The Bus Bench

Wouldn't it be nice, if cars were banned.

From the Car Free Networks YouTube Site.

A video by Heather.

If He Is Alive, Will He Vote to Renew Metro's Contract with Sheriff?

Just over a week ago, a man was beaten and left for dead on the Blue Line's Pacific platform. The downtown Long Beach platform, which is supposedly overseen by the L.A. County Sheriff, is one of many Blue Line platforms obviously neglected by the deputies.

L.A. Sheriff deputy allows ADA violation (Pershing Square)

This summer, my interest in the significant presence of L.A. County Sheriff's deputies at pershing Square was piqued when I observed a terse conversation between a deputy and a frustrated, wheel-chair bound Metro patron. The deputy appeared to be annoyed that he had to answer to a person regarding the blocked passageway—the vehicle blocking it being a Metro contractor's vehicle.

Metro Sheriffs to Transit Advocate: "Your First Amendment Rights Are Not in Service"

What happens when a well-recognised transit advocate waiting to buy a newspaper is physically threatened by Metro sheriffs that gather daily at Pershing Square Red Line station? Libelous and unfounded accusations of terrorism as well as intimidation, unwarranted arrest and all manner of implicit threats to one's future liberties and life, followed by constant accusations of creating scandal for scandal's sake. My protests of being unlawfully detained were met with the phrase, "Tell it to the judge." The day's motif is sure to be best appreciated in the final video of this post's Twin Towers/County Jail misadventure, which satirically addresses a few of the very topics that the hired guns of Metro's Transit Security Bureau alleges in a fashion too serious to forget.

Pallet Mover on Sixth Street

These are tough times and even the LAPD knows it. At least, that is what I imagine may have prompted the cruiser in the far right lane to not see what my camera caught last week as the guy with the stack of pallets wheeled uninterrupted to one of the pallet recyclers on Alameda Street:

-BusTard

A DASH of New York, now in L.A.

I make a weekly tour or two to pick up mail in Franklin Hills, and occasionally the DASH happens to be waiting at the curb as I exit the Red Line's Sunset/Vermont station. Last week I spied a development on the DASH that I noticed was remarkably similar to a mid-town (Manhattan) LED crawl while awaiting the downtown R last December.

First the new DASH:

Now the mid-town marque:

-BusTard

Cue The Stupid Tuba!

In a city, license is frequently taken with respect to motor vehicles on the street. (For instance, Brooklyn is notorious for the double-parking.) In Los Angeles, it is not so much that folk just do whatever the hell they wanna do to get something done as they simply do not observe the bleeding obvious and then react stupidly upon the startling realisation of such idiocy.

Is Metro Hiring? They Should 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.

Priority Seating for Boneheads

'Nuff said.

-BusTard

TransitVue's Latest Failure

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: