not a metro rider
I’m a bit naive when it comes to this so-called blogosphere, and also rather nacrissistic as I only read about 3 blogs other than my own. So I tried to spread myself out and read a few LA blogs like Militant Angeleno and the Metro Rider guy (who wrote this post today on LAist and sometimes leaves snide comments on my posts) who live an breathe their faith in the public transportation system in LA (which they do not consider to be a problem, I guess) and go so far as to say give up your car. I am perplexed.
Read the LAist post above about becoming a full-time Metro rider. This is really great. If you…
1) are male and don’t get leered at or harassed when you walk around in public
2) don’t carry much stuff to work (especially no expensive stuff)
3) don’t have to travel with a child/children and a diaper bag or groceries
4) don’t live on the westside
5) work reasonable hours and do not leave work when the buses are coming only once every 51 minutes
6) don’t involve the 405 in your commute in any way shape or form
This is a map of the rail system. Please note that it ignores the entire west side of Los Angeles. Oh, who needs those superficial assholes, right? Let them stay on the westside, we know they are only there because they are materialistic jackasses and not because they could possibly have any other reason to live west of La Brea.
Now say you want to travel along the 405 from the Valley to Santa Monica, which hundreds (if not thousands) of people do everyday. You have to take 3 buses and it will take over 2 hours. There is no carpool lane, so the buses don’t even get an advantage on the freeway, you’re just stuck on the bus, not moving on the 405 with all of the other commuters.
Or say you want to travel from West LA to San Pedro, normally a 35-40 minute drive. According to Metro.net it will take 2 1/2 hours if you take public transportation. Who has 4 extra hours/day to spare? Yay for you.
When I work in an office that I can access by public transportation, I take the bus because I hate paying for parking. This is what happened last week. It’s 8am. I waited at my little bus stop and watched the yuppies buy their Starbucks. Bus came. Bus was full. Bus did not let me on. Waited another 10 minutes. Bus came. Bus was full. Bus let someone off, but did not let me on. Waited 12 more minutes. Finally a bus willing to accept me. This bus refuses to turn on the air conditioning. Now I’m late for work. And sweating like a whore. And pissed.
What’s my point?
This is not to say it can’t be done. Obviously it can. I suppose it is to say that certain bloggers who try to make it sound easy and then become rather rude when challenged need to consider the limitations of an imperfect system and I start to get very annoyed at the defensiveness with which they present things.
I suppose if you are an unemployed male with no children who lives east of La Brea and have a few hours you can spare each day, by all means go to www.Metro.net and sign up. But for the rest of us, this system still pretty much sucks.
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Expecting anyone to give up their car is extreme, but so is your reasoning for why the subway doesn’t go to Santa Monica. I don’t think anyone failed to build a subway to the sea to keep the westsiders in their place.
That said, the system does suck. But expecting it to get better by never checking it out and not encouraging others to use it, or encouraging our policticans to expand and improve it, sucks even more.
David Markland - July 24th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
But expecting it to get better by never checking it out and not encouraging others to use it, or encouraging our policticans to expand and improve it, sucks even more.
You’re kidding, RIGHT? Encourage people to use a service that sucks in order to make it BETTER?
Wow. I have to run out and buy a bunch of crappy stuff now in the hopes that the manufacturers will make them even better.
Bill S. - July 25th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Amen, Bill S.!
It’s not our job to improve the Metro, it’s all those fancy city workers. I refuse to believe that the Metro sucks because no one uses it. Rather the inverse is true.
I used to live in Portland, OR. A city that has the best. public transportation. ever. And have such a drastic basis of comparison is deadly.
But I have hope that it’s all going to get better now that they’ve cut over a billion dollars from the budget.
Go Metro!
