- 1
- 2
- next
- | single page
E-mail
Print
Today, Reed and Balaker abandon the real-world constraint of money and present their financially unencumbered views of transportation in L.A. Yesterday, they weighed options for reducing traffic. Previously they debated road-building, subway extension, and how to reduce congestion.
Ted,
It's been a pleasure brawling against your esteemed institution and your version of logic. Now, back to reality: Given the the generous contribution, the most ambitious item on the list is indeed the most obvious one: $10 billion to extend the Wilshire Boulevard subway to Santa Monica, with stops at Century City and UCLA. Another $7 billion would be used to create either a subway spur or a separate light rail line to connect the San Fernando Valley with LAX and Westwood. This line would tunnel between UCLA and Sherman Oaks and continue north on Van Nuys Boulevard above ground.
Another $3 billion would be spent on establishing a light rail network that involved a completed Expo Line to the beach, a Gold Line to Montclair and a downtown light rail subway to connect them, establishing a continuous inland-to-ocean light rail network. Another $3 to $5 billion would establish Metrolink regional rail on the Harbor Subdivision right-of-way that links LAX and the South Bay to Union Station, and a Green Line that goes to LAX and the Westside to Santa Monica
Light rail should replace the Orange Line Busway and extend through Burbank and Glendale to the Gold Line in Pasadena. Perhaps $1 billion could be used to extend the Green Line via a tunnel to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station.
Another $10 billion would expand the Metrolink commuter rail system to other areas of Southern California, convert it from diesel to electrical power, and establish 30-minute service along most lines, including the Chatsworth-Laguna Niguel rail corridor. This system would feed into a $20 billion high-speed rail network that links to the rest of the state. With that kind of money, you could also bring weekend, reverse commute and late-night service to several lines, in particular the Antelope Valley line.
The funds would also pay for grade separations for commuter and freight trains where they intersect with roadways. Cars would then not have to wait at railroad crossings, nor would railroads need to worry about collisions, which would reduce delays for both cars and trains.
You could also spend billions to purchase additional buses to run more frequent service in areas that are not suited for rail. Express buses could serve particular niches using our growing carpool lane network. The problem with this is that the cost of operating said services would be quite high and would require increased fares, quite unlike current practice at L.A. Metro, where fares are preserved at the expense of even basic service. Also, you must continue replacing buses because of their shorter life cycles, so billions more would have to be spent over time.
The rest could be spent on freeway upgrades and bicycle and pedestrian corridors. For example, extending the Harbor Transitway into downtown L.A. could make the facility far more useful for buses and carpools than it is now. Funds would also be allotted for a region-wide signal synchronization program that would aid both cars and buses where Rapid Bus service (which instead employs signal preemption) may not be practical.
So long as the spending for automobile-based transportation remains lopsidedly greater than rail spending, we'll continue to promote the idea that California is one big suburb when, in fact, much of our state is urban. We cannot continue to pretend it is 1950, so we must explore a balanced and aggressive approach to ending this gridlock that has become the hallmark ofmodern-day Los Angeles.
Bart Reed is the Executive Director of The Transit Coalition, a Sylmar based non-profit dealing with issues of transportation, mobility and land use planning.
It's a testament to boosters' Lanleyesque powers of persuasion that rail transit proposals aren't laughed out of Los Angeles.
Here's some of what I might do with the dough:
Reduce transit bus fares to recreate the 40% increase in ridership from the 50-cent fare of the early 1980s—except, this time, I would also increase bus service and make it last.
Rail as far as the eye can see
Ted,
It's been a pleasure brawling against your esteemed institution and your version of logic. Now, back to reality: Given the the generous contribution, the most ambitious item on the list is indeed the most obvious one: $10 billion to extend the Wilshire Boulevard subway to Santa Monica, with stops at Century City and UCLA. Another $7 billion would be used to create either a subway spur or a separate light rail line to connect the San Fernando Valley with LAX and Westwood. This line would tunnel between UCLA and Sherman Oaks and continue north on Van Nuys Boulevard above ground.
Another $3 billion would be spent on establishing a light rail network that involved a completed Expo Line to the beach, a Gold Line to Montclair and a downtown light rail subway to connect them, establishing a continuous inland-to-ocean light rail network. Another $3 to $5 billion would establish Metrolink regional rail on the Harbor Subdivision right-of-way that links LAX and the South Bay to Union Station, and a Green Line that goes to LAX and the Westside to Santa Monica
Light rail should replace the Orange Line Busway and extend through Burbank and Glendale to the Gold Line in Pasadena. Perhaps $1 billion could be used to extend the Green Line via a tunnel to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station.
Another $10 billion would expand the Metrolink commuter rail system to other areas of Southern California, convert it from diesel to electrical power, and establish 30-minute service along most lines, including the Chatsworth-Laguna Niguel rail corridor. This system would feed into a $20 billion high-speed rail network that links to the rest of the state. With that kind of money, you could also bring weekend, reverse commute and late-night service to several lines, in particular the Antelope Valley line.
The funds would also pay for grade separations for commuter and freight trains where they intersect with roadways. Cars would then not have to wait at railroad crossings, nor would railroads need to worry about collisions, which would reduce delays for both cars and trains.
You could also spend billions to purchase additional buses to run more frequent service in areas that are not suited for rail. Express buses could serve particular niches using our growing carpool lane network. The problem with this is that the cost of operating said services would be quite high and would require increased fares, quite unlike current practice at L.A. Metro, where fares are preserved at the expense of even basic service. Also, you must continue replacing buses because of their shorter life cycles, so billions more would have to be spent over time.
The rest could be spent on freeway upgrades and bicycle and pedestrian corridors. For example, extending the Harbor Transitway into downtown L.A. could make the facility far more useful for buses and carpools than it is now. Funds would also be allotted for a region-wide signal synchronization program that would aid both cars and buses where Rapid Bus service (which instead employs signal preemption) may not be practical.
So long as the spending for automobile-based transportation remains lopsidedly greater than rail spending, we'll continue to promote the idea that California is one big suburb when, in fact, much of our state is urban. We cannot continue to pretend it is 1950, so we must explore a balanced and aggressive approach to ending this gridlock that has become the hallmark ofmodern-day Los Angeles.
Bart Reed is the Executive Director of The Transit Coalition, a Sylmar based non-profit dealing with issues of transportation, mobility and land use planning.
We're starved for reform, not funds
It's a testament to boosters' Lanleyesque powers of persuasion that rail transit proposals aren't laughed out of Los Angeles.
Here's some of what I might do with the dough:
Reduce transit bus fares to recreate the 40% increase in ridership from the 50-cent fare of the early 1980s—except, this time, I would also increase bus service and make it last.
Digg
Twitter
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Save more than 
