Location Transport - What can LA do to better its Public Transportation?

What can LA do to better its Public Transportation?

All of us Los Angelians (or whatever we call ourselves) cry about how we have no public transportation, but in reality, what can be done. Los Angeles is built upon layers of clay in most of the city making it extremely difficult to create more subways. And besides the expense, it will take years to catch up to other urban powerhouses (Paris, London, New York). The bus system could be improved but honestly, if you live in LA and know the distances between things, taking the bus sucks. I want to hear some ideas. Better yet, what can we do.

Public Comments

I've been to LA plenty of times and I also complained about how I need car when I'm there. I love public transportation in San Francisco. Their railed buses are great. Maybe LA should try that. If the buses run smoothly and has comfy seats then a long trip would not be so bad. Try visiting socialtraveller site (dotcom) I think I've read something about buses in San Francisco in that site.
The perception that the bus system sucks is because of the very reason you mention...The "Distance" between many places in LA is far greater than that of other major cities not to mention the heavy traffic conditions. Generally adding more rail lines would be the best option for the southern California area. One other issue in the LA area has always been the multipal bus systems which do not always work well together.
Maybe creating more "express"-type busses would help e.g. instead of having so many stops along long streets like Sunset or Santa Monica, maybe just a handful of stops at major intersections to decrease the travel time? Improving the condition of the busses? More comfortable seating. Less "rolling advertisement" busses that block the view and light? Maybe something elevated, like San Francisco's BART system would work here.
Angelenos! How have you never heard that before? They could start by putting back the trolley/street car system that they ripped out 40-50 years ago. The streetcars are why LA is so spread out in the first place: it used to have an excellent citywide public transport system. You could go all over without a car. Paris and NY are much more compact, as is London. LA would need to reintroduce surface trains. The buses in LA are horrible just like buses everywhere as they are caught in traffic - so no advances there. Trains are the answer, cars would need to give way. Moving a bunch of people rather than just one person in a private car would take precedence. Trains/streetcars would have the right of way. San Francisco just didn't get maneuvered by corporations with connections into removing their streetcars - it was the same setup. All over Europe there are trolleys/streetcars - why not LA?
A lot of people have different opinions, but here are my thoughts: It all starts with land use planning. If cities plan their growth around their transit lines, the ridership will be successful. Vertical development is a much more efficient use of space and reduces the negative impacts of sprawl (congestion, pollution, habitat fragmentation). Wilshire is a great example of a subway corridor because it is contains density second to Manhattan. It is a great candidate for a subway extension from Wilshire/Western to Century City, Westwood/UCLA, and eventually Santa Monica. However, subways are prohibitively expensive to build and maintain compared with buses, especially in a sprawled area such as LA. There just simply isn't enough money to go around to build a rail line down every Blvd and Ave in LA. So, a somewhat new idea called Bus Rapid Transit aka BRT is being introduced and is pretty much a compromise btwn trains and buses. It uses a dedicated right of way but uses signal priority instead of preemption. A great example of this is the 4 year old Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley. The Orange Line cost $350 million to build. It is a 14 mile busway that currently attracts 25,000 boardings per weekday. However, the Gold Line, a similarly distanced rail line to Pasadena which also attracts about 25,000 boardings, cost $1.5 billion to build. I don't have a preference towards BRT or rail, but I think we need to be smart about where we invest which mode. The good news is that LA is very capable of providing the capital funds for new transit projects. The Blue, Green, Gold, and Orange Lines were all funded with local and state money, with no help needed from the Feds. This is in large part due to the Prop A half cent sales tax that LA voters approved years ago. With an additional 1-cent sales tax bond being floated for this November's ballot, there will be much more funding to go around towards transit. It's really imperative that this passes as there is just so little funding to go around from the Feds, specifically during the Bush Administration. Also, the new idea of Congestion Pricing will soon be coming to the 110 and 10 Freeways that will allow single occupancy vehicles onto the carpool lanes for a market based rate (similar to the 91 Express Lanes in OC/IE). The funding from that would be poured back into transit projects. A lot of drivers will complain that their gas tax should keep freeways free, but in actuality gas taxes actually cover a small amount. According to TxDOT, the proposed 15-mile SH-99 in Houston