2010-07-31

 

Vae Viator5

Mass Confusion Transit

I help someone find the 626 stop pictured above, yes it is the stop! Although the signage, as usual with the LACMTA, may be poor. In this case it leads one to believe that this is a discharge point only.

Dirty 1
 
Yes, the LAXCBC is filthy (click on the photos –above and below for a better view). There is a simple solution, however. It is a two-part solution. Part one involves supervision of the “worker(s)” on a frequent basis, not just allowing them to do “the best that they can”.

Dirty 2



LAXCBC “worker”

Part two is organising the work. Which I will do for the LACMTA right here. Task (a) Compute the size of the centre island at the LAXCBC. No, no, I understand that it is an oval but there is no need to perform the computations using calculus! Just take the length at the longest point and consider it a rectangle. Task (b) divide the Length X Width by 22 the number of working days in a typical month. Let’s say it measures 240 feet by 40 feet, making it 9600 square feet. Dividing 9600 by 22 yields 436 square feet. That means each working day the “worker” need only take his long handled stiff scrubbing brush and bucket of soapy water and scrub a section which is 40 feet long by about 11 feet wide. To make this easier for him, we need to make a grid plan drawing of the centre island at the LAXCBC –this is Task (c). Each grid square will have a number, 1 … 22. Each grid square will be composed of concrete sections the sum of which will roughly be equal to 436 square feet. The grid will be posted on a wall in the central “driver’s restroom area” [too bad for the rest of us, right?] AND the “worker’s” supervisor will produce a cleaning plan for each month and distribute it to the “worker” prior to the beginning of the new month. For example, August 2010 starts on a Sunday. So the first working day is Monday the 2nd. On that day, the “worker” in addition to his (very) light sweeping, will scrub grid 1. On Tuesday the 3rd of August he will do grid 2 and so forth. At the end of the week the “worker’s” supervisor will inspect the five (5) grid squares which were cleaned that week and inform the worker about any deficiencies. 
 
There it is, the LACMTA could have done this for themselves, yes? No, they couldn’t OR they would have cleaned up this disgusting mess that visitors to our country see daily!

Oh, one more thing, this Mole rides the bus and so can this worker. He is given the car, pictured below. That is so he can scurry about town doing the fine work he does. He can ride the bus too. Instead of giving the area a light, spotty sweeping then taking off to repeat that effort somewhere else, let him spend the full day at large areas and ride the bus to his reporting area or home and plan his week so that he can commute to nearby areas by bus. If they are afraid that he will not be doing enough work, let him clean the buses he rides.
I have nothing against workers! It is the LACMTA management who are sitting on their big fat chairs not getting out and supervising their staff!
If he needs supplies let the buses haul them in for him. They could be lashed to those front right wheel cover areas which they don’t want us to use.
Or, as an alternative the supplies could be brought in by the driver relief cars, of which many transit the LAXCBC daily.


Riding in style at the LAXCBC♪

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.
Andrew Jackson (1767-03-15~1845-06-08)

The Mole reads the papers and other things, so you don’t have to.

The Los Angeles Times has a demonstration(1) of what is NOT rapid transit, viz., the Blue Line which shares much of its route with people and other vehicles. So, in addition of those meaningless decals, on which Snoble spent our fares and tax monies, the LACMTA should also have another decal. Su Topo suggests that it be: “The Blue Line – no longer California’s deadliest rail transit system”; perhaps that could add another sentence, “Expo Line coming [maybe] soon”.
Unfortunately, the reporter did not bother to tell us which rail system in California now has the dubious honour of the title. Could it be the one of which Solow is the present “safety manager”? The article also fails to give meaningful statistics about pedestrian deaths and “suicides”.

The New your City Metro, according to www.amny.com(2), is planning to charge riders $1 for their reloadable Metro Cards. These cards are simple in that they can store a cash balance. The piece says that “The cards cost the … agency just 8 cents to print. The TAP cards undoubtedly cost the LACMTA more than that, and given the history of the agency to, how shall I say, overspend, it might be very much more.

