2010-10-31
Vae Viator8
El Segundo Cleans Up Its Act♪
Redemption, kind of as El Segundo clean up its act
Never let it be said that su Topo doesn't recognize effort. Pictured above is what the former site of news racks looks like today after El Segundo cleaned it up. This link http://lametromole.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html will cause you to travel back in time, to about a year ago, and see what how El Segundo has finally cleaned up its act.
Or go back to http://lametromole.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html , more than a year earlier and see the single tripping hazard which they missed. Find the photo with a “pipe” marked with “[6]5723” click on it to see a larger copy, then looking to the left follow an imaginary line projected from the bottom of the number 5 and parallel to the pipe’s shadow and you will see the small pipe which is a very real tripping hazard.
It only took two plus years and they did miss the one stub noted above. El Segundo, which your Mole descried as “the city without shame” for its foot-dragging on these and other pedestrian related issues, has finally eliminated some of their sidewalk hazards. This means that nuestros abuelas need fear tripping in this area now.
It only took two plus years and they did miss the one stub noted above. El Segundo, which your Mole descried as “the city without shame” for its foot-dragging on these and other pedestrian related issues, has finally eliminated some of their sidewalk hazards. This means that nuestros abuelas need fear tripping in this area now.
Not that El Segundo is alone in having pedestrian signal switches ("buttons") which are poorly affixed to light standards. Su Topo's informal servey found that 2 out of four switches at the intersection of Rosecrans and Douglas in Manhattan Beach were either quite loose or loose. "Good Job" to whomever does such sloppy work!
Politics as Usual – Election minutiae and machinations, BUT little said about needed policies!
Day after day all the commercial media will give us is an endless rehash of the minutiae of campaign strategies and tactics. These broadcasts cover projections of seats won and lost as well as the character flaws, weakness and strengths of the candidates. Almost no air time is devoted to what the state and the country needs in terms of policies.
The Federal government's only plan, as far as this Mole is able to divine, is to continue expending our troop’s life blood and our country’s wealth on un-winnable wars while concurrently keeping our borrowing limits high. These wars, over the years, have suffered “mission creep” so that today’s approaches have as much to do with the original aims as punched cards have to do with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) devices.
With all the brain power we are supposed to have in the United States it is a shame that: (i) our politicians work for corporations; (ii) civic minded people do not come forth to work on the behalf of their fellow citizens and (iii) that we do not have a true alternative “third party” that would work toward the establishment of a democracy rather than a plutarchy.
Braille Cell Numbers♪
This link will show a larger segment of Braille of the coding structure. – http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7I8r2Wo_mqO-lKVQt65BgVSjXPfktixVaXdb4VNJT0TUn2Bc&t=1&usg=__sK2DeYeUbN3O4FIwyy285WOSl4o
You can see the Braille alphabet more clearly, here: http://www.nbp.org/alphcard.pdf .
You can see the Braille alphabet more clearly, here: http://www.nbp.org/alphcard.pdf .
Each cell consists of two, three potential raised dot, vertical columns. The left column contains potential raised dots 1, 2 and 3 while the right column potential raised dots are numbered 4, 5 and 6. To express a single digit number, positions 3 and six are not used. For example to indicate the number 5, dots at position 1 and 5 are raised. Seven is indicated by raising dots at positions 1, 2, 4 and 5. Braille dates back to the 1700s and its history is too lengthy to include here, however this link http://www.brailler.com/braillehx.htm will provide enough detail for the average reader.
To give you a better idea of world that those who are sight impaired must face, look (above) at the numbers 0 through 9 in
Braille - it took this Mole quite a while to understand exactly what is required of one in order to “read” Braille, and intensified his empathy for those with sight limitations.
That is why it is very important to have the Braille number plates installed in each bus so that those who are visually challenged can make reports of discourteous drivers or other problems.
La Taupe will report buses that do not have Braille ID signs installed (below).
La Taupe will report buses that do not have Braille ID signs installed (below).
With respect to drivers even those of us who can see have problems because of the variety of ways in which drivers can conceal their ID numbers. That is why this Mole constantly advocates for the driver's ID number to be displayed on the date-time scroll. Culver City Municipal Bus Lines has been doing that for quite a while now - three cheers for CCMBL!
