MetroRiderLA

One of the biggest stories last week in the public transit world was an announcement in Toronto by the Toronto Transportation Commission, their public transit entity. They announced a program to build a large city-wide network of LRT lines called Transit City.

The transit advocacy community in Toronto has been buzzing about this development since it was announced on Friday, both analyzing it in-depth and praising the TTC for this bold and exciting move. Many citizens seem interested but skeptical that such a large system will ever come to pass. Indeed, the TTC admitted that no money existed to build this system right now; this was only an idea and a jumping off point for discussions about the future of transit in the city.

Before you dismiss this as having nothing to do with Los Angeles, I must disagree. The greater Toronto area spreads out quite a bit, similar to the L.A. basin. They have a small subway network (like us) supported by streetcars (where we have true LRT lines, as opposed to a true streetcar system).

The important thing is the form of this announcement. By planning for and announcing a large network of rail lines across the entire city, almost everyone in the city is invested in seeing this system come to pass. This is how further development of rail lines should be handled here: looking at the far future and building an entire rail SYSTEM, instead of doling out and building one rail line at time. This is why Damien Goodmon’s map is so important. But take a look at the proposed Toronto system and see how they’re marketing it. See what you think. I think this will inspire some good ideas.

[tags]expo line, mta, nimby, cheviot hills[/tags]

Spent a couple hours last night at the first Open House MTA put on for Phase 2 of the Expo Line, located in Culver City (the open house, not the line).

Probably a genius move on MTA’s part putting on an Open House format rather than a formal presentation. If there was a speaker at the front of the room, explaining the situation, there would have been a focus for the ire of the NIMBYs; someone to to squawk and complain at. I won’t say they would have been shouting, since I was probably shouting more than them, I just tried to explain that I am not yelling, I am merely passionate about my position.

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Over at Curbed LA, there was a post about the anniversary of the methane explosion at the Ross store on Third Street near Fairfax in 1985. This led to the federal legislation against subway tunneling under Wilshire Boulevard by Hnery Waxman, which is scheduled to be repealed today. This item led to a rather spirited debate in the comments section regarding new subways vs. monorails. Check it out here.

This blog is about the “public transit lifestyle.” So where better to talk about such a thing than in Los Angeles?

Huh? Isn’t that utterly wrong? Isn’t L.A. where the car is king? Where you roll unemcumbered at 65 mph down endless empty freeways in your 1960’s convertible, your hair blowing in breeze, as you ride into the sunset with The Beach Boys playing on your AM radio? No. It isn’t. You’ve been watching too many Frankie and Annette movies, my friend.

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