Science Train

We'll board the Metro Gold Line headed toward Union Station with a few small signs indicating that we are Caltech Astronomers and welcome any questions about a few key topics: Black Holes, Life in the Universe, Galaxy Evolution, whatever. We'll sit passively and let other people approach us--no need to prosyletize or solicit! In addition, we can have flyers for our other outreach events to hand out for those interested.

Chris Bochenek did some research and discovered the LA Metro policies surrounding solicitations: LA metro's code of conduct.

Page 12 is particularly enlightening.

The killer is the following sentence: "Written permission must be obtained from Metro prior to placing, posting, or displaying a poster, notice, advertisement, sign, or other written material on a Metro facility or vehicle."

Other restrictions are:

1. We cannot put up signs anywhere on the train, so we would have to hold them.
2. The signs would have to be smaller than 30"x30".
3. "Tables and portable equipment are prohibited", so no experiment.

I think we're still OK doing this without advanced permission from the LA Metro, as long as we aren't loud, disruptive, and keep our signs small and handheld. We'll see how the first one goes and go from there.