Wad

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:20:14 -0800

Keep this in mind. Metro will not tailor this system to what customers want. Welcome to the world of government contracting. Here's why: 1. Metro is not allowed to pick an off-the-shelf technology and just buy it. It has to write specifications and solicit bids. 2. Metro then receives a bid, and the winning contractor develops the system and either maintains it or builds it and lets Metro take over the maintenance. 3. The contractor builds the system that is most likely proprietary. If it were to use killer apps, it would have to pay big bucks for licensing the code. 4. The contractor most likely develops a system that cannot be agile enough to be reupdated year after year. It's a system that will be in place for about a decade. And, speaking as a rider and longtime transit observer, Metro does best when it ignores its riders. Conversely, Metro gets crapped on the most when it listens to its riders. Example: Metro did a horrible job overseeing subway construction. Anything that Metro could have done wrong, it did. In 1998 two-thirds of Los Angeles County voted to stop local sales taxes from being used for subways. Today, the same people are pressuring local officials to build more subway. And the obverse: the public pressured elected officials to build a light rail line from downtown to Pasadena. Metro obliged, listening to not only the people who wanted the line built, but bent over backwards to be a good neighbor in the communities the train served. In 2003 we got the Gold Line. The public took a dump on it, and made sure to exaggerate how agonizingly slow the line is. Or, specifically, the 4-5 minutes of their lives they lost passing through Marmion Way. Three years and Three-quarters of a million dollars later, the people do not want to buy the house because they don't like the color of the drapes.

Jason

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:22:39 -0800

It've been waiting for this for a while. It would be nice to add to the rail lines too. It is pointless if it doesn't work on everyone's phones, Fortunately, it works fine on my phone, running Opera Mini.

tykejohnson

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:45:04 -0800

this has been a dream of mine for sometime now, especially with the lack of keeping schedule that metro busses are known for. its a great technology that i hope takes effect over the next year on not only the rapids but the locals as well. and i agree, outsourcing to a legit and already working/established company to do this is advantageous. especially since, if metro were to do it themselves it would no doubt take much longer to implement and not work (see tap).

LAist: RapidBus.net in Beta

Wad

Jason

tykejohnson