Battle Of the Buses: Oh, It’s So On!

April 17, 2008 at 6:00 am in Downtown, Mass Transit, West Side

Just a follow-up from last week’s post to remind you to place your bets this afternoon for the Great Bus Race 2008 because it’s on like Konkey Dong between me and The Bus Bench’s BusTard. I’ll be on the MTA’s No. 439 catching up on my reading of Mercedes Lambert’s “Dogtown” and he’ll be bribing the driver of Big Blue’s No. 10 to skip stops as we travel from our respective points of embarkation deep in the westside sometime shortly after the 5 o’clock hour then call crawl our separate ways across town (his route and mine) to see who gets to Clifton’s at 7th and Broadway first. With fingers crossed that we both get there before the place closes at 7:30 p.m., we will then retire inside for loser-buys dinner with perhaps whiskeys at Seven Grand afterward, or just we’ll pass around The Bus Bench Publisher Browne’s bottle of Everclear.

13.8-mile Route of Big Blue’s N0. 10

14.6-mile route of MTA’s No. 439

You can track my progress and follow all the ongoing hot mass-transit action as I post in-route tweets here on Twitter, along with the occasional phonecam pix to my photostream on Flickr (at least for as long as my mobile’s battery lasts).

16 Comments »

dhosek

Sorry to say it Will, but you’re going to be toast on this one.
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

I’m afraid you may be right, Don. But as ESPN’s Chris Berman often says: “that’s why they play the game.”
http://metroriderla.com/2008/04/17/daily-transit-links-roundup-50/ Daily Transit Links Roundup | MetroRiderLA

[...] Blogging LA and The Bus Bench embark on the Great Snail Bus Race 2008! [...]
rogedog92

Will, I myself am partial to the MTA and therefore even if odds are against you, I will be rooting for you. Good luck
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

Thanks Rogedog! Nice to have you aboard.
http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

Go Will Go

Of course it would be much more interesting for you to bike it and him bus it. That way we could compare two alternatives to the private car.
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

You were kinda reading my mind Fraz! One of these days if I can stand being off my bike for so long, I’m gonna take four days and compare and compile the results of my bike commute to the other options of solo crosstown travel available: truck (freeways); truck (surface streets); MTA No. 217, and MTA No. 439.
http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

The comparo would be fun, a race among those options ala “amazing race” would be a lot more entertaining.
http://thunderboltfan.blogspot.com thunderboltfan

Speaking of alternatives to the private car, I took the Metro.
http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

WELLL Will who won?
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

Sorry for the delay Don. As you predicted, I got toasted. My overall travel time was 59 minutes, BusTard clocked his trip in at 40 minutes.
rogedog92

Will, I actually kept track of your progress…perhaps if the bus had been on time and traffic lighter on Ladera things would have been different.
rogedog92

so did you get to meet Browne?
http://faboomama.com faboomama

I was looking forward to meeting you guys at the finish line, knowing that BusTard would get there first ;P. Unfortunately, we kinda got into some margaritas for happy hour.
http://www.wildbell.com WILL•I•AM CAMPBELL

Thanks Rogedog. I think I could’ve closed the gap somewhat had conditions been better along the section you mention, but unless BusTard’s #10 had encountered heavy congestion on the 10 at the 405, there wasn’t much chance of my #439 coming in ahead of him.

And unfortunately Browne was unable to attend the closing ceremonies. But while waiting for BusTard to return from his misbegotten victory lap I did meet a fine fellow named Mr. O’Conner visiting from Dublin who wondered to me what Clifton’s was and then took me up on my suggestion to go have a look inside the landmark. He returned to the street very glad he did.
http://www.TheBusBench.com bustard

I have to state that had I taken the subsequent BBB#10, I may well have been stuck in traffic not far from Will on the MTA 439. He was nearing the 10 Freeway not long after I passed the spot where the 439 hit it.

Battle Of the Buses: Oh, It’s So On!

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