A Carless culture’s a series of posts that examines how we can make de-car-ing a sexy and viable travel solution for Angelenos.
Picked this up on the bus today, on my way to school. It’s a new MTA map (PDF) that shows you all the bus lines that run every 12 mins or less during the day on weekdays!
If you’re relying on public transportation, scheduling can be tough if you aren’t carrying a super hi-tech gadget that lets you log on to check bus schedules.
Meaning, if I took the bus to Green Drinks in Culver City, I basically need to know when exactly I’m leaving beforehand so I can make sure I’m at the stop in time to catch it.
The problem is — What if I want to have another drink? I then risk waiting at the bus stop for a long long time, if it’s one of those once an hour buses — or in the worst case scenario, I might miss the last bus.
Now I can just pull out this handy map to find the nearest bus line that’ll take me home whenever.
Actually, I just realized that Green Drinks wasn’t the best example cuz that happens at night, while the map’s about daytime services. But still — the map could be very useful for extended happy hour days.
I found out about this nice lil map via one of Zach’s post on LAist — which has now gotten Zach dubbed the 12-minute man.
What a great idea! I could have used one of these on my last trip to LA. I wish the SF Bay Area had one of these…or do they?? Perhaps I should do my homework. Thanks Siel.
Comment by Kristen — January 31, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Neat idea! My family just went down to one car… not all that deliberately, just that one died beyond reasonable repair. Since I work at home I only drive a couple times a week anyhow. Been more than a month since I had a working car of my own and doing fine, even with two small children.
Doctor’s appointments and such will require a bit more thought than before, but other than that things look promising for staying this way a while.
Comment by Stephanie — February 1, 2007 @ 10:29 pm
In my opinion the one biggest usability change they could make to Metro would be to make all the routes 12 (or less) minute routes. Personally I have to take a 1 hour route every day and it’s a pain in the neck. I easily loose half an hour every day just to ensure that I don’t miss the bus.
I wish I understood the criteria they use to determine when to increase the frequency of buses and how to effectively lobby for a particular change.
Comment by Nathan — February 2, 2007 @ 11:01 am
Stephanie — Congrats on getting down to 1 car! :)
Nathan — The best way, it seems to me, is to work with an existing transit group like SoCaTa, Friends4Expo, Transit Coalition, etc. If you can give me what particular changes you’re interested in, I can try to point you to a specific group –
Comment by Siel — February 2, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Yeah I saw your post a while back about SoCaTa. I’m going to get in touch with them. The particular changes I’m most interested in are to the 183 route. I’d like to see the frequency increased around commute times at least.
There is also this annoying random walk it does through the Burbank hills. Interestingly I saw an official proposal on the web at one point to make this change, but I wasn’t able to follow up on it and it certainly hasn’t happened.
In some sense I’ve turned this inconvenience into an advantage since in the morning I can get a 2.3 mile walk in and only lose 5 minutes, and in the afternoon I can catch a different bus and do a transfer to the 183 and sometimes cut 10 minutes to half hour off of my commute. However, given that the car trip is only 12 minutes, it’s not surprising that I’m one of the few people at my work that take the bus.
Sorry, didn’t mean to get into a rant. :-)
Comment by Nathan — February 2, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
Nathan wrote:
Yeah I saw your post a while back about SoCaTa. I’m going to get in touch with them. The particular changes I’m most interested in are to the 183 route. I’d like to see the frequency increased around commute times at least.
Metro’s proposing changes to 183, but it would be to eliminate the service east of Burbank.
If you are opposed to this change, you can either go in person to complain at the Van Nuys Civic Center on Tuesday, or send Metro an e-mail if you cannot attend.
See the information on metrorider.elhay.net.
Comment by Wad — February 4, 2007 @ 3:54 pm