Speed dating has a whole new meaning for subway riders this Valentine's Day. The Los Angeles Metro is hosting speed dating sessions on the appropriately colored Red Line, finally giving awkward commuters a chance to make a move on that certain someone they've been eyeing on their way to work.
In an event officially sanctioned and hosted by L.A.'s Metro Transportation Authority, afternoon commuters riding in specially decorated cars on the L.A. subway will have a chance at finding love with the passengers they typically ignore in stoic silence. Metro staff will be onboard to supervise the budding romances, and to remind lovebirds to switch seats every two minutes -- you know, just to keep their options open.
Understandably, some people are more excited than others. A commenter named Jane wrote on the Metro's blog that it's a "great idea. Horrible timing. I don't want to meet anyone who is available during those hours." Clearly Jane doesn't plan to settle for any freelancers or unemployed paramours...
If you're one of those haughty folks who scorn L.A. as a land of terrible traffic and minimal public transportation, it might surprise you that the city even has a subway. But America's second-most populous city (and twelfth-largest in terms of area) is actually undergoing a public transit boom that will get the city a little closer to the awesome fantasy transit systems designed by artists or featured in the movie Her.
L.A. will spend $12.3 billion expanding the city's public transportation systems in coming years, and its $2.4 billion plan to build a light rail connecting its ever-increasingly hip downtown with its coastal community in Santa Monica is already halfway complete.
Although this commuter speed dating experiment is guaranteed to be an awkward affair for everyone involved, maybe it'll work -- after all, my parents met on a bus.
