2014-10-31

 
Vae Viator56

Lots of Holidays in late October & November, so to all who see this:

Happy Halloween!

¡Feliz día de los muertos!


Happy Veteran’s Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!


When politicians involve themselves in technical matters, expect failures.

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! :-)

  



BBB Maxella Trash Fix???♪


Why a trash container is needed♪

The photo above shows exactly what people will do when a trash container is not provided.  They will jury rig something.  What they did in this case is rip off the tape which covered the plastic pipes at the base of the utility pole and stuffed their trash into the pipe, nice, huh?

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.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.

In the following videos we see further instances of scofflaw drivers, some in convoy, cutting in front of Metro 111/311 buses.
Please see the www.youtube.com video of three vehicles convoying across the solid white line and cutting off a Line 111/311 bus here.   Then, if you look carefully, you can see a Yellow Cab race by this 111 Line bus, here.


Please carefully note that often, pedestrians are pinned to the curb by the vehicles that cut in front of the bus —as a result these pedestrians are illegally denied the right-of-way. Which right-of-way would be unchallengeably theirs IF, and only IF, Mr. Leahy would have one of his staff explain su Topo’s  simple solution (vide infra) to him. 

In spite of the potential for these violations to occur several times per HOUR, I have never seen a police presence at this location. One would think that with a bus schedule taped to the dashboard one of the several policing agencies would have made some arrests by now. Unless they have "more important" work, than protecting bus passengers, to do.

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.


OVERMATCHED




 The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.

The Los Angeles Times informs (Nelson) us that the Downtown Connector has begun.  Those who regularly read these posts know that this project is this Mole's least favorite.  The most telling quote comes from an actor who was a regular on the old "Star Trek" series: "This morning we boldly go where no transit agency has gone before." 

 If you wonder why that might be, your Mole will advise you to wait and watch while the LACMTA works their usual magic.  One doesn't need a crystal ball to see problems and cost overruns in the cards for this unnecessary project, the initial cost estimate of which is $1.2 BILLION.  Another quote, the last I'll use says: "Some people lose hours every week to transfer from a bus to a train, just to keep going in the same direction."  

 It makes one wonder how someone could experience the subway system in New York City and not understand why transfers are necessary --unless they didn't truly experience the NYC subway system.

 La Taupe counters with the fact that some people in Los Angeles have to transfer between three different buses to just get to work.  That patchwork travel is an unintended consequence of the LACMTA's "system" of truncated bus lines and a desire to collect multiple fares.

 A Times article (Nelson1) covers the Japanese complaints about the unions involved in building LACMTA rail car.  Kinkisharyo International of Osaka appears to be attempting to renege on what was its expected plan to build rail cars in California.  A close to a billion dollar contract is involved.  The Japanese, accustomed to “company unions” at home might seem to some as union busters.  What do you think?

 The best response can and did come from the Business Manager of the IBEW (International Brotherhood [of] Electrical Workers), Mr. Marvin Kropke of Pasadena.

 His letter was published on page A23 of the October 26 2014 edition of the Los Angeles Times.  You can read his well reasoned reply here.  I have the print copy but it took me quite a while to find the letter online using the Time's search engine; because a different title for the letter, "Union stance on Metro's rail cars" (Kropke) was used in the print edition.  Are we having fun yet?

 In any event it would appear that Kinkisharyo (Kinki is a region around Osaka and sharyo means rail car) seems not to want to assemble these cars in California, a state in which IBEW members are paid a living wage.  This is a tactic?/methodology? not a lot different than that used by Japanes auto makers in the U.S., that is, locating plants in non-union areas.  Please carefully read Mr. Kropke's letter.

The Los Angeles Times reports (Nelson2) that Angelinos need parking for their cars before they will ride mass transit.  The most worrisome part of this piece is the caption under the lead photo, which includes these frightening words: “The MTA estimates …”. 

