LOS ANGELES | Transportation News & Discussion

[caligrad]

^^^ That's GREAT news. Hopefully happens. The valley needs some rail TLC too. Connecting the Valley to the rest of the basin, specifically downtown and the Wilshire corridor, will alleviate so much traffic.

[Eightball]

Does anyone else feel that Metro is over doing it with the constant checking of TAP cards by police? Just got my card checked for the 3rd time today on the Expo Line! 3 times in one day is ridiculous and I'm regularly getting checked 2x a day for a total of 5 to 7 times a week. Isn't that excessive?

[caligrad]

^^^ Yeah its a bit much but from my own experiences, I think with all these new rail lines, Metro is making sure its getting its money back one way or another but ive experienced the same on other transit networks in other cities.

[caligrad]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...507-story.html

Interesting Story that I stole from a forumer on SSC. Looks like the good people are fed up with traffic and are not against a tax increase for new rail. Now we need to get the surrounding counties to get on board with creating rail in their counties. No point in adding all this good rail if we still have 5 million people trucking in everyday from the surrounding counties.

[Bikemike]

Originally Posted by Eightball

Does anyone else feel that Metro is over doing it with the constant checking of TAP cards by police? Just got my card checked for the 3rd time today on the Expo Line! 3 times in one day is ridiculous and I'm regularly getting checked 2x a day for a total of 5 to 7 times a week. Isn't that excessive?

Why would limiting revenue loss by clamping down on free-loading be a bad thing, ever? Metro is full of fare-evaders and that practice needs to be stopped. As a paying transit user I'd have no problem showing a cop as often as needed in order to catch those evaders. As a matter of fact, such people are crooks and I hope they increase the financial penalties for doing it.

I do hope that they eventually get turnstiles installed at all stations.

[Bikemike]

Originally Posted by caligrad

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...507-story.html

Interesting Story that I stole from a forumer on SSC. Looks like the good people are fed up with traffic and are not against a tax increase for new rail. Now we need to get the surrounding counties to get on board with creating rail in their counties. No point in adding all this good rail if we still have 5 million people trucking in everyday from the surrounding counties.

We really need to get OC and Riverside to build bus or rail feeders to bolster Metrolink ridership. Now that Metrolink is under the guidance of Art Leahy, I'm hoping coordination with Metro will improve. The problem with Metro is it shouldn't be expected to use LRT to fulfill long-distance trunk demand. Metrolink should alway have been tasked to do fulfill that. Fares should be lower, headways shorter, and operating hours longer on Metrolink, with a goal of attaining critical mass ridership to actually compete with Freeways.

Unfortunately though continued building of mostly useless long distance LRT is politically unavoidable. LA County is geographically huge and Metro is beholden to it's entire tax base now matter how remote much of it is located.

[waltlantz]

I think you can say that about a lot of major US transit systems.

Thing is though due to relatively low densities, the best you could hope for is feeder bus service and even then it would have to be BRT to be worth it.

[Bikemike]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

I think you can say that about a lot of major US transit systems.

Thing is though due to relatively low densities, the best you could hope for is feeder bus service and even then it would have to be BRT to be worth it.

True, many US metros share this problem but LA County is unique in its monolithic vastness, and Metro is beholden to the entire 10 million strong county. Even with good regional planning, the politics of regionalism overrides all rational decision-making. As long as Metro is limited to LA County, billions squandered on useless LRT lines to nowhere will be required as political down-payment for crucial lines within the urban areas. It's too bad LADOT wasn't more robust that it could pitch in on more local rail infrastructure as occurs in the multi-agency rail network of inner Tokyo.

I agree that suburban feeder bus service could easily be BRT focused. That's why I suggested either LRT or bus to serve the same purpose.

[Muji]

I haven't seen the news anywhere else yet, but there is a new flyer circulating around Metro trains with some details about the all-door boarding test on Line 720. Here are the main details:

• The test will go from May 18 to July 10, Monday-Friday only

• All-door boarding will be tested at two stops, at Wilshire and Vermont (westbound) 6am-11am and Wilshire and Westwood (eastbound) 2pm-7pm. All passengers will board from the front at other times and stops.

