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ChineseDaily Transit Links Roundup for 6/23/08
Contributed by Fred Camino on June 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 am
- Looks like I’m not the only person into pegging car-culture conservatives as closet socialists! Check out this great article exposing the “Soviet Style Social Engineering” of the American car culture.
- Amtrak funding to increase by 28%, let’s hope they use that money wisely.
- Metro Citizens Advisory Council to hold a presentation with Metro about the transportation sales tax measure.
- Solar-powered GPS-enabled signs with next bus information could make the bus experience a whole lot nicer.
- Transit returns to Dodger Stadium next month, with game-day shuttles linking the stadium with Union Station.
- Riverside residents are getting stoked for the new Metrolink extension to Perris Valley.
- The grass is always greener on the other side: a Chicagoan dreams of a Los Angeles caliber transit system for her city.
Discussion
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I love that Sightline article:
“Social Engineering” = any public policy I disagree with or don’t like.
More specifically, “social engineering” is a right-wing shibboleth.
Putting the car in front of the horse …
The Dodger Stadium shuttle is not yet a done deal, but it is to be considered by the City Council Transportation Committee on Wednesday and could be forwarded to the full Council by them for action later this week or next week.
Note that the Times story does call it a “tentative agreement”.
Just checking to see if I can finally post here.
Oh wow, thank you, finally I can post here. Anyway, about Amtrak, I hope that the federal government decides to do more that increase Amtrak funding by so much but decides to build some high speed rail lines. This will provide a ton of jobs to help us with this economy and will lessen our dependence on oil.
Or am I just a conservative thinking like a loony liberal?
High-speed rail is definitely the way to go. Make rail a reasonable alternative to air travel and people will start using it. But the important thing is to be sure not to burden it with excessive “security” (word is in quotes for a reason) like air travel.
6/24 here - KTLA morning news had a piece on the Gold Line. They showed the crowded trains. The story? The parking lots are full? Oh,no!!!
I guess I should be glad that transit is no longer invisible. Funny how it never occurred to the newscast that as an alternative to parking at the Gold Line, one could take a local bus and transfer their way on. But, it was still great to see the morning news treat transit semi-seriously.
There was also an accident between a car and the Blue Line. We saw one lone car that looks like it tried to make a left turn in front of a moving train. (Sigh…) We saw a train full of people sitting idle while lots of police and fire tended to this non-fatal accident. The story? How auto traffic might be affected on Washington — not that a single-occupancy vehicle thwarted the commutes of a full train.
We really need to move from a concept of moving vehicles, all treated equally, to moving people, with the more people being moved by the vehicle the greater the priority.
We don’t have a culture of transit, but that will come in time. It explains why we can’t get bike lanes either, we don’t have a bike culture. We only have a car culture, and it can only change if we get politicians who are brave enough to do what is right. Until then, our news will only show stories like that and people will still be dependent on cars.
So we have to build the system, advertise the system, and this will create a transit culture which will self-propagate and change our attitudes. I’m not saying that it’s so simple, but it’s better than what we have now.
Dan Wentzel:
I just noticed the headline off the Times website. In the past… collisions between the Blue/Gold line and cars have been “BLUE LINE TRAIN INVOLVED IN COLLISION WITH SEDAN” as if the train was out to get them.
But this time, the title accurately states “Car hits train near Downtown LA”. Change of perspective? Or just coincidence?
It would be a welcome change of perspective.
An astute observation, Stephen. That the Blue Line stops for traffic lights at either end of the line remains ridiculous; that cars and pedestrians continue to hit it and are often portrayed as the victims is even worse. Recall that woman’s SUV collision with teh Gold Line where the cab and motorman caught fire? Within a week she was on teevee, sobbing about how God saved her—BUT NOT ONE WORD OF APOLOGY for the pain and suffering she caused the motorman. And no one called her dumb arse on the omission. I am still livid on that. She ran through the gates, maimed a Metro motorman and was rewarded with being on teevee rather than stuffed in stocks and spat on for a fortnight.
Dan is no less sharp. Los Angeles needs to realise the benefits of Metro as well as how well this blob of suburbs would benefit greatly with an expanded system of subways, buses and light rail that is put ahead of the foundering Freeway system.
Perhaps, although most of the buses serving the Gold Line in Pasadena tend to run semi-infrequently (every 30 minutes or greater) making them kind of painful to use….