I once again have joined the masses.

[nightrythm]

I bought an MTA pass. I am now officially a user of public transportation. I vaguely recall in High School swearing never to do it again, but well, my mother raised a good ecologically concerned hippy who finds the convinience of the Los Angeles subway system to worth two tanks of gas.

Comments

[daeglan.livejournal.com]

I wish I could use the trains. But alas the Morons in the MTA did not put the trains where they need to go. So I get to take the freeway down the 405 instead of a train. Am I the only one who thinks that they should have put the trains going down the 101,405,5,and 10? Wouldn't that have solved more traffic problems and made using the trains actually viable for mor e poeople? And why oh why did they design the stations such that you can get on the trains with no ticket? I wonder how many people ride without a ticket? As it is pretty much impossible to enforce ticket purchases. What idiot decided 9:00 is a good time to stop and train service? doesn't this make using public transit for anything other than work perty useless?

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

I fully endorse them taking the center two (at least) lanes of all LA freeways and converting them to light rail. It makes sense to ME, but it'd be political suicide for anyone to endorse such a thing.

They do enforce tickets using their MTA cops ($250 and 40 hrs public service), but it's a sucky job, that, and I don't envy them the task.

Where did you run into the 9:00 thing? Every line is different. When J and I used the Gold and Red lines the other day they were only down from essentially midnight to 4am (which, granted, is of little use to those clubbing or barhopping).

[daeglan.livejournal.com]

Who says they have to put them on the freeway? Who says it has to take up 2 lanes? you could probably put pillars up that would hold a monorail going in each direction above the freeway. Disneyland has had monorails for 50 years with no earthquake trouble.

Having ridden the trains several times ( around 20 to 30 times) I have only once been asked for a ticket. Having ridden the Metro in DC they have a simple solution that works well. gates that you put a ticket with a magnetic strip on it in one end the gate opens and you get the ticket back on the other side stamped with you starting station. rather like the turn styles at disneyland. to cheat you have to jump the gates. As an added benefit you can charge more per stop. The way the stations are they have made it very difficult to enforce tickets. Based on checked once for 20 to 30 rides your odds are pretty good for not being checked.

Gold line last year. on several weeknights.

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

Building an elevated rail would be much more expensive, and eliminating car lanes would greatly encourage ridership numbers being high enough to make the rail lines profitable enough to pay for themselves. (Though, frankly, the blue line is serving so far beyond it's original design capacity it's of little concern once you get people used to it.) Disneyland has the luxury of shutting down their entire system whenever they feel like it for repairs/maintenane - a public system causes some potentially serious economic impacts when they do that.

Having ridden metro systems in Paris, Chicago, and New York, I am familiar with the kinds of systems you're talking about. But there's an aesthetic in LA that makes people recoil at the thought of that many walls/gates/turnstiles/bars. They were trying to design in a fashion that made people WANT to use the metro, as there is no strong tradition of public trans here like there is in most other major cities.

Huh. The Gold line service schedule we picked up last week listed runs through midnight all week long. Perhaps they've increased the schedule?

[nightrythm]

Riding the train regularly, I can tell you they run random checks several times a month. Where else would you hear someone saying "Passes! Have your passes out where we can see them!", except for fair & the MTA?

[daeglan.livejournal.com]

Yeah but I have to wonder how many people get away with not paying? It seems to me the simple act of having turn styles like the metro in D.C. means that you get more revenue as there is far less of a chance to get on without paying. You have to actively decide to break the law. How much money is MTA losing because they designed things stupidly? I have one time got on with out paying because I could not find the ticket machine.

[mlerules.livejournal.com]

Good for you! My first two (2) years in L.A. I was sans car and got 'round just fine - thank goodness for the Big Blue Bus line (and bike lanes) which allowed me to cruise to both UCLA and the beach easily.