It's not that commuting by bike and or public transportation is fear inducing activity. However, it can be a discomforting feeling whenever you are going somewhere you've never been before via public transit and bike. "I want to take public transit, but I don't even know the neighborhood in the first place," I would use for an excuse before heading into my Civic. Not very green, right?

Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek talks about conquering these mini-fears, or the discomforts we avoid, in our daily lives. Inspired by his fear/risk chapter, I headed down to K-Town's The Prince to meet-up with the LAist crew for drinks. I felt anxious about the combo of bike/bus/subway to a neighborhood I hardly knew, but as Ferriss explains, risks aren't that scary once you take them.

"What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have." In this case, it was the uncomfortable situation of riding my bike in unknown territory, studying the map, checking the timetable for the last train out, arriving in a timely matter, having the correct change, etc.

No, it's not some crazy Southwest or Virgin deal. This is the Magic Bus as the LA Times calls it.

A new nonstop line will roll into Los Angeles next week, serving seven cities with a handful of fares as low as $1. Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, will carry passengers from L.A. to San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Las Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix. The fleet will follow routes well served by airlines and Greyhound buses and well traveled by motorists.

To get that low $1 fare (okay, there's a 50-cent booking fee), you need to book way in advance. Otherwise, you're looking at $38.50 per leg (Vegas for $34.50). Competitors Greyhound have similar fees while California Shuttle Bus charges $45.00 each way (for $60, you can get an "upgraded" service with the seat next to you guaranteed to be empty). By Amtrak's Coast Starlight, one leg can be $53 to Oakland (and the trip is around 10 hours. But hey, it's one of the most beautiful train routes and there's a bar!).

Many might say the airlines are just as cheap, yet faster. True. That is if you book in advance; otherwise airline prices can run a bit heftier. If you're one of those fly by the seat of your pants types and decide a San Francisco trip is in order this Wednesday, one of these bus companies might be for you.

Online sales for the new Megabus service begin Thursday. So rush, rush, rush to be first online to grab a $1 seat.

Photo by Steve Deger via Flickr

It's just a rumor, so don't really hold it too close to heart, but it goes something like this: The LA River Plan's recreational and commuter bike trails are being held up because Spielberg does not want people rolling by his office window. I don't even know where his office is and I doubt that he is a Grinch that stole LA's river (I imagine him as a gregarious gentleman ready to sign a huge check to kick start the project for people of Los Angeles... hint, hint). But the fact is, movie studios are concerned over the LA River Plan because of security and their own property rights.

So be it. If years down the line the LA River Plan is close to finish with one huge gap between CBS Radford Studios and Disney, the people will speak up, right? Maybe they will park their cars in a circle around each studio and light them on fire (my college freshman philosophy teacher proposed this idea in regards to UCLA and traffic and Emmanual Kant. I still don't understand it, but the visual has stuck).

In the spirit of all the 'design your own Los Angeles' talk (Dodger Subway, WeHo Pink Line, Downtown Streetcars), here's what I would like to see for my neck of the woods and why.

Many are aware of Damien Goodmon's inspirational transit project, Get LA Moving. Now, with the advent of the Google 'My Maps' Feature, anybody can dream up their Los Angeles transit plan. And that's what Chris Gerstle has done by creating the Dodger Blue Line:

My conceptual subway line: "The Traffic Dodger; Dodger Blue Line.". Features access to many popular attractions, notably: Dodger Stadium, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, Hollywood, L.A. Live, Staples Center, Convention Center, Union Station, Silver Lake, Echo Park, The Grove. It would supplement the future Wilshire Blvd. "Purple Line" and Exposition "Blue Line." I've also thrown in a few extensions (some planned/proposed, some conceptual) on the other existing lines, here and there.

While we do not like the idea of supplementing the Expo Line or some variation of the Purple Line, we do like a transit friendly baseball stadium!

Who else has transit maps out there? If you do, link to it in the comments section.

Previously: Go Metro to a Dodgers Game

And I was forced to rob the bank because LA has no money growing on trees. Dumb Natasha Bedingfield:

Don't blame Lindsay Lohan for her latest drunken-driving arrest. British pop starlet Natasha Bedingfield says Linds was forced behind the wheel of that Denali because "L.A. has no public transport system." Well, aside from a thousand or so buses. But it's hard to chase down your assistant in one of those [Rush & Molloy - NY Daily News].

