WMATA 6000 Series Railcar Preview

This morning WMATA invited the press and public to preview its new 6000 Series rail cars and I went for a look-see during my lunch break. While I wasn't allowed to board even though the train sat on the tracks empty and unmoving, I managed to check out the new cars from the outside and I even made a Flickr set of my photos.

A few items of note from my outside the glass viewing:

• 

  First off, the seating configuration doesn't seem all that radical or different from the current railcar configuration. The car center is still filled with forward/backward facing seats, though it was my impression they were closer together than on the other cars.
  
  Take a close look and tell me what you think. Is Metrorail going with airline-close seating?

• 

  Next up, there were some interesting changes near the doors. The most radical was bench seating along one wall of car 6001.
  
  This should open up much more space for people to stand near the doorways, and I think a marked improvement. I'm all for bench seating along one wall between the two middle doors on all Metrorail cars.
  
  Also, the plastic windscreens are gone, opening up the visual space near the doors.

• 

  Then handrails were extended throughout the cars in new and different ways. There is more vertical railing-to-seatbacks, railing on the walls around advertisements, seat back railing, and ceiling railing.
  
  Car 6002 even had curved ceiling railing, a first on any railcar I've seen worldwide.

• 

  Car 6002 also had ceiling-mounted video cameras, perfect for more Big Brother 9/11 Paranoia people-watching.
  
  I think a better use would be to single out those who crowd doors or fail to move to the center of the car, preferably with a large spotlight or vaporizing laser.

Last but not least, even though I couldn't actually enter the cars, I did note they have that magical new car smell. Hopefully, we'll be smelling it soon!

Series 6000 Update!: WMATA just announced that the Federal Transit Administration and Metro signed a $173.3 million agreement, where the Feds will commit $104 million to buy these 6000 series rail cars to expand eight-car trains to 20 percent of Metrorails operations.

Free Rides, Always?

In recent years, there have been efforts to increase transit ridership through programs such as Car Free Days, which encourage public transportation agencies to provide free rides for individuals willing to get out of their cars. The problem, of course, is that while ridership does increase - often substantially - gains made during those few days usually are erased by the fares charged when the free transportation ends.

Some bus transit providers, such as Chapel Hill Transit in North Carolina (which includes University of North Carolina busses) have decided to make all rides free, all year. The town's bus patronage, as a result, is quite high, though it's important to remember that because Chapel Hill is a university town, it already has a very high number of residents who don't have access to cars, and the presence of the university, which encourages transit usage, only increases ridership.

New Orleans has been operating the nation's largest free bus (and streetcar) system since operation resumed after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, but services will again cost money starting August 6. It's hard to tell whether free rides have encouraged usage, because the city's population is far lower now than it was before the storm, especially among the poor. So, lower ridership now could have been much lower had the federally-subsidized Regional Transit Authority been charging.

The success of free transit days in San Francisco - which have added on average between 15,000 to 30,000 riders per day on Bart trains - have led some to suggest that the entire system, along with Muni bus and streetcar, go free. The problem, of course, is that San Francisco transportation agencies collectively get over $500 million of their funding each year from fares. Losing that money would mean a new source of revenue would have to be found somewhere else.

Mass transit, of course, is a public resource, like libraries or parks, so some would argue that there's no reason not to fully subsidize an already-subsidized service. On the other hand, municipal funding is always a question of priorities; couldn't that $500 million be better used for transit expansion and improvement programs in the city, as long as the municipalities already supporting the services added $500 million to the services' collective budgets? And while it's important to encourage easy mobility for all of a city's inhabitants, should all rides, for leisure and for work, be free for everyone?

Limiting fare increases, such as New York City recently did, is an important way to ensure that transportation costs don't get out of control. For now, a $2 fare for a subway ride really isn't that bad of a deal, even for the city's poorest. We can all agree, in the end, that the most important role of transit is to provide efficient, convenient, and relatively cheap transportation for everyone; making rides free would probably result in decreases in efficiency and convenience and is therefore a poorly thought-out idea.

