2015-02-28

 


Vae Viator60

America’s Worst♪
When politicians involve themselves in technical matters, expect failures.



Taj Mahal II♪
Shown above is a photo of the Division 13 Maintenance and Operations facility as a work in progress or, as you Mole likes to term it, “Taj Mahal II”.  Nice, huh?  Pictured below is an artist’s conception of what the completed structure will look like.
Documentation on this project can be found, especially the cost related data, but I wouldn’t consider it a simple task.  La Taupe had performed due diligence vis-á-vis the project and presents the results below.

Taj Mahal II Concept♪
The concept photograph has been excerpted from this Metro publication.
But let’s talk costs.  Just below is an excerpt from another Metro publication which is stored here.
D13 M&O facility COSTS
Su Topo like to consider LACMTA costs in terms of FFE (Full Fare Equivalents) presently, $1.75.  So if we look at the project costs highlighted above, we can see that the total adjusted cost of $120,342,000 divided by $1.75 yields a quotient of 68,766,857 full fare payments to cover the cost of Taj Mahal II, please understand that almost sixty-nine million full fare riders are required to pay for construction.  The CMA cost of $18,512,000 000 divided by $1.75 yields a quotient of 10,578,285, i.e., ten point six million full fare passengers will be required to pay for this item.
But this structure will not be paid for by the ridership!  It will be paid for, I believe measure R taxation and future instantiations of like taxes.  This would not be of much concern if the LACMTA was delivering first class rapid transit but, they are not!
I don’t doubt that an updated maintenance/operations facility is needed.  I do feel that the kinds of expenditures noted in the publications referenced above are out-of-line.  Especially when one considers that the LACMTA refuses to provide any creature comforts [think rest rooms] at its transportation centers —do you see why I consider the LACMTA/Metro “America’s Worst”.
We haven’t seen the end of additional costs on this project, so follow along as more information is presented.  Will it be completed on time?  Probably not.
*************************************************************
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!

BBB Maxella Trash Fix???♪
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! :-) 


 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?

Edward F. King,  Director of Transit Services
City of Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus
(Photo: www.bigbluebus.com)
 The man pictured above could ensure that trash containers are installed along BBB routes with a simple three-line memorandum. 
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 video(s) 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 an auto crosses the solid white line and cuts off a Line 111/311 bus.  In this case it is a van which first cuts in front of the bus and is soon followed by a taxi!
Please carefully note that, in some videos, 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 unchallengeablely 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 reports (Bierman) on the expected federal money which would allow the spend-thrift LACMTA to divide hoped for funds three-ways: “… $115 for the downtown regional connector set to link several strands of the subway system; $115 million towards the first phase of the Purple Line extension from Western Avenue to La Cienega Boulevard; and $100 million for the second first phase of the Purple Line extension from La Cienega to Century City.
I’ll address the plan “to link several strands of the subway system” mentioned in the piece, about which you Mole has written on prior occasions.
The strands, the Gold Line and the Blue line are already linked; as is the Expo Line —at 7th and Metro Center.  Yes, it does require a transfer from the Gold Line to the Red/Purple Line at Union Station and another  transfer, (to the Blue Line, at 7th and Metro Center.  But realistically, expecting a single seat for the entire trip that spans more than thirty miles is, well, irrational.  Especially when it is a product of an organization which in its several instantiations has never been able to complete the last mile which separates Aviation Station from LAX.
Before spending $115 million of taxpayers’ money on such an ill-conceived idea, one would expect some HARD statistics on exactly how many riders would be served by building it.  But, no, statistics other than someone’s WAG, are not the LACMTA’s forte.


If the LACMTA must pour dollars into the downtown regional connector their feet should be held closely to the fire until they produce a cost benefit analysis for the project.   The few people that will actually make a say, a Pasadena to Long Beach commute do NOT provide justification for the expense.  In future, if cost justified, a subway line could be laid across the Gold and Blue/Expo Line route providing natural linkage.
Oh, and we can’t forget that the latest hare-brained, perhaps I should say ill-judged, scheme to link LAX and Los Angeles will likely require four seats!
Making transfers when using public transportation is expected —one is not riding in a limousine!
Another Times story reports (Nelson) that the LACMTA CEO, Art Leahy is leaving the agency when his contract expires in April.  Leahy said that leaving Metro was his choice.   Ms Nelson’s reporting makes one wonder about Leahy’s assertion.  She writes: “Arthur T. Leahy’s performance as chief executive has been under confidential review for more than six months and a majority of members were ready to let his contract expire in April according to sources familiar with the negotiations.  Please read Ms Nelson’s detailed piece.
 