This all sounds very much like something that LAist published on Tuesday. But hey, we're happy some New Yorkers are actually giving LA public transportation a thumbs up of some sort.

Guest Day Editor Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site.

MetroRiderLA promotes what I call the "Los Angeles Public Transit Lifestyle" (it's not really trade marked, feel free to use those words in anyway you please). The idea behind the Public Transit Lifestyle goes something like this (from the website):

"The implication is simply that the citizens of Los Angeles must accustom themselves to public transit as a lifestyle in order to break free of the “car culture” that supposedly exists and flourishes in the city. Once we view public transit as a way of life that connects us as an urban community we can free ourselves of the shackle of the automoblie and all the negative baggage that it carries."

Blah blah, it's a buncha hot air, but you get the idea. It's all about building a culture based around public transit in Los Angeles so that everyone gets excited about using it and taking part in the culture.

What I present to you now is 10 easy ways to join the Los Angeles Public Transit Lifestyle™:

Dump Your Car. This is the single most powerful statement you can make about wanting to join the transit culture. By ridding yourself of the car right from the get go, you leave yourself with no other option but to take part in the lifestyle. It's like going to the beach: you can either tip toe into the water, stopping every five minutes to let your body adjust to the cold water, and running back to shore once a wave splashes your private part area, or you can just dive in and start having fun right away.

Move To A Transit Hub. LA's got 'em now, and they're going to be where the future of LA takes place, so get in on it before everyone else does. Places like Hollywood, Downtown, and Long Beach are experiencing mind boggling growth and densification. Housing, jobs, recreation, and thus communities are forming in places long considered "no mans land". And this is all thanks in no small part to the rapid transit options that serve these areas. Just take a ride along one of our light-rail or subway lines, you'll notice development and growth at every stop. If you can find a place to live within a half-mile (a 10-minute walk) from one of the stations, you're golden.

Get A Monthly Pass. These puppies are quite literally your ticket to the Public Transit Lifestyle. Ringing in at $62, a Metro Monthly Pass will give you unlimted access to every bus, subway, and light-rail train in the Metro system (plus access to LADOT DASH system). What that means is no more fumbling around for exact change, no more worrying about having lost your ticket stub, and no more feeding dollars into the ticket machine as you hear the train arrive. You just carry it around in your wallet or purse, and flash it when the time comes. For an extra $8 a month you can upgrade to the EZ Transit Pass which gives you unlimited access to every carrier in the region (like Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and Pasadena ARTS). It's so sweet and costs just a fraction of what people spend on their cars every month. You can get these at any Ralphs, check cashing place, Union Station, online, or at any of the 650 other retail locations in the city.

More after the jump...

Guest Day Editor Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site.

Your mission: to get there, from anywhere, without a car.

LAist sure does love the Arclight. It's not really my cuppa' tea... a little too flashy, way too pricey, and I don't appreciate a patronizing little speechy-poo before my movie. I prefer my Vista, Laemmle Grand 4 Downtown, and Highland 3, for their affordability, simplicity, and transit accessibility, but I digress... people love this domed place, and by god I'm going tell them how to get there by public transit because that damn parking garage sickens me.

As Guest Day Editor, Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA, will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout today. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site.

Your mission: get to there, from anywhere, without a car.

I know LAist loves them some Dodgers. You know what, I loves me some Dodgers too. A Dodgers game is always a good time, and with my recent discovery of the footlong Dodger Dog corn dogs, you best believe I'll be returning soon.

"But," I hear you say "it's impossible to get to Dodger Stadium without a car. Good luck getting a Dodger Dog Mr. Car-free!"

Au contraire my skeptical car-culture friend, although Dodger Stadium, like so many places in our fair city, is designed for the automobile, it is entirely possible and quite enjoyable to get to that classic ballpark sans car.

As Guest Day Editor, Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA, will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout today. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site.

