I just received word from our vanpool operator that we’re getting a new Vanpool Van on Monday (a 2010 Ford E150 XL, most likely). The write-up on the standard version of the van states, “An audio input jack, included with the standard sound system, lets you channel MP3 player selections through the vehicle’s sound system.” I hope that remains—it will certainly make listening to the iPod on the drive home easier.
Tag: transit
Friday News Chum: Watts Towers, Jack LaLanne, Fox Hills, Playboy, and the Flyaway Bus
Some lunchtime chum for you, mostly noted yesterday. All of these seem to relate to things that have lasted and persevered.
- From the “And They’re Still Standing” Department: The LA Times has a nice article on the Watts Towers, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their being saved from the wrecking ball by a resourceful engineer.
- From the “The Healthiest Part of the Donut is the Hole” Department: Another milestone is being observed by Jack LaLanne — 95 years strong. I remember his show on KHJ Channel 9 when I was young. He truly is remarkable.
- From the “If You Build It, They Will Shop” Department: The LA Times had an interesting piece on a shopping mall that reopened yesterday: Fox Hills Mall, or should I say Westborg Culver City. They expanded the mall to attract the affluent consumers in Culver City, Westchester, Ladera, Inglewood, Baldwin Hills, and other environs. This was the mall that killed Westchester’s downtown.
- From the “Bring The Bunny Suit Out Of Mothballs” Department: Playboy, which is having trouble dealing with the decline of its magazine, is going to attempt to bring back the Playboy Clubs and market the brand better. I remember my dad was a member of the Playboy Club in Century City for a while in the 1970s. ETA: Per the LA Times: Marge Simpson is going to be on the cover of Playboy, and have a 3-page spread inside.
- From the “Take The Bus” Department: The Flyaway service, which we’ve had in the valley since the 1970s, is expanding yet again. Building on the success of the original Valley Flyaway, the Westwood Flyaway Mark II, and the Union Station Flyaway, there is now going to be an Irvine Flyaway, for those who do not want to fly out of John Wayne/Orange County.
And They Say Los Angeles Doesn’t Have Transit. Hah!
Tonight, I went to go see Meeting of Minds at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood (look for the review tomorrow — in short, it was great). As I was at work, I didn’t want to drive there (given that my wife was driving in from the valley). So, I took public transit. I left work at the normal time, walked to the Green Line, then transferred to the Blue Line, and then transferred to the Red Line. I got off at the Sunset/Vermont station, and walked the four blocks north of Hollywood to meet my wife. Total transit time: about 80 minutes. Total cost: $3.75.
The trains ran smoothly, transfers were easy (other than buying a fresh ticket each time), and the cars were clean. Great job, Metro.
Metro TAP Card: Poor User Interface Design
Remember yesterday when I complained about the poor interface for the Metro TAP card. I just attempted to add a student pass to my daughter’s card. Here are the errors I got:
When I added the Student Pass to the cart, I got the following error:
The Verification process has encountered some errors:
The Quote Type ‘Regular’ must have atleast only one items of type ‘Card Product’.
Product QTY and Card QTY does not match. Pls check ‘CSC Mon Pass St’ requested is null.
The Quote Type ‘Regular’ must have atleast only one Product added to the Card.
Please make the necessary changes.
Of course, it provided me no opportunity to fix any of these, and (surprisingly), when I clicked check-out, it actually did check me out, collect card info, and seemingly place the order. Of course, the order confirmation message wasn’t reassuring:
The responsibility of user ‘XXXXXX’ does not allow accessing view ‘Order Confirmation View (eSales)’.(SBL-DAT-00329)
So I tried to go to the FAQ. I got the error:
The responsibility of user ‘XXXXXX’ does not allow accessing view ‘FAQ First Level Category List View (eService)’.(SBL-DAT-00329)
I’ve submitted a help request regarding the poor error messages. Of course, it’s not just the error messages that are bad. Consider the following statement:
Orders placed prior to the 24th of the month will receive fare product for the current month. Orders placed after the 25th of the month will receive fare product for the following month.
This is really unclear what happens if you place the order on the 24th or 25th. Now, my order, placed today (the 25th) seemed to be for next month, but perhaps that was just random luck.
Poor, poor, website design.
TAPping the Card
My daughter just got a TAP card. For those not familiar with TAP, it is a loadable value card that MTA (oops) RTD Metro is using to replace bus passes in Los Angeles. TAP has some advantages, like supposedly being usable on multiple systems, and permitting loading of value over the Internet.
Being the good dad that I am, I created my daughter an account so we can load her card with value. It is this process I’m commenting on, for it demonstrates how not to design a user interface. Just going to the logon page told me something: a SAP system. I know this because I recognize the boxes from our payroll system at work. When you get create an account and look at your card, it just shows you the raw database fields with no explanations of what they mean, no formatting, even no clear expansion of values. This was not designed to be user friendly — it was certainly not designed for non-computer scientists. I’m unsure why they let it go live in this form, but they did.