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. Maximilien Robespierre (1758-05-06~1794-07-28)
The Mole reads the papers and other things, so you don’t have to.
Why says reading LACMTA meeting minutes isn’t fun? Below is just one meeting’s agenda(1) which details of law suit settlements which were approved. Su Topo has thoughtfully provided the number of full fare payments, decimals truncated to the nearest whole integer and underlined, required to pay the plaintiff(s):
Case No. BC 408326 settlement of $2.25 million. 1,500,000
Case No. BC 408930 settlement of $712,500. 475,000
Case No. BC 407705 settlement of $2.7 million. 1,800,000
Case No. BC 414875 settlement of $2.5 million. 1,666,666
Case No. PC 044727 settlement of $300,000. 200,000
Almost $8 million dollars, I wonder why it has been spent?
An LACMTA project behind schedule and over budget? Yes it’s true; the “bad idea” is not over yet. The Expo line will not open until next summer (they say) and will now cost $900 million vs the original budget of $640 million, the cost quoted about 140% of the original estimate. It is not clear from the piece in the Times(2) whether the $940 mill is for the entire project or as this Mole suspects for the shortened version which will (they say) start next year. You Mole says “stop loss” end it now! Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is quoted as saying “Most of the projects we’ve built in recent times have been on time and under budget, and this has been a different experience for all of us”. Most?? Did I wake up this morning in an alternative universe where that statement is accurate?
Perhaps the supervisor has forgotten about the Orange Line roadbed which had to be redone several years after opening or concrete chunks falling off the Gold Line and the rough crude construction of sections of the Green Line Stations and the Access Control System which appears to be “complete” but is ineffective? Is that the way we get to “under budget” and/or “on time”, by do-overs?
By the way many of the do-overs are on the taxpayer, plus court costs. This Mole's solution: study the root causes of the LACMTA's failures and then use the court system as an educational tool for those responsible. I still don't understand why Snoble wasn't charged with something for the Measure R propagandising??
Or how about the law suits and mutual recrimination between the LACMTA and contractors which resulted in decisions which favored the contractors where legal fees alone ran to $30 million! (Please see: http://lametromole.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html ).
But then, with an Expo Line Construction Authority that is larded with politicians instead of engineers, it is no wonder that we have, again, reached such a state vis-à-vis an LACMTA project.
The most interesting portion of Mr. Allen's piece brought to la Taupe's mind the “Toonerville Trolley” like aspect of the Expo Line. It was the reporter's description of “stop and proceed basis” for passing the “Farmdale Station”. (Please see: http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Nhruh5XwzFyAMM:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyOP_nonCKEsUlDxx88fNN0ro5ZdYhqg0PSMHFcvcxhtZslmN55SGBDJYnpohe7kICGjSbRrdtTnEXW99ONInTPtxUNyN-ECaNXpxIVdLz3tdwyb-VwpFsGnl_cgIbv8lZ08H0/s400/toonerville-Trolley_450_BLO.jpg&t=1 ).
A Times piece(3) tells us abut the “free travel” to foreign countries enjoyed by High-Speed Rail board members. The Times (BRAVO!) investigated this travel. Not a word however, about anybody paying anything back.
Another Times article(4) announced startling news, viz., that “The subway to the sea” would approximate Wilshire BL’s route to Santa Monica, oops, make that to the VA Hospital. Oh, and it appears that another EIR (Environmental Impact Report) will be necessary; what does that make it? Five of them?
The article also discuses a 1.9 mile “regional connecter”, which, to this mole sounds awfully much like another LACMTA ill-conceived “plan”. It is supposed to obviate the need for “time-consuming transfers"; But just riding a “connecter” somewhere will require, at least one transfer, it will, think about it (Err, LACMTA staff excused) . The cost for the lack of transfer,1.37 billion. This is what happens when politicians get out of their depth.
The subway extension is estimated to cost $5.15 billion which is more than it would have cost if built out in 1985.
Su Topo feels that the dollar amounts are “low balls” and will bet a cup of coffee that both projects will go over budget and take more time than estimated.
In fact, the ink on the celebratory documentation hasn’t even dried and we find an indirect quote which the Times prints “… even with the approval, the subway must go through a lengthy process of planning and obtaining permits, followed by congestion and detours during construction.” And then there will be the arguments, … er, discussions about specific routing and whether or not it will go under buildings like Beverly Hill High School and etc.