Last weekend, the LA Times had a commentary piece by Michael Balter wherein he proposed the "radical" idea of forgoing the subway-to-the-sea (claiming its construction to be unlikely) and instead changing the entirety of Wilshire Boulevard into a car-free bike, pedestrian, bus, and light-rail thoroughfare. Clearly a "far out" idea - I don't believe any city in the United States has ever converted 15 miles of a previously high traffic street into a car-free zone - in fact if you look at Wikipedia's list of car-free places, you'll notice that most car-free zones in the United States are recreational in nature or on small private islands. Let's not forget that Wilshire is one of the busiest arterials in the city, passing through wealthy neighborhoods that have been long been resistant to transit and change, and that NIMBY's have long had a stranglehold on local politics in this city. Even if we ignore those things, the planning process alone for these types of transit projects take years (the Expo Line to Culver City which will open in 2010 entered it's planning stages almost 20 years before that), surely the subway-to-the-sea has had much more thought put into than Balter's Wilshire Utopia idea. But that's what makes the idea so "radical" isn't it? Ideas don't have to contend with reality, so they can be as "radical" as they want. And "radicals" who only have ideas, aren't really all that radical, since an idea never did damn thing. It's easy to look at our leaders and call them cowards for not embracing radical ideas like the one that Michael Balter has proposed, or less radical ideas, like a subway down Wilshire Boulevard. It's not so easy to be make radical changes in our own lives.

I say it's time you consider doing something radical.

LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Yesterday was Siel of Green LA Girl, today is Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA. All Aboard!

1. Age and occupation: 26 yearz old. I'm a freelance motion graphics designer, whatever that means.

2. Home town: Orlando, FL (Jamlando). National Geographic recently had a good (if harsh) article on the place, check it out here.

3. Current LA neighborhood: Downtown Los Angeles, aka the transit hub of Los Angeles.

4. How long have you lived in LA, and where?: I've lived in LA for nearly 4 years this August. Before moving to Downtown last year, I lived in East Hollywood aka. Thai Town aka. the Hollywood Transit Corridor

5. What made you want to start up MetroRiderLA?

I had been doing the car-free thing for a while and had just started getting into LA blogs last year and noticed a lack of "cool" Los Angeles transit blogs/sites. Most looked like they were designed in '95 on Geocities, and although they had a lot of good info, I couldn't bring myself to read them in the way I'd read, say, LAist. Plus, there was nothing out there that really looked at transit in Los Angeles as a lifestyle, which is what it was for me. So I dove into the world of blogs, and with the help of my roommates (who also live car-free) we started posting stupid articles... not really thinking that anyone would notice.

As Guest Day Editor, Siel, a.k.a Green LA Girl, will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout today. Read her interview here and check out her site.

Drinking and driving isn't cool -- Which is why I made the logical decision to ditch the car a few months ago. Now, not only can I drink all I want most nights, I also have a few hundred extra bucks for my drink budget each month.

So of course not everyone in LA can immediately ditch their car -- I'm also aware of the realities of getting around Los Angeles. Still, everyone can de-car a bit -- and save money, avoid road rage, and enjoy more happy hours in the meantime. Thus, some suggestions:

1. Pick a line, any line. Yes, figuring out the entire Metro system's like a full time job. But what's your one, nearest bus line? Get to know it -- and the businesses on it.

I used to live near Pico -- and realized I could take a guitar class at SMC, buy wine and snacks at Trader Joe's, stop by McCabes for sheet music, ponder why learning to play guitar's so tough over a cup of coffee at the UnUrban, sob and drink over the same at The Daily Pint, grab dinner at TukTuk to soak up the alcohol -- and get home safe and sound to enjoy said wine and snacks from TJs without ever battling traffic or fighting for a parking space.

Now I live near Wilshire, and with the 720 and the 920, the world's mine oyster. I still can't play guitar, but I have more happy hour options --

2. Get thee a bike. Seriously, I get compliments on my pink Townie every time I ride it. If flattery doesn't move you, convenience might. My bike takes me everywhere from the farmers' market to my yoga classes to my post office, etc. etc.

And if you're short on cash, you can get a decent bike for a steal. Craigslist has posts about bikes for sale every day -- and one freecycler's told me he's gotten 2 bikes off the e-network, FREE.

