2016-01-31
Via Viator 71 2016-01-31
Vae Viator71
America's Worst♪
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 continue to be used as improvised trash cans. BBB N.B. The stop still needs a trash can!
BBB Maxella Trash Fix???♪
SuTopo will include this comment in every post with the above until BBB corrects the problem. For
quite awhile BBB has been charging for inter-line transfers, reversing the long-standing policy of free transfers to other BBB lines. This presents the BB as less friendly to its ridership than in years past.
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?
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 documented by your Mole, 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 video(s) 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.
2016-01-31
Please see this VIDEO of a convoy of vehicles cross the solid white line and cuts off a Line 111/311 bus.
In this VIDEO we can see an Airport auto rental shuttle driver ignoring the law and endangering bus passengers.
Airport auto rental shuttle drivers, if shown in the above videos, are all Class-B operators and should know better; but often they don't care and neither does the LACMTA and any of the policing agencies which have jurisdiction in the area.
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. Washington would review su Topo’s simple solution (vide infra) and implement it.
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 to do than protecting bus passengers.
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, (2) the L.A.P.D., (3) the L. A. County Sheriff’s Department and (4) Mr. Washington who is the current 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, stop there 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 so far has proved to be inadequate.
Metro's Flag♪
At sea, a vessel in distress will fly its' flag upside down. It is only right that, given the dysfunctional LACMTA, we should fly Metro's flag in that manner.
In this section it is su Topo's intention to call your attention to situations which he has observed that highlight the "LACMTA Way" of doing things.
Go Metro app♪
It seems that the "Go Metro app" is attempting to duplicate what NextBus has already done —and done better, it appears to be fully free and operates with the 100+ agencies that use it. Additionally it supports the French, Spanish and English languages. I will try it in the near future.
After clicking on the photo above, please note that it shows the Cloverdale stop which replaces La Brea. Not to excuse them, but likely they were just informed of the change but given no other details. After all, my expectations for the LACMTA are set extremely low —"expect little and you won't be disappointed".
Here is a link to the NextBus website and the mobile (iPhone and Android) versions.
After clicking on the photo above, please note that it shows the Cloverdale stop which replaces La Brea. Not to excuse them, but likely they were just informed of the change but given no other details. After all, my expectations for the LACMTA are set extremely low —"expect little and you won't be disappointed".
Here is a link to the NextBus website and the mobile (iPhone and Android) versions.
One of the Reasons Why the LACMTA loses MONEY!
Free Riders!
It seem that I can hardly ride a LACMTA bus with overhearing someone pleading for a free ride. I understand that times are difficult for all of us at times and that the drivers can either argue and get further behind schedule or, as many do, just wave them by.
Accepting the LACMTA own statistics, there are 170 routes. If each has one trip per hour we can see that in a 17 hour day there are 34 round trips. If 50% of the trips have 0 free riders and if 35% of the trips have one free rider, 10% of the trips have two free riders and 5% of the trips have three free riders:((((((.35 *34) +( .1* 34) + (.10 * 34 * 2) +(.05 * 34 *3))*1.75) *30) *170 ) *12) = , returns an value annualized amount = $ 242,760. Too high? It could well be too low!
Now, you may freely criticise my estimates, methodology etc., however, due to the lack of transparency on the part of the LACMTA, we are told nothing about this issue. In fact, unless one rides the bus AND pays attention, it would be totally unknown and a dirty, not so little, secret of the LACMTA. So, if you feel like allowing the LACMTA to have another, deeper dip into your tax monies, this Mole again recommends that you lie down until the feeling goes away.
The LACMTA could require drivers to enter a code for free riders exposing the extent of the problem, but the LACMTA has never been an agency that enjoys shining a bright light on the dark corners of its operations.
Well Mole, what would you do to stop these free rider loses? I'd place another security camera just above the drivers head facing the entry area and say that free rides are costing us too much. And, while pointing at the camera say: "You know that these days they can find people by facial recognition, so please smile for the camera and either pay the full fare or leave. If you don't, headquarters may dispatch a unit to meet us down the road."
Accepting the LACMTA own statistics, there are 170 routes. If each has one trip per hour we can see that in a 17 hour day there are 34 round trips. If 50% of the trips have 0 free riders and if 35% of the trips have one free rider, 10% of the trips have two free riders and 5% of the trips have three free riders:((((((.35 *34) +( .1* 34) + (.10 * 34 * 2) +(.05 * 34 *3))*1.75) *30) *170 ) *12) = , returns an value annualized amount = $ 242,760. Too high? It could well be too low!
Now, you may freely criticise my estimates, methodology etc., however, due to the lack of transparency on the part of the LACMTA, we are told nothing about this issue. In fact, unless one rides the bus AND pays attention, it would be totally unknown and a dirty, not so little, secret of the LACMTA. So, if you feel like allowing the LACMTA to have another, deeper dip into your tax monies, this Mole again recommends that you lie down until the feeling goes away.