Apparently, the LACMTA is yet unable to think in terms of a transportation system. Buses linking rail and subway stations like the system which exists in Canada and which I wrote about here http://lametromole.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html .
The LACMTA seems overly eager to build rail lines out of context, a prime example is the “regional connector” discussed in the Times piece (vide supra) which functionally, the existing Dash performs well AND is more flexible, too. If one travels to New York City for other than the shortest of trips, one will ride buses, subways, light rail and taxis. That is what a city needs and what we in Los Angeles need, too.
I sometimes wonder if a ____________ with __________ could not best the kind of “planning” emanating from the Taj Mahal. (Please fill in the blanks.) How cold! Yes, it is because I see almost NO HARD FACTS AND/OR statistics produced in support of these plans. No proof of concept prototype, using buses over the planned route, to determine if the plan reflects reality and makes economic sense.
The Daily News, in a piece(5) celebrating ten years of Red Line, extension, operation provided some interesting facts. The 17.4 miles of the Red Line cost $4.5 billion or $268.6 million per mile.
The Daily News: “When the North Hollywood and Universal City stations opened June 24, 2000, Metro officials said they expected ridership to reach 200,000 daily boardings by the following year.” And: “A decade later, however, Metro reports a weekday average of 153,000 boardings.” Mole: An error of say 25%; Not close and NO cigar either.
Now, computing the distance from Wilshire and Western to Wilshire and San Vicente (about a quarter of a mile long), per MapQuest, and adjusting for the overage just above and for bends in Wilshire BL that hopefully, would not be mirrored in the subway track, yields approximately 9 miles. The LACMTA’s estimate of $5.15 Billion divided by 9 miles equals $572.2 million per mile, which money in anybody’s but the LACMTA’s hands might be enough. It is about twice the cost of the late 1990s Red Line build out. All this Mole can say is: think “Expo Line” project. You know, late and over budget. Why should this project be any different?
The LACMTA is wastes more money on unnecessary printing than anyone can imagine. This brochure(6) asks us for planing help. La Taupe offers this: Instead of printing these pleas, fire the entire “Marketing Department”, people don't need anyone to tell them that they need to ride a train or bus, and spend the money on trained planners.
Ear to the Rail
Here is a link http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2008/07//402836.mp3 to a very interesting BBC interview with Ms Annie Machon who is a former MI5 (one of the UK’s Militarily Intelligence organisations) agent. MI5 is charged with domestic intelligence. Ms Machon is a graduate of Cambridge University and, as you will see, if you listen to the interview, is absolutely brilliant and has a quite pleasant voice as well. This interview does touch on U.S. security issues as well.
The French know how to go to the streets! Here is the September 7, 2010 manifestation (demonstration) against the planned governmental changes in the retirement system. http://vimeo.com/14793009 One need not speak French to understand the vibrancy of this struggle. The Colonne de Juillet (July Column) at the site of the no longer extant Bastille can be seen in the video. For more detail please see: http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Monuments-Paris/Bastille6.shtml
This Mole is a technologist although he has relatively few “gadgets” and the ones he does have tend to be simple. What follows could easily have been placed under the “The Mole reads” rubric above, but I believe that is an important essay which would be well for all of us to read.
Here is a link to the authors “bio”. Your Mole did not know the writer before reading the piece, but was so impressed with the writing that he [su Topo] linked to the bio, you may want to read it later, it too is impressive http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges#bio .
Here are two quotes from the article, ”True reality is obliterated from our consciousness.” And “If we do not shake ourselves awake from our electronic hallucinations and defy the elites who are ruining the country and trashing the planet we will experience the awful and deadly retribution of the gods. “ which taken together identifies something in American society that has been giving your Mole a feeling of ennui for some time now.
Here is the link to the piece http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/retribution_for_a_world_lost_in_screens_20100927/ .
Cosmology
Learning about quantum computing is a lengthy process, for this Mole anyway. You can join me in the experience by checking out the following link. http://www.silicon.com/management/ceo-essentials/2010/10/25/quantum-computing-cheat-sheet-39746192/
The Mole Rides Again, so that you need not see the kind of “trash containers”which are provided by default.
