Another day, another 5 bags and a couple of hands full of trash. I picked up some new, better fitting gloves yesterday, which made picking up trash and cleaning up the ground a little easier.
A woman from my apartment building who owns dogs was out this evening and talked to me a little. She always asks me about riding my bike. She previously lived in Japan and would ride all of the time, but feels unsafe riding a bike here in LA. She also told me she has been picking up some glass in that area (so her dogs aren't hurt!) so she was happy to see me cleaning. At another point a somewhat dirty man carrying a bag and a guitar walked by and smiled and said something about building your community! That was odd, yet also again very encouraging. I stayed out for about 40 minutes, picking up trash and cleaning up the land a little.
Toward the end, a guy appeared with a grocery basket, trying to pick up the few recyclables I had left in the bushes. Then he walked over to the blue bin I had been filling with recyclables and pulled out all the cans and bottles, including the ones I had just put in there. On one hand, I wanted to pull out the ones I just picked up and give them to him and gently remind him that removing stuff from the blue bins isn't exactly legal. On the other, I knew many of those bottles and cans had been sitting in the bushes since last week because I didn't pull the out of the bushes at that time and I don't know if he would have even gone through the effort of removing some (I had gloves and some tools to help). Then again, most of the time when people are digging through the recycling bins, things aren't great. But the money for the recycling program comes from the things being recycled. I didn't say anything in the end, but I could tell he was trying to avoid me.
After reading about The Daily Ocean where beach trash is collected every day and weighted and photographed in some ways, I thought I would share some of the gross/weird things I found today (although I didn't have my camera):
-beer can still filled with beer and a condom (gross!)
-most of a roasted chicken from the nearby Ralphs in a plastic container
-a few security tops from bottles of alcohol (looks like some stole some alkehol)
-a bottle of arnica montana homeopathic medicine
-tons of styrofoam cups and very few plastic bags
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In other news, yesterday morning as I approached the Gold Line at Union Station, I saw a sign saying something to the effect of "You agree to have your bag searched if you step beyond this point", this point being the ticket area leading to the Gold Line. Blood boiling! I knew these bag searching were happening with the Metrolink, but I was not happy to see this. I'm not really sure how I feel about riding the train knowing this is happening now, even though I don't have anything to hide. I just don't want people's noses in my bags when I'm just trying to get to work.
There is also something weird going on with the sheriffs on the metro in general. Today while riding the Gold Line to Pasadena, sheriffs came on the train twice to check tickets, in about a 10-15 minute period. When I maybe foolishly asked what was going on, another regular on the train mentioned this happened earlier in the week too. The thing that I find so weird is that someone that rides the train or bus every single day would only have to be caught once every month to 3 months to make it more cost effective to pay for your daily rides instead of getting fined! I don't know if someone is trying to artificially raise the sheriff costs before they install turnstiles, if they've had some sudden rash of problems and are searching for certain people or are just hoping to make people's day horrible when they legitimately can't find their pass/ticket or what, but this is rather odd.
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Showing posts with label MTA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MTA. Show all posts
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Summer Evenings
Near my apartment building, there is a somewhat abandoned, yet regularly used piece of land. Over the years, I've watched how people use the land and talked to some of those people. No one has ever said they liked how it is being used right now. The current plant coverage and accommodations brings many issues with it including trash, rats, homeless individuals, tagging and lack of necessary pathways. Pretty much everyone would like to see it in more of a park-like state friendly for people sitting, walking their dogs and possibly some community garden aspects. I've been trying to work with some of my neighborhood associations, but it seems to be a semi-slow process.
Next to this piece of land is another little strip of land that no one seems to pay attention to and no one claims to own. It pretty much consists of trash, dead plants, plants with giant burrs and dandelions.
For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to spend time outside dealing with these areas. On one hand, I just want it fixed and what better way than to do it myself. I use this land every day when walking to my destinations and it bothers me. I am sure the trash there only makes people see it as being ownerless.
The first evening I went out with a plastic grocery bag and went to work. After only a couple of minutes someone came up to me and asked if I was being paid to do this. In the conversation that followed I made a friend and found someone that was older, but excited to see someone doing something. He gave me some suggestions and encouragement and was excited to see what I could do. I ended up collecting probably 8 bags of trash that evening. I picked up bag after bag, easily recycled cans and bottles, paper of all sorts, plastic wrappers and other random plastic pieces.