The links below SHOULD NOT be read by any Metro staff as they will not be able to absorb the concepts.   Or as I like to say about the LACMTA, possessing none of three qualities, ain’t bad.
You can read about the Crossrail project here
You may also find this auditor’sreport on the Crossrail project interesting. 
Now, for those who want more about Crossrail, take a look at this description of the 118KM (73.3 mile) project.  Seventy-three miles in ten years? That works out to seven PLUS miles per year!  Let’s do the math on Phase I of  the subway to the sea, er, subway to Century City. 
 A rough estimate of the distance between Wilshire Boulevard and Western and Avenue of the Stars is just over six miles, but we’ll use seven miles as its length, slightly exaggerating the project.  Seven miles, twenty years;  dividing 20 by 7 will yield a quotient which will tell us how many years it take to advance one mile, vis, 2.9 years/ mile, we can check that values by multiplying number of mile by 2.8 which should approximate 20.  So, 7 X 2.8 = 19.6, a value which is close enough for LACMTA work.
If the 73 mile Crossrail project in London had moved as slowly, it would have taken them (73 X 2.8), i.e., 204 years! Or viewed another way, the Crossrail group would have completed our 7 mile, subway to Century City,  in a year.
We are so extremely fortunate to have the LACMTA as a source of entertainment.  Perhaps someone should make a movie —titled?? Something along the lines of the “Gang who couldn’t plan straight”.
The Times features a piece (Weikel) on the retirement, “in the spring”, of Gina Marie Lindsey, LAX’s executive director.  She is the person who put the “timidity” in the transportation plans to “link” LAX.  I will remember her by her quote describing discussion of a subway under the terminal, you know the way most modern cities do it, as “dangerous and fraught with problems” [Mole:2014-03-31].  She is also the “owner” of the “Flyaway” buses which this Mole has always contended should be under the control of the LACMTA. 

Art Leahy, who will also leave his post this year, paved the way to her success by cancelling the only express service between downtown Los Angeles and the LAXCBC —the 439 Line; which line also linked four (4) major Westside transportation centers: the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (WLATC); Culver City Transportation (CCTC); the LAX City Bus Center (LAXCBC) and the Green Line’s Aviation Station which has its own  bus center.  

As things stand, the only direct way to get from the LAXCBC to Aviation Station is by using BBB or CCMBL or yet more transportation expense.  Nice work Art and Ms Gina too.  When it comes to the LACMTA, NOTHING is ever done to benefit its ridership!

The bottom line is that the many people who depend on the LACMTA for transportation need not shed any tears at the departure of these two.  They are not friends of the people! A good case can be made that the LAWA head has frustrated whatever plans that the LACMTA may have formulated for LAX and other areas.  She has, in effect, picked the LACMTA's pockets and by extension, those of the taxpayers of Los Angeles County by building her own private transportation system, the FlyAway buses. 

In his years on the job, he CEO of the LACMTA has done virtually nothing for the agency's ridership.  In attempting to serve two constituencies, he has opted to favor, and who wouldn't, those with the money and political clout, those who use the freeways. 

An extremely good case can be made for breach of fiduciary on the part of these soon-to-be-gone executives.  How?  Simply look at the job done by San Francisco which should have been the model for Los Angeles.  The have the old systems too; the ones which delight the tourists.  But, anything built since the 1960s has been RAPID TRANSIT.  It appears to su Topo to be a case of the the NIH syndrome!

Those who look at public transportation as their lifeline must accept what they are given, not much, and drink little on their trip while hoping that they can find a restroom which is open to the public at a transfer point.

Given the same choice as other large U.S. cities have faced, the LACMTA opted for rail based on the Toonervile Trolley model.  As a result the LACMTA operates the most dangerous rail line in the United States —the Blue Line and are replicating it all over the landscape because it is cheap!

Someone born today may be able to ride the Purple Line to UCLA in 2035, but this Mole is not betting on it.  We need only contrast the progress of London’s “Crossrail” project: begun in 2009 and scheduled for completion in 2018.  Imagination, will and technical ability; Crossrail has all three qualities. 