Maxella Trash Containers by BBB♪
The photo above, taken on the northeast corner of the Lincon Bl and Maxella AV intersection, depicts the Big Blue Bus “trash can” provided by default and dedicated to Ms Stephanie Negriff of BBB.
How Pipes Should be Sealed♪
The people who do poles like the one above might do well to follow best practices. Here su Topo shows how other areas seal the plastic piping which is often found at the base of poles and in the case of Ms Negriff’s trash can, have a larger volume.
Venice-LinclonTrashContainers♪
The photo above, taken on the northwest corner of the Venice Bl and Lincoln Bl intersection, depicts the LACMTA “trash can” provided by default and dedicated to Mr. Arthur T. Leahy the CEO of the LACMTA.
How can an agency that cannot even keep basura picked up do anything right? The LACMTA are paying a third party to clean bus stops, yet, look at this mess; I only show ONE of the TWO overflowing trash containers. I don’t know if this is a site that the LACMTA pays a third party to clean, if not then the dysfunctional organization has only itself to blame.
Douglas-Rosecrans Station Naming Anomaly♪
Yet another mystery in Station naming or over-naming. Here at what is now Douglas-Rosecrans Station on the Green Line. There must be a section of the LACMTA "Marketing Department" devoted to poecilonymics and synonymics.
2010-10-03: Line 232, Bus 11050, Driver 76662: A male passenger takes out a plastic bag and removes a copy of the U.S. Constitution, which measured about 9” by 6” and began mussitating as he read it.
I show two German visitors how to take the Green Line to the Blue Line in order to see the sights of downtown Los Angeles.
The 704 Line stops on Santa Monica BL in Santa Monica need to be rethought. They are not where one would expect them to be (where the majority of buses stop mid-block on Fourth Street) or if they are, are NOT marked and result in a needless walk up to Lincoln.
Like much of work done by the LACMTA and others as well and as noted above, BBB also comes to mind here, rather than applying a rigorous design to aspects of the “system” everything turns out looking like a thoughtless bricolage.
2010-10-07 @ 7:50. “Vor” is performing his imitation of “cleaning”. The clink of glass in his recycling bag tells me that his “prospecting” has paid off today. An interesting statistic to me would be his work ratio, i.e., the number of minutes actually spent in Metro work of the total daily time spent at the LAXCBC. Su Topo’s guess? Maybe 40%. The rest of the time, some of which looks like work but it is inefficient activity.
A Metro vehicle, license number 1226058 and the designator “VO”, with a longish scrape on the right front fender panel, idles and idles at the curb with the driver behind the wheel. He retards a bus who waits behind him until the "idle" driver decides to get his vehicle out of the way.
2010-10-05: A quite large woman drives this bus. She is seated on a Metro trash bag which, coupled with the fact that she isn’t using her seat belt, will greatly reduce her inertial coefficient when there is an accident.
Your Mole’s active mind, frees itself from conjugating the most irregular verb in Spanish in the preterite/preterit forms and thinks about the dominating physics of a crash.
When radical braking is called for, the driver will leave her seat, likely not her volitional choice and attempt to leave the vehicle via the front windscreen. But, rather than dwelling on pain and suffering, su Topo opts for the alternative i.e., thinking about how many FFE dollars the court will award him if he survives.
On a 117 Line bus. A fellow passenger reads “From Option to opening: A guide to producing plays off-Broadway”. The cover shows a shot of a stage, taken across rows of empty seats.
2010-10-09 @ 16:00. As we wait for a 232 Line bus, I talk to a young woman who is also waiting. She is cute, but, as we board I notice a tattoo on the back of her neck. To su Topo this is like pouring a gallon of house paint on a Renoir. Here is a link to a Renoir for you . http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/news/090508_p14_renoir1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/01/148_44579.html&usg=__Lp9aifK1WlUUElMW1_guTGOjn4w=&h=448&w=450&sz=147&hl=en&start=34&zoom=1&tbnid=U7wJoG1A8TrHZM:&tbnh=153&tbnw=147&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRenoir%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1045%26bih%3D662%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C1240&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=159&ei=ZLTJTODpLIyWnAfln_DpDw&oei=ULTJTKyjN6i1nAe49JjNDw&esq=3&page=3&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:34&tx=45&ty=109&biw=1045&bih=662
A flight attendant for the airline which has a “Koru” on the vertical stabilizers of its aircraft and I discuss how we can distinguish between citizens of her country and “Ozzies” by means of a single word. She offers a word and I counter with a criticism, i.e., it is not that easy to work into a conversation.
