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August 1, 2007
Metro Monthly Passes Must Be Hot
Kermit the Frog was so right -- "It's not easy being green." Yesterday I tried buying my first Monthly Metro Pass ever.
I failed.
I thought it would be easy to spend 62-bucks in this town. But apparently a Metro bus pass for the month is a hot item in the Valley. My local liquor store was sold out. Same story for Ralphs. Pavilions too. Then I called a different Ralphs, this time the highfalutin Fresh Fare at Ventura and Coldwater Canyon Boulevards where the paparazzi stalk Britney Spears and other celebulocals. "No, we don't sell them here." Well, okay then. Thanks though.
Then finally at 6:45 in the evening, I rang over to the Ralphs at Coldwater Canyon and Magnolia to hear the magical green words of "yes, but..." Yes, of course, there has to be a catch. No one wants me to take the bus or train. They all want me to drive. The gas companies must have known I wanted to buy my first monthly pass ever. "I've had issue with Ralphs not selling them after 7 p.m." Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA told me when I asked him what was up with that. The explanation from Ralphs seemed suspect: the manager has to count them before he goes home. What? Does he count the Doritos too?!!? How about avacados? Can I buy those after 7 p.m.?
Luckily, there's always today. Unfortunately for Camino, the new Ralphs in Downtown Los Angeles, the most commuter friendly neighborhood in the city, has one drawback: "The downtown Ralphs says they don't carry them yet!"
Photo from Metro.net
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Although pass outlets shouldn't ever stock out of MTA passes on the last day of the month, were the outlets you tried all out of EZ Transit Passes too? A few extra bucks might have saved you the trouble, and given you the right to ride other bus lines.
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Every month or so I re-evaluate whether I can commute one day a week on the MTA. Then my jaw drops as I see the hour and fifty-two minutes on three buses that I'd have to take to make the trek my car does in thirty minutes. Maybe I need a new job. I vote for new age elevated rail to go all over town.
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I am all for increased public transit usage for any and everyone for whom it is possible, and have been a user myself both by circumstance (no car) or choice (better way to get somewhere) but have come to realize that the Metro's ticketing system is not user friendly, and this story about your experience is an excellent case in point. When I used to purchase monthly passes I would get them at Union Station from the kiosk--I was fortunate enough to have Union Stn as a transfer point on my route from NoHo to East LA so this wasn't out of my way, though did cost me the ride in sans pass at the start of the month to go buy my pass. I ran into the same Ralphs problem all the time before, also going into liquor stores that proclaim on signs in windows "We sell Metro passes" only to find they don't sell monthly passes. It can be really frustrating, and a detractor. I also think that it's shameful that the ticket machines at the stations seem to be set up to take plastic, but always proclaim "THIS MACHINE IS CASH ONLY"--what is stopping the machines from taking cards, if the technology is already installed? And what are the TAP cards that are there...but aren't in use? I've been a transit user in multiple major urban centers my whole life, and never have I experienced such a strange ticket selling (and taking/monitoring) than here in L.A. I mean, the honor system on the Red Line? I yearn for something like the NYC Metrocard where you can add to it and swipe it as proof of fare. It's absurd how our Metro handles ticketing.
Okay, that's my 2 cents.
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Go to the Macy's Plaza in downtown. As you enter through the doors of the mall, the circular stand that you first see, which sells sports goods and is run by an Asian couple ALWAYS has passes.
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I forgot to mention: they only take cash.
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So what are you trying to say...should they not NOT have been Asian?
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Guest #1, I did not ask about EZ Passes. Good idea though.
Lindsay, I've wondered the same about the credit card part. I'll ask.
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For 5 years i bought those monthly passes, Zach
and for 5 years i dealt with that nightmare of trying not to have to scramble on the first of the month bouncing from Vons to Ralphs to any number of third options.
this city lies through their teeth when they talk about public transportation. they dont want to make it easy for people. they dont want to make it convenient.
