Trio

The Transportation Mind of Los Angeles (Hello World)

Greetings loved ones,

Let’s take a journey through the LA roadways!

1, 2, 3 BOOM!!!!  3 seconds.  It took me 3 seconds to realize that I was not going to stop in time.  3 seconds before my car rear-ended the SUV in front of me.  Don’t underestimate the Christmas rush-hour traffic near the local shopping malls or else your car will end up like Toyo (my poor little 98’ Toyota Corolla that will always hold a place in my heart).  All I wanted was a burger from Happy Burger, but instead I got a totaled car, 2 nice cops, and muscle relaxers for my aching back (Ironically, to this day I have never tasted their burgers because I am afraid they are jinxed).  It’s been over 2 years since the accident and I still have an inability to drive with any of my friends because I flinch whenever they get too close to the car in front of them.  My subconscious has blocked the chilling event from my head, so I cannot exactly remember what happened.  But I do know one thing; the day I got in a car accident changed my life forever.   

But the world has continued to turn and now I am a student studying real estate development at one of the best universities in the world.  Urban planning has become a passion of mine as I have been introduced to it by my professors and see a need for CHANGE!!  I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived here my entire life. I love living in Los Angeles.  But the Los Angeles that I know has traffic that rules our roadways, as thousands of people commute to work every day.  Traffic has gotten so bad that stopped rush hour traffic on the freeway has turned into a regular pastime. Often, it seems we wait an eternity to get to our final destination.  I will admit that I am that woman who puts on make-up in the car when the traffic slows my car to a halt.

I did not always used to drive cars, and instead got around using public transportation.  Growing up in Manhattan Beach, I was able to walk anywhere or take the bus to the neighboring cities.  I have some of the best stories from my adventures on the Metro bus, but you will have to continue reading my future posts in order to read them because I don’t have enough time now to tell you.  But through all of my experience, I have found that people will only ride the Metro bus for 3 reasons:

1. People don’t know how to drive or have no driver’s license
2. People have a driver’s license, but no car to drive
3. People enjoy taking the bus and this is their preferred method of transportation

Isn’t it crazy to think that some people actually ride the bus everyday for the pure pleasure of riding the bus?  Who would ever want to ride the bus for fun?  I wish that the public transit system in Los Angeles was more efficient and did not require lots of time and patience just to get from point A to point B.  Riders are usually forced to transfer a few times from bus to bus or even from bus to train or light rail just to reach their final destination. 

Therefore, my goal is to address these inefficiencies that have resulted in the major transit problems in Los Angeles and try to figure out a way to solve them.  I want all of the transportation enthusiasts out there to give me their opinions and ideas and participate in an active discussion about what is happening within the realm of transportation in Los Angeles.

But I really want to get people to leave their cars at home and encourage them to hop on a bus and experience public transit for what it really is.  I know it can be scary to leave the comfort of your car (because that is all you know), but I promise that you will survive.  Most people keep to themselves, so the buses are usually quiet, which gives you plenty of time to partake in my favorite pastime: people watching.  It’s perfect, because everyone is focused on their next stop than on the people around them.  So I challenge everyone to take a chance and step outside of their comfort zone and experience the Los Angeles public transit system and create some stories of your own!

That is all for now, but I look forward to taking a wild ride with you through these issues and relaying personal experience with a pinch of academic research and interviews to address these problems.  I want to see what LA can do to become more pedestrian, bike, and public transit friendly and hit on issues such as race, class, gender, etc.  This is a new era where cars need to stop ruling the roadways!

Way to Go, I Finally Found a Blog! (Profile Blog)

I hate reading.  It is my least favorite thing to do, so the fact that I actually read the last sentence of the post says something about this blog and its authors.  Way2Go-Transporation for the 21^st Century is sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund and consists of a group of bloggers: Peter Ashcroft, who is an automotive focused policy analyst, John Mimikakis, who is a senior policy manager, and Kathryn Phillips, who is the director of the California Transportation and Air Initiative.  It is ideal that the bloggers appear to specialize in public policy, since the mission of the EDF is to unite community, business and government in order to find realistic solutions to the looming environmental issues that society seems to ignore.

I love how out of all of the posts, (each blogger seems to post at least once every 2 weeks, which adds up quickly) I was attracted to Carrie Denning, a blogger who will no longer be writing for the blog. 

California has long been considered a car-culture. Images of iconic drives along Big Sur and through redwood forests are as ubiquitous as surf boards and the Golden Gate. Meanwhile, the East Coast is often synonymous with fast and sleek metro systems packed full of commuters.

How ironic is it that Carrie is heading to the East Coast and is forced to drive, when the East Coast has some of the leading public transit systems in the world?  It is refreshing to hear that Los Angeles is not the only city that is in dire need of an updated public transit system.  Her writing style personifies what I want my blog to represent. Carrie’s strong voice doesn’t overpower or force ideas onto her readers like the Jesus-freak protesters that picket at nearby community colleges or at the end of the Rose Parade.  She wants her readers to develop their own opinions.  Instead of coinciding with emotional reactions (which as we learned from the Gulf, does not help things), people can think about them differently and develop well-thought out, viable solutions.  I can’t believe that this blog doesn’t have a huge fan base, which is evident from the lack of comments and the fact that technorati.com has never heard of this site. 