For a while, I refuse to tell her my word and finally she can stand it no longer and I am unable to maintain a proper Mole’s reserve and I tell her, along with “here is how I would work it into a conversation”. My word is simple and NOT a naughty word (niether is her word) so she rewards me with a beautiful smile as se sentó con las piernas cruzadas.
2010-10-13 @ noon. Su Topo is waiting on the 103rd Street Blue Line Station. The mosaic spells out “Cuando to va yo ya vengo”. The are several others too, one of the English ones says “Time waits for no man”.
2010-10-20: Riding the Blue Line to Long Beach was noisy. Returning was worse. The first car I entered at the Transit Center had a woman who was delivering a religious rant. I join another passenger in changing cars; as we moved we commiserate about the lack of quiet. The next car had three concurrent cell phone conversations ongoing. Reading? Impossible!
2010-10-21 8:00AM: Off to Long Beach for a morning of meetings. The Green Line is sparsely occupied, so I choose a seat that has very few adjacent seats occupied. After a half a page, a woman seats herself directly behind me an, using her outdoor voice, stats a cell phone conversation. I move. When passing her seat when I exit at Rosa Parks Station, she is absorbed in a thick book.
You've ridden our buses, seen the way we do things, now let us handle your cash.♪
2010-10-21 12:05: It is raining and a man boards at Pacific Station with a modified baby tram loaded with four huge bags of recyclables. I leave him when I get off at Anaheim Station and head for Superior Supermarket where they are sampling some very good tortilla chips and a variety of salsas. I re-board at Anaheim Station and am soon joined by a woman quietly selling umbrellas from her wheeled shopping basket; five dollars each.
She is soon followed by others selling candy, rosarios and jewelery.
2010-10-22 - 13:12 @ LAXCBC. The driver of bus number 6359 kicks newspapers out of her bus and onto the roadway. This, apparently, is her way of cleaning.
2010-10-24 about 10:45: It is Sunday, and as I look down Rosecrans BL from the corner of Douglas ST I can see the outline of what must be a 125 Line bus. I have been here about 40 minutes, the scheduled service is already 15 minutes late, so I know that this is MY bus. As the bus approaches it is displaying the dreaded “Out of Service” headsign; its speed too fast for me to note the number.
First Transit must define their mission as keeping buses on schedule rather than providing transportation. I check the schedule and find that the next bus should be here at 11:03, more waiting.
2010-10-24 15:30 @ LAXCBC: It has been raining and a man is citing his pedigree. Everyone is ignoring him, so he moves out to the edge of the area and starts to pick up trash and toss it in his shopping cart, all the while praising himself for his effort.
2010-10-25 @ 11:30: I ride a 740 Line bus. A man is seated in the left front seat. He is holding a plastic container in his left hand, from which a tube dangles and seems to connect with his right leg –it’s not polite to stare. The tube is only partially filled with liquid.
17:00 and I’m at the LAXCBC. It is quite crowded yet, a man walks over to the south wall and relieves himself. “America’s Best” cannot provide restrooms at this busy transportation hub, making it a “Bacteria Mess”.
2010-10-27 @ LAXCBC. I am expecting to ride a 111 Line bus, scheduled to leave at 15:55; it doesn’t show. The 16:55 bus is also MIA. Finally, I do something that I have never done, viz., call 1800-COMMUTE. I wait and listen to incredibly boring information –at last a “human” answers. I explain my complaint and the “human” asks, what are to me unrelated questions, all the while assuring me that he doesn’t want to give me a bad time or words to that effect. Then after a total time of not quite five minutes, he announces that this is not a complaint line and he can give me the number. I hang up thinking that “what else could I expect from the LACMTA". One of the odd bits which I learned was the “1800-COMMUTE” number will be shut down and replaced with “323GOMETRO” OR “fad-goof-up-6”.