The Times(3) covers the July 1st increase in Metro fares which “… will help eliminate a deficit in the [LACMTA] budget …”. “The deficit was caused by a decline in ridership, the loss of State funds and decline in revenue for two of the county’s three transportation sales taxes ..”.

Not cited as a reason for the deficit was the profligate LACMTA management’s spending.

The article says that the “Transit Coalition and Southern California Transit Advocates” are supporters of the fare increase. La Taupe’s suspicion meter redlined when he read about that support. I would like to see who provides their funding. You know, like the Citizens Demanding the Expo Line or whatever it was called. The group whose web site was in FL with administration provided by the then head of LACMTA’s IT (Information Technology) group.

Perhaps they are partly funded by the Measure R revenue stream, which was the subject of a $1,000,000 PR campaign paid for with tax-payer monies, on Snoble’s watch <imagine a smiley here>. I feel that that campaign deserves some kind of “Useless Award”; think about it –spending money that could have possibly provided better transportation to get more money that possibly could be used to provide better transportation or ….

A WSJ piece(4) quotes the late anthropologist, Clifford Geertz definition of culture as an “ensemble of stories we tell about ourselves”. Th article is a review of “A Short History of Celebrity” by Fred Inglis published by Princeton Press. Your Mole likes to read but sees more than he wants to about celebrities while standing in the supermarket checkout line.

A report(5) in the Los Angeles Times marks the 20th year since the Blue Line opened. It was a much younger Mole who slipped into the 7th/Metro Center Station when it was still being constructed. The bus vs. rail discussion was again opened with criticism blaming reduced ridership on spending for fixed rail rather than buses. A single quote will support this Mole’s criticism of the LACMTA. “But the issue has come up before and the MTA has steadfastly defended the projects, although not in a way that has put the matter to rest.” The piece also talks about “… the Blue Line Station on South Figueroa Street". My knowledge of the Blue Line route and Downtown Los Angeles could not focus on any such station in that the Blue line is parallel to, but separate from, Figueroa Street. Likely the reporter has his own private car and may not know how to find the official station names??
The Times is heard from again(6) on the following day on the Blue Line “birthday”. This time with a nice picture of the Pico/Chick Hern Station which highlights the LACMTA’s poecilonymic tendancies. The article was, however, nice in that it reminded us that the Red Cars stopped before this Mole could ever ride them, on April 9th 1961. We also find that our pickpocket friend, “Measure R” is expected to put about ten BILLION dollars in the hands of the LACMTA, every ten years. Expressed another way, somewhere just above $800,000,000 each month. Su Topo feels that, like many of the LACMTA’s projections, this one is too high. Especially in an era where futurists are saying many of the jobs lost over the past several years are gone forever!

This doesn’t keep Art Leahy from saying for publication that a new system would surpass the old rail system and “It’s is an aggressive goal, and it’s an appropriate goal.” Leahy and I agree on one of his indirect quotes: … that buses and trains have their place in transit system planning. Now, if only the LACMTA was capable of rational, systems oriented –NOT political— planning.

An LACMTA brochure(7) announces a series of meetings, all planned on weekdays at times and locations, e.g., 9:30AM, 5PM, 6:00 PM or 6:30PM, which guarantee attendance only by those with lots of discretionary time.

Of the 32 lines in the brochure, 18 had the words “Discontinue Service” associated with them (there were some duplicates where lines served more than on district).

Although I will not perform a detailed analysis of the proposed changes here, I will say that the LACMTA should be reading su Topo who has long favoured some of the discontinuation of service proposed. For example, you may be saying bye-bye to the 920 and the 715 which were bad ideas which carried very few much faster –well, when traffic wasn’t a factor anyway.
Now, Mr. Leahy, in place of the 715, you should reinstate the old 315 line with extra rush-hour runs scheduled and extend it to Aviation Station during non rush hour periods –you know, of course, that there is no simple, direct way to travel on Metro from the LAXCBC to Aviation Station on the Green Line after rush hour— don’t you? Oh, the shrinking value of a Metro pass!

