| rev:text
| - I have to settle on two stars for the light rail, having now experienced it for over a month about 4-5 times a week. This is despite the fact that it's become a fairly convenient part of my daily routine and regular life in Phoenix, since I live 2 blocks from one of the stations. I like the system and am glad it's here, but it has to improve before I give it more than a mediocre/average 2.
The downsides:
1. It's slow and will never for any reason ever save me time over driving my car, unless I'm catching some event or football game at ASU given the extra time to find parking and walk.
2. The irrational, illogical decision to stop running at 11 pm even though it starts running at 4:40 am. This makes no sense at all. The 4:40 start is to catch our early service employees who need to get to work early and I get that. But Metro chooses to serve them while ignoring the late night service crowd, which simultaneously cuts out the late night *consumer* crowd. So it's a double whammy for the local economy: late night workers are shut out, and consumers are forced to leave our local businesses by 10:45. Some will choose not to go out at all since they'd have to either come home early or drink and drive. This hurts our local businesses, and consequently our city and state tax base.
The upsides:
1. It takes me about 15 seconds to purchase a rail pass at the machines, now that I'm used to them.
2. The station locations are great and were chosen well. The Mill Avenue stop is perfect. The ASU stop can take me from home to the Tempe Improv and back. Same goes for the Sun Devil Stadium stop once football season starts. Most of the Central Ave stops feature either convenient shopping stuff for downtown residents, or nightlife for suburban visitors. There's a stop right in front of Lux for pete's sake! And another at Indian Steele Park (if you're a jogger) or George and Dragon (if you're a beer-drinking slob). One Friday night I'd driven to George to meet friends, had one too many, took the train home, and picked my car up Saturday morning by hopping right back on the train. Perfecto.
3. I've used the train to get from home to Sky Harbor airport twice now. It's awesome. From my front door to the terminal, it is no longer possible to get me there faster than by the train-shuttle system. I refuse to count freebie rides from friends who pick me up, because the friends I have are all perenially late and make me wait. (You know who you are you loveable bastards). To go back home, I just step out onto the curb of the terminal, the shuttle arrives within minutes (I haven't waited more than 4 or 5), it shoots up the road to the 44th St station, and 10 minutes later I'm at home.
If you ride it often enough, you'll start to get to know the enforcement officers. Most of them are pretty friendly.
All in all, Metro gets my thumbs up but it's a work in progress and I want to see improvements.
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