Mind the Gap
If ever a city needed an inexpensive, efficient system of public transportation, it’s Los Angeles. Our roads are clogged, our air is polluted and while, for many of us, our standard of living is high, for those who commute to work or school, quality of life is the pits. A 20-mile commute from my home to UCLA—a trip that Mapquest says should take 29 minutes, in reality can take as long as 80 minutes and that’s on a normal day. Even a local drive of five or six miles takes 30 minutes or more in many parts of the city. Add to this the frustration of staring at a never-ending line of brake lights and thinking of all the productive ways you could be spending your time. Then there’s the stress of making a left turn or even going through a green light and wondering if the cellphone wielding lead-footed idiot coming the other way will decide to stop today. Pretty soon public transportation seems very appealing.
Having traveled by public transportation in many different cities, I can appreciate a well-planned system. In London, it’s plain foolish to own a car; parking is non-existent, traffic is often at a complete standstill, and the city itself recently implemented tariffs for driving into Central London to further discourage drivers. Between the Tube and the bus system, a person can get within a very short walk of anywhere they might want to go. Mexico City charges its Metro riders the equivalent of two cents for a one-way trip anywhere in the city. That system has the added benefit of roving entertainers and vendors; we bought toothbrushes, chocolate and a map all from the comfort of our seats. Washington D.C., San Francisco, Paris and New York all provide clean, efficient and affordable transportation for their citizens.
And then there’s L.A.
In all fairness, building a new light rail network in a well-established city, especially one covering as wide an area as L.A. is no mean feat. Throw in an earthquake and a couple of dozen skyscrapers with deep foundations and you’ve got yourself a big engineering headache for an underground system.
The MTA, in its infinite wisdom, opted for a radial system, with a Downtown hub centered at Union Station. This would be fine for a city like Paris or Washington D.C., but L.A. is not a typical city. Between the entertainment and aerospace industries, as well as commercial centers such as Century City and the Wilshire corridor, only a small percentage of commuters actually work in the downtown area. One only needs to spend an hour or so in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405—a freeway that passes no closer than 10 miles to Downtown—to understand that. Oh, and the Blue Line actually stops 10 blocks short of the hub, forcing commuters going anywhere north of 7th street to change lines!
And let’s not forget the Green Line, the sleek, elevated line designed to provide easy access to Los Angeles International Airport. Except it doesn’t actually go to LAX, but stops about two miles away requiring travelers to take a shuttle bus into the terminal. But hey, it’s better than the nothing we used to have and having commuted to downtown for years by Metro, I’m really hard-pressed to find too much fault.
But now, the MTA has decided to raise its fares. Not just by a quarter or even 50 cents. By 2009, the cost of a daily or weekly pass will more than double and monthly passes will go up to $120! For some bus riders, $120 is the cost of a monthly gym membership or a nice dinner out, but for the majority, it’s a day’s or more likely two days’ pay. What better way, even with the price of gas, to send people scurrying back to their cars.
But Angelenos love their cars and most people I know here wouldn’t even consider taking public transportation. For the most part PT riders are those who have no other option. But there are those of us (like me) who love public transportation, despite its foibles. I’d rather sit on a bus and read my book any day than sit in traffic yelling obscenities at my fellow drivers. And at a time when even our blinkered President is acknowledging that pollution might just be a tinsy problem, I can look down smugly at all the SUV drivers and know I’m doing my bit for the Planet.
Having traveled by public transportation in many different cities, I can appreciate a well-planned system. In London, it’s plain foolish to own a car; parking is non-existent, traffic is often at a complete standstill, and the city itself recently implemented tariffs for driving into Central London to further discourage drivers. Between the Tube and the bus system, a person can get within a very short walk of anywhere they might want to go. Mexico City charges its Metro riders the equivalent of two cents for a one-way trip anywhere in the city. That system has the added benefit of roving entertainers and vendors; we bought toothbrushes, chocolate and a map all from the comfort of our seats. Washington D.C., San Francisco, Paris and New York all provide clean, efficient and affordable transportation for their citizens.
And then there’s L.A.
In all fairness, building a new light rail network in a well-established city, especially one covering as wide an area as L.A. is no mean feat. Throw in an earthquake and a couple of dozen skyscrapers with deep foundations and you’ve got yourself a big engineering headache for an underground system.
The MTA, in its infinite wisdom, opted for a radial system, with a Downtown hub centered at Union Station. This would be fine for a city like Paris or Washington D.C., but L.A. is not a typical city. Between the entertainment and aerospace industries, as well as commercial centers such as Century City and the Wilshire corridor, only a small percentage of commuters actually work in the downtown area. One only needs to spend an hour or so in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405—a freeway that passes no closer than 10 miles to Downtown—to understand that. Oh, and the Blue Line actually stops 10 blocks short of the hub, forcing commuters going anywhere north of 7th street to change lines!
And let’s not forget the Green Line, the sleek, elevated line designed to provide easy access to Los Angeles International Airport. Except it doesn’t actually go to LAX, but stops about two miles away requiring travelers to take a shuttle bus into the terminal. But hey, it’s better than the nothing we used to have and having commuted to downtown for years by Metro, I’m really hard-pressed to find too much fault.
But now, the MTA has decided to raise its fares. Not just by a quarter or even 50 cents. By 2009, the cost of a daily or weekly pass will more than double and monthly passes will go up to $120! For some bus riders, $120 is the cost of a monthly gym membership or a nice dinner out, but for the majority, it’s a day’s or more likely two days’ pay. What better way, even with the price of gas, to send people scurrying back to their cars.
But Angelenos love their cars and most people I know here wouldn’t even consider taking public transportation. For the most part PT riders are those who have no other option. But there are those of us (like me) who love public transportation, despite its foibles. I’d rather sit on a bus and read my book any day than sit in traffic yelling obscenities at my fellow drivers. And at a time when even our blinkered President is acknowledging that pollution might just be a tinsy problem, I can look down smugly at all the SUV drivers and know I’m doing my bit for the Planet.
posted by Lisa at 8:14 PM
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