alex davis

💯

DM me if you are interested in helping join the effort to bring fare enforcement back to Los Angeles. We need all the help we can get!

bsky.app/profile/alex...

You're not the only Angeleno who supports bringing fare enforcement back to LA. DM me if you want to join the effort!

bsky.app/profile/alex...

If they were willing to just say "Yeah, we stopped enforcing fares because we don't care anymore but we still keep the TAP system running anyway because half the riders seem to have kept paying without enforcement.", it could save you, me, the other authors and SAJE/ACT-LA a whooole lot of time.

Two Surfliner trains parked side by side across the platform at Santa Fe Depot in San Diego.

bell yeah

Friends, acquaintances and low-effort assassins, come meet me on this train on December 21st!

Remembering Frank Gehry, LA Metro enforcement fare, and more

Here's the Spotify link to my on-air debate with LA Metro's Deputy Chief of System Security for those who prefer a more podcastical experience.

open.spotify.com/episode/56Ef...

Over the segment, he claimed that fare inspections were already happening and also that they "would not be fiscally responsible or feasible". Pick a lane, my guy!

The fact is, Mr Gummer, I and the other report authors all want a Metro where rules are respected. Let's work together to get there. 🚌🤝

This morning, I was invited on the LAist's AirTalk with Larry Mantle where I debated Robert Gummer (Deputy Chief of Metro Security) about LA Metro's unauthorized 5-year suspension of fare enforcement.

You can listen to the full segment here (segment 5):

laist.com/news/remembe...

Unless they do an emergency bus-substitution on the race day. Then you'll never be able to keep up.

You were made for this. That stupid obama-streetcar lookin, development district circulator type donkey cart won't even know what just zoomed past.

So this is why you've been hitting the gym so much this year.

But don't worry! They've come up with a genius strategy to tell the two apart. They've put yellow backing on the ones for traffic and black backing on the ones for trains. And this will work until

*checks notes*

nighttime.

It will be interesting to see if Caltrain's operating cost per rider goes down, which would be the real victory. You can always increase ridership by doubling frequency, but if that doesn't at least double the ridership, you might have invested that operating funding in the wrong place.

Toronto making their new light rail signals look identical to traffic signals is deranged, and it's not even universally a Canadian thing. Check out these very MUTCD-lookin' signals in Edmonton (left) compared to the standard variety on SEPTA (right).

yes

That's amazing that you know the manufacturers! I just think the indent is less necessary when you have more cushion.

Big Blue Bus seats that are soft and easily cleaned

Big Blue is in the S-tier for sure. They have the cushy yet easy to clean material. But there are two features that make GTrans simply a cut above. First, we've got the little hole in the bottom so spilled liquid doesn't pool and sink in. Second, there's definitely a bit more puff in the stuff.

G-Trans Bus Seats

I'm gonna speak truth to power: GTrans has the best designed bus seats in all of LA County, and there are a LOT of competitors on the field. Here's my logic.

Rug seats like on Culver and Torrance are gross. Auto-disqualified.

Metro is the opposite extreme: easy to clean but no cush for the tush.

Huge thanks to everyone who came out. Together, we can win this and bring equitable fare enforcement to Los Angeles with labor-efficient randomized fare checks, small civil punishments and Metro's generous existing low-income fare discount program: LIFE.

The tough part of working in the post-pandemic transit sector is that for us, everything really did always used to be better 10 years ago. It's not in our heads!

I fucking hate this stupid blue line and how every time it goes down, it's a herculean task to get it even halfway back to where it was.

What would you move on to after transit?

That's so perfect. They really hired the right guy. Congratulations.

And also only hourly and extremely circuitous. Yes, this is insane.

You rang?

Illustration from The Arrival by Shaun Tan showing a realm where hundreds of kids have to shovel coal into furnaces apparently.

How it feel going back to work after 4 day weekend

Me, Erica and the extremely unequipped Nissan Versa we drive on a 4WD high-clearance road in Mojave National Preserve.

Cars don't belong in cities. They belong here, being driven over miles of jagged lava rocks at 50 mph. (You can't slow down, or you get stuck in the sand.)

That $25/day young driver fee isn't nearly enough.

Me sitting on top of the Mojave Lava Tube

Erica entering the Mojave Lava Tube

Rare Mojave Desert cacti grow in the unique volcanic rock ecosystem around the lava tube

Erica and I standing under a skylight in the Mojave Lava Tube

27k years ago, this place (Cima Volcanic Field) saw wave after wave of lava flows. And while I wouldn't recommend getting out your surfboard, it did get totally tubular.

But maybe the claim is just that it's happening at the stations, not on vehicles. That is believable.

I'm very skeptical of the drug use link in this case. You know I'm the first to point out that free fares bring the needles and spoons out. But this is an 8 minute segment. I don't think strung out tweakers are interrupting their high to ride back the other way as soon as they hit West Kerby.