I watch sadly as a father, about 25, refuses to pick up and hold his screaming and crying 2 to 3 year-old daughter. Speaking of sad, this Mole prdicts a crash between an automobile and a bus at the LAXCBC.
Reasons? (1) The signage is so poorly placed and worded so that those not fluent in English may have trouble interpreting that it means "NO ENTRY", (2) Buses enter at high speed and some buses use the eastern entry as an exit and (3) multiple times daily, civilian cars trying to find, dios knows what, enter and sometimes exit the entry driveway.
Reasons? (1) The signage is so poorly placed and worded so that those not fluent in English may have trouble interpreting that it means "NO ENTRY", (2) Buses enter at high speed and some buses use the eastern entry as an exit and (3) multiple times daily, civilian cars trying to find, dios knows what, enter and sometimes exit the entry driveway.
Dedicated to the Dulcinea of my dreams
'"DON QUIXOTE'S LETTER TO DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO
"Sovereign and exalted Lady,--The pierced by the point of absence, the wounded to the heart's core, sends thee, sweetest Dulcinea del Toboso, the health that he himself enjoys not. If thy beauty despises me, if thy worth is not for me, if thy scorn is my affliction, though I be sufficiently long-suffering, hardly shall I endure this anxiety, which, besides being oppressive, is protracted. My good squire Sancho will relate to thee in full, fair ingrate, dear enemy, the condition to which
I am reduced on thy account: if it be thy pleasure to give me relief, I am thine; if not, do as may be pleasing to thee; for by ending my life I shall satisfy thy cruelty and my desire.
"Thine till death,
"The Knight of the Rueful Countenance."
"By the life of my father," said Sancho, when he heard the letter, "it is the loftiest thing I ever heard. Body of me! how your worship says everything as you like in it! And how well you fit in 'The Knight of the Rueful Countenance' into the signature. I declare your worship is indeed the very devil, and there is nothing you don't know."
"Everything is needed for the calling I follow," said Don Quixote.
"Now then," said Sancho, "let your worship put the order for the three ass-colts on the other side, and sign it very plainly, that they may recognise it at first sight."
"With all my heart," said Don Quixote, and as he had written it he read it to this effect:
"Mistress Niece,--By this first of ass-colts please pay to Sancho Panza, my squire, three of the five I left at home in your charge: said three ass-colts to be paid and delivered for the same number received here in hand, which upon this and upon his receipt shall be duly paid. Done in the heart of the Sierra Morena, the twenty-seventh of August of this present year."
"That will do," said Sancho; "now let your worship sign it."
"There is no need to sign it," said Don Quixote, "but merely to put my flourish, which is the same as a signature, and enough for three asses, or even three hundred."'
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616), Don Quixote (1605), Chapter XXV
Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: 6482;
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: 6370;
~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 $1.50)
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.
Mole’s Copyright Statement
All photographs and original written materials are copyrighted © 2007~2009 by LAmetroMole. ♪Clicking a photo will often* present you with an enlargement. *This feature is dependent upon the Internet browser which you use and possibly other factors.
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains or provides links to copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, sustainable development, environmental, community and worker health, public disclosure, corporate accountability, and etc. We have often included relatively brief quotes from articles and etc., sometimes in addition to a simple link, because we have found that links frequently go "bad" or change over time. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without fee or payment of any kind to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes and to those who access the site via any and all other channels. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Music or other recorded material on this site, or referred to by this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are made available here for evaluation purposes only. Please support the artists you like by buying their commercial CDs, MP3s and downloads.
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
[2] Allen, Sam. “More delays plague Expo Line”. Los Angeles Times. 26 Sep. 2010:A39
[3] Connell, Rick. “High-speed rail chief admits accounting lapses”. Los Angeles Times. 27 Oct. 2010:AA7
[4] Weikel, Dan and Blume, Howard. “Wilshire route picked for subway”. Los Angeles Times. 29 Oct. 2010:A1.
[5] Modesti, Kevin. “Red Line ten years old but still in its infancy”. Daily News online. 20 Jun. 2010. http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15335907. Last Accessed 29 Oct. 2010.
[6] N/A. “Help us plan more transit in South Bay”. LACMTA – 11-0383CMC © 2010
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# posted by LAMETROmole @ 09:24 
