COVID-19 and Metro News; August 30, 2021

by ,

The number of new COVID-19 cases continue to persist in our area. Please get vaccinated to help slow the spread! There are six vaccination clinics at easy-to-reach Metro stations. Vaccines are free, and no insurance or citizenship documentation is required. More info here. 

•In terms of bus and rail service, we have another round of service changes on Sept. 12 that will add more trips to more bus lines and add more frequent B/D (Red/Purple) Line subway service during peak hours. The bus changes are part of Metro’s NextGen Bus Plan to restructure our bus system to make it more frequent and convenient. All the details are here and this online tool will show changes to your bus line.

•Earlier this month, the TSA said all riders on mass transit — except those with a medical excuse — had extended the mask requirement for public transit — and other transportation carriers — through Jan. 18, 2022. Here’s the TSA news release. Please wear a face mask on Metro and we have dispensers across the system if you need a mask.

In other Metro news…

•Metro continues to work with local cities to install more bus priority lanes. The city of L.A. added bus lanes on 5th and 6th Streets in DTLA last year, as well as Alvarado Street this summer. And now this potential pair of lanes in DTLA:

 

•Reminder: as the baseball season rounds third and heads for home, the Dodger Stadium Express offers a good alternative to driving to the ballpark. Should be a fun late summer and autumn as the Dodgers try to chase down the Giants in the NL West. And this bit of fun: if the season ended today, the Dodgers would host the Cincinnati Reds in the wildcard game. I’m sure the stacked Dodgers would easily flatten the Reds — I mean there’s like zero chance the lowly Reds could beat the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in the playoffs, right?

•For NFL fans, the first regular season game with fans at SoFi Stadium will be on Sunday, Sept. 12, when the Rams host the Chicago Bears in the evening game — 5:20 p.m. our time. More info here on Metro’s new shuttle bus between the C Line and SoFi.

In the news….

Not much good news on the weather/climate front, as I’m sure you heard. Just in the last week Louisiana got hit with a hurricane, floods ravaged Tennessee and South Lake Tahoe is currently being evacuated as the Caldor fire approaches the area.

The Sac Bee also reported today that all 20 million acres of national forest in California could be closed this coming holiday weekend (nine forests in Nor Cal are already closed) due to fire danger and to prevent new fires from starting. On Sept. 9 of last year, the U.S. Forest Service also closed all the national forests in the state for the same reasons.

That is a tough state of affairs, two years running. Obviously the ongoing drought is making everything hard. But many experts also point to climate change as exacerbating the dangerous weather the U.S. and many other places around the world have experienced.

Here’s the thing. While global warming may feel like this one of those problems too big to do anything about, we can all do something. In particular, drive a little less, if possible — and use transit a little bit more.

•Cleaning up the trucks that drive to/from the ports would certainly help reduce smog in our region and greenhouse gases. But how to get to zero emission, and who is going to pay for it, remains a source of debate, reports the Daily Breeze.

•A smart post at Crosstown looking at Census Data for L.A. Not a shocker, but commutes got a bit longer between 2010 and 2019.

•Now here’s a nugget: commutes of 90 minutes or more in each direction have increased across the U.S. in the last decade. The metro areas with the most growth in longer commutes are NOT in SoCal — Stockton, Modesto, Riverside, Santa Rosa and San Jose, reports the NYT.

This confirms The Source’s long-standing view that the Bay Area and Central Valley’s traffic can be every bit as bad as ours, if not worse.

•Wonky but smart post at Eno on how funding for mass transit was reduced by $10 billion during negotiations this summer over the infrastructure bill.

 

Categories: Transportation Headlines

5 replies ›

  2. Instead of issuing another useless news release that face masks are required on public transportation, why don’t you actually get onto a bus or train and order some of the people who are not wearing face masks to do so? And why don’t you tell some of the police officers and sheriffs deputies who are SUPPOSED to be protecting us, to enforce the face mask rule, also? EVERY TIME that I ride the train, many of the passengers are not wearing face masks.

  3. Lol! This is RICH! Considering the fact that some of your Metro Bus Drivers DO NOT WEAR FACE MASK 😷 on Line #212 on a daily basis! Btw this fact has been reported numerous times in vain!

    • Hi Ms. Noflin;

      Thank you — and who have you reported to?

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

    • Public service announcement broadcast on the bus and train: “Per Federal Law, all passengers must wear face mask to ride Metro …….. “. Somehow it does not mention operator.

      I don’t know if it is a loophole or really the “Federal Law”.