
Los Angeles Tries to Prove That It Doesn’t Necessarily Need the Car - jseliger
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/los-angeles-tries-to-prove-that-it-doesnt-necessarily-need-the-car
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vitd
I work just down the street from the Santa Monica station. It literally opened
a week ago or so, and the author's complaining that people getting on downtown
don't yet know which line to take. Well duh! It's brand new!

As for the complaints of old trains and scuffed up seats - the train isn't
new. I've ridden it downtown occasionally for the last 3 years or so. What's
new is the part from Culver City to Santa Monica. It didn't used to go out
that far.

It's like the author didn't bother to check the actual facts or history of the
project. This was a stupid article.

~~~
ryan_j_naughton
I totally agree. I too live in Santa Monica near the downtown station.

I took the train on the first day and everyone in my group was commenting "I
can't believe there is graffiti already!! Hooligans" them we remembered that
the trains have been running from downtown to Culver city for years and this
is just a line extension.

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mturmon
Full of the stereotypical things the NY media likes to print about LA.
Hollywood openings? Check. Advice to New Yorkers headed to LA? Check.
Comparisons of any LA phenomenon with NY analog? Check. Lacking perspective on
the city as a whole, beyond Hollywood, downtown, and the west side? Check.

Sigh. Yet, some truisms sprinkled among the retreads.

Author's about page: _A New Yorker at heart (and by area code), I’m currently
based in Los Angeles._

~~~
EGreg
Well, the publication is called the New Yorker!

Can you please elaborate where in LA you don't need a car? Beverly Hills on
Shabbat? :)

~~~
tomjakubowski
Speaking from experience, you can easily get by without a car in DTLA, Santa
Monica, Echo Park, Highland Park, Chinatown, Koreatown, and Venice (west of
Lincoln Blvd). You could probably get away with it in Hollywood/Silver
Lake/Los Feliz too.

I went carless in Pasadena and I could get around town, to downtown LA and to
places on the northeast side OK using the Gold Line (5 minute walk from my
apartment). Unfortunately many of the Pasadena stations are in less-than
walkable areas. Making it to social events outside of the Gold Line's coverage
area was hard (connecting through DTLA sucks, will be improved when the
regional connector is built). I'm sure things would have been better with a
bike and had Uber been around when I was doing that.

~~~
goldenkey
My experience was that buses in LA smelled like piss and were in disrepair.
The two times I tried to give the buses a chance in Hollywood seemed to
confirm this. Can you elaborate on the quality of bus transit?

~~~
zepto
Use a gasmask

~~~
goldenkey
Modern day AR, and here I thought I would have to wait another decade for it!

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bcoates
In defense of the LA train system, most of the rolling stock on the Expo line
are nice new trains, and Hollywood to Santa Monica via Downtown is almost the
most pathological route between major destinations you can take in terms of
car vs train.

I've been taking the Expo lately and it's already standing-only crowded during
rush hour and heavily used off-peak.

~~~
tslug
Ya, it's pretty amazing as far as how quickly it gets you from downtown to
Santa Monica, and I experienced the same thing. It's already in heavy use.

One complaint, tho, is that the cars don't have decent accommodations for
bicyclists, which is really annoying. You basically have to stand/sit w/ your
bike all the way.

Also, you still mostly take it in the bum on travel time in the transfers and
many bald-spots of decent coverage. I found that to get from Santa Monica to
Silverlake, for example, was more convenient on the 704 bus, because there's a
spot for your bike, you can sit and work on your computer the whole way, and
it's a closer fit for minimizing your talking time/distance, and it's a more
direct route.

The train alternative is to find and descend into a red line station, transfer
through the greater depths of Union station to the expo line, and then babysit
your bicycle all the way to Santa Monica, which is the bulk of the transit
time.

Gotta give Santa Monica props tho for the treatment they gave that Santa
Monica train station and the surrounding area. I really like it.

Overall, nice stopgap improvement, and when the world improves and human-
driven cars are outlawed, it could be paved over and made a thoroughfare that
allows only self-driving electric cars to use it, and they could tap into the
electric mains for a recharge along the way. :)

~~~
cylinder
Last mile cycling (folding bikes perhaps) infrastructure plus trains seems
like the best bet for LA.

~~~
honkhonkpants
Bike share at the metro stops and on both sides of the light rail lines would
make a lot of sense as a last-mile solution.

~~~
billpaetzke
This is in progress: [http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2015/08/03/in-l-a-
efforts...](http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2015/08/03/in-l-a-efforts-are-
afoot-to-make-bike-share-a-genuine-part-of-the-transit-network/)

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addicted
There was the recent article about how ridership has risen, which signaled
great public transport stuff in the US.

Digging only slightly deeper, it was evident that if you took the massive rise
in NYC public transportation out, public transportation in the rest of the US,
including LA, actually dropped, despite the money being spent on it.

The reason while not established, appears to be because instead of making
existing systems more reliable, and better connected, the money has been spent
on vanity projects. An isolated light rail here, and a Park and Ride which
doesn't connect to anything there.

~~~
rayiner
Heavy rail ridership increased by 3.3% in 2014, with 8 of 15 cities reporting
increases. New York was around average, at 3.4%.

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amyjess
As a carless person who's considering moving to SoCal -- specifically the San
Gabriel Valley -- in about a year or so (only because upcoming legislation
next spring is likely to force me out of Texas), articles like these are much
appreciated. I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to get around if I
move there. I'm used to public transportation not being super awesome (I'd
call the public transit where I live half-decent, emphasis on _half_ , and I
get around fine), and worst comes to worst I can take Lyft or Uber everywhere,
but more transit is always good, and I'd like to know what I'm getting into if
I move.

So thanks for posting this.