Happy Birthday DC Circulator!

While I am no fan of the DC Circulator, I prefer to call it the Circulating Joke, I do have to give it begrudging respect today, its one year old and actualy exceeding its ridership targets.

The Circulator is claiming it provided 1.6 million total trips averaging a 9 percent increase every month and around 7,000 passengers per day now. While that might have been a low-ball number to begin with and its not known if that is a profitable number of riders, there is clear evidence where a good portion of the increase ridership is coming from - tourists headed to the National Mall. To quote the DC examiner:

The biggest ridership increased occurred when a loop circling the National Mall opened in March. Ridership jumped from 122,152 in February to 171,229 in March.

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Today I am sure that it’s the cheapest ride in DC. To celebrate its birthday, rides on the Circulator are free today. I just hope they don't count the free rides in their overall ridership figures.

A $0.25 discount to Metrobus when the city is spending $5.5 million on the Circulator is offensive enough.

Transit fan sites hit the mainstream press

The D.C. Examiner this morning reports on transit fan sites. The story mentions my own Web site. WMATA officials say they are aware of my site but declined to comment.

The folks up in New York, who are paranoid even of snapshot takers, did offer a few comments about "foamers" generally.

There is a factual inaccuracy in the story: it says Pipeshaft has directions to "hundreds" of bits about Metro. I wish I had time to be so prolific: my database shows 115 sites total. 86 of those are stations, leaving 29 total vent shafts, traction power substations, etc. As usual, when I note these sorts of inaccuracies in news stories in which I have personal knowledge, I have to wonder how many errors are in stories that I have no knowledge about.

North America's Transit Networks - All on One Sheet

Thanks to Gothamist, a fantastic website, Radical Cartography, with maps for anyone who likes maps.

You've got to check out the Mass Transit comparison map, which shows just how long, for instance, Las Vegas' monorail is compared to Portland's light rail system. Fun for a Thursday afternoon.

Should we fight the war against the car?

The Toronto Globe and Mail recently ran an interesting and slightly inflamatory op-ed entitled "The war against the car will never succeed." The jist is that transit advocates are barking up the wrong tree by trying to convince people not to drive because most people want to drive. She says, "But transit advocates ignore the overwhelming evidence from around the world: People still prefer their cars." and "The idea that public transit can replace the car in people's busy lives is a fantasy."

Now, I think that a fair bit of her argument is flawed – poor people will just buy used cars! [and when they break down, they will ride the bus...] – but there is an interesting point in there somewhere. And that is that you aren't going to get the majority to ride transit because it is more virtuous. People just don't make personal choices that way – there has to be something in it for them: (noticeably) cheaper, (significantly) faster, (much) more convenient. My train ride in the morning takes longer than driving, but it is much cheaper than keeping another car (where would we find a parking space?!). Those who already live in the 'burbs and already drive – you are going to have offer them a compelling (personal) reason why they should change, and I'm afraid that smog and global warming aren't it. Those of us who write/read transit blogs fall into an exceptional category - we are the self-selected believers. How are we going to motivate the others? How can we make transit an offer that they can't resist? And, here's the real question, is it worth it?

Go Green On Metro

With the first Code Red day in years recently, WMATA has rolled out an ad campaign to convince Washington area commuters to "Go Green on Metro".

Photo by DC Metroblogger

In a first for Metro, they've placed "Go Green" advertisements on gas pumps at 75 area gas stations, and for those of us who are happily car-free DC, they've introduced a new “Go Green” Metrobus, which runs on compressed natural gas and wrapped in greenery.

As of yet, no information on the nickname of this bus - other full advertisement buses have nicknames from "The Spaceship" for the Sketchers bus to "Zoolander" for the National Geographic bus.

