The photograph below documents the situation at the Maxella AV and Lincoln BL stop on the BBB 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 include this comment in every post with the above until BBB
corrects the problem. For quite awhile BBB has been charging for intra-line transfers, reversing the long standing policy of free transfers to other BBB lines. 

Too, BBB has spent lots of money to build a big headquarters on Colorado BL just east of 4th Street. Mr. King, just a few dollars for a trash can, you might need a few more to cover other bus stops too, will erase this section. After all, it is Marina Del Rey! :-)
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.com videos linked below one can see exactly what happens when the policing agencies fail to enforce traffic laws.

The videos linked below document the important fact that 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.

La Taupe feels that it is appropriate to dedicate these video(s) to ALL the agencies that should be protecting us. So, they are dedicated to (1): Airport (LAWA) Police, the L.A.P.D., the L. A. County Sheriff’s Department and Mr. A. Leahy who is CEO of the LACMTA.

Su  Topo has recommended a simple solution to the problem. That is, have the 111 Line buses pull up to pedestrian crosswalk then stop and discharge passengers. Doing so eliminates the space in front of the bus which the always-in-a-hurry scofflaws use to cut in front of the bus. But, with the LACMTA nothing is simple. Although the solution could be implemented with nothing more than a memo to the 111/311 Line drivers, it is a task for which the LACMTA is inadequate.












































Your Mole carefully  considered the LAX transportation “plans” implemented by the LACMTA —a 3 or 4 seat ride to the airport which requires not inconsiderable walking and baggage transfers— and LAWA’s plan —a single seat FlyAway ride directly to/from your departure/arrival terminal.

Given these choices, the majority of travelers will opt for the single seat ride directly to/from their hotel with their luggage riding below them in the bus.  

Poor Art Leahy, painted into a corner by the LACMTA’s intellectual poverty which has resulted in a Toonerville-Trolley-like, frill-less, un-integrated, light rail lines to be built in the second largest city in America.  Subways and light rail lines, on which the LACMTA is now spending TONS of money to force an interconnect by using an expensive adhesive bandage AKA "The Downtown Connector". 

FlyAway is getting a great deal of press with new lines running from Santa Monica to LAX.  LAWA’s approach will be the winner UNTIL the LACMTA can provide travelers with a single-seat, preferably via rapid-transit, ride to LAX.

The botched attempt at mass transit for Los Angeles cannot easily fixed, not by a “Downtown Connector” nor by some magical “people mover” which is, after all, a 1960s concept abondoned by Disneyland in 1995.  Nothing illustrates the LACMTA’s poverty of intellect so vividly as the its attempts to warm-over such ill-suited, antiquated concepts as “people mover”.  Or attempting to cover over an ill-conceive rail network by naming the proposed fix a “connector”.

The LACMTA is planning (14-2365JP) August meetings to discuss proposals for changing the line 90/91 (Downtown – Sylmar via Glendale) Lines and the 534 (Malibu – Washington/Fairfax) Line.  

Here is their proposed change for the 534 Line: “Modify schedule to discontinue service between Downtown Santa Monica to the Washington/Fairfax Transit Hub when Phase II of the Expo Line opens [ ].”

Su Topo is familiar with the concept of modal change and there is an expected cost saving by not paralleling the routes of the 534 Line and the Expo Line.

What this Mole questions and has done so before is: why the 720 Line must parallel the Purple Line segment between, say, the Pershing Square or the Civic Center Red Line Stations?  Logically, as the LACMTA has finally identified with the 534 Line case, the 720 should run as 720A between East Los Angeles and either Civic Center or Pershing Square – Then pickup as the 720B Line between Wilshire/Western and Santa Monica.  The overall trip could end up a time neutral or perhaps slightly shorter in time.  Implementing 720A/720B Lines should make some 720 Line buses surplus which buses could then be deployed to the 704 Lines, hopefully resulting in improved service on the now poorly serviced 704 Line. 
AMny covers (Chayes) Mayor Blasio’s plan to reduce pedestrian deaths in New York City.  “Most pedestrians cross at 4 or 5 feet per second [Mole: —it is New York City, after all— vide infra], but the city assumes a slower rate —3 feet per second— to accommodate children and the elderly.”  Additionally, as part of Mayor Blasio’s “Vision Zero”, “The city’s default speed limit will be lowered to 25 mph from 30 mph as early as mid-October.“  Please read this excellent article so that you can learn the way they do it in “The Big Apple”.

They will be implementing traffic systems that would be truly inconceivable to the LACMTA.  New York City has 20 camera installed, and will be installing an additional 120 cameras which will identify speeders in school zones.

The Times reports (Nelson), that the LACMTA has found a new way to waste money! —sorry, that is your Mole’s reading.  First build the “Orange Line”, (it’s a Bus folks). Then pay for firming up a roadbed that was neither specified nor built properly for the requirements.  Then replace the “Orange Line”, (it’s a Bus folks) with a Toonerville Trolley light rail line, it’s NOT rapid Transit folks.

