MetroRiderLA

The endless lights of a passing car dealership that can’t help but block out the sky. Photo courtesy of jon_zuckerman.

On a recent trip to some old stomping grounds in Louisville, Kentucky I had an epiphany. I was at the airport waiting for a friend to pick me up when a brand new, shiny green, Honda Civic pulled up. It was a nice car, as cars go—sunroof and all that jazz—but what really caught my attention was the temporary dealership license plate. In black and silver it read Sam Swope and I immediately became nostalgic. Why, I wasn’t sure, but I definitely knew I was back in Louisville for the name was as familiar to me as my friend’s who I’d be staying with.

I continued to wait and continued to ponder how crazy and all encompassing the car culture really is. I hadn’t need for convincing or anything, but to realize that a gigantic car dealership was as recognizable as Churchill Downs really blew me away. I then got to thinking about the other places I’ve lived or family has lived and tested if other such dealerships were locked in my memory like my first tree fort and kiss. Monroe, Ct – Dan Perkins, Tampa, Fl - Furman, Tallahassee, Fl - Proctor, Chicago, Il – Gillespie Motors, Ottawa, Il – Bill Walsh, Los Angeles, CA - Galpin Motors.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

It seems there’s never enough parking.

A reader over at Curbed LA was stressing over the loss of his street parking spot and one particularly bitter commenter chimed in with this cheery response:

Nevermind that there is no public transit, and that parking is a basic amenity provided in abundance just about anywhere in America that’s not SF/Manhattan/L.A.

You have no rights, the city planners have spoken.

Of course, with the middle-class fleeing this city like rats from a sinking ship, one would think that making this place user friendly and offering MORE parking might be a priority, so that people will get out more and use more goods and services and bolster the economy. But it seems like our city government is hell-bent on driving all but the most masochistic individuals and companies out of state.

Which got me thinking. Parking most certainly is a basic amenity in this day and age, it clearly takes precedence over many other amenities like, say, public restrooms, water fountains, or benches. And it is very much offered in abundance, according to Donald Shoup there are at least 3 parking spaces for every vehicle in the United States. In Tippecanoe County, Indiana, according to Salon, there are 250,000 more parking spaces than there are vehicles. Let’s hope L.A.’s fleeing middle class heads to Tippecanoe, because they’ve clearly got a surplus of parking. Los Angeles, on the other hand, has got to be hurting for parking.

(more…)

Yesterday was the Thai New Years’ Songkran Festival, an event in East Hollywood (Thai Town) that has become increasingly popular in the four years it has existed. The celebration spans many blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, from Western Avenue to Vermont Avenue, and the combination of free admission, delicious food, cultural events, and Thai boxing means that those blocks are filled to the brim with over 30,000 people. I’ve personally seen the event grow in scope and popularity, as Thai Town was my first neighborhood in Los Angeles, and I moved in just in time for the first of what would become a yearly event. It’s really one of the funnest cultural events in the city.

The Hollywood/Western Red Line Station is ground zero for the Thai New Years’ Festival as the intersection of Hollywood and Western is where the road closures and festival begin. Parking in East Hollywood, and Thai Town in particular, is limited and tight, thus the Red Line is a popular way to get to the festivities. I rode up from Downtown around lunchtime and the majority of the people on the train exited at Hollywood/Western and headed towards the festival. It was inspiring to see so many people using our transit system. It was a cacophony of races, classes, and ages… a testament to the unifying power of transit and of a good food-based cultural festival.

Metro was a sponsor of the event, but I can’t say that they heavily publicized it or that they had a major presence at the event. No matter though, people went Metro on their own accord in droves. And why not? A quick train ride with family on friends on a warm spring day sure beats sitting in traffic and searching for parking.

Or does it?

(more…)

Image courtesy of mattlogelin.

What makes a good bus ride? This is the question posed over at EcoWorldly in an article that traverses the world in search of the best (and worst) buses. Gavin Hudson, the car-free author of the story, lists three key elements that he has found to be the difference between a good bus and a bad bus, they are:

1. You have access to a good schedule and map of the bus routes.
2. You feel clean and comfortable on the bus.
3. You feel safe on the bus.

Here’s my list:

1. Your bus comes frequently, as in every 5-10 minutes. Schedules be damned, I want to walk to a bus stop and know that my bus is going to come within 5 minutes, so even if I miss a bus I know I’m not screwed.
2. You aren’t packed like sardines. The only thing worse than waiting forever at a bus stop is having to squeeze onto a standing room only bus.
3. All stops are clearly announced. Automatic stop announcements are a life saver, because the only thing worse than waiting forever for a bus only to be packed in like a sardine is missing your stop because it wasn’t announced.

Those are my three, what are yours?

Related:

• 10 Ways to Improve L.A.’s Public Transportation System
• MetroRiderLA Forum: Speeding Up Buses