The 439 ends its route at LAXCBC during non-rush hours, forcing you to pay extra to get from there to Aviation Station. Otherwise you must travel in a large inconvenient loop via the 625/626 (which lines are also under consideration for some changes).

One thought that your Mole advocates is to run a 625 shuttle in an hourly loop directly between the LAXCBC and Aviation Station with a few “high demand” stops on a direct line between the two end-points. Then run a 625 shuttle to the South Airport complex and just “touch” the eastern border of Playa del Rey, again in an hourly loop. Both of these shuttles should cover the entire day, including the morning and evening rush-hour. A reconfigured 625 would partially make up for the death of the old 220 line (LAXCBC-Playa del Rey-Marina del Rey-Culver City-Beverly Hills). It was slowly chopped to death and the last section is scheduled to end in the mid-December shake-up time-frame.

Mr. Leahy, how can you consider yourself the leader of a transportation “system” when two important hubs, the LAXCBC and Aviation Stations have NO easy Metro connection options for most of the daylight hours? Surprise! It is not only potential Green Line passengers who want to get to Aviation Stations (by Metro --Please remember the passholders), it is also those who want to connect with the 120 Line.  

Your brochure asked for my help, didn’t it? Well there you are. If all Metro employees were required to use the “system” every day, then they would be giving you ideas on how to improve the “system”, not this Mole.

Or you could hire this Mole, nah –the job is too political.
The Los Angeles Times weighs in(8) on the CA high-speed rail project, oh it’s the one with the $42 billion price tag which is to link San Diego with San Francisco. It appears that someone thinks that the line will carry between 88 and 117 million passengers by 2030. Wow! That is a difference of 35,000,000 passengers. Viewed from both sides of 88 million, there might be 117 million passengers or, to this Mole’s way of thinking, there might be only 53 million (88 plus and minus 35 million).

Whatever the case, we know that the politicians want to get their hands on the $42 BILLION so they can deal it out. We also know that the political forces for this non-LACMTA [sigh of relief] project want big ridership figures. Fortunately, there are those who want “… the authority [the California High-Speed Rail Authority] to reevaluate its plans.”

We’ve seen that in the case of the Gold Line and undoubtedly the same will apply to for the completely unnecessary money pit known as the Expo Line. How many people would show up at a “Cheviot Hills Demands Public Transportation” meeting? Duh.

Ridership between Culver City and Los Angeles should now be available from the values obtained on the 333 Rapid line which parallels a lot of the Phase I Expo Line route. It remains to be seen how many people would travel south, probably by some infrequently scheduled bus to link up with the Expo Line. That means that the passenger counts from the 333 Line are not necessarily good predictors of the Expo Line loading. I never understood why, if demand for the line the never-should-have-been was so great, exactly they refused to simulate it with a Rapid bus line. It the passengers are there and want to ride that particular route, they should jump at the chance to ride a Rapid Bus along a coincident salient. This Mole believes that the ridership projections made at the outset, will not be supported in practice –if the line is ever finished.

Ear to the Rail
I like graphics which communicate. One example of such a graphic is a treemap, this one interactive and dense with information about super computers. Of course, this information is subject to change. My complements to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)! (See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm )

It is even worse than I thought. In addition to allowing way too much unnecessary communication and providing lots of noise pollution, we now find that cell phones are killing our honey bees! Is that call really necessary? http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/business-news-briefs/2010/05/study_cell_phones_could_be_kil.html

Cosmology
It is never too late to learn. How about a nice course in quantum-physics.
http://www.bureau42.com/view/6841/summer-school-2010-1-quantum-physics

What is happing in Europe at the LHC (Large Hadron Colider)? This site has a nice colour photo too!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20009666-264.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

How big is the sun? Link to the simple, easier to understand graphic below.
http://www.bobthealien.co.uk/sunsize.htm

How big, relative to the sun, is this newly discovered GIANT star? The link below will tell you that this giant is 300 times the size of our sun!
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/eso-massive-stars-discovered-100721.html

Astronomy magazine featured el sol in a June cover story: “Is the SUN an oddball star?”. See a video about the issue at http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=9800

