Riding on the Sunset Strip Limited

So, I have been taking public transportation since the beginning of the year. Yes, there is public transportation in Los Angeles. If you are lucky enough to live and work sufficiently close to it, the system can work for you. Fortunately, my law school is located a couple of hundred yards from a major subway stop, and the train station is near the freeway on which I drive to work.

I use the train most days I have to go to school. I have noticed that, in the last couple of months, there has been a significant jump in the number of riders.  The trains are fuller. Worse are the subways, which are much more crowded, except in the middle of the day. So, overall, rising gas prices have made public transportation more eceonomically viable, but less attractive. At the same time, when I drive, I notice traffic being considerably lighter than it was last summer. So the commute by automobile has become more attractive again. Having bought a gas-sipping compact, I am also finding that the direct monetary cost of commuting is well below the cost of public transportation. Still, I like public transportation because I like trains, and I gain time to do work.

But the public transportation system in L.A. has not, in my opinion, maximized its potential. They need to increase the number of cars on their trains. If Amtrak trains can pull six passenger cars on my route, Metrolink should be able to pull more than three to accommodate more riders. The subways should have six cars each, perhaps more. These changes would have a marginal cost, but would greatly enhance passenger comfort and retain riders. It would also make it easier to avoid that certain passenger from Simi Valley who is constantly picking something out of her hair and flicking it about.

The MTA has launched only lukewarm and haphazard advertising and information campaigns. I think that I have found a possible solution to create a “buzz” and get people out of their cars and into public transit: the Santiago Plan. A bit cheeky, I suppose. But I think you will find this plan as demonstrated in a stripped-down version on the videotape a compelling one. This is the best use to which I have seen the poles put. Moreover, if such a “goddess of the subway,” as the Chilean press dubbed her, also collected fares, cheating would diminish as male riders, at least, (plus some others on the Hollywood line) would happily place their one dollar fares on the person of such a conductor. That, in turn, would allow the transit police that now (occasionally) checks for fares, to be used for more productive activities, such as patrolling the stations against obnoxious drug-addled vagabonds. This is a winning proposition.

Oh,…but wait a minute. Given the looks and sizes of the great majority of transit riders and MTA personnel, maybe one does not want to have such bottoms-up acrobatics performed in close proximity to one’s visage.

BTW, notice how the enthusiastic ecdysiast required a rather substantial police escort. Why? It doesn’t appear that she was a pair of .38s or other weapons. Then she and a police escort were placed in an armored car. Was that for her protection, or for the police’s?