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ChineseShutting Down The Streets
This morning I had the unfortunate destiny to trek along the Wilshire corridor. At all times I try my best to stay off this God-forsaken street but today was just not possible. But my goal was Westwood so I felt good that I could at least use the 920 express. I know it’s not really all that much faster because B Hills is clogged at all times but fewer stops lowers the percentage rate of the guy that won’t stop sneezing to board.
Accepting my Wilshire fate I took the Red line to Wilshire/Vermont with the hopes of catching a 920 and sailing smoothly to Bruin country. However, I had the regrettable fortune of forgetting it was Earth day. But, happy to see that the city is promoting the de-caring of LA even if for only a single day I ignored the precarious re-routing situation sure to follow.
I used to be a frequenter of the 217 which runs along Hollywood Blvd passing in front of the Kodak Theater along the way, therefore on many occasions busses had to be rerouted for any number of reasons, usually involving the circle jerk sessions that celebrities and their hair and make up entourages must partake in every so often. These sessions usually took all day so both morning and evening trips were properly effed. There’s really no reason for this to be the case of course; the city is fully aware of these events, but it seems that Metro feels that by simply adding a small plastic sign on a light pole pointing out the service changes all will run swimmingly. Sadly, Metro’s wrong again.
What Metro and the city don’t take into account is the over-burdening of the de-toured route and forcing busses to partake in the hardest action to overcome in LA. The left turn. Previously it was the 217 having to turn left at the mega ped’d out Highland and then left from La Brea back onto Hollywood. Both are near impossibilities, especially the first turn for obvious reasons, let alone there are now hundreds more autos having to do the same thing.
This morning the same thing occurred. Since Earth Day shut down Wilshire between Vermont and Western my 920 and all other busses had to detour north a block and come back to Wilshire at Western. This involved two left turns and of course everyone and their mother was doing the same thing. Therefore, the left turn lane onto 6th was backed up as far as Wilshire and each light (since you can only turn left at lights when it turns yellow and risk the ultimate crushing death of the t-bone from another driver trying to make the light) allowed for only two vehicles to go through with each cycle. So now the trip from Vermont to Western went from 5-7 minutes to 18-20.
To add to the annoyance, at the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station were ten cops on the motorcycles just hanging out. Why can’t the city set one of them up at each of the newly over taxed intersections to allow for the turn lanes to be adequately cleared. For the backing up of this turn lane isn’t locked in a vacuum, but instead pushes out into the regular lane causing traffic to overflow onto Wilshire creating even more insane gridlock. I know the LA County Sheriff’s Department aren’t traffic directors and that’s fine, but the point is still the same, there’s no reason the city can’t hire two such traffic directors to each intersection newly effected. I know they exist; I see them quite often at Figueroa and Olympic because of all the construction at LA Live. But the traffic problems there are nothing to the problems caused by completely shutting down a block on the busiest corridor in Los Angeles. And shutting down Hollywood Blvd without any help to traffic flow is no more forgivable
If it’s a question about money then simply charge the company (ies) requesting for the blockage of the street, whether it Universal Studios or the city of LA. Either way, something has to be done because I don’t want to hate Earth day, I really don’t.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
Wow, imagine that. Restricting roads is harmful to the working of a major metropolitan area. How did you ever stumble upon that gem of wisdom? Oh, I see. The sacred ox of transit was gored and thus the blood is visible.
I can only hope the next time there is a suggestion to take away a lane for other uses the lesson is learned.
Uhh why didn’t you just ride the Purple Line all the way to Westwood?
[...] a road closure to promote Earth Day disrupts travel for proponents of public transit like Tyke Johnson of MetroRiderLA, who is it really benefiting? Not motorists. Not train riders. Not bus riders. And no, not Earth, [...]
Earth Day is a joke, I must say. Most everyone participating in it knows nothing about the environment.
Fred, don’t you mean to Western?
Rob, I was under the impression that Earth Day closed the whole block. It’s not the same as taking away a lane. I’m guessing it’s just trolling anyway, you’re smarter than that.
I was being a smartass.
Haha, I figured, but it also could have been true if he had gone to Western that he could have gotten around the mess.
I was being a smart ass too. I take my cues from the tone of the post.
No doubt about it. You did unintentionally leave yourself open to:
I’d rather pay $5 billion to get it right the first time than $250 million to get it wrong forever.
