Metro simplifies — and jacks up — fares, Pasadena unveils bike action plan update, and Halloween rides roll on Friday

October 26, 2022 / / 3 comments

Let’s start with a little non-bike news, although it could affect anyone with a multimodal commute.

Metro is hosting a virtual public hearing on November 14th to get community input on a proposed rate change to “simplify” transit rates.

Although it looks more like a rate increase from here.

The LA County transportation authority promises to eliminate daily, weekly and monthly passes, as well as transfers, replacing them with stored-value cards and fare caps.

Under the proposal, Metro’s basic fare will increase from the current $1.75 to $2, with a daily max of $6, and a weekly cap of $20.

While that will benefit people who make multiple trips in a single day, or over 12 trips each week, it will nearly double the cost for a typical two-way commute with a transfer in each direction, from the current $3.50 roundtrip fare to $6.

Which is exactly how I use Metro in most cases.

A single roundtrip with no transfers will increase slightly, from $3.50 to $4. Meanwhile, weekly costs will jump from the current $12.50 for a weekly pass to a max of $20, while the current $50 monthly pass will be replaced with a max of $80 for four weeks.

That doesn’t exactly sound like a good deal to me, but your mileage may vary.

And it’s definitely not the no-fare transit system Metro promised to study and report back on.

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ActiveSGV shares the update to Pasadena’s 2015 Bicycle Transportation Action Plan we discussed yesterday, which was rolled out at last night’s Municipal Services Committee meeting.

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It looks like an early kickoff to Halloween weekend, with a pair of spooky rides set to roll this Friday.

First up is ActiveSGV’s Halloween-themed ebike tour of Pasadena.

Meanwhile, the monthly LA Critical Mass rolls just an hour later for their annual Halloween ride.

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Now that’s more like it.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. A San Diego TV station insists a bike counter on a North Park bike lane is double-counting some bike riders, even though the city insists it’s been double-checked for accuracy while explaining that ridership naturally decreases in the fall when weather cools and school is back in session.

No bias here, either. In a story hidden behind a paywall, the Bay Area’s East Bay Times reports that the bike lane on the Richmond-San Raphael Bridge exacerbates pollution and congestion, directly contradicting a new study showing protected bike lanes have the opposite effect.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Police throw the book at an Ohio man, who was arrested for obstructing official business, failure to disclose personal information and lack of bicycle signal devices after refusing to give his name when cops stopped him for riding without lights on his bike.

There’s a special place in hell for the New York man who rode his bicycle up to an 18-year old Hasidic man and punched the Jewish teen in the back of the head without warning.

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Local

Jennifer Hudson is one of us, riding her bicycle on the Warner Brothers lot, as the EGOT-winning actress, singer and talks how host is named Glamour’s Woman of the Year.

Long Beach is looking for volunteers for the city’s annual two-day bike count, scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday.

Los Angeles and Orange Counties are slated to share $295 million dollars in new state active transportation funding, including projects on Western Ave in South LA, Osbourne Street in Pacoima, and the LA River Greenway in the East San Fernando Valley.

 

State 

A Goleta incumbent says he hasn’t decided about plans for a lane reduction and bike lanes on the city’s Hollister Ave, while his challenger for a seat on the city council is strongly in favor of it, as well as expanding bike and pedestrian access throughout the city.

Tragic news from Kern County, where a 14-year old Tehachapi boy was killed as he was riding his bike on the sidewalk when a pickup driver failed to see him while exiting a driveway; a crowdfunding page has raised over $14,000 of the $20,000 goal to help pay his funeral expenses.

A San Francisco district supervisor was criticized for rolling back the area’s Slow Streets program after one senior citizen was killed and another injured by a speeding driver as they walked in the Sunset District.

 

National

A new four-part documentary series looks back to a ragtag cross-country bike ride, when a group of inexperienced teenagers set out to ride across the US on whatever bikes they could get their hands on.

US Transportation Secretary Pete says Elon Musk’s Hyperloop idea sounds “super interesting,” but Musk can pay for the damn thing himself. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

Flying Magazine recommends taking your bike with you if you’re flying your private plane into an airport near a rail trail, especially if you own a foldie.

Bellingham, Washington is removing parking spaces and installing bike lanes in a cynical effort to run off homeless people living in their vehicles.

Denver pauses its popular ebike rebate program for the remainder of the year, after burning through three years worth of the vouchers in the first six months.

After a Kansas City bike mechanic was injured in a hit-and-run, a crowdfunding campaign raised over $20,000 in just 24 hours to help him get back on his feet, easily topping the low $5,000 goal.

A weekly Houston Pride Ride returned to the streets for the first time since a 45-year-old father was killed by a hit-and-run driver after falling into the street two weeks ago.