Kathryn Phillips caught my attention as she also writes with a similar captivating style.  “Stimulus Plan? Taking Transit Can Save You $10,000” begins with her co-workers explaining how they are going to spend their mad money.  Saving $10,000 is a huge incentive for people to utilize public transit more often and fight against the general public’s misconceptions.  But how does using public transportation turn into $10,000?  I had to finish reading in order to find the answer and see what the catch was, because this seemed too good to be true.  By the end of the post, I knew the answer and became an advocate for a Senate bill that fights for the addition of funds to our public transit systems.       

Way2Go’s blog grabs its audience’s attention and tries to reach out to the American public for support and help.  They have great topics, which will help me start thinking about posts for my blog; however, I want to interview actual people in the field and not just use literary articles as my main source of information. Instead, I want to get input from students, faculty, and experts in the transportation field and begin a discussion about how to improve Los Angeles’ public transit.  I am so excited to connect with my readers and inform them about what issues Los Angeles is facing right in their backyards.



Seemingly Friendly (My Voice Post) 

Here are four tips to make you seem “friendly” over the internet (examples from Erinwdesign’s blog “Living in Los Angeles without a Car”, LILAWAC!):

1.  Don’t be afraid to share your calluses with the world.  Erin (for short) did this in two ways that instilled trust in her readers as she confided in us with personal information.  “I am ashamed…I have been coveting other bikes lately.”  “I am ashamed” makes Erin seem like a victim and get the sympathy of her readers, but at the same time a sense of trust has developed, since she appears to be letting her readers in on a little personal secret of hers.  The ellipsis inserts a break in the sentence, which increases the reader’s anticipation of her secret, since the reader wants to know why she is ashamed.    
   
   Later in the same “The Urban Machine: Handlebar Tape” post, Erin shares detailed information with her audience that people don’t tell just anyone, because they don’t want to be judged or evoke a bad response.  Clearly, Erin didn’t care. “The callouses (sic) developing on the palms of my hands…” Erin lets her readers know that she is open and wants her readers to get to know her on a personal level.  (Calluses is spelled wrong in Erin’s post, but that lets us know that she isn’t perfect and I don’t judge because I am one of the worst spellers ever.) Sharing personal information with your audience (information that you would only tell your best friend) is key to developing that strong fan base. 
 
2. Buy a bike and name it Ruby.  I had so much fun and even chuckled a few times after reading about Ruby.  You would think Ruby was a red bike, but surprise surprise, Ruby is blue as shown in the picture. Not red, but blue, which is odd in my eyes. I am sure she has a reason for naming her bike Ruby. I just wish she explained because now I’m curious. Ruby is not just any normal bike, but is the love of Erin’s life. Why else would Erin bother taking a picture of her bike? (Craigslist? But she would never sell her best friend!)  It is nice of Erin to introduce us visually to Ruby, which helped to spice up her blog and break up the endless stream of black on the page.  Erin explains that “buying Ruby was an easy decision, one ride and I decided I HAD to have this bike, it was THE ONE.”  Capitalization screams drama and excitement, letting her audience know how special Ruby is to her.  When Erin called Ruby “THE ONE”, I sensed the love between her and her bike and how in Erin’s eyes, Ruby is priceless.  When you reach a point when you care what your bike thinks of you and feel that you are cheating by looking at another inanimate object; the bike has transformed into its human form.  Her passion about being car-free just jumps off the page, but not in an overwhelming way, since she explains her adventures with Ruby in “A car when you need it”. 

Anyway, I wanted to share with you how I make [zip-cars] work: I have to ride my bike up to UCLA, then stuff it in the back of the car and drive it away. I guess I could also park the bike nearby... but I would spend the entire day worried about whether or not it would be there when I got back. So behold, Ruby getting a ride in a Honda Insight.

Would anyone worry about something they didn’t care about?  Of course not. this further emphasizes my point that Ruby is human, since Erin spends all her time with Ruby.  Erin comes off as a down-to-earth person just trying to make a difference, which is a hard thing to convey over writing.  I feel like if we met we would be friends, because I also talk to inanimate objects, like my splendid stuffed animals.  My advice for you is if you want to be relatable, make inanimate objects appear human.
Who cares about formatting? Insert a picture in the middle of the page! Make your blog appear more informal and close your eyes and randomly insert a picture into the text.  Walla, from a visual perspective, it looks like you don’t care about the display of your blog and that your main focus is the written word.  (Now you appear to be super deep and a real artist, even if it wasn’t your intention.)  I truly believe that Erin did not have a clue on how to format her blog, but it doesn’t matter because her uncaring nature to take the effort to figure it out shows how insignificant appearance is to her.   
Channel Yoda and teach your fellow Jedi! If you are going to use language that is specific to your field of study, please place a link to what it means so that your audience has a clue to what you are talking about.  If it’s not common knowledge, attach a link.  I have no knowledge about bikes or why there is tape on the bike etc, so it was nice that Erin attached a link to what “MKS half clips” are or the bike store “Palms cycle”. Your reader will admire you because you just taught them something new. 

Above all, BE TRUE TO YOURSELF and your blog will ROCK!