Comments on the Metro 2008 Draft Long Range Transportation Plan

So I wrote a book about the Long Range Transportation Plan and sent it to Metro. Read it in its entirety here:

As Metro CEO Roger Snoble made it clear on the first page of the 2008 Long Range Transportation Plan Draft, mobility is the glue that holds a city together and in Los Angeles that adhesive is rapidly losing its grip. If we fail to properly address the mobility issues our city faces, if we put the glue in the wrong places or put too much glue in one place while letting other areas lose their bond, the outcome will invariably be a rapid fall from prosperity to ruin. The dream that brings so many people to our sun-drenched city - the dream of freedom, success, recreation, and culture - will remain just that, nothing more than a mere figment of an overactive imagination. But that same imagination can be the compound that forms the glue that will save our city - mobility.

Metro asked us to Imagine a mobile future, and that’s just what I’ve done. As a car-free (by choice) Angeleno and creator of the Los Angeles transit blog MetroRiderLA, I’ve got my fair share of ideas on how to improve mobility in this city.

First and foremost there is the cultural issue, more specifically, the car-culture. Although the foundations of Los Angeles were set with rail, the city is known worldwide as the birthplace and stronghold of the global car-culture. Unfortunately, in a county of over 10 million people and growing, a car-culture is simply not sustainable. Cars require too much space, too much infrastructure, too many public resources, and cause to many problems to be effective as the sole mode of transportation in a megalopolis such as ours. In virtually every major population center around the globe, mass transportation is the main form of day-to-day travel, and for good reason. It is a far more efficient, streamlined, and economical way of moving millions of people about densely populated geographical area. Population centers that don’t have ample mass transit infrastructure and ridership suffer accordingly. Unfortunately Los Angeles falls into this group. Although we are the second most populous city in the United States, our transit ridership is #34. Most of the transit riders in our city are lower income people who simply cannot afford a car. I imagine a city where mass transit is not seen as welfare, but viewed as a mode of transportation for everyone.

This requires a cultural change, a shift from the car-culture to a newly formed transit culture. This can be handled superficially through improved public relations, advertising, customer service, and awareness campaigns. But it also requires a shift in operations from providing lowest common denominator service to providing high quality service as if every rider was a member of the aristocracy (or at least the Metro Board). This can and should be done before any infrastructure improvements. Our current mass transportation system is expansive and far reaching, but often the service does not match the scope. In order for people to view mass transit as a legitimate form of transportation it must function as one. This means increased service on all lines, both bus and rail. I imagine a mass transit system in which every line has 12-minute or better frequency during the week. There should not be a separate 12-minute map. Service needs to be fast and efficient if people are to leave their cars. No one likes waiting 30 minutes or an hour for a bus, not low-income people, and not Metro Board members. Trains should be even faster.

I imagine a mass transit system that runs all day and all night, every single day of the year. The freeways don’t shut down at night or on the weekends, why should our mass transportation system. Los Angeles is a 24/7 city and our transportation should recognize that. From late-shift workers to party-goers, if great transit service was available at all hours of the day more people would ride. The fact is, no one can get on a train that isn’t there.

I imagine that when I get on a bus or train I’m boarding a clean, comfortable, and friendly environment that makes me happy I’m not in a car. The personal automobile offers the illusion of privacy, the choice of your own music, and big cushy seats. If mass transit is to be a viable alternative, it must provide a clean and comfortable environment. Attention must be paid to make sure that buses and trains are clean and graffiti free. Seating should be improved and made more comfortable with thicker cushions and better ergonomics. Buses should have improved suspension systems to soften the bone jarring bumps in the road. Drivers and employees should be trained in customer service and be friendly and welcoming. Over crowded buses must be replaced with larger buses and more frequent service to prevent people from feeling like cattle. No one likes to feel like cattle, not low-income people, not Metro Board members.

New technologies can make access to mass transit information easier, faster, and better… and it can do it far more cheaply than traditional methods. I imagine being able to know exactly where my bus or train is and when it is expected arrive so I can plan my schedule accordingly. In the modern world, information is critical, and having transportation information easily accessible from home, work, or while on the go is essential when peoples lives are scheduled down to the very minute. No one is going to choose to take transit to a critical appointment if they can’t realistically schedule the trip and be instantly updated when changes occur so they can adjust their schedules accordingly. Real time transit information is essential whether it is on an electronic display at a bus stop or train station, on the internet, or accessible from a mobile phone.