The phrase “MTA estimates” does not instill confidence in me.  In the past the MTA has estimated ridership, usually too high, revenue again, too high and risks, always too low.  So I have no compelling reason to believe that 1,500 more people would ride the Red Line if parking were available.  This figure translates to $2625/day or annualized as a work-week value of $693,000.

If the LACMTA estimates are so accurate, why don’t they identify the source area of these potential riders and then run buses from their neighbourhoods  to the Red Line?  

 One method is to ask survey respondents to code their survey with the Zip+4 postal code of their residence.   Those codes can be translated to latitude and longitude and then used to plot points on a map.   Below is a map which simulates a cluster of responses.  Thanks to http://batchgeo.com/ for use of their excellent tool which inspired this effort on your Mole’s part.


 Simulated Cluster Map♪

Yes, I know!  If you are with the LACMTA your head is pounding, so please take a break. 

But for others, one could fit a curve to these data and use the curve to plan a bus route.  In this extremely simple case, the 117 Line bus which runs along Tweedy BL, puts everyone in our “survey” within a block of the 117 Line route.  In actual practice, the task would be to plan a route that would provide transportation to the majority of those plotted —likely in a number of clusters— in the most efficient manner.

Implementing su Topo’s suggestion above could provide bus transport to the Red Line for a high fraction of those who feel they need a parking space without providing a parking space AND then be able hand each rider a free transfer at the nearest Red Line Station.  That is the way to build ridership AND sell passes.  

 The basic route modifications which the LACMTA usually makes are cancellations and route shortening, with perhaps some variations on thise ideas.  What they need to do is analyse their routes with an eye toward improving, not only the track over the ground but coordination with other lines to make transfers much easier.  In the case where, based upon surveys, a new routed is planned additional periodic surveys need be taken so that changes can be made.  For example the ridership may change so that if one is considering distance traveled and time required to get to a given bus stop - an alteration could be considered based upon minimizing the Distance/Time values.

 Your Mole has often suggested, as a proof of concept, running a rapid bus along the planned route of, say, the Crenshaw Line and see how many would opt for the “Four Seats to LAX”  trip –actually it could be only three seats if the buses ran right to the airport as LAWA’s FlyAway buses do now. 

One of the LACMTA's mottoes is "If we build it, we might be able to make it work later."

This Mole is the strong opinion that in future, FlyAway passengers will smile and wave at people that they see struggling to get to their fourth seat to LAX.

But no, the LACMTA would likely prefer to purchase high-cost land and turn it into parking lots at an unknown return on investment.  In truth, when riders actually make the commute and see the irritations, large and small which are part of the “package” they will continue to commute by private vehicle.  Drunks, foul-mouthed fellow-passengers, annoying cell phone conversations, loud music which may not be to one’s taste and the list goes on.  Your Mole is inured to these surroundings and behaviors.  Many, however, will not tolerate such ambiance.

The article also considers charging more for parking: “… could charge drivers based on space availability; when the lot is fuller, it becomes more expensive to park. That system, he said, would encourage turnover and reduce demand.”

I believe that most users of the station parking would be people that have to park while they are at work and would not have the flexibility to “turnover” their parking spot.

The real issue here is that we don’t have a properly planned “transportation system”.  With the LACMTA everything is always ad hoc.  Build it and then try to figure it out.  Unfortunately the commuting patterns of today frequently, perhaps with the exception of Manhattan, are not the same as those of tomorrow.  

The penalty of not understanding the sources and sinks of your ridership is costs sunk into an inflexible infrastructure —light rail is a good example of such costs

Instead of understanding the nature of the needs of its customer base, money is spent in rearranging deck chairs on the Taitanic, the LACMTA equivalent of that act, is spending money to rename stations just a few years after spending money to rename stations.  It would be funny if the amount of squandered tax payer monies was not so great.

Then too, it is a case of exactly how you define your service.  If you believe that your job is to provide world-class transportation your actions should support that definition.  If you don’t have a clear definition of what it is that you do, you may end up feeling that you are the agency that finds additional parking spots.

There is an old story about the contractor who was hired to drain a swampy area in Louisiana.  His workers spent so much time fighting alligators that that they defined their jobs as alligator killers.

