New MTA chair's priorities

We'll have a new MTA board chair on Sunday. The new boss wants to get things moving:

Santa Monica City Councilwoman Pam O’Connor will take over as chair of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board of directors Sunday. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will act as first vice chair, and county Supervisor Don Knabe will be second vice chair. "In the coming year, Los Angeles County faces many challenges as we strive to improve mobility for the region through implementation of various transportation improvement programs," O’Connor said. "I look forward to leading Metro on a course that encourages people to ride-share with car pools and van pools or take public transit whenever possible." The MTA will also continue its pursuit of transit-oriented developments, said O’Connor, who has been on the board since 2001. (CNS) (Photo: MTA)

Comments

[April w]

Hello, Good Morning

Does anyone know how man Transit (BUS) undercover Police there are.??? Lizacutie@yahoo.com

Its refreshing to read these comments and know that i'm not alone. Out the 7 years I have been riding MTA buses..I can tell you..I have seen it all. Total freak show, sometimes its not clean, I can't wear my nice clothes, bus drivers like to break hard..making you fly to the front of the bus and then cherry on top..bus drivers are rude. I cannot wait to get a car..I dont care if gas is $10 a gallon.

[laura jackson]

I have been left at the bus stop, helplessly waving at the driver as he sails by, more times than I care to remember. Even being obviously pregnant at twilight in downtown LA was not enough to get some drivers to stop. All I'm asking for is the BARE minimum: STOP! Sure, being polite would be nice, having a working fare box would be nice, there's lots that would be nice. But all of that is a moot point unless you have a customer! If I could lodge a formal complaint about the driver who ignored us today (Line 33, corner Olive/Venice @ 4:30p heading towards Union Station) I certainly would spend the time & energy (which he, ironically, didn't spend on us!). Unfortunately, after a lengthy internet search it appears no one at MTA cares to hear it. I suspect it's because they already know about their crappy service & figure what's the need to be told the obvious. No, better just to abuse those who paying them.

[BusTard]

The key phrase is "or take public transit whenever possible." When our latest denizen of the revolving door that is the MTA Chair states such AFTER succinctly mentioning motor vehicles, one cannot help but infer that she means "whenever the next behemoth happens to chug up to the dilapidated sign that may or may not be known as a bus stop by a newly hired bus driver."
I have too many videos that even now are being rendered for an upcoming release to show that Don Knabe, Tom Horne, et al are long over-due for being brought to justice for their negligence, incompetence and outright insincerity.
On a smaller point, Sheryl at 1:51 p.m. mentioned the fare box problem. That the MTA here seems unable to grasp the elementary convenience of the Metrocard, is indicative of what the bureaucrats think of straphangers and how inept is the system. Where twenty people boarding an M15 on Allen/1st Ave. in New York can do so in a matter of seconds, it almost ALWAYS requires a couple of minutes for ONE person to convince the ever-unreliable LAC-MTA fare boxes to suck down a dollar, or take more than one coin.
Hey, Pam: you have been in government for 30 years, and your teeth appear to be commensurate with the way the MTA works. Since you are asking the overly taxed for ideas about how to better run the buses and subways, lemme suggest that you take a day or two a week and ride them to understand the mess that is America’s Best. . . Wreck. Be glad I do not bill you with what I have already outlined on this and www.ShameTrainLA.com, for what your overpaid albeit grossly incompetent advisers have stolen from the coffers of taxpayers and straphangers.

[Carmen Gonzalez]

Earlier, the LA Times published a story about a study proving that transit-related developments actually increase congestion without raising use of public transit. Given this objective finding, I am disappointed that the MTA "will also continue its pursuit of transit-oriented developments" (see blurb above describing O'Conner's goals). Why let facts get in the way of a rosy view of adjacent transit housing?

[Sheryl]

Maybe Ms. O'Connor will be willing to step up and INSIST THAT THE BLOODY FARE BOXES WORK.

I take three buses--one very reliable local that's been reduced to 'rush hours' only service, a very hit and miss 'limited stop' north south arterial, and the utterly UNRELIABLE 20--to get to my job on Wilshire Blvd; that's six buses daily, 30 buses a week MINIMUM, as a commuter who refuses to pay more for parking than an EZ pass costs, even with the fare increase.

At least 10 fare boxes a week on these lines are NOT WORKING. After MILLIONS of dollars invested in the supposed 'upgrades' that TAP is supposedly going to provide, the theoretical ease of future fare increases, etc; THE F***ING THINGS DON'T WORK AT LEAST A THIRD OF THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, Metro is all 'oh, we'll pick up the fare when the rider transfers to the next bus.' The problem with that theory is that Metro is doing it's dead level damnedest to get OUT of the local service end of things with their dreadful "Metro Connections" program. For example, the 20 bus I caught this morning didn't have a working fare box--and probably half the people still on the bus when I got off were going to have to transfer to a SM Big Blue Bus at Westwood. METRO MISSED THOSE FARES.