will recover only 16% of its costs in gas taxes. Metrolink service should also be expanded to provide more convenient off peak service in addition to its rush hour schedule for outlying suburbs. Their farebox recovery ratio (as of 2006) was 46%, which is very good for a transit agency. That means that only 54% of the operating costs were subsidized. Metro Rail hovers around 32%. So first on the priority list should be the Purple Line extension to the Westside. The Gold Line extension to Montclair should be shelved, or converted to BRT as I just cannot imagine how expensive it would be to put down the money for rail for such low ridership. Those areas have done nothing in transit oriented development to try to encourage ridership. With a sprawled out area such as the San Gabriel Valley, it seems much more feasbile to run a BRT line down the existing right of way, and have routes branch out to neighboring areas after the 210 split, something light rail is unable to do. It's simply just a pork project for SGV politicians to bring to their area and it's taking money away from more pressing needs such as the subway extension and some sort of rapid transit connection to LAX. And in addition to congestion pricing, there needs to be some sort of market based rate on street parking. The underpriced LA meters just bring more congestion, as is detailed in Don Shoup's (UCLA professor) book "The High Cost of Free Parking." SF will soon be rolling out their market based parking plan (albeit controversial) which will price parking according to demand. That generated funding can go back into the neighborhood by improving walkways and improved transit, not to mention reduced congestion as cars won't be circling around the block looking for the 25 cents an hour meter.
Why, why, why didn't the planners spend the money and make the Green Line go to Los Angeles International????? It is so stupid to have to get off the train, schlepping all your luggage, and board a bus for a five-minute ride to the actual airport terminals! As a result, almost no one does it. Also, several of the other electric train lines end up in the middle of nowhere. My other, major deal idea is to create freeways with reversible lanes in the middle. For instance, in the mornings the Westbound San Berdoo would have eight lanes going into Los Angeles and four lanes going out. In the evening, there would be eight lanes going out and four lanes going in. (Other cities have done this.)
We Angelenos have to join in supporting public transportation by RIDING it and by DEMANDING more. We need to be active participants in the discussion and VOTE at higher rates, demanding that our public officials get a proportionate amount of our federal tax dollars back home for this purpose. The last 8 years, we have been given short shrift in that regard, but things should get better from the Federal side. Next, regardless of current and short-term economic conditions, we need to support long-term thinking and fund cutting-edge public transportation in multiple modes with our local and state tax dollars, and once again make sure vote for people who are focused on this effort. We need to continue to densify. We need to fight temporary expedients like off-shore drilling, and rather look for big solutions. California is known in part for holistic thinking, and we need to take the lead on this. Although we in LA allowed our old system to founder, now we must step up and apply what we know, solving problems large AND small, as a whole AND one at a time. Finally, we need a pact among political leaders to cut through the political mush that allowed Metro Rail to stop short of LAX and not to traverse the busiest demand corridor. I firmly believe those leaders have not been elected yet but are out there awaiting a push from the people, who must demand it and keep up the demand.
Our government needs to invest money in it. That's all there is to it. We can keep saying "it's too late" or "we'll never catch up" or whatever, but the longer we wait the worse its going to be. We only have 4 rail and subway lines, yet these are some of the busiest in the country. So there is demand for it, and if we build it people will use it. But unfortunately the state and federal governments seem to prefer to spend money on freeways instead.
Here's an idea. Crank up the flux capacitor, go back in time about 40 years, and kick the LA County supervisors in the cajones. Those knuckleheads put all their eggs in one basket: The freeway system. LA used to have a good sytem. It was called the Red Car. They had tracks all over the county, but they tore them up. If they had thought ahead, they should have built all freeways with a center median for a light rail line. And they should take Luca Brazzi back in time, to take out ALL those NIMBYs who opposed the Chandler light rail, the Long Beach freeway extension through South Pas and Alhambra, and all the other projects that were killed due to narrow minded self interest. CG, excellent answers, especially about the Green Line extension. Who was the moron who said "Let's stop short of the airport"? DUH! There is one teensy point, however, It's awfully hard to dig a subway tunnel through tar, sand, and natural gas pockets down the Wilshire Corridor. Remember that explosion in Ross, back in the early 80's? You can expect that in any subway that passes by the tar pits.