| Link: http://citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3613 Mass Transit: Everyone’s an Expert |  |  |
MOVING LA
By Ken Alpern
Havin
g plunged into the world of transportation (transportation (and, in particular, mass transit) for the last decade, Iappreciate all newcomers with different opinions, perspectives and
ideas. I’ve always believed that if you’re stuck in traffic, or you
have problems with your commute, then that makes you an expert … but
there are limits to that expertise.
Specifically, one always has to realize that there are limits to every
new idea and opinion, and that sooner or later just about anyone can get
carried away with his/her idea that “they’ve figured out how to fix
traffic.”
Case in point: although I commend Mr. David Lazarus of the LA Times for
his energy and enthusiasm at addressing mass transit and transportation
in our city and county, I have to conclude that he’s really not as much
an expert as he likes to think he is.
He’s had a few good ideas, but I think that his response from the Mayor
(who, despite his flaws has been as vigorous a pro-transportation mayor
to grace this City since Tom Bradley) went a bit to Mr. Lazarus’ head. (LINK)
Mr. Lazarus and anyone else new to this discussion has a lot to offer,
but a lot to learn as well, from all of us who’ve wrapped our brains
about this problem for many years.
I’m very glad he helped raise more awareness of the transportation
problems affecting our region, and I welcome his future input, but I’m
hoping he can acknowledge the need to raise his own learning curve as
well.
I think that Mr. Lazarus’ efforts to create a more integrated mass
transit system are first-rate, and have been tried in the past with some
varying degrees of success. It really IS ridiculous that with our
current level of technology that we don’t have greater operational and
informational coordination between the various cities’ bus services and
with Metro.
Furthermore, the bus riding experience is just dreadful because of a
lack of computer and signage for bus connections.
On a related note, the Viacom-Decaux bus shelters are a sad step forward
from the roofless benches throughout the City of Los Angeles, and were
clearly adopted by the City because of advertising revenue instead of
helping bus commuters.
While some bus stops will always have so few riders as to warrant little
attention, others have so many riders that they scream for shelter,
schedules and other accommodations. We treat our bus-riding commuters
rather poorly.
As for the bus-only lanes and streets that Mr. Lazarus calls for, that’s
hardly anything new—but there are two reasons why that idea keeps
getting rejected, with the rare exception of the incipient Wilshire
Bus-Only Lanes.
Firstly, buses don’t always take you to/from your final/initial
destination and the greater the amount of transfers the longer the
commute is—like it or not, we’re not always able to use mass transit.
Secondly, car commuters have rights, too, and many errands just aren’t
best done with mass transit (like shopping for the family groceries for a
week’s worth of food and supplies).
So long as Mr. Lazarus and others fall into the trap that all car
commuters are misguided folks who need to be cajoled and pushed into an
alternate way of commuting, mass transit will have a bad reputation of
being Big Brother forcing its way on how we’re all supposed to live.
To most of us, mass transit and individual car commuting are just two
ways of getting from Point A to Point B—and they both have their pros
and cons.
Mr. Lazarus did have a few good points when last week he slammed Metro
for delivering a “busload of status quo”. I understand why he
emphasizes the need to mention and attract “choice riders” or
“discretionary riders”.
Perhaps Metro does have too great a concern about being politically
correct when it comes to really approaching those who elect to use mass
transit. I personally prefer the word “discretionary” because the
expression “choice riders” might suggest they’re more desired than
transit-dependent riders.
Mr. Lazarus and others have excellent, first-rate ideas of electronic
signs, interagency connections and the like … but what they’re
forgetting is that mass transit in LA County is virtually where our
freeway system was in the 1950’s: disjointed, and not always able to
get people to where they needed to go. Measure R was and is a key
element of fixing that problem.
It’s startling to think that it’s been 50-100 years of failed efforts to
fund and construct a full Wilshire Subway, and equally startling to
think that four light rail lines were and are being built to Downtown LA
but we’re still only in the EIR phase to connect them.
We’ve been dancing around the critical first step of creating an
integrated, logical mass transit system for longer than many of us have
been alive!
As it is, our disjointed bus system is no better than the many surface
streets that were the bulwark of our roads before the interstates and
other freeway showed up, so perhaps it’s best to just hang in there
while Metro really is trying to create the core structure of our rail
system at the same time it deals with a financially-starved bus system
(thanks to the state and, until recently, the feds).
Even the Metro Green Line, when used as a connecting east-west conduit
to the Blue Line and with all connecting north-south bus lines from the
Westside to eastern LA County, enjoys 3-4 times the ridership that was
originally projected.
Even the Metro Orange Line Busway has an extraordinary number of
riders. Even the Wilshire Rapid Bus system transports hundreds of
thousands of riders a day.
In other words, we’ve got our share of successes with our bus system but
it cannot ever replace a core rail system that isn’t just mass transit,
but Rapid Transit.
The east-west Expo and Eastside Gold Lines, coupled with the future
Downtown Light Rail Connector, will allow rapid access from the Westside
to the Eastside that will easily compete with the I-10 freeway during
rush hour. Ditto for the Blue and Pasadena Gold Lines once that
Downtown Connector is completed.
The Crenshaw Line will connect the Green to the Expo Lines (and with LAX
via Crenshaw/Aviation Station, coupled with the necessary connecting
LAX People Mover), and efforts are under way to extend the Crenshaw and
Green Lines to the South Bay (in fact, we will probably see some future
name changes once the Crenshaw Line supplants the Green Line as the
north-south light rail line to the South Bay).
And, of course, the Wilshire Subway (up to 100 years in the making) is
rapidly leaving the world of science fiction and becoming a real project
we might see completed in ten years.
That ten years might seem like a lifetime, but it’s been a lifetime to
get this far, and we can blame ourselves and future generations for not
setting this up earlier.
So while I don’t expect anyone to believe I have all the answers,
either, my experience does lead me to suggest that my two cents be for
everyone to hang in there until these lines get completed in the next
5-10 years.
It’s a doggone shame we’re in this mix, so I recommend we continue to
hold Metro’s feet to the fire while we pay our half-cent sales tax to
pay for new rail and road projects every year.
And I very much welcome Mr. Lazarus’ efforts in doing just that.
On a final note, my own main critique of Metro is to stop dodging the
need to provide parking, bicycle and pedestrian accommodations at bus
and rail stops. Yes, they’re expensive…but so what? If we want people
to drive, bicycle or walk to these stations, then it’s just common sense
to build them.
Whether it’s a mudhut, a cute home, or the nicest mansion in the world, a
house is completely worthless if it doesn’t have a front door so that
folks can access it.
When folks can easily access a mass transit system that makes car
commuting seem ridiculous in comparison, we’ll have plenty of ridership.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community
Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach
Committees, and currently cochairs its MVCC
Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11
Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit
Coalition, and can be reached at
Alpern@MarVista.org. The views expressed in this article are solely
those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw
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