Even less information on the effectiveness of this ad campaign. While WMATA estimates that each advertisement will be viewed by an average of 27,750 customers each month, will the ~4 million impressions really change the driving habits of car-loving Washingtonians?

Putting the funds into more natural gas buses or retrofitting older buses with better smog filters definitely would make us all "Go Green on Metro."

Inside WMATA's budget

Now YOU can have a spreadsheet that reveals Metro's budget right down to the last dollar spent on diesel fuel. You can even manipulate the numbers in the spreadsheet to play what if: what if electricity bills skyrocket, or if ridership surges?

Yesterday at Metro headquarters, the agency's chief budget man, Rick Harcum, briefed the Riders Advisory Council and willing members of the public on Metro's budget process. Before the fiscal year starts on July 1, Metro has to have a budget. One primary function of the budget is that it determines how much subsidy money the agency will ask its three sponsoring jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) for.

The budget process
Harcum explained that Metro operates more like a business than like a government agency. You may have realized that government agencies generally can spend money only if expressly permitted by an act of the legislature. This is, for instance, why the federal government partially shut down in the 1990s and why the New Jersey government partially shut down recently: the legislatures had not yet appropriated the funds necessary for operations. If Metro operated the same way, then buses and trains might stop running. No fun.

But the prospect of a Metro shutdown is slim because, as Harcum explained, the budget does not tightly restrict Metro's operations. Instead, it's more like a "giant collection of assumptions." Harcum's people estimate how large various portions of Metro's budget will be. Some of these line items, like white-collar salaries, are fairly easy to estimate. Other, much larger line items, such as union salaries, are set outside the budget process altogether as collective bargaining agreements are reached. Still other expenses, such as diesel fuel, are difficult for anybody to predict at all.

Harcum plugs all these assumptions into the spreadsheets. This gives him three important bottom-line numbers: how much revenue Metro will take in from fares, advertising, and other sources of revenue; how much Metro's expenses will be, and how much of a difference there will be. Public transportation always operates at a loss to the agency, so the shortfall between revenues and expenses is the subsidy that D.C., Maryland, and Virginia will pay.

Using his spreadsheets and data, Harcum can calculate how much subsidy dollars the agency will need if the system is left on autopilot--that is, no fare increases, no changes in service, and so on. For fiscal year 2008, if the agency stays on autopilot, the subsidy dollars will have to increase by twenty percent. That's because while fare revenue is expected to increase due to higher ridership, expenses will be going up even more, with costs rising rapidly for diesel fuel, health care, and electricity. Everybody at Metro knows that they can't go to the three jurisdictions and request a twenty percent subsidty hike.

That's where the board comes in. After seeing Harcum's initial projections on how the budget would look like if the agency were left on autopilot, the board will be giving what they call "guidance" to Metro's budget people. This will give the budget folks guidance on how to reduce that gap between expenses and revenues. Will it take more measures to increase side revenues, like more advertising deals? Will it take a fare hike, or service reductions? These are policy questions left to the board.

After Metro's staff receives its budget guidance from the board, they will prepare the general manager's recommended budget. The board might nibble around the edges of the general manager's budget, but generally it is adopted with few changes.

Thus the budget is mostly set by the time the general manager proposes a budget to the board. The important, influential stage is the setting of the "guidance" from the board to the staff. That's when the board will decide whether to consider a fare hike or a cut in service. That's why RAC member Kevin Moore and Jack Corbett, co-founder of MetroRiders.org, want to be sure that the public has input into the budget process early, before the guidance is issued.

That's why Harcum released his spreadsheets. He wants to show exactly how Metro comes up with its budget projections so that the RAC, the board, and members of the public can take part in an informed discussion on the budget.

Inside the budget
Lots of interesting bits of information fall out of the budget:

• Metro is being hard-hit with rapidly increasing health care costs. This is a problem that is hitting all American employers, public and private. Business titans like General Motors chairman Rick Wagoner are very concerned about the issue. Of course all that our huge health care bills get us is crappy care, and it is a shame that none of our policymakers are doing a damn thing about this travesty.