With all the hullaballoo about raising fares, it would be REALLY nice if Metro would actually collect the bloody money.

[Jo Ellen Rismanchi]

My biggest complaint about mass transit is its lack of convenience. Commuters who commute from Palmdale or the Santa Clarita Valley and other outlying suburbs are faced with schedules that offer no flexibility. Miss one Metrolink train and the next doesn't arrive for an hour or hour and a half--same for the return evening.

The Redline offers flexible 10 to 20 minute trips that make access to the office and personal vehicles reasonable. My complaints about the Redline would be the lack of available parking around the stations and the lack of security on the train itself. While commuters are daily regaled with posters of dog sniffing bombs handled by the sherriffs, they routinely ignore the sleeping homeless and mentally ill commuters who frequent the lines. It is not an anomoly that these sherriffs socialize in the station while ignoring real security issues. Just this last week, upstairs they were handing out leaflets informing regarding the new price hike and a security survey. Downstairs, Sherriffs were visiting with commuters both on and off the cars. While having their conversation with commuters on the car, they deliberately overlooked three sleeping homeless commuters who no doubt probably had no tickets and were taking up six seats between them. These cops the sheriff provides are worse that the parking people who simply hand out parking tickets--at least the parking people do their jobs.

My second security complaint has always been the emergency button in the cars. If you have an aggressive or dangerous passenger on the train, one dares not push the button to only have the engineer yell back through the speaker system, "what do you need." The system needs to be two way so the engineer can hear what's going on--not to alert someone dangerous that help is being summoned that would put the emergency pusher at risk. No sensible commuter is going to report an emergency that would put themselves at risk.

Give me a Metrolink train that departs every 15 or 20 minutes and I'll retire from using my car to partially commute. Our gas taxes pay enough to contribute to mass transit that it should be planned for those farthest out--not local bus riders. Its those that live farthest out who pack the freeways and roads. Flexible mass transit, decent security, and ample parking is what Los Angeles needs.

[Jo Ellen Rismanchi]

My biggest complaint about mass transit is its lack of convenience. Commuters who commute from Palmdale or the Santa Clarita Valley and other outlying suburbs are faced with schedules that offer no flexibility. Miss one Metrolink train and the next doesn't arrive for an hour or hour and a half--same for the return evening.

The Redline offers flexible 10 to 20 minute trips that make access to the office and personal vehicles reasonable. My complaints about the Redline would be the lack of available parking around the stations and the lack of security on the train itself. While commuters are daily regaled with posters of dog sniffing bombs handled by the sherriffs, they routinely ignore the sleeping homeless and mentally ill commuters who frequent the lines. It is not an anomoly that these sherriffs socialize in the station while ignoring real security issues. Just this last week, upstairs they were handing out leaflets informing regarding the new price hike and a security survey. Downstairs, Sherriffs were visiting with commuters both on and off the cars. While having their conversation with commuters on the car, they deliberately overlooked three sleeping homeless commuters who no doubt probably had no tickets and were taking up six seats between them. These cops the sheriff provides are worse that the parking people who simply hand out parking tickets--at least the parking people do their jobs.

My second security complaint has always been the emergency button in the cars. If you have an aggressive or dangerous passenger on the train, one dares not push the button to only have the engineer yell back through the speaker system, "what do you need." The system needs to be two way so the engineer can hear what's going on--not to alert someone dangerous that help is being summoned that would put the emergency pusher at risk. No sensible commuter is going to report an emergency that would put themselves at risk.

Give me a Metrolink train that departs every 15 or 20 minutes and I'll retire from using my car to partially commute. Our gas taxes pay enough to contribute to mass transit that it should be planned for those farthest out--not local bus riders. Its those that live farthest out who pack the freeways and roads. Flexible mass transit, decent security, and ample parking is what Los Angeles needs.

[steve housewright]

Ms. O'Conner, please get the MTA drivers to be more friendly and helpful to people who are unsure of MTA's routes. I have great empathy for riders who are new to the system and for tourists when they climb aboard an MTA bus, only to be belittled by nasty MTA drivers for not knowing their way around. I see it happen all the time.

And please help deliver more transportation down Highland Ave and La Brea Ave - two of the major arteries in town with awful bus schedules.

And how about some bus schedules for those of us with a nightlife after 9PM?

Thank you for your consideration.