.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
A few weeks ago, LA Weekly had a cover story about how we are being sold a phony idea by developers, politicians and environmentalists: that denser housing near trains and buses might ultimately help LA. Instead, the article seemed to demonstrate, we are getting more congested and less mobile.
Then a few days ago, the LA Times also wrote about how very few residents who live near the train actually take it. They prefer their cars.
Does this mean that we should abandon the idea of placing housing near publc transit? Or is the real problem, as I see it, that we haven’t gone far enough in promoting public transportation, walking and density near train lines?
I currently live in Van Nuys and work near Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga. I park my car in Van Nuys at the Orange Line, get on a bus and transfer to the train, travel three stops, and exit at Hollywood and Highland. My total commute is about an hour. My monthly pass is $62.00
I don’t put any miles on my car, I save money on gas. I get exercise walking to work. I save time not sitting in traffic. I get to read the Wall Street Journal on the bus and train.
Imagine if the Red Line were built west of Hollywood and Highland so that it had stops in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood and Santa Monica? Envision the day when a film editor in Venice finished work on a Friday afternoon at 5:30pm and rode the train to Beverly Hills to meet friends for dinner at 6:30pm? Would such a scenario even work today? It takes about one hour to drive from Bundy and Wilshire to Wilshire and Sepulveda at that time!
The problem with denigrating transit development at this early stage, is that the entire city has not been served by trains. We still depend on our cars for almost everything. We cannot afford to give up now, when we have barely tried.
It’s like telling a struggling student to put down their algebra book after the first chapter because they will never succeed.
Here in Van Nuys 
The sad thing is that transit development should not be at an early stage at this point. This process should have started two decades ago.
A more apt analogy might be finding out that a student can’t read halfway through an algebra book, and rather than taking the time to teach him, the teacher finds a temporary solution so that the student can pass. For now.
LikeLike