In any case, I’ll figure out to use it. It does have advantages over the previous paper card system, where passes were like money, and a pain to get each month. Still, I wish they had actually taken the time to design the interface.
Friday News Chum Miscellany: Disneyland – Capt Eo/Haunted Mansion, White Roofs, and Traffic Jerks
Here’s some lunchtime news chum, gathered over the week, that didn’t fit anywhere else:
- From the “Happiest Place on Earth” Department: Two Disneyland items of note. First, with all the revived popularity in Michael Jackson, Disneyland is thinking about bringing back Capt. Eo. Perhaps around Halloween. Speaking of Halloween, Disneyland is also running a contest to allow a few select guests to spend a night in the Haunted Mansion (specifically, in the inescapable elevator).
- From the “Reflections” Department: Although most engineers probably do this already, there is now a trend towards white roofs as an energy saving device. You see, white roofs absorb less heat, keeping houses cooler in the summer. I know that whenever I’ve had the choice on roofing, I’ve always gone for the white roof.
- From the “But They’re Still Annoying” Department: You know those jerks in traffic that weave in and out, and raise your blood pressure (perhaps you’re one of them)? Well, a recent study shows that they actually keep traffic moving faster and prevent traffic jams. Who knew?
Take The Bus
There’s an interesting announcement in the LA Now Blog at the Times about how MTA bus routes have now been integrated into Google maps. This is good, but not great. I played around with it a bit. Doing a route from home to work doesn’t produce optimum routes. The bus solution routes one via bus to the Red line, through downtown, then Blue and Green, for an almost 3 hour journey. Some do even stranger routes involving Metrolink. But none do the quickest route, which would involve the Commuter Express 574 along Balboa.
If this service is to be useful, it must integrate all the local transit operations: those operated by LA DOT (such as Commuter Express and Dash), those operated by LAWA (such as Flyaway), and those operated by other cities (Antelope Valley Transit). What they have now is good, but it could be much much better.
ETA: The LA Times updated their post with a link to LAist, which indicates when other services will be out there. I wonder if my comment to the Times, which was essentially what I said above, prompted the update….
Grow Old With Me
Sometimes, the articles of interesting in my lunchtime news reading form a common theme. Today is one of those days: the theme seems to be dealing with aged and aging things:
- From the “An Ode to Tom and Tom and Jess” Department: Tuesday evening, KNBC 4 said farewell to long-time anchor Paul Moyer with a video tribute. This is after they had previously said there would be no fanfare. Just as with print journalism, TV journalism is hurting, and we are moving away from the anchors who actually knew something about news. We’ve got the pretty anchors who pretend (such as those on KTLA, who are nowhere near Hal Fishman). The tribute pointed out how Paul was in the old model. I remember watching him when he debuted, and I’m glad they did the tribute.
- From the “Getting Off on Buses” Department: However, sometimes things that are retired return. The NY Times has an interesting article on how pull-cords are making a return to the city’s buses, replacing the yellow touch strips. Riders prefer them, and they are less expensive to install and maintain. Sometimes old technology is better.
- From the “Where’s Waldo” Department: Sometimes, however, old problems never get solved. Take for example the plight of the first child to be portrayed on a milk carton. He is still missing. Have you seen him?
- From the “A Bridge Over Troubled Styrofoam” Department: Then again, sometimes old problems get solved in innovative ways. Consider, for example, Tucker Blvd in St. Louis. It is near the river, and is actually built on a bridge for former electric rail cars. Initially, trains traveled through the tunnel and across the elevated bridge that crosses I-70, then to the McKinley Bridge and into Illinois. Passenger service stopped in 1958 because of competition with the automobile.In 2004, trains used the tunnel for the last time to deliver newsprint to presses at the Post-Dispatch. Only a few clues to the past remain — such as remnants of catenary wires and a small section of track. Now the city is attempting to remodel Tucker Blvd, and the bridge is deteriorating. They can’t just fill in the bridge with dirt, as that shifts and puts pressure on the foundations of the neighboring buildings (which cannot take it). So they are filling in the bridge with styrofoam blocks, which have structural stability. Foam has been used before by Utah DOT under I-15, and in Boston’s Big Dig project, which sent 3.5 miles of I-93 underground.
- From the “Old Things Live On, Part I” Department: Remember Circuit City? Well, they will live on online. The brand and the web site have been sold to SystemMax, who also owns Tiger Direct and the CompUSA brands.
- From the “Old Things Live On, Part II” Department: Remember the Ziegfeld Follies? I know, Circuit City was easier. Still, a piece of the Zigfeld Follies lives on: Doris Eaton Travis, at age 105 the last living Ziegfeld Girl. She started dancing at age 14, and who can still twirl around the dancefloor. She (not Gene Kelley) is the person who introduced the song “Singing in the Rain”. May she keep going on…