This Mole looks forward when (i) politics is factored out of transportation, (ii) the LACMTA will make public transportation and freeways separate parallel entities  and (iii) the two people mentioned above will be replaced by individuals who are transportation professionals who are willing to coöperate in developing a transportation system NOT disjoint pieces of one.
There is lots to read about the 2015-02-23 Metrolink accident in Oxnard.  It occurred just weeks after a similar accident involving NYC's Metro-North at Valhalla, NY on 2015-02-02; six died and fifteen were injured in that one.  Both involved vehicles that ended up on the right-of-way.

Sadly, it illustrates a problem with this kind of transportation, i.e., NOT RAPID TRANSIT.  Here the different modes of transportation intersect, where with RAPID TRANSIT there is grade separation.  Yes!, it does cost more, but leaving things the same as they were in the 1930s is NOT the answer.  And, tragically, these accidents will recur because today there are many times the number of automobiles which existed during the early years of passenger railroads; their drivers tend to be in a hury, distracted and sometimes impaired. 
« L'amour est le miracle de la civilisation.  »
Henri Beyle dit Stendhal (1783-01-23~1842-03-23)
 [Love is the miracle of civilisation.]
Ars longa vita breva
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (1841-01-14~1895-03-02) was the wife of Eugène Manet and an excellent artist in her own right.


Here is Mme Morisot's The Mother and Sister of the Painter

See more of her work.  
¿Musica?
I feel like something from Sr. Baldemar Garza Huerta  (1937-06-04~2006-10-14) AKA “Freddy Fender” So let’s listen to his “Wild Side of Life

And as an encore, “I can’t stop loving you”.
Thank you very much! to our good friends at www.grooveshark.com for always providing the appropriate music for us!
The Mole rides again, so you don’t have to wonder if it’s safe take pictures while standing in the middle of the track - it isn't!
(All dates are ISO8601 format, times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)



Still Can't Park
 2015-02-10: I watch as a 40 Line bus driver shows that she can park the front end of the bus, but not the middle and end parts, as one can see in the picture above.  The LACMTA believes that they are legally in-the-clear because they warn passengers to “watch their step on exit” or words to that effect.  It would be safer and more efficient if they trained drivers of these long vehicles how to “track into” the curb.


View (West) of Gold Line Extension Testing Section
2015-02-10 Pictured above is the section of track in Duarte on which the Gold Line Extension is being tested.
2015-02-10 La Taupe arrives at a section of track in the San Gabriel Valley where the Gold Line Extension is being tested.  It is said that testing must ensure that 2,400 miles of track is tested prior to certification.
Please visit the Gold Line Extension website here for lots more info.

This Mole thinks that testing is great, but, as one can see by viewing the video here, that this is mass NOT RAPID Transit; the very presence of signalised grade crossing scream that fact out loud and clear.  For somewhat more money the system could have been elevated of the crossings dipped down into underground tunnel.  Unfortunately, “Leahy’s Legacy” will be the Toonerville Trollies.  Just as Ms “Lindsey’s Legacy” will be four (4) seats to LAX!  

2015-02-10 I’m at an unnumbered bus stop on Walnut between Raymond and Los Robles in Pasadena. Try as I will to extract the TOA of the next 267 Line bus. I restart the Go Metro app several times, but I have no luck! The thing thinks I’m still in SouthGate! 

My old Garmin hand-held was slow in acquiring the GPS satellites but much faster than this.  I give up and soon the bus arrives, but has no schedules aboard.
I test the app at the next opportunity.   When I do, it wants me to turn on my battery draining, hacker beckoning Wi-Fi; I comply and it performs much better.     Below is a “screen scrape” of what I saw.


Go Metro in Pasadena
But again my seven year old Garmin didn’t have and didn’t need Wi-Fi in order to establish a position.  Tapping the bus stop location, Del Mar and Wilson in this case, will display the scheduled arrival time for buses by category.  
I rate my satisfaction with Go Metro at five on a ten point scale.  Weaknesses are: seems to unnecessarily require Wi-Fi; one cannot independently access the bus schedules which are stored in the app space; without Wi-Fi it will often think that you are at the stop across the street from your actual location, therefore produce a schedule for buses going away from your destination and etc.