The LACMTA could require drivers to enter a code for free riders exposing the extent of the problem, but the LACMTA has never been an agency that enjoys shining a bright light on the dark corners of its operations.
Well Mole, what would you do to stop these free rider loses? I'd place another security camera just above the drivers head facing the entry area and say that free rides are costing us too much. And, while pointing at the camera say: "You know that these days they can find people by facial recognition, so please smile for the camera and either pay the full fare or leave. If you don't, headquarters may dispatch a unit to meet us down the road."
If the LACMTA can really count passengers in and out of their buses, then it should be a simple matter to reconcile fares paid against passenger counts and come up with a better estimate then your Mole and stop placing the load on the fare paying passengers who face fare increases to make up for the LACMTA's lack of attention to their "business" or breach of their fiduciary duty to act in behalf of their ridership and others.
An homage for her "contribution" to L.A. transportation.
Your Mole would like the former head of LAWA remembered for her "contribution" to Los Angeles area public transportation. She was quicker than her contemporary, the former bus driver and former head of the LACMATA, to implement the lucrative FlyAway service and discouraged all attempts, however feeble, to bring other modes of transportation to LAX.
Too, we should memorialize her attitude vis-à-vis public transportation directly to LAX in following the transportation direct-to-airport access pattern used by many, if not most, world-class airports, to wit, "Any time you go under the airport, it is fraught with problems, ..." [hardly a get it done attitude!].
The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.
The Angeles Times publishes an article (Nelson) about declining Metro ridership. Which your Mole likes to think of as the product of the LACMTA's concept of "Build it and they might come".
The BBC broadcast (sorry, searched —but no link found) a short piece which (from memory) said that typical ridership in large metropolitan areas was 80% of the population while in Los Angeles it was 20% as borne out by Ms Nelson's article: "About 20% rely on public transportation to commute to work during the first five years they live in California, including L.A. County, ..."
The reporters have produced a creditable piece!
If one as a serviceable vehicle why would one subject themselves to, where did I read "a driver pool in pullulated with rude, inept, e.g. can't pull up to a bus stop equidistant and an easy step to the curb or from the curb to the bus, hostile and others who are psychologically and temperamentally unsuited for the job.", oh it was just below and I wrote it. Are you reading this, Mr. Washington?
And Mr. Washington says in the articles that ridership will improve after a complete buildout of the rail system. And what a "system it is! A Toonerville Trolley which is somewhat comparable to the old "Red Cars" of generations ago. They were great during their era but not in 2016! An era, incidentally, with far fewer vehicles on the streets that today must be share the roads with the Toonerville Trolleys. Anyone who has visited almost any major city in the U.S. can not rate what the LACMTA is doing as anything but, at best, second rate. It is mass transit, but not rapid transit. The lin es that are rapid, Red/Green etc are fine. But then the LACMTA started to build "on the cheap" although someone must have known better. The Trolleys move in fits and starts making the travel times indeterminate. San Jose has such a trolley system —I've ridden it, BUT, their population is 1/17 that of Los Angeles!
The BBC broadcast (sorry, searched —but no link found) a short piece which (from memory) said that typical ridership in large metropolitan areas was 80% of the population while in Los Angeles it was 20% as borne out by Ms Nelson's article: "About 20% rely on public transportation to commute to work during the first five years they live in California, including L.A. County, ..."
The reporters have produced a creditable piece!
If one as a serviceable vehicle why would one subject themselves to, where did I read "a driver pool in pullulated with rude, inept, e.g. can't pull up to a bus stop equidistant and an easy step to the curb or from the curb to the bus, hostile and others who are psychologically and temperamentally unsuited for the job.", oh it was just below and I wrote it. Are you reading this, Mr. Washington?
And Mr. Washington says in the articles that ridership will improve after a complete buildout of the rail system. And what a "system it is! A Toonerville Trolley which is somewhat comparable to the old "Red Cars" of generations ago. They were great during their era but not in 2016! An era, incidentally, with far fewer vehicles on the streets that today must be share the roads with the Toonerville Trolleys. Anyone who has visited almost any major city in the U.S. can not rate what the LACMTA is doing as anything but, at best, second rate. It is mass transit, but not rapid transit. The lin es that are rapid, Red/Green etc are fine. But then the LACMTA started to build "on the cheap" although someone must have known better. The Trolleys move in fits and starts making the travel times indeterminate. San Jose has such a trolley system —I've ridden it, BUT, their population is 1/17 that of Los Angeles!
The Times covers (Clark) and shines a bright light on the LACMTA's anti-Midas propensity vis-à-vis their planned rent-a-bike program. It would be a humourous if it wasn't real money that they are wasting. If you pay taxes in Los Angeles County it's your money and they want more (vide supra).
