I’m not really sure why they called it that, but the Metropolitan Transportation Plan is holding “Tall Order: Moving the Region Forward,” a one-night, eight-venue simulcast town hall to hear from the public on how MTP might invest $36 billion over the next few decades. The event is being held tomorrow night in locations from Freeborn Hall to the El Dorado Office of Education and offers free food. It looks like you have to register to attend. Might I suggest that free food on the bus be priority #1?

The Sacramento News and Review is running a cover story this week about “life that exists every day on Sacramento’s buses and trains”.  Sound familiar?  It should if you’re a frequent visitor to this here web log.  Sac Rag authors/commenters CoolDMZ and HeyMeg have been posting and commenting about their daily observations on the RT for quite some time.  While SNR did a fine job with their piece, it just doesn’t compare to HeyMeg’s recounting of the discussion between “Eye Patch” and “No Teeth”.

If you’re like me, you enjoy musical accompaniment on your RT commute. Be it the popular Apple iPod device, a Walkman, or the songs in your head, there are certain tunes that really fit the bill for your particular route and time of day. For example, on a rainyish day like today, crossing the river on I5 heading into Natomas, Sufjan Stevens was where it was at. After work, heading uptown on the 50E I’m thinking maybe something a little more rockin.

Well, I want to hear from you. Leave a comment with your route and some songs that make it rock (or make it roll) for you. Perhaps we could get a mix CD going…so feel free to also donate several thousand dollars for permissions if you’d like to see that happen!

A few observations from my morning RT commute today:

I saw a “tag” under the I-5 J street offramp that read “The Warriors,” as in the dystopian 70s gang film. Does this mean that the kids are getting smarter (or at least more into kitsch popcult references)? Or does it mean that graffiti artists are just getting older. Any other Warriors fans out there?

Can anyone tell me what they’re doing with those long narrow concrete pillars on the site of The Towers? There are several dozen sticking out of the ground at different heights which leads me to assume they are being tested for strength or something. Anybody have any experience with skyscraper construction?

There hasn’t been much news on the Light Rail beat - just the usuall guys smoking huge fatties right in front of the police, etc. - but last night I witnessed a totally rad fight. A middle-aged business woman was getting on the train while a teeny-bopper Hallaback girl was getting off. They bumped into each other in the aisle. This prompted said Hallaback girl to go OFF, yo. She started screaming immediately (and now I will curse in the manner of Buster from Arrested Development) “F YOU, YOU B” to which the other woman simply and elegantly flipped the bird. The girl had to get off the train - it was her stop after all - but she continued yelling through the open doors, “I F-ed YOUR HUSBAND LAST NIGHT, B, AND HE PAID ME FOR IT TOO, HO!” This was repeated numerous times, louder and louder. I spent the next three stops trying to solve the riddle of whether being paid to have sex with someone’s husband wouldn’t in fact make you the “ho.” Light rail is SO much better than driving.

Here’s one way to have a cheap wedding.

No word on where the newlyweds plan to spend their honeymoon.

I’m sorry, but is 8:15 a.m. just a teensy bit early to smoke a fat one? My light rail commute this morning made me feel so old. I arrived at the 59th street stop running late and at a different stop than I usually use. There I observed a group of 6 teenagers smoking a nauseating amount of pot before walking off to school. I’m not sure if I’m was more annoyed at the smell or that they made me feel so old when I reacted with total shock that such young minds were getting so high that early in the morning. I made a joke with the business man standing beside me and he said they do it every single day there. Can anyone tell me, am I really getting old or is that maybe just the slightest bit excessive? I’m suspecting a combination since I’m also increasingly horrified by MTV. Squirty Tip, this is your chance to go off about medical marijuana, with love from yours truly.

I took the number 30 bus from East Sac to downtown yesterday. The bus driver was calling out each stop on his microphone. Cool. No problem. I was absorbed in my book pretty much ignoring it. Until he called out the Alhambra stop, and then belched before turning off the microphone. Ouch. Everyone looked slightly uncomfortable and there were a few snickers. Part of me thinks maybe he did on purpose, and part of that part of me thinks in that case, AWESOME! The other part of me feels confused and slightly violated. Plus the bus was late. Still better than driving and parking. That is all. Over and out.

This morning I arrived at my stop along the new “Gold Line” (formerly Sunrise line) on the light rail. You know, the one that’s been expanded to go to Folsom. When it runs. Everyone was milling around and there were about 5 times as many commuters as normal. After a few minutes it was clear that a) the train was not coming and b) it had not come for a while, leaving so many extra commuters waiting at my stop. Rumors were flying - that the train had just stopped one stop up, that there was some kind of threat to the train, etc. There was an RT truck parked but no RT worker and no sign posted with information. Finally, just as I was contemplating the bus map to figure out an alternate way to work, a bus driver came up and shouted that the whole line was down both directions and had been for over an hour. She said the stop before ours had at least 100 people waiting, so even when the train started again it would take several passes before we could fit on.
Continue reading “GOLD LINE DOWN! But Sac driver saves the day.” »

Apparently the huge popularity of the newly opened Folsom light-rail line caught Regional Transit off guard, too. I know that nobody likes the backseat urban planning guy (especially when he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about), but I’d like to know how something as large as a commuter rail line gets completed without a clear picture of how it’s going to be used. Survey, anyone? Polling? Calling random numbers? Anything ringing a bell?

But from the picture of RT this article paints, I guess the lack of user sampling is not the biggest obstacle RT faces.

Last week, a consultant for the south line extension told an RT committee it now looks like capital costs for that extension will be $150 million - a whopping $38 million more than anticipated.

And that’s not the only project over budget. If the people at RT misplace their tickets, they might want to look up their collective ass.
Continue reading “Folsom RT Woes” »