The Times has coverage (Nelson3) of an interesting cover on a joint Caltrans/LACMTA report.  Ms Nelson" "Against an eye-watering marigold-and-purple background, two raptors with peace signs on their wings soar through the air on neon bicycles."  I have the print edition but I will cite and link the Web edition so that you can see this for your selves!   There's more but I'll let you read it. :-)

 The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Association has a clear idea of the nature of their job.   amNEWYORK covers (Rivoli) the increase in subway ridership.  “Ridership exceeded 6 million trips on five days in September -- the 10th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 23rd, according to the MTA.”

 The Times reports (Vartabedian) on the California gubernatorial race and how little the Bullet Train fiasco enters into it.  With an estimated price tag of $68 BILLION it dwarfs the cost of the Downtown Connector and is, to this Mole, at least, equally unnecessary (Vide supra). These projects would be great entertainment if it were not for the fact that it is taxpayer's money that is being wasted.  One can look forward to a possible Upstate Connector to link San Francisco to Modesto or somewhere.  It is the usual politician designed transportation project —not one on which to gain your experience.  Su Topo has often voiced his major complaints against this project: wrong technology: 1960s rail instead of modern Mag-Lev; wrong route: Nowhere A to Nowhere B instead of San Franscisco to Los Angeles.  If it is ever built it will be obsolete on opening day!
                                         
«  Heureux sont ceux qui voient de belles choses dans humbles lieux où d'autres personnes voient nothing. »

Cammille Pissarro (1830-07-10~1903-11-13)

 [Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.] Thank you to http://www.goodreads.com/


Ars longa vita breva

Illustrative of finding beautiful things in humble places, here is a link to Cammille Pissarro’s painting, “Café au lait”. If you click on the picture and you will be presented with a nice enlargement.  

To see more of Pissarro’s people first click here, then navigate down the page to “Exhibition Preview”, click on the picture right below that heading, then click on the “>” to see the twelve works and a brief description for each of them.

¿Musica?

Shakira is always great!?  Here is “Mi vida sin ti” from her album “BALADAS”.

uno mas?  Let’s listen to “Te dejo Madrid”  from her “En Vivo desde Paris” album. 

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


The Mole rides again, so that your ears need not be subjected to noise levels which should have OSHA quickly on-site.
(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)


         
America’s Worst♪

Well, if it’s not the failure to communicate the promised two-hour transfer policy, with the LACMTA it will always be something.  La Taupe has modified the above photo to document that fact. Not communicating their "free two-hour transfer policy adequately, failing to provide even rudimentary "creature comforts" at their bus centers, raising the transfer price for seniors by 250%; if this isn't enough to earn the epithet, "worst", there are lots of other reason documented herein.

2014-10-01 09:05 aboard a 117 Line bus, #8629:  The driver stops at Century and Aviation BLs, for no apparent reason.  The stop isn’t a time point and it is too early in the run to be ahead of schedule —there are a number of non-time point stops ahead of us as well.   The operator (ID # 16875) carries on a longish conversation with a man, not a Metro employee, sweeping around the bus stop.

2014-10-03 Aboard a 117 Line bus (CA 54849) headed to Mariposa Station.
As usual, these contractor run line have everything cranked up to full volume.  The dispatch radio blares out and the ASA hurts ones ears when an announcement is made.

Below is a DB (decibel) reading from my meter.  Your Mole has always attempted to raise the LACMTA’s consciousness to a point where they could recognize improvements that they could easily make to improve their ridership’s safety and comfort.  Unfortunately they are quite slow to react L.



DB Meter On Board 232 Line Bus♪

The MAX reading was 100 DB for the interval.  Without a lengthy reading assignment, I will simply remind you that a four-engine jet aircraft rolling at take-off power generates 140 DB.  The point is that the LACMTA is insensitive to this kind of unpleasantness.