True -- some 'hoods can seem intimidating for the new biker. Which is why I suggest you get to know other bikers -- they tend to be chilled out, friendly folk, eager to get you on your eco-friendly bike path. BikeRoWave and Bicycle Kitchen are good places to start; joining one of the mass bike rides around town's a fun method too. And if you really feel you could use some educational encouragement to get you started, check out the LA Bicycle Coalition and the bike safety classes they offer.

3. Walk it out. In theory, walking to nearby places isn't hard -- but I do know that in many areas in LA, with its concrete lots and big box stores, walking isn't always the most pleasant endeavor. So find out what the more pleasant, walkable streets are, and what your walking comfort level is. Maybe you really can't do 10 blocks of open parking lots lined with heavy, honking traffic. But even in pedestrian-unfriendly places, you can likely handle 5 blocks to your nearest brunch spot -- or run, iPod volume high, to your gym via side streets. Try it at least once, and see how it feels.

4. Move to a transit friendly neighborhood. Easiest way to de-car is to move to a place where de-car-ing's easy. If nothing's really tying you to your Hollywood apartment, consider moving to a more transit friendly 'hood -- or at least moving near a big transit hub. I moved to Santa Monica specifically cuz I was tired of paying parking tickets and fighting traffic -- and I've been much happier -- and richer -- since.

5. Find a Flexcar near you. Flexcar's like renting a car -- except you can do it by the hour, without having to deal with sales people trying to sell you insurance you don't need. I simply book via the web, then swipe a keycard in front of the car, and start driving -- all for $7-10 an hour including insurance and gas. This way, I'm never stranded -- I can get to the occasional party or event that's not transit-accessible -- or deal with any type of emergency that never actually comes up but I'd like to be prepared for regardless.

Flexcar isn't all over LA yet. If you're in Santa Monica, Venice, Westwood, Downtown LA, or near USC, this'll totally work for you. If not, write Flexcar and let them know you want its services.
____

And if you have specific questions about how to get around, lemme know in the comments and I'll try to help you out.

photos by Siel, green LA girl

Just when you thought the public transportation and traffic situation in Los Angeles couldn't possibly get any worse... it did. Yes, in a true stroke of brilliance, the State Assembly decided to cut close to $1.3 billion in funding from mass transit transportation in this year's budget bill. As Siel over at green LA girl notes, this means we can probably kiss that planned Expo line expansion from Culver City to Santa Monica good-bye.

In the wake of a recent report released by the state Department of Finance predicting California's population to balloon by almost 75% over the next half-century (close to 60 million people by 2050), it is inexplicable and indefensible for our lawmakers to decide to gut some much needed expansions to our already under-financed public transportation system. Not only will these cuts prompt a higher level of traffic congestion and air pollution, they will make future urban planning projects for the city that much harder to implement, as Matthew Yglesias explains:

"California faces a budget deficit so they cut $1 billion from mass transit funding. This kind of thing, of course, is crucial to understanding the urban/suburban/exurban balance in American life. We get sprawl because people want to move out to these far flung places. But by the same token, nobody would want to move out to them if roads didn't go there. A patch of affordable land near a well-maintained road that's connected to a network of other well-maintained roads is an attractive place to live. A patch of affordable land that's connected by a crude trail to a dirt road isn't.

Similarly, if you never make building and maintaining the infrastructure of less car-dependent lifestyles a priority, people wind up not wanting to live those lifestyles. It's all perfectly understandably, but it'll ultimately be very, very, very hard to get climate emissions under control without some increase in the number of families living with fewer than one car per adult."

If the red line seems slow today, now you know why. The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting that a man either fell or jumped inito the path of the North Hollywood bound Metro Red Line train at the Westlake/MacArthur Park subway station shortly before 8:40 a.m.

The subway train was unable to stop before striking the man, who was found trapped beneath the trainset.

Despite the prompt response of Los Angeles Fire Department personnel, the man proved beyond their help, and was declared deceased at the scene.

Stay behind that yellow line!

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist

I wanted to post a follow up to the previous post about the big rig accident on the 5 north earlier this afternoon. I feel extremely compelled to post about it because I LITERALLY sat in it for almost 4 hours, before finally turning around and heading home.

