Riding the Metro 704

I had the opportunity to ride the new 704 express service on Santa Monica Blvd yesterday. It's the first week of service, so naturally things are a mess. The MTA ride planner claims that the downtown SM stop is at 4th street, the timetable says 2nd street and the bus actually stops at 3rd street. The drivers apparently are on strict orders not to pick anyone up at the unreal stops, and are frustrated by the poor information about what's going on.

The ride was in a single-segment red bus, and didn't feel appreciably faster or more convenient than the old 304 service, although a big part of that is the traffic on SMB which gets jammed badly before the 405, and then from Century City to Fairfax. The Century City stop has been moved into the transition lane in the middle of the street, which doubtless caused a great deal of confusion for riders on Monday.

With a service change like this, the MTA really needs to get signage better posted (I was looking for the big red "Rapid" signs which weren't in use in Santa Monica, and a lot (all?) of the 304 signs are still up, just to add to the confusion. At 3rd/Santa Monica there's a tiny little indication on one of the small-sized signs that this is where the 704 stops.

On the plus side, the buses seem to come a lot more frequently than the advertised 20 minute headway. This will make my biweekly trip to Hollywood for writing group a little easier.

NP: "Advice & Consent," All Creatures Great and Small
WC: 48,842, ECD: 20 Jul 2007.

Lazy Sunday

My wife and I had a wonderful Sunday yesterday. We started with lunch at Chichen Itza's new location on 6th Street, a short block away from the corner of McArthur Park. I had the Cochinita Pibil which was easily the tenderest meat I've ever eaten, while Nalleli had the Pac Chuc, which tasted to my mind an awful lot like the Bohemian-style roast park I grew up with. She drank agua de guanabana (doot DOO doo doot doot) while I had horchata. For dessert we split the flan, which was especially good (or, perhaps, as Nalleli claims, I'm just becoming accustomed to flan).

Thence we walked over to McArthur park to ride the paddle boats before it's too late (the last day is currently scheduled as Saturday so get out there). For $7 for half an hour, it's an inexpensive bit of fun. Get out to McArthur (or Echo Park), ride the paddle boat, then call your council member and tell them that they've got to keep these things running.

NP: "Mahna Mahna," Cake, For the Kids
WC: 48,842, ECD: 20 Jul 2007.

Dashing about Century City

The L.A. Times Bottleneck blog reports:

Century City is a part of L.A. famous for its lack of pedestrian life (though we've reported that there is a new push from urban planners to fix that with better street furniture, cafes, etc.). Would a new DASH bus line help? There is now talk of adding the minibus service (fairly popular downtown) to Century City

Century City might be somewhat pedestrian hostile in its design, but a quick trip over there around lunch time will reveal that this alone doesn't keep the denizens of the various highrise office buildings there from walking over to the mall for lunch. It's not quite Manhattan, but that's more a function of lack of dining options than lack of sidewalks.

And yes, when I used to work in Fox Plaza, I had co-workers who would drive from the Fox parking garage on Olympic to the Mall Parking lot to go to lunch, but I also saw plenty of other people from Nakatomi Plaza walking the two blocks over.

NP: "One for the Vine," Genesis, Wind and Wuthering
WC: 48,842, ECD: 20 Jul 2007.

True headlines

O.J. Simpson Slams Press Over Paris Hilton Coverage

NP: "Whad'Ya Know, June 10th 2007"
WC: 48,842, ECD: 20 Jul 2007.