Two women, accompanied by a small girl of perhaps tres años, board my bus.  Encouraged by the women the girl climbs up, unaided, onto a transverse seat. The girl arranges herself on the seat between the women, opens her handbag, removes a tiny plastic brush and begins to comb her hair. She is adorable! I want to video this scene, but of course I cannot.

2015-02-12 @ 08:00. I am aboard a CCMBL Rapid 6 bus; it is crowded.  Seated across from me, a developmentally challenged young adult make grunting noises several times per minute. It is so sad. Bus travelers see both the happiest and saddest sides of life.
I am using Microsoft Word on my iPhone.  So far, it seems quite efficient; I use Word in conjunction with Microsoft OneDrive which stores data in the “cloud”.  This process allows me to produce near finished sections which can be integrated into the final posting. This is not a commercial for MS!  Rather, it simply documents one technical Mole’s experience :-) .


Another Vehicle Incursion
2015-02-14 @ ITC:  There appears to be no security at any LACMTA site!  Above, shows a vehicle which seemed be driven by tourists who parked their car here, took photographs and then as shown, left ITC.
Ear (and Eye) to the Rail



The French certainly know how to construct fast, safe rail systems.  Now they, in conjunction with the Italians, are building a link between Lyon (FR) and Turin (IT). It will be on the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) [High Speed Train] model. It will cover 321.4km (200 miles) with a 12.5 percent gradient; that means it goes uphill! 

Plans call for it to be in service in the 2028~2029 time frame.  Let's see, 200 miles, thirteen years results in about 15 mile per year on the short schedule.

Our own LACMTA has scheduled the subway to the VA which covers about eight miles over TWENTY YEARS or about .4 mile per year.  Men, ready your teaspoons!
Please see more France24.com article here.



Metro Makes it Happen



 We want your feedback ...

I take the photograph above, which is excerpted from glossy, apparently expensive publication "15-1405BC ©2015 LACMTA", to mean they believe they have exhausted all the wrong way possibilities and are beginning to grasp at straws. The LACMTA didn't even need to ask me for my feedback. But, the LACMTA is certainly in luck.  Because this is the section in which I usually provide feedback on the very topic of "the transit connection to LAX" and I usually show examples of  RAPID TRANSIT connections to various airports that are best practices.

 I have also recorded my feelings about the way in which the LACMTA does many things including but not limited to the transit connection to LAX.

You can listen to my succinct reaction to the LACMTA's take on the transit connection to LAX, here.  Click on the musical note, then the PLAY symbol.
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.
Located 382 miles north of Los Angeles and light-years ahead of the LACMTA, BART should have served as a model for our own transportation plan.  But the Los Angeles CMTA has too little will and other necessary characteristics, too much political involvement, and perhaps they are, basically uneducatable.
The video is produced by Bay Area Rapid Transit TV.  It Is extremely professional and demonstrates why San Francisco is such a great city to visit and in which to live!  If the video seems like a commercial, that is just fine with me.  It is a commercial for systems thinking and IT IS RAPID TRANSIT!
Please enjoy this Bart ride because the probability of experiencing the same sort of trip in Los Angeles is, for all intents and purposes, ZERO.  N.B. BART SFO has been running for ten years, while we have waited twenty years for the latest, i.e., “Four Seats to LAX”, vision.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6-QH6x_SIY
Thank you to our host www.youtube.com and to BARTable for uploading  this video.
Cosmology
I viewed an excellent lecture given by Dr. Kendrick Smith of the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics which is located in Ontario, Canada.  You can see it too, here.  Please don’t be put off by the delay at the beginning due to a laptop connection failure.  I’ve attended many meetings which started out in exactly the same way.  Dr. Smith makes a difficult subject as simple as possible.

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.
* 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.
79054 F[-8] 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; XXXX-XX-XX(-);
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.

BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit – Please note the use of the word “Rapid” because it is a word we almost never hear in Los Angeles.

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].

T= 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.

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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
Bierman, Noah and Hennigan, W.J. “Obama plan would boost L.A. transit”. Los Angeles Times. Feb. 3, 2015:A1. Print.
Weikel, Laura J. "L.A. World Airports chief to retire".  Los Angeles Times. Feb. , 2015:B3. Print.


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