I left work early today, heading up north to Sacramento with my boyfriend to visit our families. We left around 4:30 this afternoon, thinking, like most of LA does, "OOOooo, if we leave early, we're sure to beat everyone else...". Well that definitely didn't happen. We had stopped to get a Subway sandwich, and as we pulled onto the on-ramp we discovered... a parking lot. The traffic had utterly and completely stopped moving. So, with a van filled with kids from a summer camp in front of us, and a van full of Korean baptist kids behind us, we waited, hoping at any moment that the traffic would suddenly and miraculously disappear. The rapture couldn't have happened at a more opportune time, if you ask me.

More photos under the cut...

All of you looking for a quick getaway Up North might want to think about going tomorrow morning, or taking the scenic route up the 101, or getting ready for some long delays.

NBC4 is reporting that due to a semi-truck crash in Castaic, the CHP is detouring northbound cars off the freeway to avoid the wreckage.

Several lanes of the Northbound 5 Freeway are closed because of a big rig crash in Castaic, NBC4 reported.

One lane is open.

The big rig flipped over on its side after 3 p.m.

There are no report of injuries.

Traffic was being rerouted off the 5 Freeway at Lake Hughes Road.

So heads up!

Update: A nice picture of the flipped rig here.

Sir Richard Branson's SFO-based harem of nubile air carriages wants you on board.

Beginning this morning, cut-rate tickets are on sale for LAX-SFO flights on Virgin America. 5 flights daily are scheduled to shuttle between the two airports starting August 8 -- with coach seats going for $44 each way (before tax). First-class Virgin tickets are also offered at the introductory price of $149 each way.

While numerous airlines have been grounded, bought out, or otherwise disappeared in recent years, Virgin is the first operation to take to the California skies in 20 years. Jump on these great rates now -- only Southwest comes close, and on very limited tickets per flight in that case. Virgin will take you for a ride on any A320 coach seat for the $88 r/t fare. They're also for sale on Orbitz (unlike Southwest), so head there if when the Virgin America booking system gets too bogged down this morning.

Virgin will be competing with JetBlue on it's two daily SFO-JFK offerings, but they have no competition at these rights for the LAX-SFO route (of course, there are numerous daily LAX/ONT/BUR/LGB -> SJC/OAK flights on Southwest, and a new LGB -->SFO flight).

Stay tuned for future cross-country routes from LAX to New York and DC. But for now, grab a seat on one of these fresh A320s and get the most out of your 45 minutes on Virgin air -- Check it:

Passengers on Virgin America's ten new Airbus A320 and A319 airplanes, which are roughly the size of Boeing's 737 jets and sport names like "Jefferson Airplane" and "Mach Daddy", can watch satellite TV from screens; order food via an interactive menu on the screens and talk to other flyers via an interplane chatroom. There are massage chairs in first class. And the planes have mood lighting - nine different lighting schemes that mimic dawn to dusk.

There is a bizarre catch, however, which could translate into free travel/cash. Virgin America is not yet cleared for takeoff....

AP Photo of Grace Slick by Paul Sakuma

Don't call it a comeback, but Hollywood Blvd. will soon look very different.

Today the Los Angeles City Council approved a $400 million, 7-building, mix-use complex that will feature 1,000 apartments as well as several shops and restaurants.

Built on the parking lots around the Pantages theater in the once-glorious center of Hollywood (Hollywood & Vine), the council voted unanimously to change zoning laws to allow for construction to begin at the end of this year.

Developer Veronica Hackett said she was attracted to the project in part because she believes the elements of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood are coming together around it.

"One of these days, people are going to walk in Hollywood," said Hackett, who worked as a developer on the revitalization of Times Square in New York in the 1980s.

During that process she became acquainted with the Nederlander family, which owns several theaters for live performances, including the Greek Theatre and the Pantages in Los Angeles.

Hackett is managing partner of the Clarett Group, which has a 99-year lease with the Nederlander Co. for control of more than 7 acres around the Pantages that the family owns and planned to develop for many years. - LA Times

Blvd6200 would house 2,696 parking spaces underground or concealed behind stores on the first floor. "We had to get everything inside so we don't have ugly parking garages," Hackett said. "They're not inviting to walk by."

