•As you likely know by now, Los Angeles County health officials have extended safer-at-home orders indefinitely — but are also allowing thousands of businesses to reopen with restrictions. Here’s the LAT article.
Beaches are open — again with restrictions — as are hiking trails across L.A. County and other recreational venues (the walking/running loop around the Rose Bowl, for example).
The county’s Department of Public Health also reported another 1,264 new cases of Coronavirus today and another 47 deaths.
@lapublichealth Announces 47 New Deaths Related to#COVIDー19 and 1,264 New Cases of COVID-19 in LA County. New Health Officer Order allows for lower-risk businesses, select recreational facilities and beaches to reopen. View https://t.co/8AT3PnqExg for more pic.twitter.com/5mXzGeBjv9
— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) May 13, 2020
Our messaging does not change. Please use transit for essential travel:
Under L.A. County’s “Safer at Home” order, travel is only allowed for essential activities, including work to essential jobs (and there are many jobs considered essential), visiting a doctor or vet, obtaining medical supplies or medication, grocery shopping for yourself or others, providing care for minors, seniors, dependents and persons with disabilities or other vulnerabilities, legally mandated government purposes and to comply with law enforcement or court orders.
Riders on Metro buses and trains are now required to wear face coverings with an exception for those with certain health conditions or disabilities. On that note, I was out taking photos on Sunset, Vermont, Wilshire and Western on Tuesday and the vast majority of riders had face coverings. A few pics:
Photos by Steve Hymon/LA Metro.
In the news…
•In London, the safer at home orders have begun easing and some buses did not lack commuters. From Sky News:
Buses in London are packed with passengers this morning, despite the govt asking people to avoid public transport if possible when the #coronavirus lockdown eased.
Follow live as England gets back to work: https://t.co/HxzgZFnXnJ pic.twitter.com/pjTNBlg8ib
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 13, 2020
•There are now two motions by L.A. City Council Members on how to make more telecommuting more permanent (hat tip to Streetsblog LA for tracking this!). Neither is specific and both call for studies of possible policy mechanisms to encourage more telecommuting in the private sector. Before the pandemic, about five percent of employees in L.A. County were telecommuters — a pretty small number this far into the Internet Age, I think.
•Although most planes have a ton of empty seats, some are still pretty full, reports the NYT.
•Good explainer at the Five Thirty Eight blog on the different models being used to project the spread of the virus.
•Major League Baseball wants to begin the season in early July but that will require permission from the state of California – which hasn’t happened yet, reports the LAT. As for the All-Star Game that was supposed to take place at Dodger Stadium, no word yet whether that will go forward.
***
Dept. of Distraction: if you need a laugh, enjoy this beef stew recipe courtesy of the New Yorker. And if you are a ‘Seinfeld’ fan, here’s a great tribute to the late Jerry Stiller from his co-star Jason Alexander, via the NYT.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
Stick to train and bus issues instead of repeating the County fear and worry emails. We need to open up society and you need to be ready. Unfortunately Metro is not ready. Metro trains are packed with freeloading crazy homeless bums that nobody in their right mind wants to commute with.
There are thousands of cheap used rental cars for sale that will provide Los Angeles reliable transportation for those who didn’t get permanently laid off.
“Before the pandemic, about five percent of employees in L.A. County were telecommuters — a pretty small number this far into the Internet Age, I think.”
How do restaurant workers telecommute? How about Dr, RN, LVN, PA, CNA, and other healthcare workers? How about trash collectors, sewer workers, street sweepers? How about street and hi-way workers? How about gardeners? How about electricians, plumbers, construction workers? How about assembly line workers and other manufacturing employees? How about telecommunication field service and construction employees? How about those supplying water, gas, and electricity? Maybe we should try to get police officers and fire fighters to telecommute (along with transit workers).
Start doing the math on theses workers and look at what portion of the working population these entail.
You just named about every industry that can’t telecommute, now why don’t you start naming off the ones that CAN. In a workforce of nearly 5,000,0000 in the county, about 25% (1,250,000) work in “Information, Financial or Professional Service” ya know the things that just require you to be in front of a computer all day.
The financial advisors, politicians, the programmers, the accountants, the architects, the writers, the “creatives” the engineers, educators, counselors, the data analysts.
when you “start to do the math” as you asked, you realize that much more than 5% of the county can telecommute. Don’t be so naive
Why don’t you poke around here so you can work the math out for yourself.
https://data.lacounty.gov/Human-Resources/County-of-Los-Angeles-Employee-Statistics/sjq9-bcke