2013-02-27
Vae Viator36
BBB Maxella Trash Fix??♪
The photograph above documents the situation at the Maxella AV and
Lincoln BL stop on their number 3 Line.
It is the sort of “work” one would expect from the LACMTA. They taped or caused to be taped shut the
aperture in the plastic pipes associated with power poles. These pipes were used as improvised trash
cans. BBB N.B. The stop still needs a trash can!
Su Topo will lead every post with the above until BBB corrects the
problem.
White Line Incursion Series
Su Topo uses video to highlight the problem of scofflaw drivers
endangering Metro bus passengers yet, no authority seems to want to take
ownership of the problem. The issue is
not unique to the particular site which this Mole documents, but is
illustrative of a general problem. Your
Mole encourages you to report similar problems to the appropriate agencies in
your area(s) and hope that you will have better luck than he. In the youtube.co videos linked below one can
see exactly what happens when the policing agencies fail to enforce traffic
laws.
The videos linked below document that, and this is important, a never
ending stream of vehicles fail to use the lane as required by law.
Neither are the policing agencies active when it comes to protecting us
by bringing these obvious and frequent traffic law violations to an immediate
halt. The LACMTA is derelict as well, in
that they fail to use the near hourly proof of the violations captured by the
on board cameras, mentioned here and discussed at length in the posting of
2012-05-31.
In the following video we can see two (2) vehicles cross the white line
and cut ahead of a bus which has stopped to discharge passengers.
Su Topo feels that it is appropriate to dedicate each one of these
vehicles to two specific agencies. So,
in sequence, the scofflaw cars are dedicated to (1): Airport (LAWA) Police &
the L.A.P.D. and (2) the L. A. County Sheriff’s Department & Mr. A. Leahy who is CEO of the
LACMTA.
Which CEO could easily have a
composite of these incursions created from the on-board cameras and show it to
the policing agencies mentioned above while serving donuts and coffee. Then simply ask them to solve the problem for
us. But you were probably already
thinking along those lines, right?, Mr. Leahy??
«Je regarde
la grammaire
comme la premère parteis
de l'art
de penser.»
Etienne Bonnot de Condillac: (1715-09-30~1780-08-30)
[I regard the grammar as the
first part of the art of thinking.]
The Mole reads the papers and other things,
obviating the necessity of your doing so.
President
Obama ‘… awarded presidential medals posthumously on Friday to six educators
killed in the Newtown school massacre, saying they gave their lives to protect
“the most innocent and helpless among us.”’
Metro echoes Reuters
A surprising non-glossy, plain brochure(Workshop) invites us to discuss
options to improve Crenshaw Boulevard service involvine the 210 Laine and 710
Line. OK! Here is my suggestion: eliminate the 710 “rapid” line so that people are provided with equal service for equal
fares. It is NOT rapid transit when some
people are bypassed because of where they happen to live.
The LACMTA should PUBLISH their ideas, if they have any, in advance of
these meetings to allow attendees to develop a reasoned response [Note to Metro
staff and management: if you don’t
understand what “reasoned
response” means, don’t be concerned].
Rather than try to explain the “plan” and listen
to sometimes irrational ideas from the floor which is, based upon past
experience, what your Mole imagines this meeting will be like.
That way also, those who use email to communicate their ideas [a mode of
response which is now acceptable, it appears] could be writing in support of or
against something proposed by the LACMTA.
Another expensive glossy brochure (Todos
merecen) details Metro’s Customer
Code of Conduct. It ignores quite a few
of the things that passengers do or don’t do that would not be known by people who work for the LACMTA, but
almost never ride public transportation.
Such as those who haul huge bags of recyclables abourt buses and
trains. How about either (1) eliminating
the passengers with large trash bags full of, sometimes leaking, recyclables
OR, at minimum, (2) charging a full fare for EACH large bag. La Taupe suggests (1) as the appropriate
response to these potential health hazards.
A piece in Fast
Company(Faraque) [Some language is not suitable for children] discusses smart
phone apps which can help those who are so disposed to get around their cities.
Conspicuous by its absence was our own
LACMTA – what? You are surprised? Not su
Topo, who sees very little use for apps or anything else which the gullible,
I mean, always looking for the silver lining LACMTA has cobbled together.
Although apps are
nice, it would be well for the LACMTA to use its GPS bus data to better
estimate route times at different periods throughout the day. That is, as opposed to becoming enamored with
every “new thing” that comes along yet delivers no benefits; NextBus,
ahh, NextTrip comes quickly to mind.
