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See you on the train!

Three's Company

We love it when new people join the Metro family. 

Brad A. joined us this afternoon for his first commute home via bus and we couldn't be more excited about it. From his ability to sprint for a coming ride to his keen understanding of the stop request procedure, Brad looked like he has been going Metro for years and is a born professional at it.

We're also stoked to hear stories from people like Brad. After years of being a two-car household, Brad and his wife recently decided to scale down to one car in an effort to "live on less." They realized that, as residents and workers in downtown L.A., having two cars is more of a liability than a lease on freedom and that one car is more than sufficient to accommodate both of their demanding lifestyles. Not to mention, reducing the roads of another car carries positive consequences on savings, the environment and...exercise!

Thanks to Brad for keeping us company all the way to the Jewelry District! We look forward to more rides on the future. Hey, feel free to hop on the Blue Line to Long Beach for a visit when you're up to it. :)

Public vs. Private Space

There's nothing private about public transportation. Just this morning, a co-worker reported a female commuter using a street lamp as a urinal after stepping off the METRO. 

Though not as horrific, I had my own run-in with poor public hygiene when a long strand of hair from the girl sitting in front of me invaded my space over several stops. I made a few subtle flick attempts to avoid the strand from sitting in my lap, but was finally relieved when she left on her own accord. 

More reasons to go METRO

Today's METRO trip was nothing short of bi-polar. 

Thanks to Caesar E. Chavez and the holiday named in his honor, trains and buses were not only empty but eerily quiet. We actually managed four full stops before anyone decided to join us in our car. 

The trip back, however, took a whopping two hours when one would normally do, thanks to Opening Day at Dodgers Stadium. 

What's the similarity? Both legs of the round-trip ride were relatively empty.

Public transportation is a wonderful thing. We all pay into it and reap the savings in gas and occasionally time while sitting in traffic. The problem is that so few people ever ride the system to make it stand out and shine. (Yes, the rail even shines in Compton!)

With gas prices at all-time highs, the freeways as squeezed for space as ever, carbon dioxide feeding global warming, and road rage reaching horrific benchmarks, I would think commuters would have reason enough to make the full METRO conversion. But, alas, we still find ourselves short.

L.A. Times columnist David Lazarus recently offered some radical advice in this article to drive up the number of METRO riders while driving down oil consumption. Among his suggestions were significant changes from speed limits and hourly road closures to cutting oil subsidies and broadening the traditional workplace. 

Radical thoughts, but sometimes it's needed to get the conversation moving toward real change.

Train Girl

There is this girl that I see often on the train. She has the pink version of my backpack, which makes me insanely jealous. The last two times I've seen Pink Backpack on her way home, she has been bawling to herself. It's pretty sad really. Is her job so bad that by the end of the day she can't take it anymore and explodes? Is she PMS'ing pretty bad (in the famous words of Dwight K. Schrute)? Is there a family situation she is going home to? It takes a lot for me to cry on the train (generally prednisone has to be involved) so it's just curious and I kind of want to sit down next to her and ask what is going on. hmm.

Jumper

Someone totally threw themselves in front of our train!

Well maybe not while we were on it, but the very train we were about to get on was delayed because someone jumped on the tracks. No real word as to why... Did his iPhone fall down there? Did he think "I just can't wait for this train for 3 more minutes"? Was he trying to recreate While You Were Sleeping, hoping Sandra (that's "Sandy" to her friends) Bullock would jump on the tracks and save him? Or was life seriously not worth living and the only way to take care of the situation was to jump like six feet down onto the tracks during the morning rush hour. sad.

Well the EMT crew got him outta there, fully conscious. We on the other hand had to reroute ourselves, quite successfully actually, getting to work a few minutes early even.

Yippeee!

I now have company on the train(s)!

Geoff got a job at the same place I work, and I don't have to navigate the LA Metro system alone any longer. It's been such an awesome week to have company and have someone to look at knowingly when a crazy person gets kicked off the train or rejoice with when you just catch the bus.

Yay for me! :)