And you may ask yourself, what is that beautiful art deco concert venue? And you may ask yourself, where do those buses go? And you may ask yourself, am I right? Am I wrong?
Hat tip to Justin Walker on the Transit Coalition message board

Metro appearing on Google Transit has MetroReaders and the transitsphere hot and bothered — about 80 percent former, 20 percent latter. Well, now that Metro has discovered technology and is not afraid to use it, get ready for connecting bus video displays at Red and Purple Line stations!

In a Metro Westside/Central Sector Governance Council PowerPoint, sample display screens will show where the buses stop and how frequently they will arrive at the stop. It’s unlikely the frequency information will be real-time. Even so, this is a terrific improvement. Don’t worry, folks. These are mock-ups. The mistakes in the image are going to be corrected, but if you want to have fun, point them out in the comments.

In other news, MetroRiderLA is hereby declaring the new official mascot for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. We are stripping Miss Traffic of her crown — she’s a missus with three young’uns and is hereby disqualified. Metro’s new mascot is …

THE LITTLE QUESTION MARK MAN!

You first see him, you think Metro’s graphic communications department has a great sense of humor. But to laugh at THE LITTLE QUESTION MARK MAN is to miss entirely the profound artistry of the image.

We have just witnessed the dawn of the 21st century’s equivalent of Edvard Munch’s (it’s pronounced muunk, you Beavis and Butt-Head types) “Scream” painting. The figures in both paintings are kindred spirits, separated by an ocean, a century and some change, the presentation media, and some other things I can’t think of off the top of my head.

THE LITTLE QUESTION MARK MAN is the true everyperson. The form is androgynous. The figure is gray, reflecting the composition of Los Angeles’ tremendous diversity. But the question mark says nothing, and by doing so, says a whole lot. Is it a question mark of confusion? Melancholy? Joy? Wonderment? Or a simple post-modern WTF? Is he angry at the buses being late? Is he wondering what’s playing at the Wiltern across the street? Or is he just realizing that he, like most others at the Wilshire/Western station, didn’t get on the correct Red Line train again?

That’s the beauty of it. We add our own experiences to the artwork. We are all the LITTLE QUESTION MARK MAN.

In the Wikipedia article, this quote was attributed to Munch about his “Scream”:

”I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature.” … He later described the personal anguish behind the painting, “for several years I was almost mad…You know my picture, ‘’The Scream?’’ I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able to love again.”

Damn skippy. That’s how I felt after riding Line 920.

Open Source Transit is expanding its scope to declare THE LITTLE QUESTION MARK MAN the official mascot of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This is one decree Metro will gladly consent to.

Metro, get that little figure on as much swag as possible, before someone on the blogosphere — namely MetroRiderLA — takes that befuddled figure and makes him/her/it a Cafe Press superstar.

This morning, we’ve covered art history, popular music and public transportation. We at MetroRiderLA pride ourselves by raising MetroReaders’ IQs one point at a time.

Photo by Yours Truly; posted in the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool

Welcome back to the second installment in the Transit Service Interface Proposal for the Expo Line. Part 1 focused on changes for Culver CityBus. Part 2 focuses on the transit system everybody loves, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. When the Expo Line opens, there will be more of the periwinkle buses to love.

Santa Monica’s proposals would not grow the system as much as the line changes posited for Culver City. Some changes are included here to be concurrent with the first phase of Expo, even though the lines themselves would not connect with the train until it is extended to Santa Monica. Most of the changes that do connect with the Expo Line would focus more activity around the western end of the line.

This signals the end of the forced transfer at Crackton. It also means a concerted effort to get a one-seat ride along Pico Boulevard, ending almost 50 years of dumbassery, by merging Big Blue Bus Line 7 with Metro lines 30/31. For the other services, they would be rerouted to originate at the Expo Line. The Expo Line would also allow for a single transfer bus connection to such important Westside destinations as Century City, UCLA, the Westside Pavilion and Santa Monica College.