My greatest need is
usually for a schedule, including a map of the route for a specific line. The Metro app (mentioned before) won’t allow me to
download a schedule and map which is sometimes
available on-board a bus, but it seems to me more often a given bus has
schedules for all the other lines to which it has been assigned by not the on
which it is assigned to TODAY.
As an example it
took five (5) attempts to obtain a 102 Line schedule before I found a bus that
had a few.
Ahh, and then there are the maps,
that 102 schedule(102) used
approximately 30% of the map area for some kind of stupid, that is,
unnecessary PSA (Public Service Announcement).
Stupid may be the correct term because as you can see in the photo
below, they are selling better [freeway] commutes to bus riders! Not only that the type size is such that it
causes one to automatically reach for a magnifying glass.
Line 102
Short Map♪
Looking at the photograph above one can see that the map could easily be
enlarged by eliminating the “A BETTER
COMMUTE IN THE WORKS” section,
flattening and widening the “Map Notes” and placing them in the eliminated PSA area. A larger map is easier to read and NO
essential information was eliminated.
But with decades of bus map experience why does the LACMTA need this
Mole to tell them how to do it? Good
question, isn’t it Mr.
Leahy?
102 Map From
Pdf♪
Above you can see the map at 100% as it was downloaded from
metro.net. It has no PSA! Proving that in the case of maps, at least,,
the LACMTA does everything twice.
The Telegraph reports (Ryall) that the Japanese are well under way in
the development of a new “bullet
train” [shinkansen]. It will be of the mag-lev (magnetic
levitation) which will float above the road bed and achieve speeds of 310 miles
per hour while carrying 1,000 passengers in a 16 car train. The Japanese have almost fifty (50) years of
bullet train experience since their first project was built.
While we in California (read the US) have, umm, errr, no years of experience. It shows too, in the fits and starts approach
associated with the standard high-speed link that they are trying to build
between nowhereA and nowhereB [Merced to Fresno]. Your Mole means no disrespect to these fine
cities, but simply wants to point out that they are NOT traffic
generators! Talk about starting behind
the curve, the planned 220 MPH speed envisioned by CHSRA [California High-Speed
Rail Authority] in only 70% of the 310 MPH system that the Japanese will
build. Further, the Japanese will use
magnetic levitation, a less polluting technology, while our “system” will cling (we hope) to the old fashioned rail.
It makes one want to open the window and shout: “Get the politicians out of the public
transportation business”. That said, the JNR (Japan National Rail
[System]), was a public entity before it was privatised. However, the public entity was run by
professionals NOT politicians, as it is here in the US [sigh]. Professionals, in Japan at least, tried to
develop the best possible system for the lowest possible cost. The main effect of privatisation in Japan was
to increase costs for the passengers and therefore, profits for the private
companies who now run public transportation in the land of the rising sun.
This Mole’s bet? Based upon watching the dismal results of the
CHSRA, so far, it will be just like the LACMTA, viz., lots of mistakes, cost
over-runs and very late delivery times. In
the case of the LACMTA, third rate efforts don’t yield first rate results; no matter how much politicians attempt to
redefine mediocre as fantastic!
¡Muchas gracias á topvam.net for the video and lyrics!
Thank you youtube.com!
Ear (and
Eye) to the Rail
Cautionary Note: Those employed by the LACMTA should NOT view the
following videos. The speed
of the trains in the videos, because they are truly rapid transit, their
quietness, the clarity and sound level of the onboard announcements will likely
make you dizzy, nauseous and frighten you.
Additionally, the concept of having a DIRECT LINK to the airport
should place you in a state of “cognitive
dissonance”, which
occurs when two cognitions complete. Cognitive
dissonance results in the case where Cognition 1, “It is impossible to directly link a city to its
airport” and cognition 2, “many cities are directly linked to their airports”.
One can learn more about cognitive dissonance here. But again, I must caution LACMTA management
and staff that they should not try this sort of psychological study at home and
definitely not without the involvement and guidance of a trained professional.
What people
headed to the airport want to hear is “one seat, one ride” not what we are
forced to say here in Los Angeles, viz., “at minimum, three seats three
rides.”
Here is a link to a ride on Cleveland's Rapid Transit to Hopkins International
Airport.
Youtube.com, thank you so much for complementing my words with videos!
Thank you too, “Nabinut”
for the
download!
While the
LACMTA’s latest “plan” for an asymptotic approach to LAX, is to wait years
until they can build yet another bad idea, the Crenshaw Line, which is, as
usual, more “Mass Transit NOT Rapid Transit” which falls short by quite a good
deal, as always, of actually arriving at LAX.