Joe - July 25th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Putting the glaring differences between purchasing goods from a manufacturer in the hopes that they will get better and using a public transportation system in order to help it improve aside, how the fuck else is the public transportation system supposed to improve without FUNDING? Is there some magical money fairy that will visit and POOF, a shiny new metro system will appear? Yes, the current system sucks. Yes, it’s really hard to use except for specific trips. But the only way this will improve is funding. And more funding comes from more users.
Blonde Savant - July 25th, 2007 at 8:48 am
One of the many things that works against public transportation in this country is that this country and it’s cities are too frickin’ big. Go to some European countries that are small and you can literally get from your front door to someone else’s front door strictly on public transportation. Add to the fact that gas is ridiculously expensive in those countries and it makes public transportation all that more attractive.
Until North Americans (notice I didn’t just point the finger at Americans!) get off their attraction to the car and having the “freedom” to go where they want (see above picture) and are willing to be taxed higher to fund public transportation, nothing is going to change here. The big question will be this: are people willing to be taxed more to pay for that? Some yes. Most no. When rate hikes are proposed, the riders bitch. When taxes are proposed, taxpayers bitch. No one wants to pay for it.
That said, I can only imagine trying to get onto a bus with my 21 month old to endure a long, tenuous trip through Denver to get from one side of town to the other. Not all the light rail goes to where I’d want to go and the bus trips would involve numerous transfers. In the lovely 97 degree weather with a tired toddler and gear in tow, what I’m imagining would be a nightmare.
wskrz - July 25th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Expecting anyone to give up their car is extreme, but so is your reasoning for why the subway doesn’t go to Santa Monica. I don’t think anyone failed to build a subway to the sea to keep the westsiders in their place.
So is taking me seriously.
malingering - July 25th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Yes, Blonde Savant I do expect money to appear like this: POOF!
Because over a billion dollars of it just went POOF! and dissapeared from the Metro budget. So this magical money must have the amazing abililty to just appear and reappear, right?
Metro rider fares aren’t going to build a subway to the sea, City Funds are.
Do you think this would work as a Metro slogan: “Metro: Ride it for three years so that at the end of that three years it will MAYBE suck a little less than when you first rode it.”
Probably not.
I can get to work in ten minutes with my car. If I take the Metro: An hour and a half to two hours.
WHA?
That is not a system I want to support.
Hell, it’s not even a system, it’s just a bunch of busses driving around hoping they get someone to where they’re going.
Joe - July 26th, 2007 at 6:59 am
We sometimes take the Metrolink (the light rail) to Burbank Airport. Problem. It only runs once an hour, not on weekends, and stops running at 7pm, so flights are limited. We looked into taking light rail metro to LAX from where we are (suburbs) once. It’s over 3.5 hrs and 3 transfers to go 32 miles. Now add 2 kids and all our crap. Ditch my car. Fuck you.
PJ Bird - July 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Most seasoned MTA observers, including the Militant Angeleno and MetroRider folks, will probably tell you that a) LA’s transit system *IS* a problem, and it’s absolutely excruciating to watch it try to improve, and b) the Westside kinda fucked *itself* over when it came to getting better transit, as idiot NIMBYs and local pols torpedoed the original alignment of the Red Line down Wilshire with a combination of ugly race-baiting (OMG! “Undesirables” are going to take the subway to my Westside neighborhood and steal my TV!) and fears of gas explosions during subway construction (recently deemed BS) prompted by the exploding Ross at 3rd/Fairfax in 1986.
Blonde Savant is kind of off-base in saying that more riders=more money for the MTA, as not a whole lot of funding comes from the farebox anyway, but promoting the idea of taking transit in SoCal does have its uses, as there are huge cultural obstacles to getting people to even *think* about transit as a worthwhile thing. If MetroRider and Militant get a few more people to consider transit as an option, say, one or two times a week, then what’s the harm? I would think it means more people with a stake in the quality of the system, who are more likely to speak out and agitate for improvements. And of course a few less cars on the street, meaning less traffic for the rest of you who cling to your SUVs.
