Stupid Little Buses on the 177

July 15, 2005 by Eric Richardson

If I'm not biking into work I have to take the 177 (PDF Schedule) from Pasadena to JPL and back. The buses that they use on the route are absolutely the worst I've ever ridden in. They're little, they ride horribly on the freeway, and oftentimes they seem to have other issues.

In the last week, for instance, there was one trip in which the bill collector on the fare machine was broken. The driver had to just let people on without making them pay, and probably passed up about $20 in fare just from JPL alone. Even worse, though, was the door. These little buses have a motor that operates the door, and apparently this one didn't want to quite work. It would get the door about 3/4 of the way closed, and that's it. So we rode down the 210 from JPL to Pasadena with the front door partially open. That doesn't seem too safe.

This morning I thought maybe things were going to get better. Up pulls a normal bus, with 177 written on a piece of paper and stuck in the window. The side of the bus was completely white, save for the "Travel Smart, Go Metro" sticker text. Obviously it had fresh paint over a Foothill Transit scheme, and inside the Foothill ads were still up. The ride was infinitely nicer and I didn't feel like the windows were going to rattle loose and fall off.

This afternoon, though, no luck. Back to the good old little buses. This time the air was out, so we had to ride down the freeway with all the windows open.

I hate those things.

Doh!

July 09, 2005 by Eric Richardson

In case you were wondering, the Office Depot in Little Tokyo closes at 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday. I just found that out. My quest to purchase a USB ethernet adaptor (for the Tivo) and 8-port switch will have to wait.

On the plus side, though, I finally got around today to checking what kind of batteries my wireless mouse takes, since it died just over one month ago. Multiple times I've been at the store and thought to get them, but stopped because I didn't know which kind. Turns out it takes AA.

Doh!

Someone Go Tell Richard Katz that Expo Line Isn't a Subway

July 08, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Newly appointed to the MTA Board, Richard Katz was on the KCRW show Which Way LA? Wednesday. Host Warren Olney kept asking about the "subway to the sea" that Antonio had talked about in his campaign. Interestingly, though, all of Katz answers were about Expo. It was sort of weird. Consider these exchanges:

WO: "Tom Bradley, when he ran for mayor in 1973, said they'd break ground on a new rapid transit system in 18 months. I remember asking him in, I think, his second and third terms when that was finally going to happen. Is the subway to the sea going to turn out to be that kind of situation?"

RK: "No, I think that what the Mayor is saying is that at the same time as we're doing the small fixes to fix commuting in Los Angeles ... we need to also be looking at the big picture ... and that includes taking the Exposition line west."

...

WO: "I don't want to be a one-note interviewer here, but back to the subway to the sea ... would expanding the Alameda Corridor be a more immediate priority?"

RK: "I think you have to look at both. Expanding the Alameda Corridor East certainly helps the movement of goods and helps the economy of Southern California. Being able to use the Exposition Line helps people get around Los Angeles better and helps people move from the Westside and the Southside in a much better fashion."

So what's the deal? Is Richard Katz anti-Red Line, or has Antonio quickly shifted his attention to a project that will get to Santa Monica a lot cheaper, albeit via a much slower trip?

Fun With Search Queries

July 06, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Forget top queries that people use to get here... Those are boring. It's the random out of the blue queries I love, and it's been a while since I took a look at those. Today I happened to be in the June logs and noticed some that I enjoyed. Note that these are just for the blog.

  • blog post comment -login -password -registered
  • a-10 warthogs for sale
  • california law joy ride fine
  • how to hack into a usc email account

All According to Plan...

July 02, 2005 by Eric Richardson

My interesting trip plans for Friday actually turned out to work quite well. Kathy and I met up at Union Station and bought tickets for the 11:20 Metrolink to San Bernadino. Or that was at least where the train was headed; we got off in Upland. There we had to wait 15 minutes or so, but the taxi driver I had scheduled did turn up and took us on the short drive to the airport.

It turns out this cabbie was actually doing dispatch from his car... No radio, just a cell phone mounted on the dash that calls would come into. He'd write down the street address and tell him an approximate time to pick-up. My favorite part, though: sitting in the bottom of the trunk were a set of golf clubs. I assume they were his, but I didn't ask.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to check in, get through security (a five minute process, if that), and eat at Applebees before having to walk to the gate and board.

So now I'm in Denver until tomorrow evening. Then back to LA.