Riding The Orange Line? Wear A Helmet!
Riding The Orange Line? Wear A Helmet! By Walter Moore - November 2, 2005 Talk about fast! The MTA's new 60-foot-long busses go from zero to 14 . . . injuries in just four days. The Orange Line's "public grand opening" was on Saturday, October 29, 2005, and on the following Wednesday, the busses were involved in not one, but two separate accidents, leaving 13 passengers and one car driver injured.
Were the accidents foreseeable? They were foreseeable and foreseen. In the six months before blast-off, the Sheriff issued 500 traffic tickets to people who improperly crossed paths with the Orange Line's "14-mile exclusive transitway," as it is known in MTAspeak.
Four days before the first public rides, during a photo-op trip with the press and public officials on board, the driver of a car ran a red light and pulled across the path of the bus. The bus driver hit the brakes so hard that, per one reporter, "bodies, notebooks and camera equipment pitched forward." James Moore II (no relation), director of USC's transportation engineering program said the problem is the intersections. In his words, "I believe the Orange Line will be fairly dangerous."
On another test-run two days before blast-off, a car ran a red light and plowed into the bus.
On the day of the debut, protesters held up a banner that said: "Orange Line deathtrap," and transit advocate John Walsh, a frequent MTA critic, called the Orange Line "the lemon line" and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "decried dangers to motorists." City Councilman Dennis Zine said some of the intersections are "vulnerable to collisions" because of their odd configuration and may need crossing arms or other barriers.
According to Antonio Villaraigosa – mayor of L.A. and head of the MTA – "The Metro Orange Line is both cost-effective and a superior transit solution that is sure to reshape the mobility of L.A. County for the better." Well, sure, it's cost-effective and superior – unless you consider, you know, all the injuries and lawsuits that its continued operation will doubtless generate.
So what should Villaraigosa do? First of all, Villaraigosa needs to STOP these busses from running, right now. Not after a study, not after appointing a commission, but right now. The City is already on notice that the so-called "exclusive transitway" is not exclusive at all, and is instead dangerous because cars can cross into it, plowing into the busses. Second, Villaraigosa needs to have crossing gates and/or guards installed at every intersection between the "exclusive transitway" and city streets. We need to treat these 60-foot busses as if they are trains. Then, and only then, should he let these busses roll again.
If Villaraigosa does not put the brakes on these busses now, he will be responsible for all the resulting injuries, lawsuits and wasted tax dollars.
Posted by Anonymous @ 11/03/2005 10:39:00 AM
18 Comments:
How it pains me to ever agree with this nutball.
Oh, sh*t. Someone ran a red light and had an accident?!!!
Why won't the City and County pay for the force field?
LOL re force field. Unfortunately for us taxpayers, the law is such that when the city creates a dangerous condition, we get stuck with the tab even when some genius is too busy talking on the cell, sipping the latte and putting on make-up. Why? Comparative negligence. The city will argue that the driver was at fault, and the driver's lawyer will argue that the city needed to make the intersections safer because bad driving is foreseeable. The injured passengers will sue the city and the driver.
I'm usually a smart ass about this, but I appreciate a good explanation. Thanks.
Traffic Officers have been placed at the intersections to educate dumb drivers.
Walter Moore is like a fur coat manufacturer at a PETA event.
Outdated, Insane and just plain wrong.
How about for now put traffic officers- and while we do that build crossing gates at intersections that need them, i.e Valley Glen and essentially anywhere we have created a new intersection specifically for the busway.
Antonio is not going to put the "brakes" or suggest some ideas to improve it, that would actually take leadership.
Oops, I think I'm about to hit a nerve.
Since you liked that explanation, here's something else that may interest you -- though the odds are against it. Before we had "comparative negligence" law, we had something called "contributory negligence," which was much better at keeping cases out of court. If the plaintiff was even 1% at fault in the accident, he could not recover a dime. Hence, under the old law, the driver of the car who ran the red and plowed into the bus could not recover against the city. That law was considered too harsh -- perhaps by attorneys who wanted more business -- and that's why judges created "comparative negligence," which requires juries to assess blame based on percentages of fault. Personally, I say go to the Mad Max, big-spin method of justice. It's faster, cheaper, and just as accurate.
Walter Moore for City Council in 2007!
Walter Moore for City Council in 2007!
Walter Moore for City Council in 2007!
Walter Moore for City Council in 2007!
Thanks, Archie. Alas, I live in a district that comes up for election in 2009. But I am running for mayor again in the 2009 election. Maybe by then you'll even support me for mayor. You know, if a meteorite or something knocks out your first 12 choices...
A 78-year-old driver talking on a cell phone who is too ignorant to notice the omnipresent advertising and press about the Orange Line....
oh, never mind.
This is what you get when the professional staff at MTA get pushed around by an idiot like Zev -- a disaster. He should stick to press conferences and stop etching out transit systems on napkins... what a nutjob.
The hilarious part is that Zev–-who insisted all along that because the Orange Line isn’t on rails, it doesn’t need crossing gates–-is now calling for MTA to run it at a lower speed. Guess what, Zev: if you slow it down, NOBODY WILL RIDE IT. 45 minutes to go 12 miles is bad enough as it is.
The Blue Line kills a lot of people, but at least it justifies it with the huge passenger volume it carries. The Orange Line is gonna have all the fatalities with one fifth the ridership.
In the Chicago suburbs, every time some dipshit drives around a crossing gate and gets hit by a Metra commuter train, the local pols always call for the trains to slow down--but they never do. The reason is simple: slowing down would create more of an incentive for people to drive around the gates.
If MTA were really serious about this, they would put in gates (FRA-compliant or not) and then run the buses at 55 MPH. But, because the busway has so many stops, it can't run that fast: no natural gas-powered bus can produce that kind of acceleration. Thanks for your Third World transit solution, Zev.
"This is what you get when the professional staff at MTA get pushed around by an idiot like Zev -- a disaster. He should stick to press conferences and stop etching out transit systems on napkins... what a nutjob."
I don't think he used a napkin, I think he used some just soiled Toilet paper, that is why this project is a piece of shit.
Gotta love that resourceful Zev, What a dipshit!
Build the crossing gates for the people who don't know that red means stop!
They're only $500,000 per intersection. There are only 42 or so intersections. That's only $21,000,000.
But maybe what we really need are spike strips at every intersection.
I can't believe they don't have flashing "NO RIGHT TURN" signs at the affected intersections, either. I know damn well that Zev insisted that they not put them in because he didn't want to freak people out over safety.
Such an idiot.
I have ridden this bus since it started. It is the fault of the stupid car drivers that is to blame. Every day I see some car driver behave dangerously and try to cross the lane when the light is red. It is amazing.
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