Niall - July 26th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Oddly enough, I got a bug up my butt this week to see if I could take the bus to work in OC, and am going to give it a go next week. Given that I am a professional and able to afford to drive my car, anyone I have even suggested this to is aghast. Will it work out? I don’t know. My commute will be a bit longer, but I look forward to spending some time reading or knitting instead of braking and honking. As Niall suggests, I am hoping that this is something I can do 1 - 2 days a week. If nothing else, I will get my car off the road a couple days a week. Given that I fancy myself an environmentalist, I feel like I should try to walk the walk instead of just being all talk.
Diane - July 27th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Read the LAist post above about becoming a full-time Metro rider. This is really great. If you…
1) are male and don’t get leered at or harassed when you walk around in public
very true. just don’t let me catch you in a bar malingering. i’d hate to call you a hypocrite. much of Metro’s ridership is women. sure, they are probably poorer than you (and therefore less hot), but they do just fine.
2) don’t carry much stuff to work (especially no expensive stuff)
I go everywhere with my macbookpro laptop, my whizbang cell phone, and my snazzy digital camera. And I go everywhere via Metro. Keep in mind that I may not be a woman, but I am a 138lb. scrawny dude with loads of pricey stuff. Never been mugged, robbed, or otherwise threatened in 4 years of riding.
3) don’t have to travel with a child/children and a diaper bag or groceries
Plenty of women, and plenty of women with children riding the Metro just fine. If you rode a bus or a train you’d see this. Of course, these people are probably poorer than you. Remember, over a million riders board Metro everyday, a large percentage are women.
4) don’t live on the westside
greenLAgirl lives on the westside, she successfully gave up her car.
5) work reasonable hours and do not leave work when the buses are coming only once every 51 minutes
obviously if you work odd hours when there’s no service, you work in places that don’t have service, you’re job requires that you own a pickup truck, etc. you probably shouldn’t ride metro as you’ll have very little luck. you’d probably have a hard time riding transit anywhere though, even with the “best” transit systems.
6) don’t involve the 405 in your commute in any way shape or form
indeed
Like I said in my LAist posts, dumping your car is a radical move in this city. It requires a sacrifice, a risk, and a willingness to be flexible. But your criteria of the only people who can do this is way off base. It is not an option limited to unemployed males who live downtown. If it makes you feel better about not being a metro rider to believe that, that’s fine, but it’s simply not true. There’s a million people riding the Metro today that prove it.
Fred Camino (MetroRiderLA) - July 27th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Plenty of women, and plenty of women with children riding the Metro just fine. If you rode a bus or a train you’d see this.
I ride the bus to work 3 times a week, so I’m not talking out of my ass here, as much as you’d like to think.
I lived on the east coast without a car for 5 years and loved it. Thus my frustration upon moving back here and finding out how incredibly difficult it is to make it work, how unsafe it is to have to walk half a mile in the dark to get to the closest stop, and how infrequent the buses and trains actually come. Once an hour after 7pm? Are you kidding me?
Did I write this to make myself feel better? Yeah, that’s exactly it. You’re so perceptive.
malingering - July 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
and as far as I know, Green LA Girl doesn’t have a JOB.
malingering - July 29th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
then again, who can listen to Militant Angeleno when he says shit like this
The choice is up to you fools. Transit will not get better unless more people use it. That is the bottom line. If you don’t want to ride the bus or train just because you don’t want to look at minorities and just wanna see all the (fake) “beautiful people” you so aspire to be like, then the Militant suggests you move back to where you came from.
Great argument.
malingering - July 29th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Wow. Remind me to never come to LA. I’ll be expected to haul my luggage onto a bus or light rail train, along with my toddler and all his shit to get to the hotel, haul him and all the diaper bag shit to go to Disney or Knotts, haul him and his diaper bag to McDonalds to get dinner and then haul an exhausted toddler and his shit back to the hotel again for bedtime.
But then again, because I’m a woman and because so many other women in LA do it, I should just put up with it.
