transfers you like, plus a free bus transfer within 2 hours. With this in mind, most subway transfers are accomplished by long underground passages (some several blocks in length) that allow you to change trains without leaving the fare-controlled area of the system. This is convenient, but VERY disorienting. Signage is quite good in the system, but for someone who isn't used to having to follow signs on board transit, it took some getting used to.

Also, New York is (I believe) unique among at least North American subway systems in that it runs separate-platform express service. In every other urban rail system I've been on, the paradigm is that one platform (or one side of an island platform) is for trains traveling in one direction, and the opposite side is for trains traveling in the other. In many parts of New York (Manhattan and Brooklyn, mostly), stations contain two island platforms, one for each direction, with one side of the island serving express trains and the other serving locals. There were occasions where I got on a train traveling in the wrong direction, crossed an island platform, and boarded another train traveling the wrong direction, just faster. I ended up in Queens this way, while trying to go to Brooklyn. Once again, the signage is excellent once you know to look for it, but the paradigms that serve you well in other urban rail systems are not as effective in the NYC subways.

Lastly, the sheer size of the NYC subway system is intimidating. There are tiny little subway stations littered on nearly every corner in Manhattan (And I do mean tiny- these cut-and-cover stations are claustrophobic for somebody who's used to LA and SF's deep-bore tunnels), and when you throw in the different services on different lines, the local/express distinctions, and an unfamiliar city, it can get confusing fast. Google Transit helps immensely.

However, New York does a couple of things right. Trains and buses are plentiful, ubiquitous, and round-the-clock. These factors, more than anything else, allow New York's transit culture to exist. The stations aren't well-maintained or even always clean, the system isn't user-friendly, and cross-town train service is very limited. (There are several cross-town bus lines, but they aren't noted on the subway map. I am told that many New Yorkers use taxis for this purpose.) Many of the preconditions that people posit for the acceptance of public transit in America are not present in New York City, and yet car ownership there is less than 50%. I therefore posit that only a few things need to be present for public transit to gain acceptance- it needs to exist, it needs to run all the time, and it needs to be frequent. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

One other lesson- New York has a completely turnstile-controlled system, where the only method of payment is the MetroCard. Ticket vending machines are present at all entrances, but attendants are only there at major transfer points. And millions of people manage to ride the system every day without the world ending. Perhaps FareGate isn't the end of the world?

Update on TAP in SD

Leave it to American public transit operators to make things unnecessarily difficult.

Don't use your TAP cards in San Diego. According to the MTS (via MetroRiderLA), regardless of the fact that these secure smart cards do well and truly verify that you paid your fare, the fact that they have a different graphic on the front may expose you to a citation.

Metro! MTS! Make with the talky-talky so we can make these cards interchangeable.

TAPping the Compass

A while ago I posted on the dilemma facing RTA: Do we support LA's TAP card, or San Diego's Compass card? Are they interchangeable?

Well, it turns out MetroRiderLA did a little experimenting and SD's fare machines recognize LA's TAP card- so we may very well be able to use both. Sweet!

Of course, there may be legal/regulatory barriers in the way, but if this turns out to be a-okay, then it's great for Riverside County.

Triumphant Return

Sorry to all of you folks... it's been an interesting couple of weeks. I mentioned in my last post that I was heading to New York. Well, I did, on a shoestring budget that still amazes me. I'm going to return to writing on this blog with a short travelogue and review of the transportation services I used on the trip, in order. I'm skipping over old favourites like RTA and Metrolink, as you ought to know what I think of them by now. Which brings me to the first segment: LAX FlyAway.

FlyAway is a dedicated public express bus network designed to get folks from various points in the southland to LAX. They go to UCLA, Van Nuys and Union Station. I didn't check the schedules for the other routes, but the Union Station bus runs at least hourly, 24/7. It's quick and convenient to Metrolink, and it beats the Red-Blue-Green-Shuttle shuffle that links Metro's rail lines to LAX. I highly recommend the service.

That said, I have a couple of issues with it. One, and they don't make this very clear anywhere, all payment for the bus is done at the Union Station end, regardless of where you board. No signs or staff make this apparent at the airport, and this made for some stressful moments at LAX while waiting for the bus. A sign at each bus stop, "Payment due upon arrival" or some such, would improve this immensely.

Second, while the service does accept EZ Transit Passes (presumably for those who work at the airport) for credit equal to the pass' base fare, they do not accept Metrolink tickets as EZ Passes, for any sort of credit. If the goal of this service is to encourage transit riding to the airport, this seems counterintuitive. However, if the goal is simply to encourage parking elsewhere (as the parking information-laden brochure seems to suggest- Union Station's daily lot is $8/day), then I'm slightly soured on the service. We want to encourage people to ride transit, even to the airport. Even $1 off of FlyAway's fare would be an incentive for them to do so, rather than simply drive to cheap parking.

Lastly, the fare vending situation is a touch counterintuitive. There's a ticket booth at Patsouras Transit Plaza that you must buy your tickets from, and yet the booth requires cash only. If it's cash only, why can't it be collected onboard? If it's a fixed booth, why can't they install a Visa machine? And really, if you're going to have fixed fare payment, you'd lower the (remember: 24/7) labour costs of the service by simply installing a ticket machine. Put in $6, get out ticket. Life's good.

So, overall, FlyAway- awesome. Tune in tomorrow, when I actually go flying.

Metro now on Google Transit

So I was planning a trip to NYC last night and I absent-mindedly asked Google Transit about a transit route to LAX. I thought nothing about it until later, but it actually worked. Metro bus and rail services are now available in Google Transit. Enjoy all.

Trains: Noisy, Well-Lit Killers of the Night

They stalk through our neighbourhoods at all hours of the day and night, horns blaring, lights flashing, doing their best to remain undetected by wayward pedestrians as their multi-tonned cars noisily clatter along iron rails. And suddenly, out of nowhere, in the only place you could possibly find them (on train tracks), they strike!

Check the article at the PE. This really gets my goat. I don't mean to make light of the death of this unfortunate gentleman, but he was not killed by the train, any more than a gunshot victim was killed by the bullet. The fact of the matter is it's pretty easy to avoid being "struck, killed by" a train. They are shiny, noisy and relatively predictable in their motions. If you happen to be on the tracks when the train goes by, you've done something very, very stupid. You are not the victim of the train- you are the victim of your own actions.

Also, when somebody is involved in a railroad accident, they are "killed by the train." When they're in a car accident, they are "killed in the crash" or "die in an accident". Don't believe me? Check out this article by the same reporter, submitted within a minute of the above. Car bias, anyone?

It's attitudes like this that lead to groups like Fix Expo, the organization demanding that LA Metro build the new Expo LRT as a grade-separated line. Building rail in LA is hard enough, and you want to add to that the cost of either tunneling or building aerial work? This group just got the CPUC to reject an at-grade crossing design at a high school, for the safety of "the children" (Won't somebody think of the children?!). Sorry. If it was an elementary school, then maybe I'd buy it, but teenagers really ought to be smart enough NOT TO RUN IN FRONT OF A TRAIN.

We really shouldn't have to have quad-crossing gates either. It makes no sense to waste all that money on gates that are designed to prevent what anyone with a brain in their head wouldn't be doing anyway. (Of course, they do help out in that car-train collisions waste commuters' time.) Rail safety is a no-brainer, guys. When a train is coming, as signified by the ample audible and visual warning cues at every single point where you might encounter one, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY.

As an aside, I'm thinking about conducting a large study of press attitudes towards trains vs. cars. Seems like there's something scholarly and meaty here.