Repent! lest one be consumed by the eternal damnation of the DASH!
Or so one might surmise from the religious crackpots packing up their signs at this DASH stop on 7th between Broadway and Spring. Even LADOT has formally implied the evil of this particular bus stop: "Unsafe Location" is hand-lettered at the top of the sign.
-BusTard
Being a fan of cartography, typography, illustration and print, I was excited to take some time from my itinerary of fighting, drinking and satire to drink in the Central Library's latest exhibit, L.A. Unfolded: Maps from The Los Angeles Public Library. It is a decent exhibit (the garish lighting against the Plexiglass and protective glass coverings is rather annoying, to state the least) yet one that I highly recommend. The late 19th Century maps on display are small in number but certainly worth the trip; here are a few, after the jump. . .
Continue reading "Pershing Square: What Was, What IS and what will never be. . . " »
We have all heard that adage about good help being hard to find. Apparently, Metro Customer Relations Manager Tom Horne has abandoned any desire to overcome this bulwark of human nature and just let L.A. transit be plain LAzy.
An hour after a post compiling TransitVue's various failures and glitches, a pair of monitors at the Santa Monica station along the Red Line introduced a new screw-up:
A year or so ago, Metro elected to blow $2.2 million to install 350 46" plasma screens, allegedly for the betterment of communicating to straphangers the arrival times of trains. But as with all things Metro, not only has the usual gone undone but all manner of new problems have been introduced despite the promises of the contractor, TransitVue.
Continue reading "TransitVue Takes A Dive on The Red Line" »
Earlier this week, the Daily News (L.A., not NYC) published an opinion piece wherein was stated the fact that some Metro drivers speak on their cell phones while driving. I and others to whom I have talked have witnessed such irresponsible behaviour, but after reading about it in a local daily, I decided to post this video from earlier this year.
Continue reading "Metro Driver Drives While On Cell Phone" »
There is all sorts of wrong with Metro's poor compensation of bus drivers. The public's safety is but one facet (and apparently an insignificant one) of hiring drivers for rates at which even a lowly newspaper production schmoe would scoff: "Trainee Rate:$11.09 p/hr - Start Rate:$14.38 p/hr - Top Rate:$22.12 p/hr."
As such, it is no wonder that the Daily News found out about a Metro drivers' scam that has been employed for quite some time.
Continue reading "Could These Be Unsold Embezzled Metro Drivers' Day Passes?" »
As there is neither a recession nor a depression, then it follows that tits and ass, drugs and death, wrong and right, AIN'T. Or so Metro implies, as this single slice of the debauchery to follow clearly illustrates:
It was a long week of research, this. In the end, a couple of us weary BusBenchers elected to sit down, down some drinks and watch a video of a Los Angeles-based illustrator whose work I have long admired. (I was unaware of the video until I found it at the main branch of the public library.) Titled "In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of The Californias," it is a low-budget albeit sharply produced documentary—replete with brilliant narrative that mocks most every aspect of California life in L.A. and 'Frisco—exhibiting Sandow Birk's voluminous cache of paintings of the same name.
Continue reading "What Will It Take To Get Folk To Take Mass Transit?" »
The Bus Bench’s roots are in Social Ecology.
The Bus Bench takes a satirical and editorial approach to dealing with the issue of mobility in Los Angeles. The emphasis of The Bus Bench is public transportation, but we also discuss class, race, gender and Downtown Los Angeles.
In commenting on The Bus Bench we do not mind if your opinion differs than that of an opinion of a writer on a particular post. We welcome discourse. We only ask that you be respectful. Do not be violent with your words.
Contact us at: browne@shametrainla.com
The Bus Bench is doing an art project on January 10th in collaboration with The Loft Gallery's Post-Post Apocalypse exhibit in San Pedro and we need a car to murder.
Are you ready to release yourself from the chain of car ownership? Do you want it documented?
(LA Bus) Metro Trip Planner. This would include directions on how to get anywhere using any bus or rail line in LA Country.
Big Blue BusWestside!!
Montebello Bus Eastside!!
Gardena Muni Southside!!
Foothills Transit The SGV!!
Did you know there was an official where to go and how to do fun stuff in L.A.? Well now you do: Experience L.A.
L.A. is a special place, so we have lots of events. Your public transit ride could be impacted check here. Special Events Street Closures.
RANDALL (BusTard) FLEMING has spent two decades working in most every facet of publishing. A former magazine publisher (Angry Thoreauan, 1987-2001), he has also contributed to a great many books, periodicals and newspapers in Los Angeles and New York: New York Post, Brooklyn Spectator, Discover Hollywood!, Ben Is Dead, Flipside, Los Feliz Ledger, Sabotage in The American Workplace (Pressure Drop Press), Notes From the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (Verso), and several of the Unreinforced Masonry Studio books about Los Angeles.
Art Gonzo was raised in Los Angeles. He is a visual artist. He has seen a bus. When not at The Bus Bench he is a contributor at LA Eastside.
A Valley-born Los Angeleno, Simon Ganz only recently returned from the liberal enclaves of Northern California where he, to his surprise, found himself more than happy living without a car. Now back in his hometown with only a political science major to show for his journey, he is of course constantly unemployed and hoping to join/start/follow a movement to create better transit for everyone in Los Angeles.
Rogelio Gomez is a public transit rider and an avid cyclist. He blogs at My Daily Ride when he's not sharing his adventures on The Bus Bench.
Sirinya Tritipeskul is a graduate student studying to become a transportation planner at UCLA. She writes on The Bus Bench about living car-free on the Westside. Her own blog, The Valley Girl Planner (in training), is a tribute to her Valley Girl roots and her travels around the Los Angeles area.
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