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Public Transportation in Los Angeles

Joseph
Joseph's picture

All,

Living in Los Angeles I still cannot believe how poor of an overall public transportation system that we still have. I've lived in New York, Europe (England, Germany) and visited many foreign countries and I have yet to see a poorer implementation of public transportation that we have here in Los Angeles. We have the standard bus services and some light rail finally being built, but still no overall solution to our freeway traffic jams. We really don't have any viable public transportation option that is usable to go from downtown Los Angeles, or the Valley to the West side of Los Angeles. Is this the result of local cities not allowing light rail to go through their cities or is the reason something else, perhaps something more nefarious? I don't know the answer, but do know that it's very tough to use the public transportation options in our city. I've heard it stated that Los Angeles is unusually spread out in size and therefore it presents a unique problem. To a non-expert it seems that we have an excellent source for providing light rail via an existing infrastructure - our freeways. Why can't we simple add on to our freeways and bring a light rail lane on the existing structures? That way you avoid any rezoning, new purchases, and major expense to creating secondary duplicative transportation pathways. It seems to me that we have the solution right in front of us, but either government or big business are stifling our ability to utilize. Is this a mass conspiracy or simply poor planning of transportation development?

- Joseph

‹ Walking

Submitted by Joseph on Mon, 03/26/2007 - 09:46.

jstack6
jstack6's picture
Re: Public Transportation in every city

It's seems this should include public transportation in EVery city. Here in the Phoenix area we have all of our buses that run on LNG, liquid Natual Gas. It's cleaner and not a bad idea except the USA hit peak natual gas in 2001 and we now import more than we use. At least most of it comes from nice friendly Canada.

The city is also building light rail. This will be very interesting and could help in areas it serves. It has to start someplace with a few lines then expand if it works out well. Personally I'd like to see it as a elevated or monorail type system so it wouldn't block road traffic.

We also have some of the best and most bicycle lanes on almost every street. The only exception is the Gilbert are with almost no bike paths and very littl bus service. They seem to live in the past. even while they are one of the fastest growing cities in America.

The weather here gives us clear roads all year. It gets a littel cold in winter but only at night. I ran in the 2007 PF Chang's marathon in January and rode my bicycle to and from the race, about 18 miles each way. It was record cold of only 26 F in the AM but by noon it was 55 F. Big deal I'm from Upstate NY and that was spring weather to me.

Our biggest problem is the cities as a group are so big. The little city I live in, Chandler has a population of over 200K. All the cites, Tempe, Chandler, Mesa Phoenix etc are all connected so close you cross the street and are in the next city. The weather is so nice and homes so affordable we have over 8,000 new residents from Californai each month move into the area. WOW that's growth.

Every home sould be built better for zero energy, have solar hot water and PV . Everyone should be able to work within 5-10 miles of home but many travel 20-40 miles to and from work in a single occupant SUV !

It's a big problem in most cities.

solar stacks Smiling

--

solar stacks


Mon, 05/28/2007 - 08:59

Naida
Naida's picture
Monorail As a Low Cost Solution

For cities such as Los Angeles, one of the best solutions would be to build a monorail system that runs from Downtown through the Westside. I've heard that there is discussion about making Pico Blvd. and Olympic Blvd. one way streets to help the flow of traffic. This is absolutely insane. We keep putting bandaids on the problem. I think that a monorail system, such as the type you've seen as Disneyland, would be a great way to add a quick transportation solution. It could use existing street structures by simply putting an elevated system, or even a non-elevated system to the streets that exist. It's comparatively inexpensive, clean, and can support a lot of movement. I heard the head of the MTA say that monorails are nothing more than what LA already has with its existing bus system. What a joke! Our bus system is slow, smelly, old technology, and doesn't meet the current needs.

Naida


Wed, 04/04/2007 - 18:59