Please read the work of all these hard-working reporters cited herein. Where possible, links are provided in "Works Cited",below.
« Lorsque vous dessinez, la forme est la chose importante. Mais en
peinture, la première chose est de rechercher l’impression générale de
la couleur…. Toujours peindre un croquis d’après nature tous les jours. »
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-05-11~1904-01-10)
is to find the general impression of color .... Always paint a sketch from nature
every day.]
Merci beaucoup à http://www.dessins-plaisirs.fr/ pour la citation.
Ars longa vita breva
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-05-11~1904-01-10) was a master painter.
Please see an exhibition of Jean-Léon Gérôme's work here.
Thank you to the Getty Museum here in Los Angeles for their magnificent website, to which I have linked above.
¿Musica?
How about Edith Piaf? Here is her Non, Je ne regrette rien.
Magnifique!
And again, I'd like to thank www.youtube.com for the musical contribution.
Metro Area – Lower your expectations!♪
The Mole rides again, so you don’t have to pace aimlessly about the LAXCBC because the bus bench in being "hogged" by a sleeper.
Sleeping “Beauty”♪
2016-01-05 @ 08:00, LAXCBC: A homeless man sleeps out of the rain, sheltered by the roofed waiting area.
LESS left!♪
2016-01-14 @10:50: Your Mole rides a 40 Line bus. It's driver, # 25842, who we'll call Tanya Talker sure likes to talk —non-stop about anything! She even started a conversation with a non-passenger who was standing at the bus stop. Su Topo hopes that she doesn't lose sight of her raison d'etre.
2016-01-18 @ 07:50: Driver # 29983 is extremely rude to a man after missing passing his stop. She insults him buy calling him “Felicia”! She drops him at the next bus stop. As he exits, she calls him Felicia again, he makes the mistake of telling her that he intends to report her. The doors close and she immediately calls dispatch with an extremely self-serving version of the event, saying that the man was drunk etc.
2016-01-20 @ 14:45: I am forced to exit a 720 line bus at Crenshaw BL and walk for a while to put myself in position, because the ASA substituted Cloverdale for the La Brea stop announcement. The driver didn't bother to make the announcement either
Although there are many good drivers working for the LACMTA, the driver pool is pullulated with rude, inept, e.g. can't pull up to a bus stop equidistant and an easy step to the curb or from the curb to the bus, hostile and others who are psychologically and temperamentally unsuited for the job. The sooner that the LACMTA starts scrolling the drivers I.D.s so that passengers can easily report drivers who belong in jobs which don't require dealing with the public, the sooner they can begin culling the unfit from the ranks.
Button, Button REPAIRED!♪
2016-01-21 I am back on the corner of Imperial and Hawthorne. And, "Thank You" to the Los Angeles County agency you passed this on to the responsible jurisdiction. You can understand this Mole's concern when the very young, senior citizens and frankly, all of us are placed at risk when crosswalk signals are not maintained.
Su Topo hopes that the unclear lines of reporting are untangled so that there are no injuries or worse yet, deaths due to our of service crosswalk signals. Anyone who spends the least amount of time as a pedestrian can tell you that few drivers will yield for them, some drivers will even attempt to bully them in
order to force them back on the curb so that the driver can make a turn —and that is with the signals in operation. So it is important that the various jurisdictions work together to protect us. Again, ¡Muchas Gracias! to the hard-working staff who take the reports and puts things right in Los Angeles County.
2016-01-21 @ 16:50: Your Mole is riding a bus an sees a rare event. A motorcycle Officer has stopped a vehicle making an illegal entry into the LAXCBC. The video is taken from a moving bus but you can make out the main details. Please view it here.
2016-01-22 @ 14:00 aboard a 256 Line Bus: As soon as I as I boarded I recognised that this was a contracted line. The dispatch radio was blaring and the ASA was set at the eardrum splitting level. When I debussed, I noted the contracting agency's name, CTI, painted near the right rear wheel. You can visit the CTI site here http://www.sgtransit.com/southland_transit.php
2016-01-26 @ 13:45: I wait and wait on Hawthorne BL for a 40 Line bus. My mood doesn't improve as I watch a Rapid 740 Line bus fly by %%only half full. Finally a packed full 40 Line arrives. Somehow we catch up to a 740 as iot unloads two wheel chairs and I get a faster ride. I transfer to a 125 Line bus which takes about two minutes to load a wheel chair and its heavy passenger — it groans up the ramp and the process is reversed two stop later.
2016-01-26 @ 10:45: I ride a 40 Line bus who's head-sign says one thing and the announcement says another "7th and Main Downtown" or words to that effect. The words specify a direction exactly opposite from the bus' direction of travel. The LACMTA and technology —a bad mix!