Governor Brown’s repeal of the Robbins bill: “reverses a 1991 law that banned above-ground rail through North Hollywood and Van Nuys.” The total cost of this mess will likely be more than it would have been required to build a subway across the valley in the first place.  Tunneling under the old railroad right-of-way would be a lot simpler than tunneling under, say, Beverly Hill High School.  An underground system could be built fairly quickly by using a trenching method while the “Orange Line”, (it’s a Bus folks), could run on the street during construction.  Or an elevated line might be built —using precast supporting members— it might go along at a city block a week—and  would be less costly than a subway, if that is permitted. 

If the LACMTA were a transparent organization, we could access all the related costs: Orange Line planning and construction, fixing the roadbed and building the Toonerville link, add them up; then we would know how many tax dollars were wasted so far.

Then, too, if the Blue Line were rapid transit one could travel from downtown Los Angeles to Lon Beach in 20 minutes or so.  Interesting that I just listened to a County Supervisor who is being termed-out bragging about his role in creating the “Orange Line”, (it’s a Bus folks).  There is always enough time to do it over, but never enough time to do it correctly in the first place. [This Mole's suggection for a motto for tha LACMTA's build-out group.]

The Times covers (Nelson²) a story about an audit of Metro policing, specifically, how the Sheriff’s Department staff fulfill their obligations under the LACMTA contract.  Conversely, we can see an outside evaluation of the LACMTA’s management skills.  Quoting the article: “The audit faulted Metro for weak oversight of of the contract” —surprise!— “but also noted some improvement in recent months including more fare checks and citations.”

It is difficult for la Taupe to square “more fare checks” with a statement earlier in the piece: “Among other things, a mobile phone app deputies used to check fares was found to be ineffective.”  If the app “was found to be ineffective”, how were they able to do more checks?  With the LACMTA there are always more questions than answers.

Isn’t it time to have a complete management change preceded by an organisational shake-up.  Professionalise the organisation after dividing it into “Mass Transit” and “Freeways”.

As a first step, ALL PROJECTS should be frozen in place until they can be reevaluated as to their return on investment AND to deterime if any of the Toonerville trolleys can be converted to rapd transit.  

Ms Nelson does a great job of covering transportation for the Los Angeles Times, including the politicians and the politically-oriented scurrying around trying to do something, anything, then trying to convince the public that it was the “right” thing.  It is my hope that one day her editors will let her write a long-form investigative piece on the LACMTA.  Her writing would surely win a Pulitzer Prize!

As if to reinforce my opinion, the Los Angeles Times details (Nelson⁴) another of the LACMTA’s issue with return to the spotlight, i.e., a poor ability to amass statistical data.  
This time it’s, Oops, a gap between “ridership” and fares collected.  Part of the problem is the LACMTA inability to see that easy, no-barrier access to the “system” makes it impossible to “estimate” ridership.  Why not just count people past a point that clearly identifies them as riders?  Then the head count, less paid fares equals “free riders”.

But enough of higher mathematics,  the LACMTA, because of its inexplicable delays in installing access-control, which installation still is not complete, created a culture of hop-on and ride.  Nelson⁴: "However, half of the system's 80 stations remain un-gated."  Regarding the retrofitting of access control systems to existing stations, —according to Ms Nelson: "A recent analysis estimated the cost of adding the barriers to the Westside Expo Line and the Eastside and Pasadena Gold Line could exceed $500,000 [emphasis added] per station.  That some of this capacity was built without access control, well after the initial installation of gating at other stations must be categorized as the "mistakes of the past" quoted in the piece.  

So, are these faux pas due to the lack of organisational memory, or simply a matter of incorrigible ignorance?

 Also, Ms  Nelson’s story [cited earlier] about the difficulties of the Sherriff’s Deputies in finding fare cheats, points back to the LACMTA’s attitude of 'we’ll come back and fix it later', which this Mole would term sloppy design and construction and covered on your Mole's suggestion for yet another LACMTA motto (vide supra).

Please read all of the fine newspaper reports which I touched upon above.  The citations for each are included at the end of each post.

This mole imagines an LACMTA meeting related to LAX transportation that ends with a chant in unison: “We’ll get it right this time! No matter how much it costs!”

The Times also supplies more details (Nelson³) on the LACMTA’s attempt to provide transportation to LAX.  In the piece our mayor is quoted as saying: “This is a [sic] historic day for our city because we’re finally on the way to bringing rail to LAX.” 

After completing a rather long bout of laughter, su Topo thought about adding the following after LAX, [kind of], but thought better of it.

