New Bus Bench and Trash Can on Centinela and Washington

Finally! Culver City has installed a new bus bench and trash can on the northeast corner of Washington Blvd and Centinela Ave. I've been waiting for this for years now. I stand on that corner every morning to catch the #14 Santa Monica Blue Bus northbound which is how I commute to work.

It is so great to have a place to sit while I wait for the bus. It is also great that people can now throw their trash in the can instead of on the sidewalk. I do wish, though, that they also could have installed a roof/overhang (I don't know the proper name for these things) above the bench so that people can sit there without getting drenched when it is raining. Luckily it doesn't rain all that much in LA.

I'm really looking forward to the redevelopment that is supposedly coming soon at this intersection. The plans are highlighted in this edition of the Culver West Neighborhood Association's newsletter.

Disappointed With Little Blue Card

As of the beginning of this month, the Santa Monica Blue Blue Bus changed the format of their debit card known as the Little Blue Card. I am not very happy with it because

1. It doesn't work on the Culver City Bus like its predecessor
2. It requires me to insert it twice if I want a transfer. The first insertion deducts $0.75 and the second an additional $0.50 for the transfer.
   
3. It has to be replaced with another so-called Value Card when it runs out of room on the back side where its remaining balance is printed

I discovered the latter this morning as I inserted my card into the machine and it popped out a new Value Card with the balance transferred onto it.

The Value Card is the exact same format as the cards used for transfers - a flimsy white card. It is really easy to mistake it for a transfer. If that happens, and I accidentally hand it to a bus driver, I could lose as much as $20, the value I typically add to my card each time it runs dry.

I think they should have just kept things the way they were. I would much rather reuse the same blue card even if it meant not seeing the balance printed on the back each time. With the old cards, the balance just appeared on the machine's display each time the card was inserted. That's good enough.

These Value Cards are also a big waste of paper since they need to be replaced so often. I thought Santa Monica was an environmentally minded city. They should know better.