One of the first super-loud announcements which shatters the base-line noise, er, quiet, is, approximately, “Be careful when exiting the bus!”  Su Topo will happily translate for you; “Many of our drivers can neither reliably position their bus at the “flag” which demarks the bus stop, nor a constant distance from the curb –so, you've been warned!”.

I have played snippets of these loud noises for you in earlier posts, but they always sound MUCH LOUDER on board the bus.

And speaking of noise, your Mole felt he was overdue in documenting exactly how unpleasant it is to stand on a platform, in the middle of a busy freeway and wait for a train.

Keep in mind that this “ambiance” is provided by an organization which is spending over a billion tax payer dollars to build a “solution” of uncertain benefits, Viz., the Downtown Connector.   The very same LACMTA that spends taxpayer’s money at a burn rate which exceeds even the most ambitious Internet Bubble companies of the 1990s, will neither supply its ridership with public restrooms nor a quiet center of the freeway train station.



Gold Line Lake Station – 2014-10-09 at 14:16♪

As you can see in the photo above, stand on the platform is something like listening a household blender.  This area and the one below should be test cases to force the LACMTA to pay attention to some basic rider comforts.



Green Line CNX from WillowBrook Station – 2014-10-09 at 15:42♪

The same noise level prevails at the Green Line connection from the WillowBrook Station.



So Much Space So Little Info♪

2014-10-06 @ 15:00 aboard a Line 108 bus: Su Topo finally learns some of the undocumented secrets of the “two-hour Metro-to-Metro transfer”.  First of all, there are no physical transfers!  The “transfers” are stored on one’s TAP card so they are, in fact, electronic transfers. 

I learned this from the most knowledgeable driver, interviewed by your Mole, so far.

No thanks to yet another of the “helpful posters” (Pictured above) on which the LACMTA spends unknown thousands of dollars each year.  There is, or easily could be, lots of space to explain the two-hour Metro-to-Metro free transfer policy – if it deserves to be called a policy, that is.

Not that all my questions have been answered, for example, WHEN does the two hour transfer period start?  With paper transfers, Metro-to-Muni, the transfers usually expire X hours after the bus reached the end of line, although other possibilities exist. 

2014-10-10 I ride a 115 Line bus on Manchester and ask the driver, a friendly type of guy, how one obtains the two-hour free pass.  He told me that the [LACMTA] had published something which he had yet to study, and about which no training had been provided.  I found the same, no doubt, expensive to print, bi-lingual card that he showed me (15-0306EH ©2014 LACMTA) in the schedule rack behind his seat. 

Studying it didn't take long.  Although, entitled “Use Tap— Get 3 hours of transfers”, it is basically a card which tells one how to obtain a TAP card, and not much else.  It also, in the usual half-vast work of the LACMTA cites metro.net as the place to go for information on locations which sell passes and etc., metro.net.  Apparently, not caring much whether you can find this list the give only their top domain —metro.net. 

So being the persistent and professional Mole which he is, su Topo corrects that glaring error on the part of the LACMTA by providing the exact URL for the sales locations here. 


metro.not♪

At metro.not, er, metro.net I was greeted with hope that I could link to information about the two-hour free transfers, as shown above.  However no link was provided.  At this point, almost a month after the plan was to go into effect, next to nothing is known about it.  This Mole repeats his appeal to the LACMTA to communicate fully the intimate details about the plan and  to roll back the fare increase, keeping the old fares in effect for the same length of time —currently one month— that they were unwilling/unable to provide the details about the free transfers.  Further that they allow their ridership to add money to their cards on-board buses and still obtain the free transfers.  How cruel it is to demand that people who spend long hours commuting to their jobs to first find a place that can load their cards then board a bus.  The bus boardings will not be any slower than they are on a usual day when people enter into endless discussions with the drivers about how to get to their destinations.  Finally, the LACMTA should provide fare machines at all bus centers and/or transfer points where three of more buses stop.   Someone sued the LACMTA and caused them to provide additional buses, it should be a piece of cake for under-employed transportation lawyers to do some pro bono work for the long suffering LACMTA ridership.