You can see one version of the
plan here:
Whether it is a current plan or not
is somewhat immaterial in that if the plan does not discharge passengers at LAX
terminals, it is simply a lie to call it transport to the airport.
Cosmology
In 2009 Dr. Kaku described
LISA as starting in six (6) years. In
2013 we can think about it being two (2) years in the future.
For an update on Lisa, please see:
Thank you BBC
for hosting Dr. Kaku and sharing the program with us! And Thank you,
BoreMeScience for the upload!
The Mole
rides again, so you don’t have to watch
as an Out of Service Gold Line train pulls in making you aware that the waiting
will continue.
(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)
Metro
Works?♪
2013-02-05
@ about 9AM: I wait on Platform 2 on
this cold morning hoping a train would soon arrive. One does and you can see from the picture
above, it was Out of Service” (OOS).
Then it
showed us the back of its rear car as it headed out leaving me and my friends
waiting on the chilly platform (Please see the photo below.) The LACMTA’s idea of good service nad mine are quite different.
Gold Line
OOS Heads Out♪
2013-02-25
I note that many (sorry ladies) women Metro drivers, such as the one driving
bus # 7575 today, cannot or, possibly will not, bring the full length of their
bus parallel to and close to the curb. Meaning that passengers will have a
longer step down than the bus designers planned AND in bad weather must step
into a small river L.
2013-02-25
Late in the afternoon, around 17:00, another lady Metro driver at the wheel of bus #8119 made this Mole apprehensive as
she pulled out the east driveway from the LAXCBC; it is an ENTRY, ma’am! Yet another rare Metro driver which will trade your safety in order to save a minute of time.
2013-02-26
@ 07:45: Aboard a CCMBL #6
northbound. A man, whom I heard on this
line before, carries on a nonstop stream of conversation. He is seated across from the other party to
his soliloquy. I am trying to read an
interesting article in the New Yorker.
The man joins his friend in the friend’s seat, about three rows back and to the left. He does not decrease his volume even though
they are closer. I give up on the
article. His voice is the only one
clearly heard on the entire bus.
One of the
advertisements in the magazine is for a book titled
“Quiet” apropos, isn’t it?
While CCMBL
is a topic, here is a video of the way it should be done on every bus. That way la Taupe could “credit” all drivers which is not always possible due to crowding and a host of
other reasons,
Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.
I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: xxxxx (i);
None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;
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: xxxx;
~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 the defacement.
* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.
ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: xxxx; xxx/xx ;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.
ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: XXXX;
METRO drivers Basic
Technical Skills Report
The format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n}
C[{Y/N+/-}]. Meaning of F if Y the
driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag
pole” somewhere between
the bus front door frames. A negative
number, e.g., -3 is the approximate distance in metres (think yards dear
readers) between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole
signifying that the bus stopped short of the flag. A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the
approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the
flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag. The value for C[{Y/N}], “Y”
tells us that the driver stopped within an easy step from the curb to the bus, “N”
means it was NOT an easy step from the curb to the bus. It is this Mole's belief that an average
experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to position in
near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front of the bus. xxxxx F[Y] C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; N.B. distances are in metres, think yards.
nnnnn* = Contract Driver
I.D. numbers of drivers who are almost guaranteed to give you a Rough and Jerky (R & J) ride. xxxxx;
I.D. numbers of drivers who will give you a potentially life-threatening ride. XXXXX(-); XXXXX(-);
Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).
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 known 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)
GMBL = Gardena Municipal Bus lines
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.
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).
R & J = Rough and Jerky [ride].
TT = Torrance Transit.
T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.
T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone [rarely seen these days, while driving anyway] 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 someday read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.
Mole’s Copyright Statement
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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
Works Cited
102 “Schedule.”
©2013
LACMTA. Na. Print.
Faraone, Chris. “Sharing Data Makes For Truly Public
Transit”. Oct. 2011: 60.
Print. (Web: http://www.fastcompany.com/1776378/sharing-data-makes-truly-public-transit
)
Ryall, Julian. “310mph 'floating' trains unveiled in
Japan”. Nov. 26, 2012. Web. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9702521/310mph-floating-trains-unveiled-in-Japan.html
“Todos merecen”. ©2012 LACMTA. 13-0893RB. Print.
“Workshop for Crenshaw Boulevard Service”.
©2013
LACMTA. 13-1331TR. Print.
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The above is ### 30 ###
in Braille
# posted by LAMETROmole @ 18:11 