I’ll make sure to tell all the other women with kids that I know that they should expect to do this in LA too. That should keep them and their tourism dollars out of town.
wskrz - July 30th, 2007 at 7:16 am
I tried to argue a similar point on my site:
http://hexod.us/a/2007/07/some_people_do_.html
But seemed to get nowhere…at a certain point I did realize that I was dealing with people who had a clear ideological bent - which means you can get nowhere in your discussions with them.
While I don’t go so far as to play Devil’s Advocate, I did feel it was necessary to raise questions about certain of their assumptions. I know they mean well, so I don’t want to razz too hard on them - but they will certainly make a better case for public transit if they dont put it in diametric opposition to cars, which many of us are really forced to use. A productive approach would be to find ways to combine the two. A hybrid form of public and private transit.
hexodus - July 30th, 2007 at 8:22 am
You did a better job arguing your point than I did. But not as good as Militant Angeleno’s comment on LAist (see above) which was stellar.
malingering - July 30th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Thats not actually how it works. If a compelling economic argument can be made for Metro expansion, then legislators will seek to pass a bill authorizing municipal bonds to fund the project. They don’t care if people DO ride Metro, they would only care if people WILL ride an improved Metro.
The question is: do taxpayers want to pay for that? Is it a priority?
hexodus - July 30th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Fred Camino said:
much of Metro’s ridership is women. sure, they are probably poorer than you (and therefore less hot), but they do just fine.
So Fred, care to share where you get your statistical analysis from? Or is this simply your observations? If the latter, what are your qualifications for making this statement (other than being a Metro rider, that is)?
I go everywhere with my macbookpro laptop, my whizbang cell phone, and my snazzy digital camera. And I go everywhere via Metro. Keep in mind that I may not be a woman, but I am a 138lb. scrawny dude with loads of pricey stuff. Never been mugged, robbed, or otherwise threatened in 4 years of riding.
That may very well make you the exception.
Plenty of women, and plenty of women with children riding the Metro just fine. If you rode a bus or a train you’d see this. Of course, these people are probably poorer than you. Remember, over a million riders board Metro everyday, a large percentage are women.
See response #1. You are making statements that quite possibly have no basis in reality. Can we see some numbers please? Other than self-generated ones, of course.
greenLAgirl lives on the westside, she successfully gave up her car.
See response #2. It is nice to have an example, but you have an example of one, not a very compelling argument.
obviously if you work odd hours when there’s no service, you work in places that don’t have service, you’re job requires that you own a pickup truck, etc. you probably shouldn’t ride metro as you’ll have very little luck. you’d probably have a hard time riding transit anywhere though, even with the “best” transit systems.
Not completely true, NYC makes it quite a bit easier with more flexible hours of operations and closer connection points. While it isn’t probably “the best”, it is pretty darn good.
…But your criteria of the only people who can do this is way off base. It is not an option limited to unemployed males who live downtown. If it makes you feel better about not being a metro rider to believe that, that’s fine, but it’s simply not true. There’s a million people riding the Metro today that prove it.
Really? A “Million people riding the Metro today that prove it”?
OK, I’m impressed that you can put together something that looks on the surface to be plausible. Now, can you provide the facts to back up your theory (because really, that’s ALL it is at this point isn’t it)?
Or are we just supposed to take your word (and that nice fellow Militant Angeleno’s) for it?
Bill S. - July 30th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
True, Bill. When I lived in NYC I could work until midnight and still know that a train would be there within 15 minutes. Rather than 90.
malingering - July 30th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Here is an old thing I forgot that I wrote about MTA - before it got all trendy with the Transit Oriented Lifestyle and ting:
http://hexod.us/a/2005/08/get_on_or_off_t.html
hexodus - July 31st, 2007 at 9:11 am
hey !!
its very reasonable point of view.
Nice post.
realy good post
thx
robiaRamiKayapy - September 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm