A Multi-Modal Independence Day

July 5, 2012 1 Comment

To celebrate America’s independence, there are a few things that come to mind in Los Angeles… the beach, bike rides, fireworks, barbecues, friends, and music. I experienced all of them yesterday, while also celebrating my independence from another thing… the personal automobile.

I didn’t necessarily set out to specifically spend the day without a car, but it was actually the easier and better way to get to most of my destinations for the day, which ranged from Downtown to the beach, with roughly 19 miles in between them. By the end of the day, I had traveled a total of nearly 50 miles by heavy-rail subway, light-rail, bike, bus, and foot. I exercised on bike, had tacos and margaritas by the ocean, grilled chicken, corn, and beer on a Downtown rooftop, and watched fireworks from a lawn in the shadow of the Coliseum.

Exposition Park hosted an hour-long fireworks show, easily accessible from the Metro Expo Line.

Read on for more detail of the fantastic Independence Day celebration and how it’s possible to experience an incredible range of Los Angeles without getting in a car.

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Lessons From San Diego: Transit Retail

June 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Not long after Los Angeles’ newest light rail line opened up, I had a chance to visit San Diego and ride all three of their “Trolley” lines. (Personally, I’ve always considered a trolley the same as a streetcar, like the one being planned in Downtown LA, but San Diego uses it as the name for the regional light rail system.)

First, a few observations..

Low Floor Vehicles: San Diego MTS has some nice new, low floor, vehicles (that do seem to me more like a streetcar or a trolley). These vehicles are a vast improvement over the old ones, where you would have to climb two stairs to the higher floor. The new vehicles offer ample space for bikes and people, but there was definitely less space to sit. The center aisles near the doors are large and spacious, but very onorganized. It may seem strange, but because there was so much open space, the aisles became a mess of legs, bikes, shopping bags, and riders all mixed together, and it was actually hard for people to get on and off at stations. If there was a designated “bike, stroller, luggage” section, like on LA’s Metro vehicles, it may work better.

San Diego’s low-floor trolley. (Photo: San Diego MTS/Brett Shoaf)

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The Next Orange Line – Pacific Electric / West Santa Ana Branch

May 23, 2012 4 Comments

The Southern California Association of Governments recently announced its Alternatives Analysis for the Pacific Electric ROW / West Santa Ana Corridor. The Orange Line Development Authority (because it runs to Orange County, though they’re soon changing their name because Metro already has an Orange Line), is also involved. The diagonal corridor left over from the Pacific Electric days stretches from the 105 Freeway in Paramount all the way down to Santa Ana, about 20 miles, in a straight line. The corridor runs through both LA and Orange Counties, and is owned by the respective county transportation agencies in each. Because it spans more than one jurisdiction, the study is being conducted by SCAG, in association with both Metro and OCTA.

The Pacific Electric / West Santa Ana Branch Corridor stretches from South LA County to Orange County in a nearly 20-mile-long straight line.

They are studying both mode and route for the project, with the goal to extend it from both ends of the right of way to Union Station in LA and the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center (SARTC) in Orange County.

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Making the LAX Transit Connection

April 23, 2012 1 Comment

This week, Metro’s Board of Directors is scheduled to discuss sending the “Green Line to LAX” project into the draft environmental study phase. This means that a few options are going to be studied in much more depth. There’s also a proposal to rename the project “Metro Connector to LAX,” which is a great idea, as it has the potential to serve both the Green and Crenshaw lines (and possibly even additional future lines).

The first two alternates for the LAX Connector include a Light Rail Branch extending off the Crenshaw/Green lines (with either 2 or 3 stations inside the terminal area) or a Light Rail Trunk that would move the Crenshaw/Green lines under the airport (with one station in the terminal area).

I’ve been to the meetings for this project and have meant to write about it for a while. Fortunately, the alternatives being recommended for further study are those I would have suggested, so now I can focus on the merits of this much smaller group of alternatives.

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