• Metro expects its bill for traction power (which runs trains) to go up by twenty five percent. Thank you, deregulation. The agency cannot use futures to attempt to control costs because that's prohibited by the interstate compact that created WMATA.


• Metro will spend less on gasoline (not diesel fuel) due to cuts in the fleet of little white cars and trucks you see on the streets.


• Metro had a consultant help determine what best predicts ridership patterns, because this is such a key part of the budget estimates. The consultant said that the two biggest predictors of ridership are downtown employment and regional population. At the time the study was done, it didn't seem that gas prices had much influence on ridership.


• There aren't huge consequences if Metro goes over or under its budget. At the end of the fiscal year, if Metro needs more money to cover a shortfall, then the jurisdictions provide it. If Metro has extra money, then the jurisdictions get a refund. I skeptically thought that this would give Metro an incentive to consistently underestimate its costs, but in recent years Metro has frequently given a refund to the jurisdictions.


• Parking garages for Metro seem to be revenue boosters: when the new garage at the Vienna station opens, Metro will get increased revenue from parking and from the new riders' fares that will exceed Metro's cost in running the facility. Plus, if I recall correctly, Metro doesn't pay to build parking garages; instead that cost would fall on Fairfax County (or on the commonwealth of Virginia; I'm not sure which.) Good deal for Metro, at least on the surface.

Your input on the budget
So the pivotal time for the budget is coming up soon, as the board prepares to craft its guidance. If I become aware of forums for public input I will post them here. Also you can always come to RAC meetings, which are the first Wednesday night of every month at Metro headquarters (next meeting is on August 2.) There is a public comment period at the start of every meeting.

The spreadsheets!
If you're geeky like me, you think these are actually fun. They were originally made in an extremely expensive, proprietary spreadsheet program, but you can also view them just fine in OpenOffice.org, which is Free Software. WARNING: these spreadsheets do not represent the 2008 budget! The 2008 budget has not been set yet. These are just estimates that will hopefully inform the budget-making process.

Metro Budget Forecasting Spreadsheet

Metro Fiscal Year 2005, detailed breakdown

Thanks to the RAC and to Metro's Rick Harcum for making these available.

Catch a play about D.C.'s 70 bus

A new theater company is staging a play about D.C.'s 70 bus. I see this bus all the time as it travels between my home in Silver Spring and my office near Chinatown. The buses are very frequent and are often packed.

I will see the play but to be honest I will catch the Red Line rather than the 70 home afterward. The 70 from Chinatown to Silver Spring takes about an hour! Train is more like fifteen minutes. However, relief is on the way for the patient 70 riders: soon the 7th Street-Georgia Avenue corridor will get a new limited stop service, the 79. Metro hopes the new service will bring in new riders as well as providing existing 70 riders with faster service.

In other Metro news: tonight at 6:30, the Riders Advisory Council will have a meeting on the fiscal year 2008 budget. I know this seems early to be talking about 2008, but key decisions on that year's budget are being made now because agency officials are already preparing key documents that will go to the board of directors.

Controversy over new Hudson Rail Passenger Tunnel

New Jersey Transit's plan for a new Hudson River passenger rail tunnel, the so-called Trans-Hudson Express or Access to the Region's Core (it has too many names) has already stirred controversy, even though construction won't begin until 2009.

The planned tunnel, which will run from Secaucus Junction in New Jersey to a new deep station under 34th Street, near Penn Station, is widely supported by transportation advocates, who know that the current tunnels under the Hudson provide too little capacity to meet current or future demand. However, the new station to be built under Macy's has provoked disagreement, for two principal reasons:

1. It would be enormously expensive, adding more than a billion dollars to the cost.
2. It could be a terrorist target, because it is so deep underground.

