The evils of LA Metro
Jun. 15th, 2009 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteI'm calm now, but I wasn't on Thursday and Friday, when I had to go to Van Nuys for Jury Duty. So much for my day off, right? So I plotted my schedule using metro.net the night before, figuring out which bus lines I had to take, when I had to be at the stops, and how much it would take.
I have a Metro "TAP" card, which is sort of like a reusable pass that one can load with money to use. Every "tap" deducts a bus fare from the card. Mine is a College/Vocational card, so I didn't pay much for it, and if I wanted to get a monthly pass, it would only be $36 versus the usual $62. However, I walk faster than the buses to school (the only regular place I go to other than home and the mall), so there has never been a point in me getting a monthly pass. I don't even know if the monthly passes are 30 days worth of trips or trips restricted to THAT particular month; it's more likely the latter, in which case, again, it'd be useless to me, as I never know when or why I'd be taking the bus on a regular enough basis to make it worth it.
That said, I opted for a $5 Day Pass, which allows for unlimited travel on all Metro lines throughout the day. I thought I could just pay $5 and have the value put on my TAP card, but when I got on the first bus to Van Nuys, the machine kept saying it was invalid. The driver suspected my card had yet to be activated, even though I'd logged onto my personal TAP website the night before to check that very thing. Before I got off the bus, I was sure to ask the driver if he was sure it was okay, and if I'd have any problems on my other buses (another one to get to Van Nuys, and two more to get home again). He said everything was fine, but lo! When I got on the next bus to Van Nuys, the driver said my card had no value. I explained to him the situation and he let me stay on the bus.
At lunch, I was worried that the same thing would happen on my way home, so I called the TAP customer service and was told that I couldn't get my $5 refunded, that Day Passes couldn't be put on College/Vocational cards anyway, and that the nearest place to get a monthly pass (again, which I didn't need and had no money for anyway; it was lunch or paying cash for the ride home, and I was pretty damn hungry) was several blocks away in a not-pretty neighborhood. Still, the person told me to call back if the place was too far, so I did. I talked to someone else, who told me that Day Passes could be put on the College/Vocational card, but because it took 24 hours for the bus data to get transferred to the computers at the customer service place, there was no way for them to tell me if my card had any value or not.
She suggested I just keep trying and explain the situation again, so I decided to do just that and went and got lunch. There was a farmer's market in front of the courthouse, but most of it was overpriced or something I couldn't stomach anyway. The stupid hot dog stand guy gave me a jumbo dog without telling me it cost extra, so I couldn't afford a drink. I was so peeved that after my conversation with the TAP representative, I ended up going to the bank (risking being extremely broke or even overdrawn) and trying a raspberry lemonade, because the salesgirl, despite stuttering a lot and generally seeming awfully terrified of being there, was very nice to me, a pleasant change from the TAP people and the hot dog guy.
I was in the gallery when I got back up to the court, so we got dismissed for the day. Great: another day dealing with Metro all for a measly $15 paycheck. Seriously, who decided that $15 was a good enough day's daily wages? I make more than that in two hours! Coupled with the $5 Day Pass (the court only pays $0.34/mile), doing one's civic duty costs more than you'd think! Amazingly though, the two buses I took on the way home had their TAP machines broken, so everyone got on for free. I was still majorly confused about the route home though, because the sign on BOTH sides of the street said SOUTHBOUND, even though it was a two-way street and I needed to go NORTHBOUND.
The next day, I decided I would do the same route again, but this time make SURE that the TAP card actually got a value on it. If that wasn't possible, for whatever reason, then I'd get some other TAP card or Day Pass. I explained what I wanted to the driver, asking him if I even could get a Day Pass on my College card (and I made sure to SHOW it to him, just so he didn't think I was using another kind of "Reduced" card, even though the only other one, to my knowledge, is a Senior card, and my appearance doesn't exactly scream "Over 65" ...or so I hope). Nothing wrong with a third opinion, right? He said there should be no problem, but I had the SAME issue where he just kept tapping my card until whatever value there MAY have been on it was no longer on it. I asked him for some kind of Day Pass so that I wouldn't have lost my value, but instead of giving me a blue TAP card like I expected (there was even a video on the TAP website about it), he gave me a Metro to Muni transfer (which even said "NOT VALID ON METRO") which he scribbled "DAY PASS 6/12" and his badge number. I had a sinking sensation that it wouldn't fly with the other drivers, but I had to try.
