Retired trainer Will Fernandez of Monrovia has a automobile, however prefers to get round on his e-bike, buses and trains. For his pockets, and the setting, “that’s actually the best way to do it,” he mentioned.
However the 63-year-old has a priority shared by many transit riders I spoke to Tuesday at Metro’s Older Grownup Transportation Expo in Pasadena, an annual occasion aimed toward selling ridership and educating folks on learn how to get probably the most out of Metro.
“I’m frightened,” he mentioned, given the latest glut of tales about violence on riders and drivers, and given disturbing scenes he’s witnessed himself.
“I’ve lived in L.A. all my life, and I’ve by no means seen the extent of violence that I’m seeing now,” Fernandez mentioned. “It’s like an insane asylum. I’ve seen folks defecate on the practice. I’ve seen folks pull knives on the practice, and it has positively upped my stage of consciousness.”
Will Fernandez says he’s “frightened” when he’s a passenger on public transportation. “I’ve lived in L.A. all my life, and I’ve by no means seen the extent of violence that I’m seeing now,” he mentioned.
Fernandez mentioned there are too many fare-jumpers, which heightens the sense of dysfunction and danger, and he tries to look the a part of a tricky man whereas commuting, in hopes of discouraging assaults. He walked over to his e-bike, which was parked towards a wall on the Pasadena Conference Heart, to make his level.
“That is my bike lock, simply in case,” he mentioned, grabbing the metal cable. “I’m able to deal with enterprise, as a protection mechanism, as a result of it’s gotten to the purpose the place you must take some duty to your personal security.”
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It’s arduous to quibble with Fernandez’s take, given the acts of violence and all of the social and behavioral issues which can be evident. The Metro board just lately accepted an emergency procurement to hurry set up of protecting obstacles for bus operators because of the elevated severity of assaults. Board member Kathryn Barger, who mentioned she’s afraid to trip transit alone, joined colleagues who launched a movement to step up safety and discover future choices.
Within the keynote tackle on the Expo occasion in Pasadena, Metro Chief Govt Stephanie Wiggins briefly hit the highlights of service growth and elevated ridership on some traces, and she or he repeated the grand imaginative and prescient of Metro as each a commuter service and an inexpensive solution to “discover, uncover and join with our communities.” However she shortly pivoted.
Security, Wiggins mentioned, is “crucial factor we’ve been engaged on,” for the good thing about Metro riders and workers. And she or he referred to as for a second of silence in reminiscence of Mirna Soza Arauz, the 67-year-old Tommy’s safety guard who was stabbed to dying on a B-Line practice between the North Hollywood and Common stations shortly earlier than 5 a.m. on April 22.
Lois Vivendale, second from proper, says that she doesn’t trip Metro as a result of she can be “a simple mark” on the eighth Annual Older Grownup Transportation Expo on the Pasadena Conference Heart. Vivendale does trip buses so long as she is aware of the drivers and feels okay with the route.
After I retraced her last route, using the identical practice Soza Arauz had ridden, every week after her dying, I wrote in my column that tighter safety is clearly wanted, but it surely’s unrealistic to assume Metro can clear up all of the societal failures which have turned buses and trains into rolling shelters. Wiggins hit that very same notice in her speech, referencing homelessness, untreated psychological sickness and a drug epidemic.
“We didn’t create any of those issues, however we have to handle them,” Wiggins mentioned.
She informed the viewers that the variety of Metro’s homeless outreach groups had been tripled from eight to 24, and that extra lighting and safety cameras have been added, together with extra safety officers “to implement our code of conduct together with fare enforcement.”
Additionally, Wiggins mentioned, 300 Metro ambassadors have been posted all through the system to reply questions and spot issues, and crime stats in March confirmed a double-digit lower year-to-year. Actually, general crime charges on buses and trains have each risen and fallen at numerous instances up to now few years, relying on the crime class, though latest high-profile violent crimes have fueled worry that Metro is unsafe.