Those attorneys should not forget to bundle in the equal taxation and unequal provision of transportation which is inherent in the “Rapid bus concept”.

It is su Topo’s feeling that these transfers will expire two hours after issued.  He bases this on the fact that having the transfer time tick away as you rode your first bus would yield the least benefit to riders.  This means that the typical rider may get A LOT LESS than two hours of usage. 

It also may be that the two hour transfer period begins with its first usage.  Any rational organization, especially one which made a point of how “good it would be” under their new transfer scheme would likely use the “first use” time start option. 

The point is that the LACMTA, as usual, has NOT made any attempt to describe their plan in detail, which often means that they have NOT performed due diligence.


Actual Bus Stops vs Mapped Bus Stops♪

In his reading, La Taupe came across an the excellent diagram (Jain) above; the importance of which may not be immediately recognised.  A more complete list of bus stop beyond simply those which have “Time Points” makes it possible for one to plan her trip more accurately.

Couple that information with that contained in an International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering article (Altinkaya) which covers “Urban Bus Arrival Time Prediction: A Review of Computational Models” makes for a better informed rider.  It goes without saying that LACMTA management and staff should avoid this publication due to its disruptive nature.  A link is provided in the Works Cited section, below.

Although it is 2014, the LACMTA clings to the information technologies of the 1940s, Viz., incomplete paper schedules.  Although this Mole has PDF schedules on his “smart phone” they are simply electronic copies of the paper documents.  They don’t list all the stops nor do they include the wealth of statistical data available about: on-time-performance; probabilistic data in term of scheduled arrival time minus actual arrival times expressed in plus or minus minutes arrival times by stop along with a confidence value; and etc.

These data, although available from the on-board GPS gear, cannot be provided by an agency that is staffed by “old fashioned bus management” delivering the same old thing in a new way, and directed by “non-technical” [my most charitable categorisation] politicians.  The LACMTA badly needs to be professionalized. 

2014-10-21 aboard a 111 Line bus headed for Norwalk; The driver 25841 cannot park his bus within an easy step away from the curb.

2014-10-12 aboard a Line 40 bus, number 9842: The fare-box is completely out of order; this means the IF two-hour free transfers were actually being issued –they wouldn't be!

2014-10-23 @ 13:40 ABOARD A Line 117 bus: A wheelchair bound woman whose hands are constantly in motion, making hair-combing gestures, occasionally lets out a scream.  After a while she and her caretaker alight.



Century BL Bus Shelter (removed)♪

The picture above shows what has replaced the typical bus shelter on Century BL just west of Inglewood BL.  It was probably removed because it was becoming a home to the homeless.

I found an excellent document, a master’s degree thesis (Zhang), called “Bus Stop Urban Design” that emphasizes many aspects of bus stop design.  From the project summary section: "Bus Stop Urban Design (BSUD) aims to improve the waiting environment of bus stops and their adjacent neighbourhoods through the development and application of 9 design techniques."  Of course, anyone from the LACMTA likely wonders "Why would they want to do that?"

 Mr. Zhang's nine design techniques are documented as: "The 9 techniques address: lighting, seating, cover, amenities, information, vegetation, traffic management, pedestrian infrastructure, and bicycle infrastructure.

 I must point out that this document should not be read by anyone from the LACMTA, because their philosophy, as far as this Mole can see, is to remove bus stops.


Bell Taxi Risks Being Ticketed at the LAXCBC♪


2014-10-23 at LAXCBC around 07:00:  Yet another taxi violates the entry “rule”, i.e., Buses Only!  This scene is repeated multiple times daily by vehicles of all sorts.  Of course, there is absolutely no security provided at the LAXCBC so, as this driver well knows, his risk of being apprehended is very low.  A short distance away, but not pictured, a man sleeps stretched out on a bench. 

2014-10-27 at LAXCBC around 11:00:  I assist a couple from the Bordeaux Region of France, find a bus route to their destination.