Let’s listen to Tú Sólo Tú by Selena who, sadly, we lost just over 15 years ago.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/s/Tu+Solo+Tu/2zL5cb

Please wait for the advertisment to show (it’s fast) and this beautiful song will play, courtesy of our friends at Grooveshark.com

The Mole Rides Again, so you don't have to circle the block, covering the same ground, unnecessarily on a 232 Line bus. (There is no extra charge for all the jerking and rough driving – it is included in your fare by First Transit)

Ms Santiago and I spent some time at a shopping center on this nice Sunday. After our return bus ride, I walked her back to her hotel; she had to prepare for an evening flight back home. Like Molette she works for an airline. But, it is not the same one which promoted Molette and recalled her to Europe to be based at CDG.

2010-07-03 None of the buses, on which su Topo has been a passenger, on routes contracted out to First Transit seem to have schedules on board.
Neither do they have the Braille identification plates which are a requirement of “Boggs v. MTA” settlement and shown on page 4 point 4 of http://low-vision.org/media/SFI_615035_5_Class_Notice.pdf
And shown here: [point] 4) Metro will install Braille and raised number signage onboard all Metro buses to enable visually impaired customers to identify the coach number of the bus;

Further, these lines depend on the whim of the driver, who often makes announcements which are less than clear rather than the standardized ones provided by ASAS.

I am at the Del Mar Gold Line Station. Now here is a group, the residents of the building which hugs the platform, who know how to deal with the LACMTA. The P.A. announcements are no more meaningful than those heard at other stations but they are quieter! The one I heard was about having proof of fare payment. Dos some people think that the system is free? They also give out the 310 area code number to call with security problems. They must know how unsatisfying and unintelligible the platform telephones are; at least on the sections of the Gold Line/Green Line which “swim” in freeway traffic.

2010-07-04 @ Mariposa Station on the Green Line: An ear-drum shattering announcement tells us what to do about suspicious packages. My inclination? Tape them over the speakers. The scroll says “train arriving” about 8 second before it stops at the platform –Thanks a lot! Now in Japan we would see that announcement perhaps a minute before the train arrives.
A man runs up the steps and just misses a train; this elicits a string of naughty words from him.

2010-07-04 16:35 @ LAXCBC: A 111 Line passenger hands a transfer to a driver, who tosses it out of the window onto the pavement.

2010-07-06 @ 12:10: I am aboard a 267 Line bus, number 7760, while driver # 16980 carries on a lengthy conversation with a woman who blocks egress at the front door.
@ 13:09: I transfer to a 79 Line bus, #7547. A woman who easily qualifies as morbidly obese, boards at the Santa Anita Shopping Center [your Mole’s term for it], opens a package of some kind of desert and begins to consume it. Between, and sometimes during, mouthfuls, she carries on a loud conversation with a friend who is seated across and down the aisle from her. It seems to be a yoghurt dessert with sprinkles along with some sort of deep fried balls.

2010-07-07 around noon: I ride a 704 Line Rapid bus, #9383. My fellow passengers are an odd lot, possibly found only on Los Angeles area buses. A homeless man whose extra belongings dangle from a camouflage pack, a woman who is explaining how her restroom trip almost made her late for the bus, a man who boards, then begins to slam windows open while carrying on a curse laden soliloquy.

Both Big Blue Bus [Rapid 3] and Culver City [Rapid 6] have more well thought-out fully functional Rapid Lines. They are only scheduled during peak hours and are really faster than the local version. Yet the local service overlaps the Rapid service and provides transportation throughout the day. This usually allows for one to take advantage of the Rapid lines, yet to use a local bus for part of the trip.

Whereas, our beloved LACMTA, will run Rapid bus at only a small fraction of capacity yet pass potential passengers by the dozens. Then the will drop you off as much as half a mile from you destination with NO METRO ALTERNATIVE for the last leg of your trip. Ah yes, a bus “system” conceived by those who have never set foot in a bus –other than the demo ride on a new Rapid vehicle.