A week later, the plants were already filled with trash again, but I held back and instead started focusing on the little, somewhat super abandoned land without anyone claiming it. I started intensely weeding it, getting deep at the roots of the plants and digging into the ground. I was surprised to find it's quite a few inches of rocks with some dirt.
I haven't made too much progress with that, but the process of digging in the soil, sifting it through my fingers and picking up things is somewhat soothing. My friend came out again this evening while I worked, excited as ever, wondering what I have in store. I guess he's been trying to get someone to do something with this land for a while, trying to find the owner, but no one wants to claim it. I managed to pick up some baby aloe plants on freecycle recently, so I'm thinking about adding some of those. I'm somewhat interested in the possible challenge of trying to fill the space with freecycle or gathered plant seeds/sprouts, but we'll see. In some ways I've started approaching this as a challenge to myself to see what I can do. While I always played in the dirt growing up and helped my mom and whatnot in the garden, I've never done something like this as an adult.
Next to this piece of land is another little strip of land that no one seems to pay attention to and no one claims to own. It pretty much consists of trash, dead plants, plants with giant burrs and dandelions.
For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to spend time outside dealing with these areas. On one hand, I just want it fixed and what better way than to do it myself. I use this land every day when walking to my destinations and it bothers me. I am sure the trash there only makes people see it as being ownerless.
The first evening I went out with a plastic grocery bag and went to work. After only a couple of minutes someone came up to me and asked if I was being paid to do this. In the conversation that followed I made a friend and found someone that was older, but excited to see someone doing something. He gave me some suggestions and encouragement and was excited to see what I could do. I ended up collecting probably 8 bags of trash that evening. I picked up bag after bag, easily recycled cans and bottles, paper of all sorts, plastic wrappers and other random plastic pieces.
A week later, the plants were already filled with trash again, but I held back and instead started focusing on the little, somewhat super abandoned land without anyone claiming it. I started intensely weeding it, getting deep at the roots of the plants and digging into the ground. I was surprised to find it's quite a few inches of rocks with some dirt.
I haven't made too much progress with that, but the process of digging in the soil, sifting it through my fingers and picking up things is somewhat soothing. My friend came out again this evening while I worked, excited as ever, wondering what I have in store. I guess he's been trying to get someone to do something with this land for a while, trying to find the owner, but no one wants to claim it. I managed to pick up some baby aloe plants on freecycle recently, so I'm thinking about adding some of those. I'm somewhat interested in the possible challenge of trying to fill the space with freecycle or gathered plant seeds/sprouts, but we'll see. In some ways I've started approaching this as a challenge to myself to see what I can do. While I always played in the dirt growing up and helped my mom and whatnot in the garden, I've never done something like this as an adult.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Subway Adventures
This morning seemed pretty normal. I woke up, took care of my pets and plants and left for the train on time. The Red Line train arrived at Universal City station as expected. Somewhere along the way between Universal and Hollywood and Highland while I was enjoying music on my mp3 player, I heard the driver announcing something. I didn't think much of it as they frequently announce train stops and what train and direction you're riding in. A guy standing near me suddenly had a taken aback expression on his face, so I pulled off my headphones only to find out the announcement was over. We gradually slowed down, a horrible smell began permeating the air and then we stopped.
Everyone stood and sat in the train quietly as the driver announced he was going to see if he could repair the train. The air turned off an on as he ran up and down the side of the train along the subway tunnel walkway. When the air was off, the car was oddly quiet. Considering everyone was sitting there silently save for the occasional cough or sneeze and the quiet buzzing of people listening to music that's maybe a little too loud. At one point the guy that made the expression that first alerted me to the situation said "Why can't we go? I thought they said it was a power problem. The air is on."
After about 30 minutes, we got an announcement saying we would evacuate the train and walk to the next station or a cross walk. Although I could sense some people were starting to get anxious, this was suddenly getting more exciting. They gave us some general direction on only opening one door of each car and everyone exiting from the car, one car at a time. As soon as the announcement stopped, one woman got up from her seat and started walking towards the end of the car where I was standing and most everyone else on that end of the car followed.
While standing around trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed a stream of riders walking along the outside of the car. Someone asked what was going on because based on the evacuation announcement, we expected people to walk through the middle of each car to the front car and from there, exit through a single door onto the pathway, however the people walking outside of the car were walking toward the front of the train. People inside of the car I was in stood with their cameras flashing, taking pictures of the stream of people walking by and periodically stopping.