As Wiggins spoke, one other all-too-familiar drama was unfolding on the Sundown/Vermont Metro station in Hollywood, the place a safety guard acquired into an altercation Tuesday morning with a knife-wielding trespasser found throughout a sweep of a nonpublic space of the station. Authorities mentioned the guard was stabbed after which shot the attacker, who fled to a close-by hospital and was pronounced useless.
Stephanie Wiggins, Metro chief government, says security is a prime precedence, citing a rise in homeless outreach groups, extra seen safety personnel and extra cameras.
For all of this, not everybody who attended the Pasadena Expo was prepared to surrender on transit. Two girls of their 70s, from Lancaster, informed me they journey in teams and are conscious of dangers however really feel usually secure.
Retiree Frank McGrath, 75, mentioned he intends to maintain using.
“I’m conscious of my environment,” he mentioned, including that he’s ready to make use of his walker to defend himself if vital.
Wanda Savage, 60, mentioned she gained’t use transit at night time, however she sticks to a set of private guidelines when using in the course of the day. She stands as an alternative of sits, she mentioned, and is ready to run if vital.
“You simply need to be very conscious,” she mentioned. “That’s why I don’t use earbuds and headsets and all that stuff. I hear every little thing.”
Duane Garcia, a 75-year-old musician who informed me he served in Vietnam as a Marine, carries a telescopic baton and a pocket knife always. He mentioned there should be extra supervision on platforms as a result of he’s seen pickpockets goal folks, and he’s seen “predatory habits,” significantly towards girls.
Stan Slonkosky, 72, a retired digital technician who can’t drive due to poor imaginative and prescient, informed me that using public transit virtually acquired him killed.
Stan Slonkosky reveals scars on his shoulders and arms, reminders of an assault two years in the past when a Metro passenger doused him with a flammable liquid and lit him on fireplace.
“Two years in the past as we speak, I attended a live performance at St. Andrews Church in Pasadena,” he mentioned. After it’s conclusion he walked to the Memorial Park metro station a number of blocks away that night to move residence.
“After I acquired on the practice,” Slonkosky mentioned, “a girl behind me mentioned, ‘You’re blocking my view.’ I ignored her as a result of I believed she was loopy, and she or he sprayed a liquid on me. I believed it was water as a result of it was odorless, however in response to a detective who investigated it, it was gasoline, and she set me on fireplace. I acquired on the ground and put it out. A number of the different passengers helped me.”
Slonkosky mentioned he suffered second-degree burns on his arms, and he confirmed me the scars. He was additionally burned on his torso and face, and spent seven weeks within the hospital adopted by three months in a nursing residence. He mentioned his assailant was declared mentally unfit for trial, and has but to be prosecuted.
Slonkosky mentioned too many individuals with violent histories don’t face penalties and are left free to assault once more, and he thinks there should be many extra uniformed officers patrolling Metro. He went to the Expo to ask Metro officers why safety is so lax, however there was no alternative for such an change.
“I’m hyper conscious,” mentioned Wanda Savage, about security issues when she rides on public transportation.
Wiggins later informed me that Metro isn’t the one massive transit company coping with these points, and as a rider she has seen the dangers described by others. “I’ve had that have the place somebody…seems to be having a psychological disaster,” she mentioned.
And for all of the makes an attempt so far to enhance safety, she mentioned, “I need to be clear that I’m not happy and I do know there’s nonetheless extra to be performed.”
Much more. Final 12 months noticed an astounding 168 assaults on bus drivers, a few of who staged a sick-out final week.
We’ve plowed billions into transit, with good purpose, however we’re not seeing sufficient of a return on the funding.
Metro helps drive the native economic system and has the potential to get folks out of their vehicles in a traffic-choked metropolis. It will get folks to work and to highschool, and plenty of of them haven’t any transportation alternate options. And transit is extra vital than ever, given the impression of automobile tradition on local weather change.
Passengers exit a Pasadena transit bus to take part in Metro’s Older Grownup Transportation Expo on the Pasadena Conference Heart on Could 7.
The nice cities of the world have nice programs, they usually determine learn how to make them work — safely and effectively — for folks of all ages.
Los Angeles has to do the identical, no extra excuses.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
