WHAT STL METRO COULD LEARN FROM LA METRO'S BLUE LINE

I find it really shocking how dismissive Metro executives are about their terrible surveys.  (Once a year, on the Metrolink only.)  They are really clueless about the actual transit needs of their riders.

Without meaningful, accurate data, from a large representative group of patrons, no business or entity can make decisions or do planning.

It is only because Metro is not a completely private, for profit business that they can get away with this.  (And there is very little chance that any public transit agency is every going to be lucrative enough for a private company to want to own one.   All of these agencies are really just funnels for government funds to be used in "business development."  And to further political careers of CEO's and top executives. "Hey I mismanaged Metro's 350 million dollar budget, I can mismanage the state's budget just as well."  Um, yes, that was sarcasm.)

This article about Los Angeles' Metro's Blue Line is a real eye opener if you know how to read between the lines.

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/07/when-las-blue-line-was-new/374421/

It was a big deal, perhaps even more so than the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (LACMTA) expected. Originally projected to have a daily ridership of 5,000, the Blue Line was carrying 32,000 riders a day by the end of 1990. As of last May, the system's oldest line has an average weekday ridership of 86,065.

THAT'S RIGHT! Expected versus actual ridership BEGAN at SIX TIMES the agency's estimate!  And is now, what? SEVENTEEN TIMES the estimate??? 

The Blue Line runs through South Central and down to Long Beach.  It definitely covers LA's most transit dependent areas. 

When public transit takes people where they need to go, in a timely manner, the sky is the limit.

You know, OPTINSTL's survey for Metro to use is modelled from the Los Angeles Metro's semi-annual survey. For an entire week, on every single bus and train, LA Metro has survey takers handing out and collecting lengthy, detailed questionnaires to every rider. 

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-metros-new-survey-should-be.html

St. Louis Metro relies on general population and employment statistics.  And those once a year, five question, Metrolink-only surveys.

Of course, business developers and local politicians don't really want Metro to provide good service to the people that need it the most.  St. Charles demonstrated that most blatantly when they shot down the proposed Metrolink ten years ago. 

http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-apalling-racist-fiasco-of-2005-and.html

What they want is bus service that will actually get a person to a low wage job, but not convenient enough for those workers to come spend their free time in the "nice areas". 

Incarceration by lack of decent public transit is a very effective way of cordoning off parts of the city using federal funds to do so.

If St. Louis Metro actually surveyed their riders, a north-south metrolink would be the obvious top-priority.  But then it would be easier and faster for transit riders to get around.

And that is exactly what they don't want.

THE APALLING RACIST FIASCO OF 2005 AND THE PROPOSED ST. CHARLES METROLINK

I wasn't here in 2005, but I sure got an earful about the proposed Metrolink to St. Charles.

I'm white, and for reasons I have never understood, a lot of people (black and white, rich and poor) think I am wealthy.   Or from a wealthy background.  (Neither is true.)

In 2008 I was working at a place where an older white man from St. Charles was my boss.  Basically, with a guy like this, he assumed I had the same opinions he did.  (He was a good boss to work for, but secretly I found his personal life and opinions revolting.  He was my boss, however, so I admit I usually kept my mouth shut.)

One day he regaled me of the tale of how he and many other white, middle-class, "concerned citizens" successfully fought the Metrolink expansion into his neighborhood.

"We couldn't let those people come to our neighborhood," he said, after admitting a Metrolink train would have been a good addition to his county.  "Look what they did to Florissant." (The train doesn't run to Florissant, but whatever.)

(If I have to spell it out "those people" were low-income, urban, African-Americans.  He didn't use the "n-word".  At least not to me.)

I really wondered, when he told me that, why Metro didn't fight harder to get that train up there?

Turns out Metro has no power on where the train goes.  Guys like my former boss do.

See this post about the East West Gateway Council of Governments for more on that.

At the Fare Increase "hearing" one of the Metro Executives that lives in St. Charles told me she had been "heartbroken" that the train was opposed.  "My neighbors fought it!" she exclaimed.  (I think I have already covered that Metro executives do not live in neighborhoods served by public transit, and if they do, rarely use it anyhow.)

EAST WEST GATEWAY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS: THE REAL ENEMY OF DECENT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

At the Increased Fare "Hearing" (they don't listen, so I don't know why they call it that) I learned about the group that is true enemy of the public transit rider.

The East West Gateway Council of Governments.

Go have a look at this page: http://www.ewgateway.org/AboutUs/BOD/bod.htm

That's the Board of Directors.  24 people, most of whom are white men that have never ridden a bus in their life, unless it was some marketing and publicity stunt.  (There are only 6 African-Americans, and only one woman on the whole board.)

Until yesterday, I thought Bi-State and Metro were all about public transportation.  I thought it was a little strange that Metro also owns St. Louis Downtown airport in Cahokia, and the Arch Riverboats and Trams.

Turns out that back in 1950, one of the first things Bi-State did was form the Metropolitan Sewer District.  Why? Because Metro's true function is to "develop" the region to create more openings for business development (no, that does not necessarily mean more jobs, better wages, and a better quality of life).  Metro is just a funnel for government funds.

I haven't had a chance to read through the whole website yet, but there are some really obvious conclusions to be made, simply by looking at who is in charge.

It is difficult to look at the picture of say, Chairman Steve Ehlman, a St. Charles businessman, and wonder if he isn't the reason there is no train to St. Charles and surrounding counties. (See this post on the "heroes" of St. Charles.)

That might seem kind of racist, huh? Judging him because he is an upper-middle class, suburban, white, businessman?   Kind of like judging a black man because he has saggy trousers and grills?

Except a guy like the Chairman is basically wearing his gang colors.  This is Gang "Ole-Boy Network".  And you, public transit rider, are NOT invited to the country club, unless you are bussing the tables and mopping the floors.

See, if you have a permanent population that lives at poverty level, doesn't have access to decent jobs, healthcare, housing, and who rely on crappy public transportation, employers have a nice pool of people that will work for any wage, in any conditions.

"Don't send your jobs to China! We got a bunch of people that work for next to nothing!  And don't worry that they will be hanging out in your neighborhood after work, they have a two hour bus ride to work each way.  We'll keep the trains out of your neighborhood and out of their neighborhood."  (See image, below)

Incarceration by lack of decent public transit.

You don't even have to put up barbed wire fences.

Keep checking back.  I am going to be looking into these people more closely in the future.  And how they operate.

East-West Gateway Council of Governments
One Memorial Dr., Ste 1600
St. Louis, MO  63102
phone:  (314) 421-4220 or (618) 274-2750
    fax: (314) 231-6120
e-mail: webmaster@ewgateway.org