Needless to say, when I got on the next bus to Van Nuys, the driver sort of rolled his eyes at me, but I was allowed on. Since it had worked once, I figured I would just keep up the spiel whenever I used the bus and hope for the best. I actually got dismissed from the jury (made it into the jury box for longer than 5 minutes this time! Alas, neither of the lawyers looked like James Spader) before lunch, so I headed to the library right across the walkway, opened up a new account (I thought I'd already had one. Just goes to show I read so much that I get my libraries mixed up) and borrowed a book on the GRE and a Star Trek novel. The library, sadly, was very sparse and didn't have much else I was interested in, no matter what I looked for. You'd think a library across from a courthouse would have better materials....
Anyway, I opted to go to In-N-Out for lunch, since I passed it on my way home, but I was too freaked out to take a bus line different from the one I had used to get there. I ended up on a Rapid bus again, missing the In-N-Out by several blocks, and it was no fun walking through that neighborhood! The actual restaurant was in a nice-ish shopping complex called "The Plant," and it was so close to another bus line that I was pretty sure would take me to my last transfer point that I ended up doing taking that instead of walking back to the nearest Rapid stop. I got back to my transfer point with no trouble, and caught my last bus within a few minutes. My Star Trek book was pretty fascinating, but by the time the route wound through the VA Hospital, I was exhausted! I couldn't wait to get home and go to sleep...which I did, of course. For five hours. Could I be a narcoleptic?
Last night I finished reading that Star Trek book, "Federations," and I must admit, it was EXCELLENT. I might not know a lot about the original series (it's a sort of "crossover" between TOS and TNG), but it's books like those that get me itching to watch some of the episodes, even if they are dreadfully cheesy. Some of them set the stage for some great adventures! I especially loved how everything was tied up in the end, as opposed to there being messy tidbits as a result of later movies and whatnot. For the time when it came out, it fits smoothly into the timeline, as far as I can tell, versus other Star Trek novels that contradict episodes of the shows or other media. Of course, the comic that came out prior to the new Star Trek movie might not count, since it's a prequel for an alternate universe...except that prequel was SET in our Trek universe (at least I'm 99.9% sure that it was), so now I'm even more confused!
I have a Metro "TAP" card, which is sort of like a reusable pass that one can load with money to use. Every "tap" deducts a bus fare from the card. Mine is a College/Vocational card, so I didn't pay much for it, and if I wanted to get a monthly pass, it would only be $36 versus the usual $62. However, I walk faster than the buses to school (the only regular place I go to other than home and the mall), so there has never been a point in me getting a monthly pass. I don't even know if the monthly passes are 30 days worth of trips or trips restricted to THAT particular month; it's more likely the latter, in which case, again, it'd be useless to me, as I never know when or why I'd be taking the bus on a regular enough basis to make it worth it.
That said, I opted for a $5 Day Pass, which allows for unlimited travel on all Metro lines throughout the day. I thought I could just pay $5 and have the value put on my TAP card, but when I got on the first bus to Van Nuys, the machine kept saying it was invalid. The driver suspected my card had yet to be activated, even though I'd logged onto my personal TAP website the night before to check that very thing. Before I got off the bus, I was sure to ask the driver if he was sure it was okay, and if I'd have any problems on my other buses (another one to get to Van Nuys, and two more to get home again). He said everything was fine, but lo! When I got on the next bus to Van Nuys, the driver said my card had no value. I explained to him the situation and he let me stay on the bus.
At lunch, I was worried that the same thing would happen on my way home, so I called the TAP customer service and was told that I couldn't get my $5 refunded, that Day Passes couldn't be put on College/Vocational cards anyway, and that the nearest place to get a monthly pass (again, which I didn't need and had no money for anyway; it was lunch or paying cash for the ride home, and I was pretty damn hungry) was several blocks away in a not-pretty neighborhood. Still, the person told me to call back if the place was too far, so I did. I talked to someone else, who told me that Day Passes could be put on the College/Vocational card, but because it took 24 hours for the bus data to get transferred to the computers at the customer service place, there was no way for them to tell me if my card had any value or not.