So, some are calling for the money to be spent instead on a connection from Grand Central Terminal to Penn Station, so that New Jersey Transit trains using the new tunnel could stop at both transit centers. It's a good idea, and would allow Connecticut and Upstate trains (on Metro-North) to run to New Jersey and vice-verse. However, such a project has been studied in the project and would require the realignment of the Lexington Avenue lines in the vicinity of Grand Central, which would be a major undertaking and probably cost just as much or more as the new station.

There's also the problem of both Grand Central and Penn Station already being overloaded. Somehow, station capacity must be increased, and opponents of the NJ Transit plan haven't exactly dealt with that problem.

Terrorism is another issue - but Long Island Rail Road's East Side Access project to Grand Central will have a station even further below ground than the new NJ Transit Station. Sometimes, you've just got cross your fingers and hope no one blows the thing up.

MBTA improves service to TF Green Airport in RI

The RI Department of Transportation and the MBTA have broken ground on a new rail station and parking facility at the TF Green Airport in Warwick, RI, just south of Providence. The facility will provide commuter and rental car parking, a MBTA commuter rail station, bus terminal, and a pedestrain bridge into the airport. The new station is complimented by an increase in MBTA rail service to Providence, four more trains on weekdays and new weekend service. The improved service is made possible by a partnership between the two states and RI donating land in Pawtucket for a new rail yard. The RI officials have been very proactive about making this happen, realizing that their communities stand to benefit the most. Hurrah for savvy transit-oriented leadership.
Of course, these announcements have coincided with the problems in the Big Dig tunnels, which have directly impacted access to Logan Airport, making the effort seem all the more worthwhile.

Amtrak rumblings

Well, the Bush administration has deafened everyone by now with its privatization song for Amtrak but they have also lost much of their popular support. On the other side, a surprisingly united Congress wants to support Amtrak and rising gas prices are making alternatives to driving look more palatable by the day. So the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that talk of compromise on what to do with our sad national railroad corporation is in the air.

Something interesting that the article talks about is a proposal to privatize the entire Northeast corridor, with the private sector operation controlling the right of way developing service with other operators beyond the traditional federal and state transit authorities. Some more details of these ideas in these congressional hearing minutes.

One sign that longtime opponents may be inching closer to agreement is that even Amtrak's traditional supporters such as Lautenberg, who believe that rail service is a fundamental obligation of the government, now grant that there may be a role for the private sector to play.
...
I think that politically [the Bush administration] have figured out that it is not worth the fight and that their goal of getting rid of Amtrak is something they just can't do," said Alex Formuzis, spokesman for Lautenberg.

Light rail line opens in Newark

New Jersey Transit has started operating the Broad Street light rail line, which connects the two major train stations in Newark: Penn Station and Broad Street.

The uncertain future of transit in suburban Maryland

Most people in Maryland's affluent suburbs of Washington, D.C. agree that the area is choked with traffic congestion. What they don't agree on is what, if anything, to do about it.

Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was elected on a platform in which he unequivocally stated that he would "build the ICC. NOW." That's the Intercounty Connector, a east-west highway that's been on regional planning maps for several decades. The highway has long raised hackles from environmentalists and slow-growth advocates. Our previous governor killed it--well, temporarily killed it, anyway. Ehrlich's election revived it, and he fast-tracked--er, make that fast-laned--the environmental studies for the road. Now the current prognosis for the road is that construction will begin soon. Given the history of the road, I'll believe that when I see bulldozers razing trees and bridge-builders destroying watersheds.

Ehrlich's administration eliminated bike paths from the plans for the road, saying they would cost too much. Despite that, he still says he's a pro-transit guy. His administration claims to be dutifully studying what has long been called the Purple Line, though Ehrlich's folks have (for some reason I don't understand) redubbed it the Bi-County Transitway. Like the highway, the transit line would link the eastern and western suburbs. Also like the highway, the Purple Line has had its own rocky history, blocked by a combination of lack of funding and NIMBYs who don't want trains on a right-of-way that Montgomery County long ago purchased expressly for trains.