I got on at vermont because anyone who takes wilshire knows, the earlier u get on the 720/920 the better, since the further u go to get on, the better chance of it being completely over flowing and pass u by. But thanks for the suggestion, Ill make sure to take the purple line to westwood for LAs next pointless earth day in 2030.
[...] blocks of Wilshire, from Western to Harvard, were blocked from traffic, creating an oasis amidst the traffic such a move surely caused. Whatever, I wasn’t driving or riding in a bus, so I took the car-free pavement without care. [...]
Metro does what it does when it gets notified about street closures by any of the 88 cities in LA and/or the County itself. Key here is that the street closure approval came from Los Angeles City Hall. They approved the street closure. Please express yourselves to your elected officials. Metro knows it just sux to have its busiest bus lines rerouted to the inconvenience and displeasure of 60,000-ish riders. Remember such things on election day, but in the mean time, your elected representatives all have email addresses, office addresses, and phone numbers. Tell your elected officials just how much you appreciate having Wilshire Boulevard shut down on a weekday so such stunts can be avoided in future earth day games. Anyone care to calculate the addition tons of CO2 emitted by the additional gridlock created by this hair-brained street closure idea? Ahhhh, Earthday, now with extra fumes!
And that’s not even taking the patchouli and incense into consideration!
The most ironic thing of the Earth Day celebration on Wilshire…is they actually didn’t let buses continue on Wilshire. Imagine if buses continued on Wilshire (that’s public transportation too, not just the Red Line); maybe people would have an appreciation of buses as public transit. Wilshire was too de-car…not punish alternative modes of transportation. A** backward thinking by our policy makers. Also, I heard they advertised hybrid CAR technology at earth day? Jeez…
Dawg: I can only hope the next time there is a suggestion to take away a lane for other uses the lesson is learned.
Wad: No doubt about it. You did unintentionally leave yourself open to:
I’d rather pay $5 billion to get it right the first time than $250 million to get it wrong forever.
Dawg replies:
It wasn’t unintentional. I don’t mind discussing good enough versus perfect but I honestly don’t know what is gained with even considering half-assed implementations except to avoid the eye-popping price of good enough.
Rob, want to know what that $250 million buys?
Most of the cost will be in resurfacing Wilshire Boulevard to make the bus lanes level and smoother. Most of the money is a road project.
Also, this $250 million is only “rent” for Metro taking away a lane of traffic for four hours a day, weekdays only. Riders during middays and weekends, a not insignificant chunk of ridership, will get no benefit from this line. Line 720 runs 20 hours a day, every day.
During rush hour, the “only” part of bus-only lanes means vehicles making right turns. Because of the heavy pedestrian activity on Wilshire, cars cannot turn right until there are no pedestrians. Buses cannot pass until the cars move. Buses end up waiting a whole light cycle, and the ATSAC only gives 10 seconds of green if it happens to be in a good mood.
As you have said, taking a lane away for buses will lead to congestion in the remaining lanes. Bus riders should know this is bad for bus riders as well. When remaining lanes have to take up the burden of losing the lane, this means buses are trapped inside the bus-only lane. Has anyone not realized that three different types of bus service will be using this lane? How are Rapids supposed to overtake locals that stop every 2-3 blocks? How fast can a 920 be when it makes so few stops that it’s best for it to be in the center lanes, where all the congestion would be? In order for bus-only lanes to work, Metro would need to take two lanes of traffic in each direction, not just one.
This congestion ripples through the system. We can assume that the only people driving on Wilshire are going to be drivers who have a destination on or near Wilshire. Some others will opt to drive on the east-west arterials, such as Santa Monica, Olympic and Pico Boulevards, and east of Beverly Hills, Beverly Boulevard, Third Street, and Sixth and Eighth streets in Koreatown and downtown. The added traffic will end up severely slowing down bus services on these streets.
There’s one additional problem: the Orange Line effect. After a daily ridership of somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, Metro has admitted that the Zevway is operating beyond its capacity. This is a service that has a street all to itself and represents the truest representation of bus rapid transit, yet it has an upper limit of 20,000. Well, the 720 corridor is at 70,000 boardings. No bus-only system can, will or should handle such an extreme burden.
LAofAnaheim:
Man, imagine that! That would have been a GREAT idea! Keep one lane open, but just for buses! I don’t think it would ever fly, but I would have had a lot more respect for the Car-Free Earth Day if they had pulled that off. Oh boy would drivers be pissed though.
Up next for bus transit disruptions? May Day marches in Downtown L.A. At least there’s an underground alternative….