The portion on the jump page was headed: “Train may [emphasis added] link to planes”.  A careful reading of reporter Nelson’s work will show that she understands exactly what is wrong with the LACMTA’s (is there another way to say lame? —it appears not) lame multi-seat plan for LAX riders.

“Travelers, urban planners and politicians have long bemoaned L.A.’s lack of a direct connection to the nation’s third busiest airport —a service available in many large cities.” writes Ms Nelson.  “Brava” says your Mole and continues, “the bemoaning is bound to go on FOREVER when possible users find out exactly what will be required of them to use the Toonerville lines.”

In other words, most will end up on FlyAway.  This segues into my suggestion to Ms Nelson’s editors for a long-form piece for her.  The piece should, among other things, investigate: Why LAWA is in the bus business; the possibility that the LACMTA is in  breech of fiduciary responsibility by NOT providing one-seat LAX transportation and likely other acts as well; How LAWA is indirectly, through the LACMTA,  picking the taxpayers pockets [remember Measure R?] and depriving citizens of transportation (one example: express/semi-express bus service to LAX for regular fare], by outwitting the ineffectual LACMTA.

«  Les idées ne suffisent pas, il faut le miracle. »

André Derain (1880-06-10~1954-09-02)

Ars longa vita breva


¿Musica?
How about something from the 1930s, which is the time of Derain’s painting above.

Here is “Parlez-Moi D’amour” by Licienne Boyer (1901-08-18~1983-12-06) 

Merci beaucoup!, Thank you! to our good friends at www.grooveshark.com for always providing the appropriate music for us.




Ear (and Eye) to the Rail



Transit as unseen and unimagined by the LACMTA

The purpose of this section is to make people aware that the LACMTA is not home to many problem solvers.  I hope to accomplish this end by presenting the solutions adopted by other cities, some in foreign countries, in solving the city to airport rapid mass transportation challenge.

Cautionary Note: Those employed by the LACMTA or LAWA should NOT view the following video(s). The speed of the train(s), the fact that they neither share the right of way nor stop at stop lights, because they are truly rapid transit, will likely make you dizzy, nauseous, confuse and frighten you.

Taipei Taiwan, ranked 35^th largest city in the world, has a population of 8,338,000 and is 55% the size of Los Angele, which is ranked 17^th in the world and has a population of 14,900,000 —but, take a look at the nice rapid transit connection the Taiwanese have built to their airport.

The video is linked here. 

Kind of makes you hang your head in shame, doesn’t it? Mr. Leahy??



Cosmology?  Well, perhaps this is more "home galaxy" related as it involves the internal dynamics of our sun. The main dynamic of which is fusion, and promises us unlimited clean energy.  Here on earth a fusion project is called ITER, whose website is here.

You can read all about fusion energy in an excellent, richly detailed New Yorker article. 

It is a long, well written and easy-to-understand piece;  la Taupe cannot be too complementary about the article.

Then, after reading it, if you want to play fusion engineer, you can install an “app” on your iPhone or Android device.  Follow this link for details.

Also you might want review the excellent illustrated materials found here.

Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: xxxx;
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.

ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: Not noted xxxx/xxxx;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.

ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: xxxx;

METRO drivers Lack of 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[+4] C[Y];

I.D. numbers of drivers who are unable or unwilling to position their buses parallel to the curb, a short step from the curb and/or equidistant from the vehicles exits.
XXXXX F[+10] C[Y]; F[+7], C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; xxxxxF[Y], C[Y]; N.B. distances are in metres, think yards.
13 metres is this is MORE than a bus length.  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(J)date; XXXXX(-);
Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).
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
CHSRA = California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is the equivalent, in more ways than one, of the LACMTA.
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
ITC = Inglewood Transit Center
LAWA = Los Angeles World Airports.
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.
OOS = Out Of Service.
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 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 have been submitting feedback and experiences slow but positive progress.  Until all issues are resolved, lo siento. [Addendum 2014-07-31]: Things have been much better lately.  There is a more responsive feedback system now.  If things keep this way, I may have to delete this "Disclaimer and apologia" section in the near future.  Almost immediately after writing the preceding, the system "returned an error" on a save.

Your Mole’s Copyright Statement
All photographs and original written materials are copyrighted © 2007~2013 by LAmetroMole. ♪Clicking a photo will often* present you with an enlargement (sometimes successive clicks will further enlarge the photo). *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 is 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
14-2365JP, Brochure. “Public Hearings on Proposed Changes to Metro Bus Service”. LACMTA. ©2014. Print.

Chayes, Mathew. “How city’s implementing plan to cut traffic deaths”.
”. Amny. Jul. 21, 2014. Web. http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?PBID=4af0aa34-706c-410d-a9ff-f93a3c23b1c7

Mai-Duc, Christine. "LAX FlyAway bus service to and from Santa Monica starts this week". Los Angeles Times. Jul. 14, 2014. Web. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lax-flyaway-bus-service-santa-monica-20140714-story.html