I heard some noise on the end of the train car with the driver area and some metro officers appeared and told us to travel through the middle of the train cars. 2 guys in front of my walked their bikes through, but I wondered how this would have worked with some of the people I've seen in wheelchairs in the past, as there were decent sized gaps between the doors on each car. It was an odd sensation to walk in a line through the middle of each train car (I think we went through 3 cars) while watching people travel along a somewhat dark path in a parallel line on the other side of the train windows.
Finally we got to the front of the train where more metro officers were standing and we had to exit the train and integrate into the line of people traveling on the walkway. Since I had just traveled through the train up until then, I have to admit I felt a little nervous as I stood in the tube shaped tunnel with the 2, maybe 2 1/2 foot wide walkway pressed against the left side and nothing on the right. It's somewhat surprisingly clean and empty outside of odd patterns all over the walls. Maybe every 20 feet along the walkway on the wall is a florescent light tube and along the entire way there is a railing. The floor was bare concrete and there was a straight drop to the tracks below. Just like walking along the train tracks in the station, but with a somewhat narrow walkway and less lighting.
A girl behind me said "I bet no one was expecting this today!" and another girl in front of me had out her video camera and was recording the whole walk. The walk was stop and go and occasionally I'd look back at the train and try to look ahead. I didn't realize that we were walking uphill until we were almost to the station and when I looked back to the train, it was suspended there shining it's crazy train light-eyes at us. I forgot to look for the little plaques telling you how many feet in either direction to the nearest station, but I think we probably walked between 600-800 feet before we walked down some steps and past a weird metal cage looking area that allowed you to see through to the train on the other side of the tracks and a giant marked area on the wall that said "DANGER DO NOT DRILL HIGH VOLTAGE" with giant yellow lines over it. We then walked up a few more stairs and we were at Hollywood and Highland on a jammed platform.
In all, the trip between Universal City and Hollywood and Highland took about an hour. I know some people were agitated with the delay because they were late, but in all I don't feel like it was a bad experience. In fact, I thought it was fun in some ways and outside of the horrible smell at the beginning (I didn't smell it when we walked through the trains) and a little bit of discomfort when the air was off on the train. I image the experience might have been a little confusing for people that didn't speak English as I only heard English announcements and no one did any sort of translations on the car I was on. Walking along the tunnel was exciting if not a little scary as well. Not that I'd want to do this every day or anything, but I felt reasonably safe throughout the process.
Everyone stood and sat in the train quietly as the driver announced he was going to see if he could repair the train. The air turned off an on as he ran up and down the side of the train along the subway tunnel walkway. When the air was off, the car was oddly quiet. Considering everyone was sitting there silently save for the occasional cough or sneeze and the quiet buzzing of people listening to music that's maybe a little too loud. At one point the guy that made the expression that first alerted me to the situation said "Why can't we go? I thought they said it was a power problem. The air is on."
After about 30 minutes, we got an announcement saying we would evacuate the train and walk to the next station or a cross walk. Although I could sense some people were starting to get anxious, this was suddenly getting more exciting. They gave us some general direction on only opening one door of each car and everyone exiting from the car, one car at a time. As soon as the announcement stopped, one woman got up from her seat and started walking towards the end of the car where I was standing and most everyone else on that end of the car followed.
While standing around trying to figure out what was going on, I noticed a stream of riders walking along the outside of the car. Someone asked what was going on because based on the evacuation announcement, we expected people to walk through the middle of each car to the front car and from there, exit through a single door onto the pathway, however the people walking outside of the car were walking toward the front of the train. People inside of the car I was in stood with their cameras flashing, taking pictures of the stream of people walking by and periodically stopping.
I heard some noise on the end of the train car with the driver area and some metro officers appeared and told us to travel through the middle of the train cars. 2 guys in front of my walked their bikes through, but I wondered how this would have worked with some of the people I've seen in wheelchairs in the past, as there were decent sized gaps between the doors on each car. It was an odd sensation to walk in a line through the middle of each train car (I think we went through 3 cars) while watching people travel along a somewhat dark path in a parallel line on the other side of the train windows.
Finally we got to the front of the train where more metro officers were standing and we had to exit the train and integrate into the line of people traveling on the walkway. Since I had just traveled through the train up until then, I have to admit I felt a little nervous as I stood in the tube shaped tunnel with the 2, maybe 2 1/2 foot wide walkway pressed against the left side and nothing on the right. It's somewhat surprisingly clean and empty outside of odd patterns all over the walls. Maybe every 20 feet along the walkway on the wall is a florescent light tube and along the entire way there is a railing. The floor was bare concrete and there was a straight drop to the tracks below. Just like walking along the train tracks in the station, but with a somewhat narrow walkway and less lighting.
A girl behind me said "I bet no one was expecting this today!" and another girl in front of me had out her video camera and was recording the whole walk. The walk was stop and go and occasionally I'd look back at the train and try to look ahead. I didn't realize that we were walking uphill until we were almost to the station and when I looked back to the train, it was suspended there shining it's crazy train light-eyes at us. I forgot to look for the little plaques telling you how many feet in either direction to the nearest station, but I think we probably walked between 600-800 feet before we walked down some steps and past a weird metal cage looking area that allowed you to see through to the train on the other side of the tracks and a giant marked area on the wall that said "DANGER DO NOT DRILL HIGH VOLTAGE" with giant yellow lines over it. We then walked up a few more stairs and we were at Hollywood and Highland on a jammed platform.
In all, the trip between Universal City and Hollywood and Highland took about an hour. I know some people were agitated with the delay because they were late, but in all I don't feel like it was a bad experience. In fact, I thought it was fun in some ways and outside of the horrible smell at the beginning (I didn't smell it when we walked through the trains) and a little bit of discomfort when the air was off on the train. I image the experience might have been a little confusing for people that didn't speak English as I only heard English announcements and no one did any sort of translations on the car I was on. Walking along the tunnel was exciting if not a little scary as well. Not that I'd want to do this every day or anything, but I felt reasonably safe throughout the process.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Guilty until you prove your Worth
So the Sheriffs have become more aggressive about checking passes recently on the Red and Gold Lines. At times it seems like they are at the Union Station TAP stations at the Red Line and at the top of the stairs at the Gold Line every other day. In about 30 minutes I tap my card when entering the Red Line, tap my card to the sheriff's card reader, tap my card at the Gold Line and tap my card on another sheriff's card reader.
This has frustrated me more than once. Many times the one or two sheriffs with the card readers are off talking to someone else and not paying attention for people coming toward them. The process of a flood of people trying to tap their cards at once has caused me to miss trains more than once. As it is, the amount of time I spend waiting for a transfer train can almost half of to equal to what it would take me to drive to work. Some days it is difficult not to think about this.
Today I also realized that every cent on making sure me, a paying customer (no, I've never been on the train before without paying!!) actually did pay is a wasted cent. I already paid. They aren't going to get anymore unless something horrible happens or I lose my ticket. So does that mean the money they spent on making sure me and all the others that paid actually did pay is still less than what they gain by finding the few people that actually didn't buy a pass or just had a crappy day? Suddenly riding the train took on such a different level of stress. They're waiting for me to fail so they can take as much money as possible from me? They don't care if me, a paying MTA patron, gets so fed up with the delays that I stop using their transportation? Losing that money is more than worth the money made by ticketing people after paying for the 8-10 sheriffs standing around to check my pass?
The only other explanation I can come up with is that they are gaining some other form of information by making this happen that makes the cost of sheriffs checking my pass multiple times in a day worthwhile. Maybe this is how they force some data to be collected (seeing how long I'm on the train, where I am going, how long it takes me to get to the next connection, how long they need you to stand in one place for them to get the desired image of you.)
Either way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. When I questioned one of the sheriffs about it today she replied "Well this is what you have to do at the airport!" That's hardly a reason to bother your paying customers multiple times in a day and delay them, but I'd also never ride an airplane every single day, partially because it is such a hassle. I don't think that's the sort of idea they want to promote.
I've always been pretty bull headed. It's something I can't deny. I've always been one to question things, which can be frustrating to myself and others. I work in an industry that leaves me a bit more attuned to these types of situations as well. I sometimes wonder how many things would be different about Los Angeles public transportation, sidewalks and bike paths if the people making decisions about them had to also utilize them every day.
This has frustrated me more than once. Many times the one or two sheriffs with the card readers are off talking to someone else and not paying attention for people coming toward them. The process of a flood of people trying to tap their cards at once has caused me to miss trains more than once. As it is, the amount of time I spend waiting for a transfer train can almost half of to equal to what it would take me to drive to work. Some days it is difficult not to think about this.
Today I also realized that every cent on making sure me, a paying customer (no, I've never been on the train before without paying!!) actually did pay is a wasted cent. I already paid. They aren't going to get anymore unless something horrible happens or I lose my ticket. So does that mean the money they spent on making sure me and all the others that paid actually did pay is still less than what they gain by finding the few people that actually didn't buy a pass or just had a crappy day? Suddenly riding the train took on such a different level of stress. They're waiting for me to fail so they can take as much money as possible from me? They don't care if me, a paying MTA patron, gets so fed up with the delays that I stop using their transportation? Losing that money is more than worth the money made by ticketing people after paying for the 8-10 sheriffs standing around to check my pass?
The only other explanation I can come up with is that they are gaining some other form of information by making this happen that makes the cost of sheriffs checking my pass multiple times in a day worthwhile. Maybe this is how they force some data to be collected (seeing how long I'm on the train, where I am going, how long it takes me to get to the next connection, how long they need you to stand in one place for them to get the desired image of you.)
Either way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. When I questioned one of the sheriffs about it today she replied "Well this is what you have to do at the airport!" That's hardly a reason to bother your paying customers multiple times in a day and delay them, but I'd also never ride an airplane every single day, partially because it is such a hassle. I don't think that's the sort of idea they want to promote.
I've always been pretty bull headed. It's something I can't deny. I've always been one to question things, which can be frustrating to myself and others. I work in an industry that leaves me a bit more attuned to these types of situations as well. I sometimes wonder how many things would be different about Los Angeles public transportation, sidewalks and bike paths if the people making decisions about them had to also utilize them every day.
Monday, November 24, 2008
NBC/Universal Red Line Project
Today is the last day to send feedback on the Environmental Impact Report to jon.foreman@lacity.org about the NBC/Universal Project planned on top of the Metro Universal City Red Line station.
This particular topic hits close to home for me because this project is planned on top of the subway station I use every day to get to work and home. After reviewing the Environmental Impact report I was rather stunned in the lack of consideration for the people that are already using the Red Line in this neighborhood. I know there are those statistics floating around from a few years ago about people not using the Metro Rail Line in their neighborhood despite living close to the stations, but that still doesn't mean anyone is using them. If any of those people are like me, I honestly had no idea I lived near a Red Line station for about a year. It wasn't really advertised and frankly a little weird looking elevator structure that I passed on the street didn't scream "Public Transportation HERE" to me.
The project has no planned pedestrian or bicyclist mitigation that I can find besides a potential Pedestrian Bridge leading from the Red Line to the current Universal Studios property. Even that isn't a definite. Many of the project's significant and unavoidable impacts directly affect those that walk and bicycle to the train station. The project is expected to generate 15,000 additional car trips in the area per a day (they only expect 2000 public transportation trips from their employees per a day). The resulting traffic issues will spread all through the area past all path ways that bicyclists and pedestrians must walk. There are about 8 or 9 nearby freeway on and off ramps that will have additional traffic on as a result. Some of these ramps are already extremely unsafe as drivers are both exiting and entering at high speeds and are generally not looking for slow moving bikes and pedestrians. There is also 7 years of construction planned that would at one point include moving hundreds of trucks of dirt out of the site and onto the freeway, every day.
Air quality levels around the construction sites (that are on top of the Red Line) during the 7 years of construction will be affected negatively. Multiple air quality measurements will exceed safety thresholds. This is where people must walk and bike to get to their public transportation without the covered safety of a car. There is no mitigation planned to deal with this.
The planned project will also include excessive noise, which again pedestrians and bicyclst are particularly susceptible to since they do not have the closed in car to protect them. Construction is set to go on for 21 hours a day at some points of the project.
The end project also includes a huge number of animated, moving and illuminated signs, which again come with no mitigation to ensure that pedestrians and bicyclists will be safe while moving through this area. These sorts of signs have a tendency to draw people's attention away from the street, which is a major safety issue.
For a project that is being touted as LEED certified, I am amazed at the lack of consideration for the already existing "greeness" of the surrounding community. This project also has a stated goal of encouraging use of the transit system and as the plans stands, there is a very real possibility of this project discouraging those that are currently using the system to continue. The train stop where I get off for work has been under construction for the past 2 years. As much as I hate driving, I found driving to be less stressful than dealing with some of the construction near the rail stop, so I stopped riding the train for a period of time until the construction was completed. There was no consideration taken for those that had to walk along the sidewalks without closure warnings, past people using jackhammers, sidewalks were closed and left with huge open trenches for weeks on end. Sidewalks were constantly littered with screws, nails, stray pieces of metal and wood and who knows what else. I got my tetanus shot as a precaution. Marked sidewalk closures only lead people to even worse sidewalk conditions. Cars were equally confused by closures, which then puts pedestrians at a higher risk. If we want people to use the public transportation systems we need to not treat those riding them as 3rd class citizens. Walking and biking through construction for 7 years with a result of increased traffic and no safety measure for bicyclists or pedestrians is an alarming development for a "green" company.
I urge you to please write to jon.foreman@lacity.org and email him any questions or comments you have on this project and what they plan to do to preserve the current metro ridership and help keep people out of their cars.
This particular topic hits close to home for me because this project is planned on top of the subway station I use every day to get to work and home. After reviewing the Environmental Impact report I was rather stunned in the lack of consideration for the people that are already using the Red Line in this neighborhood. I know there are those statistics floating around from a few years ago about people not using the Metro Rail Line in their neighborhood despite living close to the stations, but that still doesn't mean anyone is using them. If any of those people are like me, I honestly had no idea I lived near a Red Line station for about a year. It wasn't really advertised and frankly a little weird looking elevator structure that I passed on the street didn't scream "Public Transportation HERE" to me.
The project has no planned pedestrian or bicyclist mitigation that I can find besides a potential Pedestrian Bridge leading from the Red Line to the current Universal Studios property. Even that isn't a definite. Many of the project's significant and unavoidable impacts directly affect those that walk and bicycle to the train station. The project is expected to generate 15,000 additional car trips in the area per a day (they only expect 2000 public transportation trips from their employees per a day). The resulting traffic issues will spread all through the area past all path ways that bicyclists and pedestrians must walk. There are about 8 or 9 nearby freeway on and off ramps that will have additional traffic on as a result. Some of these ramps are already extremely unsafe as drivers are both exiting and entering at high speeds and are generally not looking for slow moving bikes and pedestrians. There is also 7 years of construction planned that would at one point include moving hundreds of trucks of dirt out of the site and onto the freeway, every day.
Air quality levels around the construction sites (that are on top of the Red Line) during the 7 years of construction will be affected negatively. Multiple air quality measurements will exceed safety thresholds. This is where people must walk and bike to get to their public transportation without the covered safety of a car. There is no mitigation planned to deal with this.
The planned project will also include excessive noise, which again pedestrians and bicyclst are particularly susceptible to since they do not have the closed in car to protect them. Construction is set to go on for 21 hours a day at some points of the project.
The end project also includes a huge number of animated, moving and illuminated signs, which again come with no mitigation to ensure that pedestrians and bicyclists will be safe while moving through this area. These sorts of signs have a tendency to draw people's attention away from the street, which is a major safety issue.
For a project that is being touted as LEED certified, I am amazed at the lack of consideration for the already existing "greeness" of the surrounding community. This project also has a stated goal of encouraging use of the transit system and as the plans stands, there is a very real possibility of this project discouraging those that are currently using the system to continue. The train stop where I get off for work has been under construction for the past 2 years. As much as I hate driving, I found driving to be less stressful than dealing with some of the construction near the rail stop, so I stopped riding the train for a period of time until the construction was completed. There was no consideration taken for those that had to walk along the sidewalks without closure warnings, past people using jackhammers, sidewalks were closed and left with huge open trenches for weeks on end. Sidewalks were constantly littered with screws, nails, stray pieces of metal and wood and who knows what else. I got my tetanus shot as a precaution. Marked sidewalk closures only lead people to even worse sidewalk conditions. Cars were equally confused by closures, which then puts pedestrians at a higher risk. If we want people to use the public transportation systems we need to not treat those riding them as 3rd class citizens. Walking and biking through construction for 7 years with a result of increased traffic and no safety measure for bicyclists or pedestrians is an alarming development for a "green" company.
I urge you to please write to jon.foreman@lacity.org and email him any questions or comments you have on this project and what they plan to do to preserve the current metro ridership and help keep people out of their cars.
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