German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
ChineseMetro Blue Line Safety
It’s been a busy month on the Metro Blue Line, unfortunately. From the LA Times, a pedestrian was killed towards the beginning of the month, and now, also LAT, a boy on a scooter was killed yesterday.
These deaths are disturbing, but it leads to the question - why is this going on? Why is the Metro Blue Line among the most dangerous light rail lines in the nation? Wikipedia provides a little bit of background information on the subject, but still, any such injury is a cause for concern.
So what do readers think the problem is? It’s hard to pinpoint any one cause. Look at other cities like Boston, which has 4 street-running streetcar lines, and these kind of accidents are not so prevalent. First-time visitors to LA who are used to other cities’ LRT are surprised to see railroad gates at intersections with traffic; this isn’t the normal way to do light rail. In most other cities, LRT interacts well with traffic and residents.
Clearly, light rail is an important part of LA’s future, so what’s it going to take to run a safe LRT operation in LA County? What do people think are the factors contributing to this, and what can Metro and the community do? I’m looking forward to any feedback on this.
Discussion
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
i think alot has to do with the idea that cars here drive through just about every red light possible, more than any other place i’ve witnessed. so why not try and race across the train tracks as well. as for peds, which seems to be the bigger problem, getting sliced, i agree with miles 1001, theres a point where people have to take responsibility for themselves. listen to their parents that tell them to look bothways and the like. especially the damn blue line, its been around for over 15 years!
There has been a noted decrease in car/train accidents since quad crossing gates were installed on most of the grade crossings.
As far as pedestrians, they can continue to just walk around the gates. The only to separate them completely from the system to build all subway or elevated trains, and that is not going to happen. At a certain point, you do have to look at each accident and say: why is this happening? Are the pedestrians doing something wrong? Or could we design our way out of this?