A Boston TV station rushes to the aid of a woman who was charged for failing to return a bikeshare bike that wouldn’t register when she tried to dock it.

New York residents are taking out their anger over losing parking spaces for a new Forest Hills protected bike lane by blaming the K-rail dividers.

A 35-year old Florida woman was arrested on charges of hit-and-run causing death and tampering with physical evidence, four months after she allegedly crashed into the 56-year old victim as he was riding his bike home, knocking him off a bridge and into a river.

 

International

Road.cc looks at a handful of new products, including what they say may be the year’s best looking bike helmet, while Bike Biz offers a guide to the latest new bikes and accessories.

Audi claims their new vehicle-to-vehicle system is the secret to improving safety for people on bicycles — even if their massive SUVs are designed to kill anyone outside of a vehicle.

Horrible news from Wales, where a man claiming to be the area’s “the most accomplished car thief” faces an attempted murder charge for deliberately running down a man riding a bicycle, leaving the victim paralyzed from the waste down, in what appears to have started as some sort of grievance between the two,

A new funky looking Dutch ebike claims to be the world’s safest.

 

Competitive Cycling

Gear Junkie offers a brief tutorial on breakaways, pace lines and how to draft.

 

Finally…

A college writer suggests “No Bike Wednesdays” to give campus bike thieves a day off. Who says you can’t do a backflip on a cargo bike?

And that feeling when the city’s brilliant solution to a tree root breaking through a bike lane is…spray paint.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

3 comments

  1. Lionel Mares says:
    October 26, 2022 at 5:34 am

    Los Angeles Metro has lost its mind! The most wealthy employees are Metro should get a pay freeze just like Marston from LAHSA did while she was its director. This will put a huge burden on the working class and Latino/Hispanic people. This is wrong. It is discriminatory against non-whites who can’t afford to pay one cent more for public transportation. Metro has not done anything to improve bus/rail safety and frequency at the San Fernando Valley; including bike lanes/paths.

    This is wrong! They should do better! This is a regressive tax.

    • J says:
      October 26, 2022 at 8:16 am

      It is wrong to have no in person hearing no honest summary no real claim of equity or incentivizing efficient use of the system by choice riders.

      The rush hour is going to be more congested as the off peak use incentives are struck! Those people will pay far more and congest to spite.

      As people remove toes from water altogether transit for all hopes dim.

  2. J says:
    October 26, 2022 at 9:02 am

    The fundamental reality is that the public has passed taxation to support Transit and so few are currently benefiting from that with so little Transit having been created despite unbelievable SUms having been spent burrowing tunnels through the Earth. This is the tragedy of this proposal as it shifts the cost from daily users to those like this blogs writer who occasionally contribute as they are biking the rest of the time or working from home.

    We are not restoring even the former contribution of those most able to pay of those who are getting the greatest cost assistance. On both ends we see the wrong direction. Instead of a round trip costing 35 cents for the poorest who are using a seat that is going to be available no matter what they are now charged tWo dollars regardless of their burden to other riders while very very expensive routes have the passenger contribution cut nearly in half which could increase the cost of those routes slightly but not enough to justify the loss of revenue as bribing people to join public vehicles for additional miles is a form of cheating more likely to get people to move far where there are no Transit resources in surplus but inducing demand for additional ones that are in fact corruptly TO THE MAX burdensomely granted.

    I have never seen a process as corrupt as this one. It has too many facets it has no decision deadline no chance of the public hearing process being continued or a decision that night while people are paying attention.

    They can simply get rid of the most absurd aspects of this and people will be grateful. It does seem like some things have been put in just to distract people to have us waste our energy resisting them when there is little chance of having suffering of them.

    The labor EVEN to keep the escalators operating in some cases cannot be defended. ‘Large’ Capital investments are needed to avoid continuously tinkering.

    The worst part about this proposal is that people who can easily afford to drive are no longer able to have Transit be available to them should they choose it.

    If we come for what we need it will not be built. That may be a very simple fact of this position taken by Metro but it is not representative of the change in awareness of the necessity to not own a car and drive it alone.

    Approving these changes does much of the harm removing the farebox altogether would do without the benefits!

    Fair boxes are very expensive in the past able to do a great amount optimization for us. We have not given them permission to charge dollars just to step on the bus for one stop and have no ability to not have to pay dollars again to travel single additional stop.

    Or has has been pointed out even one more boarding for just a single block.

    Some workers of course are going to pay unbelievable amounts. It will cost $6 the first day to get to work and have a dozen dollars to get home. For their next shift they will pay an additional $12.

    For each of the two weeks a month that they work they will pay $24 just to go to work twice. Their work may not be very far away. But this is what they will be required to pay. An extra 8.50 a ‘day!’

    Obviously they will drive. We’ll need a parking space by the affordable apartment and one for them at work. . .likely they won’t pay for that.

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