This amounts to taxation without transportation. We are all paying the extra one half percent sales tax plus TDT (Transit District Taxes) [Source: http://www.uctc.net/papers/737.pdf ]. Which give the LACMTA more money than politicians should be allowed to handle and gives us the kind of bus service which leaves some tax-payers waving (if not their whole hand, at least a finger) at the Rapid buses who bypass them.

Remember, when they planned rapid service on the Gold Line where some stations would be bypassed by “express” trains? How quickly that died!

The more I look at the design of the two-section articulated rapid buses, you know, the ones with the accordion folds in the middle, the more I wonder how safe that section will be when struck by another vehicle right in the accordion, so to speak.
Oh well, “Moving fewer (possibly) faster”.

2010-07-14 @ LAXCBC: Two civilian cars have pulled into this “buses only” bus center. There is no security although, in the past, I have reported on seeing cars ticketed for entering.
All First Transit Drivers are rough –or is this another case of the 98% giving the rest a bad name?

2010-07-16: I am in car 111B of a Blue Line train. It is filthy! I have to inspect three seats before I find one, and then only after I lower my expectations. One seat has sand on it, another has a puddle on the floor in front of it.
A pan-handler makes his pitch; it is not well received.
I help a tourist couple from New Zealand navigate the Metro system. They are shocked that our buses don’t make change and that they have to figure out what “a check cashing place” is and where it can be found before they can get a day pass. I explain that the LACMTA is famous, I mean notorious, for its concept of service.

2010-07-17 @ 8:30: I am being jerked and shaken by the rough driver of this 232 Line bus, driven by #7108

2010-07-20 @ 7:58: I watch a 715 Rapid Line bus, number 7630 leave the LAXCBC, there are two people on board –one of them is the driver.

2010-07-20: I ride a 117 Line bus, #7588. The driver ignores my “Good Morning”. TransitTV is showing us a cooking show in a kitchen setting, the chef is a calm woman; what a change from the two guys [Clever Cleaver Brothers] who are unmissed by su Topo and who cooked on a camping stove.
I take the rest of the morning off and watch Univision. ¡Despierta America! Is asking the question: ¿Qué es más importante la belleza o la inteligencia?” This is a discussion which, by chance, involves lots of very beautiful ladies. El Topo contestó ¡Es claro, la inteligencia!.

Then they show us “Los mil y un usos del tomate”. Yet more beautiful ladies make a salad with red and yellow tomatoes and feta cheese. Yummy!?

2010-07-26: I ride a 40 Line bus –it is packed and is passed by a nearly empty 740 bus. Someone is on his cell: “ … I’m on parole … …Right now! … … Is that OK?”.

Another passenger is having an early lunch –it’s pizza. His hands are greasy. I’m hoping I don’t have to touch something in common, after him.

Dedicated to the Dulcinea of my dreams
"That is all very well," said Don Quixote, "but I know what must be done
now;" and calling together all the galley slaves, who were now running
riot, and had stripped the commissary to the skin, he collected them
round him to hear what he had to say, and addressed them as follows: "To
be grateful for benefits received is the part of persons of good birth,
and one of the sins most offensive to God is ingratitude; I say so
because, sirs, ye have already seen by manifest proof the benefit ye have
received of me; in return for which I desire, and it is my good pleasure
that, laden with that chain which I have taken off your necks, ye at once
set out and proceed to the city of El Toboso, and there present
yourselves before the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, and say to her that her
knight, he of the Rueful Countenance, sends to commend himself to her;
and that ye recount to her in full detail all the particulars of this
notable adventure, up to the recovery of your longed-for liberty; and
this done ye may go where ye will, and good fortune attend you."

Gines de Pasamonte made answer for all, saying, "That which you, sir, our
deliverer, demand of us, is of all impossibilities the most impossible to
comply with, because we cannot go together along the roads, but only
singly and separate, and each one his own way, endeavouring to hide
ourselves in the bowels of the earth to escape the Holy Brotherhood,
which, no doubt, will come out in search of us. What your worship may do,
and fairly do, is to change this service and tribute as regards the lady
Dulcinea del Toboso for a certain quantity of ave-marias and credos which
we will say for your worship's intention, and this is a condition that
can be complied with by night as by day, running or resting, in peace or
in war; but to imagine that we are going now to return to the flesh-pots
of Egypt, I mean to take up our chain and set out for El Toboso, is to
imagine that it is now night, though it is not yet ten in the morning,
and to ask this of us is like asking pears of the elm tree."