Santa Monica would offer nearly 20 lines, but with service levels closely approximating what is available now. You can see what the service looks like now on its existing system map. As a reminder, these proposals are not official by any agency and are not endorsed by them.

The table of changes follows the jump.

The Militant Angeleno has discovered that Metro and Google have finally brought Google Transit trip planning to Los Angeles Metro riders.  I can confirm, along with the Militant, that it really works.  Planning a trip on Metro no longer means going through the antiquated and cumbersome Metro Advanced Trip Planner, which served its purpose but was never really elegant, friendly, or necessarily accurate.  Now you can simply point your browser, or Google Maps enabled smart phone (I can confirm it works on the iPhone), to Google Transit or Google Maps, enter your start and end address (or something less specific, like “Arclight Theater”, it works!), choose the “By Public Transit Option”, adjust the time you want to leave or arrive by, and hit “Get Directions”.  Google maps out your route and gives you a few different suggested routes and turn by turn directions.  It’s the Google Maps functionality we’ve grown accustomed to for years now, tailored to our preferred mode of transportation, and it’s brilliant.

The Militant found a small bug when testing out a hypothetical trip from Hollywood to Hawthorne, a trip where you could theoretically get there mostly by rail but the Google Transit algorithm seemed to prefer bus routes.  Another thing I noticed is that the fares aren’t listed, so if you aren’t sure of the cost you’ll have to go the Metro site first to figure out how much you should bring. I’m sure their will be some kinks to work out and some work arounds Metro riders will still have to use to get their ideal routes, but the elegance and ubiquity of the Google software cannot be denied and is miles above where we were.

This technology is great for current Metro riders, but I get really excited when I think what this means for new riders.  Before, it could be quite intimidating for a newbie to try to figure out a Metro route, and the lack of a simple usable trip planning solution may have kept them from ever trying the Metro.  Now, a non-rider might be searching for driving directions on Google Maps only to discover a simple and easy transit route and hop on Metro for the first time because of this.  And for tourists, Google Transit will be a godsend.  A simple search for “Biltmore Hotel” to “La Brea Tar Pits” (no specific addresses, just the descriptive names) spits out a 38 minute bus ride, a switch to “By Car” shows that the same trip can take up to 50 minutes in traffic.  I recently made a car-free trip to San Francisco and every transit route was courtesy of Google Transit, and on the fly. I never touched a transit map or visited the Muni website.  It’s great to know that visitors and locals alike will be able to do this in Los Angeles now.

Photo by Scott Page, uploaded by Metro Library and Archive on Flickr; used with a Creative Commons License

Welcome back to the latest installment in the Open Source Transit series. Our previous series focused on bus service changes that allow for better connections to the Eastside Gold Line. The purpose of Open Source Transit is twofold: It lets riders start the discussion in how services should be shaped around our travel patterns. It is also a learning experience for riders, as we learn how and why transit agencies support or reject service changes.

The new installment is much narrower in scope yet still critical in importance. This three-part series focuses on improved bus connections to Phase 1 of the Expo Line. The three proposals in this series involve Big Blue Bus, Metro and the agency presented here, Culver CityBus.

This is the present PDF system map of Culver CityBus. The changes that are suggested for all the routes in the Transit Service Interface Proposal can be viewed in this Google Map. If you have any comments on the routing changes presented here, leave them in the comments or send them via e-mail. Please leave your name. Comments will be given to Culver CityBus to support or rebut the plans made here.

In a nutshell, Culver CityBus has the potential to become a much bigger player in Los Angeles transit. It will be thrust in this role anyway, as it will see an influx of ridership when the Expo Line opens and has been operational for a while. The more modest changes involve relocating the services from the “West Los Angeles Transit Center,” that depressing bus stop and layover area beneath Interstate 10, to Culver Junction. The more ambitious changes involve green buses taking over the orange buses operated by Metro. A couple of the changes will not connect with the Expo Line, but are added here because it would make sense to restructure services at the same time.

As a reminder, these proposals are not official by any agency and are not endorsed by them. The table of changes and rationales follows the jump.