Enter Robert Smith. You may remember him as the Metro board member whom Governor Ehrlich fired for making anti-gay remarks. Now Smith says that Ehrlich is "stringing out this project for all it's worth" in favor of the true darling of the Ehrlich administration, the big highway.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan disagrees: he says there are challenges to building the transit line and that the state must study many options.

Of course Smith has a reason to attack Ehrlich, seeing as the governor just fired him. But Flanagan's remarks seem disingenuous in light of the fast-laning of the highway. Sure, there are challenges to building the transit line. But the same is true of the highway, which will cost at least $2 billion. The state had to pick between at least two possible highway alignments, decide which homes to destroy, and consider mitigating impacts on several regional waterways. Despite all that, the state accelerated the study process. The Purple Line has not received similar attention from Ehrlich.

Furthermore, Smith is on to something when he says the highway will drain state coffers. Even if there's money left over after building the highway, there is an entire state of Maryland that stretches far beyond these two affluent suburban Washington counties. If we get this $2 billion highway, I doubt that the people of Baltimore or the Eastern Shore will be eager to pump more money into suburban Washington.

Thanks to Ben Ross of the Action Committee for Transit for sending the Post article.

Transit Planning web site article

Decent article in the New York Times comparing a few transportation/transit planning web sites:

Trips123
HopStop
PublicRoutes

Other web sites/experiments:
Interactive Subway Maps

Ceiling collapse strains transit options

I'm sure that you have all heard about the ceiling collapse in one of the Big Dig tunnels in Boston. The accident is a tragedy for the family of the woman who was killed and a mess for the Boston transit system (not to mention the political frenzy). Several tunnels are closed while materials are inspected (increasing numbers of flaws are found each day) and there are no predictions about when they will reopen. In the meantime, secondary roads are picking up the slack and the MBTA is adding extra service. Even though it's summer and traffic is usually lighter, people are experiencing longer than normal commutes.
Globe coverage
Herald coverage

Washington Window Shopping

DCist reports on plans to build a "Purple Line" connecting Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Washington's inner suburbs. While it would be a good way to cut congestion on downtown Metro transfer stations by allowing people to switch at other points, would allow easier access to the University of Maryland and make it easier for PG residents to get to MoCo jobs, it strikes me that this plan may not be the best use of WMATA's limited planning funds. Instead of a growth-driver or a traffic-mitigator, it's basically an upgrade that gives users a higher-quality service where they once had lousy suburban buses or a little more driving. The East-West Highway is the main road this line would draw traffic from - it's fairly packed most of the time, but is narrow and residential in places and does not lend itself to being pedestrian-friendly in other places.

So what else could WMATA, MdMTA and VDOT be thinking about?

- Dulles Rail. This is the big one, and perhaps most likely to happen within our lifetimes. However, it has to contend with stingy Virgina politicians, the question of whether to go above ground or underground through Tyson's Corner, how Tyson's can be remade to be pedestrian-friendly (my vote goes for a network of above-road glass-enclosed walkways, like Futurama but without the air pressure, and whether forcing people to switch at Falls Church with all their luggage is really better than the current shuttle bus.

- Better VRE service. VDOT has to deal wih freight trains before the capacity can be increased on these commuter lines. Perhaps the concern over chemical-laden freight passing within blocks of the Capitol could push Congress to re-route many of these trains around the District, freeing up the two-track Potomac bridge and allowing for increased service (and perhaps some new spur lines on existing track) without much additional infrastructure cost. All those slugs who are finding that hybrids in HOV lanes make their commute more, well, sluggish, may give the trains a second thought if they ran more frequently and on weekends.