"Then by all that's good," said Don Quixote (now stirred to wrath), "Don
son of a bitch, Don Ginesillo de Paropillo, or whatever your name is, you
will have to go yourself alone, with your tail between your legs and the
whole chain on your back."

Pasamonte, who was anything but meek (being by this time thoroughly
convinced that Don Quixote was not quite right in his head as he had
committed such a vagary as to set them free), finding himself abused in
this fashion, gave the wink to his companions, and falling back they
began to shower stones on Don Quixote at such a rate that he was quite
unable to protect himself with his buckler, and poor Rocinante no more
heeded the spur than if he had been made of brass. Sancho planted himself
behind his ass, and with him sheltered himself from the hailstorm that
poured on both of them. Don Quixote was unable to shield himself so well
but that more pebbles than I could count struck him full on the body with
such force that they brought him to the ground; and the instant he fell
the student pounced upon him, snatched the basin from his head, and with
it struck three or four blows on his shoulders, and as many more on the
ground, knocking it almost to pieces. They then stripped him of a jacket
that he wore over his armour, and they would have stripped off his
stockings if his greaves had not prevented them. From Sancho they took
his coat, leaving him in his shirt-sleeves; and dividing among themselves
the remaining spoils of the battle, they went each one his own way, more
solicitous about keeping clear of the Holy Brotherhood they dreaded, than
about burdening themselves with the chain, or going to present themselves
before the lady Dulcinea del Toboso. The ass and Rocinante, Sancho and
Don Quixote, were all that were left upon the spot; the ass with drooping
head, serious, shaking his ears from time to time as if he thought the
storm of stones that assailed them was not yet over; Rocinante stretched
beside his master, for he too had been brought to the ground by a stone;
Sancho stripped, and trembling with fear of the Holy Brotherhood; and Don
Quixote fuming to find himself so served by the very persons for whom he
had done so much."

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote (1605), Chapter XXII
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/cervantes/don-quixote/1/

Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: ;
Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.

I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: None observed, but they are out there!;
Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.

I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers: 6412;
~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of defacement.
* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.

ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tail signs disagree: n/a;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.

La Taupe's Abréviations
ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.
ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is know as a granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time. They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.
BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus
CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)
CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)
FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.25)
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).
TT = Torrance Transit.
T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.
T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,
T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.
WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)

Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia
Your Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will some day read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.

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Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement
This is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor it my current intention to ever be:
1) A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement, investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party doing business with any of the entities about which I have written, which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.
2) A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction with any of the entities about which I have written.
Any exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations having transactions with any of the entities about which I have written.
There are no exceptions.
Date: 2009-06-24 S/ LametroMole

Bibliography/References













  1. Weikel, Dan. “Blue Line train ran red signal, videotapes show”. Los Angeles Times. 9 Jul 2010:AA3.














  1. Haddon, Heather. “MTA eyes $1 fee for MetroCards”. am New York. 12Jul 2010:03














  1. Weikel, Dan. “MTA raises, bus, rail, subway fares”. Los Angeles Times. 1 Jul 2010:AA5.














  1. McMahon, Darrin M. “Intensely Familiar, Yet Strangely Remote”. The Wall Street Journal. 16 Jul 2010:W5.














  1. Weikel, Dan. “Metro Rail to mark its 20th anniversary”. Los Angeles Times. 23 Jul 2010:AA1.














  1. Sewell, Abby. “L.A. celebrates a rail milestone”. Los Angeles Times. 24 Jul 2010:AA4.














  1. N/A. “Proposed Changes to Metro Bus Service”. LACMTA. Undated. Unidentified.














  1. Weikel, Dan. “Rail project’s ridership figures called unreliable”. Los Angeles Times. 2 Jul 2010:AA3.



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