That sign at the top may become a hot seller on eBay come Monday.
Photo by Yours Truly via Flickr. See more photos like it, or contribute yours to the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool

Just as quickly as Metro Line 632 came into existence, much of it is already going away … and it has only been in service for a week.

Metro is cutting back 632 to within Los Angeles city limits effective Monday. The line will only travel from Union Station to Indiana Station. Passengers wishing to go between Indiana and Atlantic/Pomona stations must transfer to Montebello Bus Line 40.

We like to complain, and justifyably so, at the glacial pace of making progress on public transit in L.A. It takes decades for a rail line to go from concept to completion. Even something as simple as a bus route change takes about a year of prep work before they are even implemented. Things ought to go faster.

For once, Metro did do something fast. And guess what happened? Nothing. Actually, something did happen. Nothing is a close approximation of the ridership of its seat-of-the-pants planning and operations.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wanted Metro to dream with him. His dream was to have the Gold Line extension up and running by the time he celebrated his second inauguration. This left Metro a window of opportunity to tie an opening in with its normal semi-annual bus service shake-ups, which was this weekend. Just one problem: the Gold Line wasn’t going to be ready — even though several lines were rerouted and had scheduled changed as though the trains were operating.

So instead, we have Line 632. Move over Orange Line, because 632 is the bus that acts like a train. Literally. This is a bus line that nudged its way in at the last minute — even bus drivers were caught by surprise, not to mention the flustered riders on East First and Third streets. So, what happens when service is implemented quick and dirty?

This.

Here’s a sampling of the ridership of Line 632 on its second day, taken in the early afternoon just before rush hour. It’s not an out of service bus, or even a typical trip along the Harbor Transitway. Normally, there would be a breakdown of ridership, what buses were used and the times.

Here it is in a nutshell: There were about 10 people in total, both ways, on two separate trips taken between 2 and 3 p.m. All the buses on Tuesday were Neoplans. There were dozens more angry and confused riders who had thought a 30/31 had passed them by. A few had asked for 632 schedules. Neither bus had them, though it did have schedules for other lines out of Division 10, the yard selected to do this assignment.

The comments by one 632 driver cast some interesting light on how this Gold Line emulator was something scrambled together swiftly. Most of the drivers weren’t even aware of this line until the weekend, with the arrival of the pink sheets (run times and instructions for temporary added service). Also, only “extra board” drivers will be driving the line. “Extra board”, from Metro-ese to English, is the equivalent of a substitute teacher pool for bus drivers.

This also means that the drivers may not become familiar enough with the routes to help out riders or build a loyal base before it vanishes.

It’s a shame, too. Metro runs this bus at a time it can ill afford to expend money on unproductive services. It also comes as some lines had reduced service, notably Line 711 losing weekend coverage.

I also noticed the flaws that will also hamper the Gold Line train when it will run. The Eastside really needs to beef up north-south bus service beyond what’s available on Soto Street and Atlantic Boulevard. And the Atlantic/Pomona station is a sorry excuse for an anchor station. This should be the focal point for Eastside bus transfers, but there is nothing visible to suggest the area can handle a huge volume of buses. Also, it will be quite a far walk to East L.A. College, which is nearby at least on a map but adds 15 minutes to students’ commutes without walking.

Does this serve as a harbinger that empty buses will equal empty trains once the Eastside gets rail service again? Hardly. Line 632 was hastily crafted, and had the line been running for at least a year, it might have built anticipation for the rail line when it opens.

Besides, if you ever seen how L.A. introduces rail service, you know we turn it into an orgiastic carnival of long lines, free rides and trainloads of swag. When the first segment of the Gold Line was introduced, so many riders turned out that there was a four-hour wait for rides by midday. Expect it to happen again, and for ridership to build itself slowly but steadily.

What would the future hold for East L.A. after the train starts running? It’s hard to say now. Transit-oriented development, just like the other kind, will be in a deep freeze even after the economy begins to recover. Real estate may drag for much longer, possibly at least another generation, because of how much was overbuilt and capital lost during the real estate bubble.

