Make a new plan, Stan... er, Doug

It's good to see our friends at the Metro Transit Authority of Los Angeles using their resources to try to improve the traffic situation here in the Southland.

Case in point: Every year they require my employer to require all of us, their employees, to fill out a survey regarding our commuting habits. For a week we note when the start and end of our shifts, and how we traveled to and from the office that day (in a car with one person, in a car with two people, etc.). We note our home addresses, and the nearest major cross streets. In theory, this would allow them to try to match up people who live in the same general area and work in the same general area and commute to and from those areas at approximately the same time, and encourage those people to carpool.

And every year prior to this one, I've never heard anything more of it. I presume this is because every year in the column where one notes the travel method I put that I take a train, which means I'm not even in a vehicle that's contributing to the traffic; I'm doing the ultimate in carpooling, because I have hundreds of people in my car.

This year, however, I got an envelope from the MTA. It was customized printout, with my name specified and estimated cost data about how much the 39 miles of my commute add up to in a year (between fuel and auto wear), and how many pounds of air pollution that contributes to the atmosphere. It then listed five strangers who live anywhere from two to six miles from where I live and work in downtown who apparently got the same letter at their jobs, presumably to encourage us to get in a car together to get to work.

At first I was confused. I'm not in an automobile. I noted that. Did they go to all the trouble to amass the data but fail to include that part?

Then it occurred to me. They're trying to let me know that I should stop relying on their trains, and find some private citizen with a car who can get me to work. Perhaps they're trying to give me a heads-up that they're going out of business, and I should find alternative transportation sooner than later.

Very thoughtful on their part, I must say. But if they think I'm going to carpool with total strangers... Well, despite taking public transportation for years, I am still a native Angelino.

And besides, my mom always told me not to get in a car with a stranger.