Car-culture is not sustainable in a city of millions up millions. Furthering catering to the car will be like applying Goo-Gone on our mobility to glue. I imagine a Los Angeles where more than 50% of its residents are transit users. Creating a transit culture by addressing the hearts and minds of the people is the only way to do this. Transit must be made an attractive, efficient, and realistic mode of transportation for everyone, from janitors to Metro Board members. Simply improving current service in the ways that I have listed can go a long way to making this a reality. Riding a bus or train has a lot in common with riding in a limo, let’s aim to make everyone realize by offering second-to-none service that would put limos to shame.

Once service is brought up to a world-class level worthy of a world-class city, I imagine an expanded urban rail system that serves the dense population and economic centers of our city. Rail is the gateway drug of mass transportation. Once someone becomes a rail rider, it’s likely that they will eventually try riding a bus. And once they are riding buses and trains, it’s very likely they will kick the car habit for good. And one less car on the streets of Los Angeles means less stress on the adhesive that holds the city together. I imagine the Purple Line extended down Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica. I imagine the Red Line extended west from Hollywood/Highland to West Hollywood and extended east from Vermont/Sunset down Sunset Boulevard to Downtown Los Angeles. Instead of a Crenshaw Corridor rail line, I imagine a subway line north and south along Vermont Avenue, connecting to the Red Line in Hollywood and Koreatown. I imagine a light rail line from Santa Monica to LAX along Lincoln Boulevard. I envision adding more stations along the Green Line in order to change it from a rail line “from nowhere to nowhere” to a rail line “from nowhere to nowhere, but with a lot of stuff in between”.

Commuter rail is essential for any densely populated region, especially one as spread out as ours. I imagine Metrolink service running every hour during the week and every two-hours on weekends. Metrolink is an essential car-free link between the more distance suburbs and counties and central Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the service is just too sporadic right now to make it useful for anyone other than 9-5 commuters. Hourly service, both ways, during the week combined with improved urban bus and rail connections would go a long way to really improve regional mobility. I imagine residents of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura Counties taking Metrolink to Union Station and transferring to a Flyaway to LAX or getting on the Purple Line to Santa Monica or the Red Line to West Hollywood.

If rail is the gateway drug, buses are the crack rock of the transit world: cheap, easy, everywhere, but a little sketchy. I imagine more busways and Rapid buses with many rail-like amenities. Buses should have their own lanes and right of ways, perhaps even in the medians of wide boulevards so that auto-traffic does not impede them. The Orange Line busway should be extended east through Burbank and to the Gold Line in Pasadena, effectively connecting the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys. I imagine all-day express buses on 15-minute headways running on L.A. freeways bringing people to major destinations/transit hubs. Busways and Rapid Bus lines would have ticket vending machines and allow boarding through all doors in order to expedite service.

As service is improved and the mass transit infrastructure is expanded, there is one more polymer we must add to our glue that will ensure everything sticks together. I imagine a Los Angeles with mixed-use transit oriented development built around and complimenting our mass transit network. Like the personal automobile, single-use suburban development does not work in densely populate areas. Suburban zoning laws must be removed and mixed-use transit oriented development must be created. Communities should be built with the following mobility hierarchy in mind:

1. Walking
2. Bicycling
3. Mass Transportation
4. Ride Sharing
5. Personal Private Automobile

These modes range from most economical to least economical. Creating walkable neighborhoods is of great importance as walking requires the least amount of space and investment. Our neighborhoods must be built with the pedestrian in mind, with ample sidewalks, landscaping, and ground floor business. Bicycles must also be accommodated for by providing well designed bike lanes, bicycle parking, and by allowing bikes on transit. Transit oriented development must be dense within a 0.5 mile (10 minute walking distance) radius of rapid transit stops , with residential units, ground floor retail, recreation, and employment all concentrated in multi-floor multi-use buildings. Housing, like transit, must be made for everyone. Luxury condominiums should be limited due to the sad-but-true fact that many people above a certain income range will never use mass transportation no matter the quality of the service. On a similar note, these developments must truly be transit oriented by offering very little if any parking, the car must not be catered to. Our transit adjacent space is a limited and valuable resource, and it must not be squandered as a luxury amenity on a condo brochure that is never to be used. Partnerships should be made with car-sharing companies like Zipcar to provide neighborhood car-sharing services for transit oriented developments, so that cars are available for those occasions when one is necessary.

By using our imaginations and a little bit of logic, it’s very possible that we can re-orient this city from the bastion of car-culture, and the immobility that has come along with it, to the model of a multi-modal transit-oriented city. We have the potential to become the envy of the modern world: a sun-drenched city with a year-round temperate climate, ocean views, hill views, mountain views, a sparkling skyline, culture, cuisine, industry, entertainment, and the glue that holds it all together, an efficient world-class transportation system capable of moving millions without destroying our built and natural environment in the process. The key element of this glue is mass transportation and the imaginations of the people who will bring it to fruition.