2016-01-31@ 09:45: It is a cold and rainy day, as I wait for a bus, # 11029, the driver, ID# 87697, revs the engine for about a minute I notice the MV Transportation sign on the right rear of the bus has changed. Please see the photo above.
It is now MV Public Transportation, Inc. and a web site is not to be found using
that name. Name change or not this contract line and most others on which I ridden have the worst ambiance in terms of loud ASAS announcements, blaring dispatch radios, rude and or uncommunicative drivers and a lot of the buses also sound like I imagine the inside of a rotating barrel half full of nuts and bolts does.
2016-01-26 @ 13:45: I wait and wait on Hawthorne BL for a 40 Line bus. My mood doesn't improve as I watch a Rapid 740 Line bus fly by %%only half full. Finally a packed full 40 Line arrives. Somehow we catch up to a 740 as iot unloads two wheel chairs and I get a faster ride. I transfer to a 125 Line bus which takes about two minutes to load a wheel chair and its heavy passenger — it groans up the ramp and the process is reversed two stop later.
2016-01-26 @ 10:45: I ride a 40 Line bus who's head-sign says one thing and the announcement says another "7th and Main Downtown" or words to that effect. The words specify a direction exactly opposite from the bus' direction of travel. The LACMTA and technology —a bad mix!
The more things change, the more they remain the same!♪
2016-01-31@ 09:45: It is a cold and rainy day, as I wait for a bus, # 11029, the driver, ID# 87697, revs the engine for about a minute I notice the MV Transportation sign on the right rear of the bus has changed. Please see the photo above.
It is now MV Public Transportation, Inc. and a web site is not to be found using
that name. Name change or not this contract line and most others on which I ridden have the worst ambiance in terms of loud ASAS announcements, blaring dispatch radios, rude and or uncommunicative drivers and a lot of the buses also sound like I imagine the inside of a rotating barrel half full of nuts and bolts does.
Ear (and Eye) to the Rail
Transit as unseen and unimagined by the LACMTA
The LACMTA (Subordinate to LAWA)
Presents
Every Which Way But Right!
OR
Four (OR Five) Seats to LAX!
OR
The LACMTA Tries Again; Asymptotically to LAX!
OR
Metro is the worst way from Center to an Airport, LAX, that is!
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 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.
Nagoya, Japana population of ten million, making it seven million smaller than Los Angeles. In Nagoya one can ride a modern RAPID TRANSIT system to Chubu Centrair International Airport, unlike Los Angeles where the LACMTA has been straining for 25 years and will stain for a number of years more to bring people within a mile of KLAX :-).
You can take a ride on Nagoya's system here.
You can take a ride on Nagoya's system here.
worth repeating: No matter what the size of their populations the plans and projects of others seem to leave the LACMTA standing with their collective mouths agape in amazement.
Cosmology
Science Daily relates the bad news for E.T. searchers emanating from the Australian National University, Viz., life form like us or more advanced take a long time to develop and likely go extinct before they can message us. Please read the disappointing news here.
Then from science news we find that roumors are going round that the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory or aLIGO has detected gravitational waves. Read about this device and its roumoured discovery here
Physics.org has news, well it was news last year :-), which make this Mole think that the “big rip” scenario for the “end of our universe” may come to pass. “The rate of expansion [of the universe]is increasing over time, counteracting the attractive force of gravity.” The LHC (Large Hadron Colider) may be the tool which aids physicists in understanding a number of aspects of our universe which now elude them.
Fare Box Score Box OOS and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: Direction Line, etc
South bound 102 Line Bus #5716 (2016-01-28@ 14:20) - nothing worked!;
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.
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. At the present time (2015-10-31)there are too many drivers to name, whose skill at parallel parking is deficient .
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 40 foot 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 $1.75)
GTrans (Gardena transit?) formerly 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. [Addenda 2014-07-31]: Things have been much better lately. There is a more responsive feedback system now. [Addenda 2015-08-22]: Recently, even the "Feedback" mechanism has failed to submit problems.
[2015-12-31] The feedback section disallows screen shots which show problems with the "final posting", such as, orange sections which cover blocks of text and change the font size. All it would take is allowing and attachment. But, ...
I like blogger.com very much, and IF things ever normalise, I will consider deleting this "Disclaimer and apologia" section.
Your Mole’s Copyright Statement
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Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement
This is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor 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
Clark, Justin. “L.A.'s bike-share program is being set up to fail”. Los Angeles Times. Jan. 28, 2016. Web. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-ol-bike-share-metro-transit-downtown-20160128-story.html
Nelson, Laura J. and Weikel, Dan. “Billions spent, but fewer people are using public transportation in Southern California”. Los Angeles Times. Jan. 26, 2016. Web.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ridership-slump-20160127-story.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ridership-slump-20160127-story.html
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# posted by LAMETROmole @ 12:47 