She suggested I just keep trying and explain the situation again, so I decided to do just that and went and got lunch. There was a farmer's market in front of the courthouse, but most of it was overpriced or something I couldn't stomach anyway. The stupid hot dog stand guy gave me a jumbo dog without telling me it cost extra, so I couldn't afford a drink. I was so peeved that after my conversation with the TAP representative, I ended up going to the bank (risking being extremely broke or even overdrawn) and trying a raspberry lemonade, because the salesgirl, despite stuttering a lot and generally seeming awfully terrified of being there, was very nice to me, a pleasant change from the TAP people and the hot dog guy.
I was in the gallery when I got back up to the court, so we got dismissed for the day. Great: another day dealing with Metro all for a measly $15 paycheck. Seriously, who decided that $15 was a good enough day's daily wages? I make more than that in two hours! Coupled with the $5 Day Pass (the court only pays $0.34/mile), doing one's civic duty costs more than you'd think! Amazingly though, the two buses I took on the way home had their TAP machines broken, so everyone got on for free. I was still majorly confused about the route home though, because the sign on BOTH sides of the street said SOUTHBOUND, even though it was a two-way street and I needed to go NORTHBOUND.
The next day, I decided I would do the same route again, but this time make SURE that the TAP card actually got a value on it. If that wasn't possible, for whatever reason, then I'd get some other TAP card or Day Pass. I explained what I wanted to the driver, asking him if I even could get a Day Pass on my College card (and I made sure to SHOW it to him, just so he didn't think I was using another kind of "Reduced" card, even though the only other one, to my knowledge, is a Senior card, and my appearance doesn't exactly scream "Over 65" ...or so I hope). Nothing wrong with a third opinion, right? He said there should be no problem, but I had the SAME issue where he just kept tapping my card until whatever value there MAY have been on it was no longer on it. I asked him for some kind of Day Pass so that I wouldn't have lost my value, but instead of giving me a blue TAP card like I expected (there was even a video on the TAP website about it), he gave me a Metro to Muni transfer (which even said "NOT VALID ON METRO") which he scribbled "DAY PASS 6/12" and his badge number. I had a sinking sensation that it wouldn't fly with the other drivers, but I had to try.
Needless to say, when I got on the next bus to Van Nuys, the driver sort of rolled his eyes at me, but I was allowed on. Since it had worked once, I figured I would just keep up the spiel whenever I used the bus and hope for the best. I actually got dismissed from the jury (made it into the jury box for longer than 5 minutes this time! Alas, neither of the lawyers looked like James Spader) before lunch, so I headed to the library right across the walkway, opened up a new account (I thought I'd already had one. Just goes to show I read so much that I get my libraries mixed up) and borrowed a book on the GRE and a Star Trek novel. The library, sadly, was very sparse and didn't have much else I was interested in, no matter what I looked for. You'd think a library across from a courthouse would have better materials....
Anyway, I opted to go to In-N-Out for lunch, since I passed it on my way home, but I was too freaked out to take a bus line different from the one I had used to get there. I ended up on a Rapid bus again, missing the In-N-Out by several blocks, and it was no fun walking through that neighborhood! The actual restaurant was in a nice-ish shopping complex called "The Plant," and it was so close to another bus line that I was pretty sure would take me to my last transfer point that I ended up doing taking that instead of walking back to the nearest Rapid stop. I got back to my transfer point with no trouble, and caught my last bus within a few minutes. My Star Trek book was pretty fascinating, but by the time the route wound through the VA Hospital, I was exhausted! I couldn't wait to get home and go to sleep...which I did, of course. For five hours. Could I be a narcoleptic?
Last night I finished reading that Star Trek book, "Federations," and I must admit, it was EXCELLENT. I might not know a lot about the original series (it's a sort of "crossover" between TOS and TNG), but it's books like those that get me itching to watch some of the episodes, even if they are dreadfully cheesy. Some of them set the stage for some great adventures! I especially loved how everything was tied up in the end, as opposed to there being messy tidbits as a result of later movies and whatnot. For the time when it came out, it fits smoothly into the timeline, as far as I can tell, versus other Star Trek novels that contradict episodes of the shows or other media. Of course, the comic that came out prior to the new Star Trek movie might not count, since it's a prequel for an alternate universe...except that prequel was SET in our Trek universe (at least I'm 99.9% sure that it was), so now I'm even more confused!