Any time I would go to Vons on Sunset and Virgil after 6pm to get a pass theyd say "theyre locked up in the safe" or when the Check Cashing section was installed, theyd say "you have to come when theyre open".
id argue and say, why dont you guys have a few passes in a register at night as a COURTESY to your customers who use that Red Line stop three blocks away?
they would suggest that I call the manager the day before so theyd have one waiting for me. and id say what idiot knows a day before?
finally my workplace hooked us up with a fax number where we could (i shit you not) fax in my credit card number to the MTA each month (!!!) and i would get my pass in the mail.
funny how the million dollar grocery stores dont feel safe with a dozen or so bus passes in their registers late at night, but the MTA wanted me to feel safe faxing my credit card info into them each month.
they used to let you buy stamps through ATMs for a small fee. The city should absorb that small fee and allow bus passes to be sold through ATMs. duh.
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I like your dry humor, Militant.
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Metro's Online ticketing is a joke too. You have a 10 day period between the 5th and the 15th of the month to place your credit card order and they claim to mail it to you by the 1st of the month (I've never done this, but I wonder how many people who order online start the month without a pass). That's some backwards ass internets.
I've never had the problem Zach is facing except when I'm a week late buying the pass (because I was out of town or whatever), but it's pretty inexcusable to not load places up with enough passes so people who buy before the month don't have a problem. Plus, it's 2007, let us order online anytime, let us pay with credit cards, let us buy them from the damn ticketing machines!
All this being said, I have faith (hope) that this will be changing. Metro has been SLOWLY improving the system... the ticket machines they have now, while they don't accept credit cards, are a hundred times better than the machines they had three years ago that didn't take FIVES. Oh man did that suck.
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Just to clear the air here, when you refer to Metro--it's a county agency, not city. The LADOT has nothing to do with Metro.
They both have their own individual and special, unique problems.
I used to buy the EZ Passes from Foothill Transit stores with no problem. Now that I buy the Silver Streak pass, it's the same.
However, I do have a story about how my friend had to jump through like a million hoops and wait two months to get her student pass from Metro in the mail, whereas my student id from Foothill Transit took me one visit to the Foothill Transit store with a copy of my transcripts.
I brought in my transcript, posed for a photo and presto.
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Newsflash, Ralph's and the other Metro pass vendors do so as a courtesy to the surrounding community, they get no financial compensation however they must account for all passes sold. I'm guessing you understand that concept is a different from the agreement they have to sell Doritos.
Next time order your pass online at Metro.net and stop your bitching.
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Actually, Metro is neither a county or city agency. As I wrote on wikipedia, "Technically it is a state mandated transportation commission that also provides bus and rail." It actually falls under the nebulous world of special districts created by the state Legislature. So, blaming the County doesn't work either.
I agree, though, Metro passes are extremely hard to purchase. The pick your own day ten pack of Metro passes (aka the Metrolink ten trip ticket) can be purchased all the time, as is a Metrolink monthly pass. It should not be that difficult to sell paper media from the machine, especially when the weekly pass is so much more valuable for the occasional rider or visitor.
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To #12: Merchants get a small commission on passes and tokens sold, along with free marketing material.
But Ralphs usually limits the hours passes are sold, and 7 p.m. is the norm. They're usually sold at the service counters, and Metro requires the merchant to keep a tally of fare media sales.
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It's in the best interest of a vendor not to order an over abundance of fare media. Why you ask? Well, because if they were to lose the media or were to be robbed, they would be responsible for paying for every last pass that wasn't returned to Metro for reimbursement. Therefore, most vendors only order a small margin over what they seem to sell. If we would all get in earlier rather than later to buy our pass, then the vendors could place reorders to cover those late buyers. And, don't you think it's better for our environment not to over produce something that will end up in our landfills? BTW, the passes aren't recyclable because of the hologram. They could be made without the hologram, but counterfeiting would go through the sky.
And those lines we wait in; it’s just like waiting until 2 days before Christmas to mail your package - What do you expect when you wait until the 30 or 31 to buy your pass?
Bottom line: We pretty much create our own life’s condition.