~~~
ikawe
The new gold line extension gets pretty close! Try to get within walking
distance if you can.

~~~
mturmon
Yes. The Gold Line extension is going to have a huge impact on the SGV.

I don't live in the SGV, but the impact of the Gold Line on the Chinatown-
Highland Park-Pasadena corridor [which it reached years ago, before the
recently-completed extension] has been very significant, including lots of
denser housing within Pasadena and sharp increases in house prices along
Figueroa parallel to the Gold Line. I expect the extension to have an even
greater impact over time.

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tehabe
I think you have to start somewhere. Since you can't build an extensive light
rail/subway network over night.

So, I hope Los Angeles will continue to extend it.

~~~
mayneack
They're slowly making progress towards the purple line extension from Korea
Town west as well. Won a lawsuit against Beverly Hills trying to block it in
2015

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Line_Extension)

~~~
tehabe
But when I read that taxi companies and parking lot owners prevented the Green
line from reaching the LAX airport, I'm like: wow. This is really a weird
world, in which we live.

~~~
mayneack
Uber ran a promo recently when the expo line opened to discount uber pool to
or from a station. Uber/Lyft has already beaten the taxis opposition to
picking up at LAX. They don't seem to think of these transit options as threat
like the taxis do. Maybe more public transit enables more people to ditch
personal cars and increase both public transit and uber. I know that my Uber
use has increased after moving to more bike commuting.

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swampthinker
Funny, the joke used to be that there was nothing to do in downtown LA. Guess
that's slowly starting to change.

~~~
josephpmay
Downtown LA, including the Arts District, is excellent now. Plenty of
restaurants, shops, bars, museums, etc.

~~~
exclusiv
I agree but they need to get a handle on the tent cities and homelessness if
they want more people to care and visit more than once in a blue moon.

~~~
josephpmay
Meh. You get used to the homeless after awhile. They're more noticeable in SF

~~~
exclusiv
Yeah I'm not a fan of SF mostly because of it. If I wouldn't want my wife to
walk around by herself, then it's a no go for me.

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sandover
The rail stuff is a bit of a sideshow -- I think in a decade or so the outline
of transportation in LA will begin to take shape around 2 modes:

1\. 2 wheeled vehicles driven/ridden/pedaled by a person

2\. ridesharing cars, shuttles, & vans driven by a computer

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parshimers
The new trains and stuff are nice. Some of the other aspects of this "Mobility
Plan" are really annoying. The main one I dislike is how some already
incredibly busy streets have had a whole lane sliced out for a bike lane. It's
usually empty, and not that safe, because of people turning right across it. I
get that everyone having a car in LA is not a way to allow greater density,
but, it's reality for now and making everyone in that reality suffer isn't a
great way to get re-elected. More light rail lines, awesome, making driving a
car more miserable than it is, not so much.

~~~
kristopolous
The opposite of that, addressing current concerns, is what created the mess of
LA to begin with. Here's some examples:

In the 1920s, to alleviate traffic on a specific downtown to miracle mile
commute, macarthur park was split in half and wilshire was cut through the
middle of the park. The park remains split in 2016 due to this 1920s era
problem.

In the 1950s, due to a lack of downtown parking, pershing square was gutted to
be a multi-level underground parking structure with a poorly accessible park
on top. Now in 2016, when we want a walkable city, many lament that our one
central park is really just a multi-level parking lot.

The central problem here is that when city policy crafts a solution with 80
years of consequences to alleviate a 3 year problem, the urban landscape
becomes disjointed and short-sighted.

Instead, this concept, which includes things like bike lanes, high density
dwellings, and trains, are people trying to come up with 80 year solutions
that are forward thinking.

There's been a problem getting all the right funding and public support on
board but it's far easier today then what it took to get that first train to
long beach open in 1990. The newer high density housing is still not
pedestrian accessible, but that is changing in the buildings that are being
planned right now and will be complete in a few years.

I think LA is attracting the right people and fostering the right attitude for
a workable city that will blossom with sustainability, creativity, and
livability in the upcoming generation.

~~~
ikawe
> In the 1950s, due to a lack of downtown parking, pershing square was gutted
> to be a multi-level underground parking structure with a poorly accessible
> park on top. Now in 2016, when we want a walkable city, many lament that our
> one central park is really just a multi-level parking lot.

I think [Grand Park] might be the New Central Park™. But it is, to your point,
divided into three sections by streets cutting through the middle of it. =(

[Grand Park]
[https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0535849,-118.2459343,16.35z](https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0535849,-118.2459343,16.35z)

~~~
kristopolous
The upper two levels have been parks and plaza space since 1966 when it was
called El Paseo de Los Pobladores de Los Angeles or just Civic Center Mall.
Prior to that the lower level had been a parking lot and there was a road that
cut through the center, leading to city hall. They cut the lower parking lot
into the park in the 2010 project you talk about.

So yes, grand park has been gradually growing in size for about 50 years. It
certainly now has a more memorable name. It's going in a good direction...

Cars make surpassing a certain level of urban density really difficult. As
parts of LA are getting there, people are finding out they really can't do it
and at the same time allocate enough space for everyone to have their own car.
The divorce of the 60s onward happend as a physical necessity. I think LA is
growing past such reactionary urban planning. I hope so

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angmarsbane
I love the extension of the metro line. I use it to commute from culver to
Santa Monica.

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staticelf
US, you guys really need to get your public transportation in order // Rest of
the developed world