Ear (and Eye) to the Rail




Montreal Subways*♪

The map above shows the downtown Montreal subway system lines.  Notice how the lines cross creating an intersection which is a natural and normal access pattern.  That is, they don’t have to have a stupid, money wasting Downtown Connector superimposed upon them.  A gimmick which screams out “we are incapable of planning and learning from others”, a variation of which is the, cobbled together, “four seats to LAX”!

*Merci beaucoup à la Société de transport de Montréal.




Transit as unseen and unimagined by the LACMTA

The LACMTA (Subordinate to LAWA)

Presents

Every Which Way But Right!

OR

Four Seats to LAX!

OR

The LACMTA Tries Again; Asymptotically to LAX!

OR

The World’s Most Inconvenient Way in Which to Travel From City Center to an Airport!

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.

Sydney, Australia, ranked 94th largest city in the world —thank you WorldAtlas.com—, and has a population of 3,785,000 which is about one-fourth the size of Los Angeles, which is ranked 17th in the world with a population of 14,900,000 —but, of course, Sydney has a a double decker train directly to their airport –AirportLink– as opposed to our planned four seats to LAX lines.  AirportLink is absolutely NOT a Toonerville Trolley!  Please note how well lighted the platforms are cf., the subway stations here in my hometown.  The youtube.com AirportLink video is linked here. 

Something is wrong with Los Angeles’ approach to mass, not to mention rapid transportation.  Too right, mate!

Thank you youtube.com for the video!   Thank you, Aviatorspot!, for  uploading the video.


Cosmology

A Scientific American blog (As you know, I quote very few blogs here) interviews and interesting man who has a alternative theory to string theory.

None of these things are simple, but please follow the link here if you are interested. 

Of course, I would like you to read everything I cite, linked or not. :-)

Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: 9842;
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: 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[+0] 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).
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
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!” not after 2014-12-31I 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.

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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 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

Works Cited

Altinkaya, Mehmet and Zontul, Meti,. “Urban Bus Arrival Time Prediction: A Review of Computational Models”. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE). 2 (2013): Web.  http://www.ijrte.org/attachments/File/v2i4/D0823092413.pdf

 Jain, Gaurav V., Jain. S. S. and Parida ,Manoranjan. "Critical Appraisal of Web-Based Passenger Information Systems". Journal of Public Transportation. 3 (2014): Web. 
http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp- content/uploads/2014/10/JPT_17.3_508.pdf

 Kropke, Marvin.  "Union stance on Metro's rail cars". Los Angeles Times. Oct. 26, 2014:A23. Print:  / Web. 
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-le-1026-sunday-rail-cars-ibew-20141026-story.html
Nelson, Laura J. "Metro breaks ground on key downtown L.A. subway link". Los Angeles Times. Sep. 30, 2014. Web:  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-regional-connector-20140930-story.html 

Nelson1, Laura J. "Union demands driving railcar jobs out of California, Japanese firm sayst". Los Angeles Times. Oct. 20, 2014. Web: http://www.latimes.com/local/countygovernment/la-me-rail-car-factory-20141021-story.html

Nelson2, Laura J. "Lack of parking drives many away from mass transit". Los Angeles Times. Oct. 21, 2014. Web: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-california-commute-20141021-story.html\

 Nelson3, Laura J. "Transit project report became a bit of a trip". Los Angeles Times. Oct. 13, 2014. Web:
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-crazy-cover-20141010-story.html\

Rivoli, Dan. "Subway hit new ridership record five times last month". amNEWYORK. Oct. 22, 2014. Web. http://www.amny.com/transit/subway-hits-new-ridership-record-five-times-last-month-1.9531056  

 Vartabedian, Ralph. "Bullet train is just a blur in race".  Los Angeles Times. Oct. 28, 2014. Print:AA.

Zhang, Kevin Jingyi. Bus stop Urban Design: Nine Techniques for Enhancing Bus Stops and Neighbourhoods and their Application in Metro Vancouver. University of British Columbia, 2012, Vancouver: Web.
http://pics.uvic.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/Zhang_Thesis.pdf


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# posted by LAMETROmole @ 10:47

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