- Better MARC service. If you live in Baltimore, Washington is a great place to spend a day on the weekend. If you live in Washington, Baltimore is a great place to spend the weekend. If you live in Howard County, going either direction is a super-duper idea. Sadly, MARC service between the two regional hubs doesn't run on weekends, forcing people into cars and making weekend jams on 95 and 495 worse than they need to be, especially during Redskins games. Will it make money? Who knows. Perhaps the better solution would be to increase service by adding runs and decrease travel times by raising platforms at stations like Halethorpe on the Penn Line and closing underused stations. When MARC becomes more like Metro-North and less like VRE, the easier it will be to draw jobs to cities instead of losing them to poorly-planned office parks. And hey, while we're talkin' MARC, why not use that wide median on U.S. 50 to spur dense growth in P.G. County by running a line to Annapolis? Commuters would love to have an option that keeps them apart from the Bay Bridge traffic on Friday afternoons.

- "Purple Line" for Arlington and Alexandria. Northern Virginia is a mess, road-wise. It's congested for most of the day. Despite the ever-increasing density, Metro misses the core of the area entirely, forcing people onto bad buses that clog up the Pentagon and make Blue/Yellow line service very unpleasant and prone to delays. If people could get on elsewhere, Pentagon station would be saved from the throngs, central Arlington could look more like a real city and Old Town could be a bit easier to get to.

- DC Light Rail. Several corridors are being explored, with Anacostia Waterfront the farthest along. Still, absent a deal with CSX for use of freight tracks, replacing buses with streetcars on busy city streets does little to mitigate traffic or spur development.

- The big picture. Washington has strong public transportation, but the region's economic growth is causing strains on the system and driving jobs to the edges of the region, which increases traffic congestion and hurts carless workers who have increasingly limited employment options. The fact that so many corridors are used by freight traffic, both rail and truck-based, is an anachronism and a security risk that can be tackled if the security community, the environmental community and the transport industry can get together to find ways for freight to move around the region instead of right through it.

Chertoff visits MBTA, reminds us to keep our eyes open

Secretary Michael Chertoff visited the MBTA today to mark the one year anniversary of the transit bombings in London. He (and the recent news of the foiled attack on NYC tunnels) reminds us to be vigilent about observing our surroundings while riding the subway. I remember hearing an interview with a man who was standing on the London bus next to the eventual bomber. He noticed the guy behaving strangely and fiddling with his backpack but didn't think enough of it to do or say anything. I'll be thinking of him tonight while I'm standing on the platform, reading my book, pretending to ignore the other passengers.

The Luxury of Choice

In an article for the Los Angeles Daily News, Mariel Garza complains about how much it sucked to force herself to take public transit (mostly buses) in Los Angeles for an entire month. The standard reasons why this is so are given, and they are definitely true: the buses are late or early or don't come at all, you end up waiting outside in the hot sun, your trip takes much longer, your trip time can vary greatly, among other reasons.

What makes this article annoying is her premise and what she doesn't really talk about -- that she has a choice of not riding the bus, she can go back to her nice hybrid car and not worry about all those other problems. She does not really dwell on all the people in Los Angeles (mostly poor and lower wage workers, although she does mention the upperclass anomalies who might be riding the bus. No mention of the disabled either.) who are dependent on public transit to get them around.

Maybe the financial burden that is building with rising gas prices will bring increased ridership to the Los Angeles public transit system (and others) making frequent and reliable performance more of a reality for all riders. You might say it's a shame that it had to take fiscal pain reaching into the higher tax brackets for the rest (or all) of the public transit ridership to see possible benefits from the increased visibility of their system's function, but sometimes you take it any way you can get it.

MBTA General Manager takes to airwaves

MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas was featured on WBUR’s Morning Edition this morning. The public comment period on the proposed fare hike has ended, but the T is continuing to reach out to riders. Grabauskas took questions that WBUR recorded from transit riders about the fare increase and quality of service. I hadn’t heard Grabauskas speak before and thought he did a good job of responding to the questions. It is nice to see that the T is reaching out beyond the Globe and Herald. Listen to the segment here.