East L.A. is also a special case. It is predominantly Latino and mostly dense individual tract homes that usually stays within a family for generations. It has not become overbuilt and will likely stay the way it is for the forseeable future. Boyle Heights, though, has the markings of a potential Echo Park-like gentrification. The rail line will tie it to downtown, and unlike East L.A., the neighborhood sees more residential transience. There is also a stock of old housing that is prime for restoration.

What the Gold Line will also have going for it is the “gourmet/gourmand factor.” East First Street is almost wall-to-wall eating establishments. Nearly all are Mexican food, naturally, but there is tremendous variation on the styles of food by state (Oaxacan, Michoacan, D.F.-style, etc.). There is also a small pocket of Japanese businesses in Boyle Heights, clear outside Little Tokyo — which of course has its own treasures.

Regardless of whether you go see the Eastside by bus or train, either mode is fine to get a feel for the latest addition to our growing Metro network. If you want to help boost ridership, Socata’s Dana Gabbard says in a Streetsblog L.A. post that the group plans an informal ride of its own July 10.

In the meantime, here are some more shots from Tuesday’s Ride Report, all on Flickr.

Remember November? In an election where at least a majority turned out to vote, we not only elected Barack Obama president but also bet big for both statewide high-speed rail and major local transit.

Obama, who began January 20, is now through his honeymoon period. High-speed rail work has yet to begin, and the state is officially broke as of today, so those bonds we approved might go to the IMF structural adjustment California will get by October.

The sales tax in Los Angeles County goes up to 9.75 percent today; the added half cent is for improvements outlined in Measure R. If you care about the subway like those placard wavers in the photo — or any other project in your nabe — go forth and spend recklessly like when Bush was in office.

Remember the Open Source Transit series on bus route changes to the Eastside Gold Line posted here earlier this year? If not, take a look back as it forms the basis for the follow-up: the Expo Line Transit Service Interface Proposal.

This is a rider-generated suggestion of bus line changes to better facilitate ridership along the Expo Line and its connecting services. There are three proposals for the principal agencies: Culver CityBus, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus and Metro.

Come back Monday, July 6, as the first of the proposals, featuring Culver CityBus, is available for your inspection. Feel free to leave comments here or the provided e-mail address on the post. Any correspondence will be sent along to the respective transit agencies for their feedback.

The tentative schedule will be Wednesday, July 8 for Big Blue Bus and Friday, July 10 for Metro changes.

Image by Yours Truly via Flickr
View and upload your transit photos like this one to the MetroRiderLA Flickr Pool

The biggest news of the upcoming service changes this Sunday is not on the full sheet of changes. It’s a late addition and likely will disappear in a few months.

Beginning Sunday, Metro is running Line 632, a Gold Line emulator service. It will follow the path of the Gold Line along East First and Fourth streets and stop near the rail stations. It costs $1.25 and will run weekdays only, every 10 minutes during rush hours and every 15 minutes midday.

Metro CEO Art Leahy has said the Eastside Gold Line may start running sometime before September, according to several news reports.

Photo by David A. Galvan via Flickr; used with a Creative Commons License
View and upload your transit photos like this one to the MetroRiderLA Flickr Pool

Metro is rolling out with its twice-annual shake-up Sunday and Monday for weekday-only lines.

The biggest changes include the restoration of weekend limited-stop service on San Fernando Road, as Line 794 will run from Sylmar to Downtown L.A. This will also mean the cancellation of Rapid Line 724, which ran along San Fernando Road and Lankershim Boulevard.

Another Rapid taking a big hit is Line 711 along Florence. It is losing weekend service.

The Eastside Gold Line is not running, but the bus service changes will go in place as though it is. Line 30 will no longer run along Floral Drive, and service will be reduced along East First Street. The Eastside will now get the new Line 287, which will run from the future Indiana Gold Line station and also take over service between East L.A. College and Montebello Town Center of Line 68.

The proposals to restructure El Monte Busway and Harbor Transitway service for new Line 910 have been postponed.

Following the jump is the list of all changes, as well as what had been proposed earlier this year: