I've been De-Rapided!
A post (that I'm sure you've all read, riveted as you are on my every sentence) about five years ago lamented the fact that a "Rapid" bus was added to my line along Beverly to work. Thankfully for me they added a stop at Doheny Drive which made it more accessible, but I stand behind my original argument that it was a dippy idea in the first place. Apparently the people at METRO (what they're calling themselves these days until they collapse a street under an orphanage and change the name again) have decided the 714 was silly and are killing it. Could it be? A rare case of common sense from Metro? We'll see. They say that they will apply those resources to the non-express 14 line. I certainly hope this means that I can expect not to grow a beard waiting for a bus that actually goes to Beverly and Pico rather than just to the Beverly Center. Because, METRO, traffic is getting worse and worse. If you actually served the Westside people who live here might take you. The fact that I was late for a meeting at BH City Hall that was at 2:30 when I was at the bus stop on Olive downtown for your "Rapid" bus at 1:08 doesn't bode well for you. Or the fact that you don't run a Wilshire local bus past Westwood or a Santa Monica Blvd. bus past Sepulveda during the hours when anyone would be awake. I shudder to think what you'll do when you have your subway...
Here's a concept for you. Get out of your Lexus and take your system. You have the chance to align your subway with major bus routes; don't blow it. Stop the stupid practice of having local buses stop a block away from rapid ones; most of us don't care if we have to walk a few blocks, we just want to get there in the same year. In short, if you can't figure out some way to make this system work, how about asking some of us who make the choice to use it.
Perhaps even, I don't know, listen?
Image from http://www.chaffeeyiu.com