More than 650 spaces will be reserved for the Pantages on event days, and a portion of those will be available for public transit users on days when no performances are scheduled.

graphic by Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderberg

After an extensive 7-year study by LAist about how celebrities choose to fly, we have come to conclusion that the superstars choose Southwest Airlines and the the stars of a past day or just the weird ones take United Airlines. Over the past 7-years, we have flown with:

- Vince Vaughn on Southwest Airlines from LAX to Chicago Midway (boarded with the disabled and children/familes)
- Philip Seymour Hoffman on Southwest Airlines from Burbank to San Francisco (boarded like any other person)
- Lily Tomlin on United Airlines from Chicago O'Hare to LAX (boarded early in economy plus)
- Jared the Subway Sandwich Guy on United Airlines from Las Vegas to Chicago O'Hare (boarded early in economy plus)

We also noticed Jared was wearing the same exact outfit on the plane as he was in a commercial a few weeks later. Does he always dress like that or did he steal the clothes from set?

Photo by Chris Polk/AP

Today in the House Committee on Appropriations, a transportation funding bill for Fiscal year 2008 was voted on and passed. It included our Purple Line, the subway that is planned and dreamed on for Wilshire Blvd. Unfortunately, it appears that the bill will not fund the project, but rather does something else of bureaucratic importance: it repeals language written in 1986 by Congress to ban subway tunneling along Wilshire.

"Metro is deeply appreciative of Congressman Waxman’s efforts to include this language reversing the subway tunneling ban in the House version of the transportation funding bill," Santa Monica Councilwoman and Metro Boad Chair, Pam O'Connor, said today in a statement. "We look forward to having this provision included in the final transportation funding bill that is signed into law later this year."

The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider its transportation spending bill for Fiscal year 2008 tomorrow.

Photo by Hagoody via Flickr

Despite some resentment about yesterday's fare hikes and attitude from some that Metro has failed this city, they continue to win awards. Today, the San Fernando Business Journal announces that Metro has won a top honor from The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD):

The Washington, D.C.-based organization chose Metro because of its new paint schemes for the bus fleet, new building façade for the Wilshire Customer Center and new signage and identification for bus stations, rail stations and more.

The SEDG [sic] judging panel praised Metro “for its ability to create a strong graphic brand and a world-class system. Every graphic element—color, typography and color placement—was considered for its ability to communicate information concisely and consistently.”

On branding, agreed. Graphic elements, agreed. And all that truly does "communicate information concisely and consistently." Is that a red bus in the distance? Okay, that's a rapid. Is that an orange bus? That's a local service bus. Easy enough.

Next steps should be to communicate that no more busses or trains are coming late at night in a "concise and consistent" manner. You know, when you are sitting down in a red line station at 12:31 a.m. with 15 other people and the only person who tells you no more trains are coming is the security guard locking the place up. Yeah, that.

How about some audio announcements? Heck, throw in those "next train coming in 6-minutes" ones too. People would be less stressed out. The murder rate would probably go down too.

Photo by Salim Virji via Flickr.

Today is the day where Angelenos will take out their wallets and slap down a 5-dollar bill into the ticket machines for a day pass. It's like Los Angeles is a big city now -- it has high(ish) rates for public transportation.

One-way fares will remain the same at $1.25 but the Metro Day Pass went up from $3 to $5; the monthly pass increased $10 to $62; weekly passes are now $17, up $3; the semi-monthly pass is gone; and an EZ transit pass, which is good for use on Metro and the various municipal bus operators in Los Angeles County, went up $12 making the total $70.

4 trips at $1.25 is $5, so at that point, you should just buy a day pass to save on the hassle (it helps especially when you are at a subway station fidgeting with the ticket machine as you hear a train pull up and away). 14 trips a week makes the weekly pass worthy and 50 trips a month gives reason for the monthly pass (we say trips, but each boarding counts as one. So if you take the Orange to the Red, that's two right there and round trip would be 4.)

For the full list of fare structure changes, click here.