• Three TAP card validators will be placed on the curb at the two stops. Passengers paying with TAP can validate on the street before boarding through any door. Wheelchair passengers and those using cash, tokens, transfers still board at the front.

Presumably, Metro will just be looking at potential reductions of dwell times at those two stops during peak travel times. Personally, I would've liked to see a more ambitious pilot during more hours of the day. I'm also a little surprised Metro decided to install additional TAP validators on the curb, rather than inside the buses (though this may be due to the relatively limited scale of the pilot and the massive number of buses that travel along Wilshire). I'm by Wilshire and Vermont very often so I should be able to see it in action soon.

[bzcat]

Originally Posted by Muji

Presumably, Metro will just be looking at potential reductions of dwell times at those two stops during peak travel times. Personally, I would've liked to see a more ambitious pilot during more hours of the day. I'm also a little surprised Metro decided to install additional TAP validators on the curb, rather than inside the buses (though this may be due to the relatively limited scale of the pilot and the massive number of buses that travel along Wilshire). I'm by Wilshire and Vermont very often so I should be able to see it in action soon.

I thought about why the validators are curb side instead of inside the bus too and it's easy to see why Metro wants to do it this way. There are two reasons:

1. Cost
All-door boarding will probably only occur on a few select bus lines (e.g. Wilshire blvd, Vermont Ave, Van Nuy Blvd) so it's much cheaper to install TAP validators at those bus stops than to equip the entire bus fleet with extra TAP validators.

It will only make sense to put validators on the buses if we go to all-door boarding on every line and prohibit cash payments - like how London does it.

2. Speed
All-door boarding is fast, but off-board payment makes it even faster. If we are going to change how people board buses on Wilshire, we should be experimenting with off-board payment, not just all-door boarding.

[blackcat23]

http://urbanize.la/post/dtlas-new-an...seventh-street

Renderings for some of the upgrades planned for 7th Street between Figueroa and Olive in Downtown.

[Muji]

Very good points, bzcat.

While Metro hasn't yet released any other results of the 720 all-door boarding test, they've put out a video comparing the dwell times with and without all-door boarding (69 vs. 31 seconds). I haven't bothered to count, but I assume that the two buses here boarded a comparable number of passengers.

• Video Link

[StethJeff]

From LA Downtown News:

New Estimate Brings Streetcar Price Tag to $281.6 Million

Posted: Monday, June 15, 2015 2:22 pm

An October cost estimate for the Downtown streetcar suggested a price tag of about $250 million — far more than the $125 million originally attached to the transit project, but also far less than the worst-case $327.8 million the city identified in a 2013 report.

http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/n....html?mode=jqm

[Quixote]

We're still a year and a half away, but this is encouraging. If there's any chance of getting the Purple Line to Santa Monica by 2030, this must pass.

Metro poll suggests strong support for 2016 transportation tax hike

By Laura J. Nelson
May 7, 2015

More than two-thirds of Los Angeles County residents would support raising the county sales tax by a half-cent to bring in about $120 billion for rail and highway projects, according to a new poll paid for by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

People who identified themselves as likely voters were asked whether they would vote in November 2016 for a ballot measure that would raise the county’s overall sales tax rate to 9.5%. The proposal would also seek to extend Measure R, the half-cent tax approved in 2008, for nearly two more decades.

The combined income from the so-called augment and extend taxation structure could raise $120 billion over 40 years, officials said. The poll hinted at how dramatically that money could bolster transportation infrastructure across Los Angeles County, including a rail and highway tunnel through the Sepulveda Pass, a rail connection from Los Angeles International Airport to the San Fernando Valley, and a Purple Line subway extension from Westwood to Santa Monica.

Under California law, the ballot measure would need the approval of at least 67% of voters. In 2012, a Metro attempt to extend Measure R by three decades fell short by less than 1% of that mark. As it stands, Measure R is projected to raise $35 billion by the time it expires in 2039.

Transportation officials, who have said they would attempt another tax hike only if voter support was initially strong, were encouraged by the polling results. They believe voters will be even more inclined to support a tax hike when they see the scheduled 2016 ribbon-cuttings on the extensions of the Expo Line to Santa Monica and the Gold Line to Azusa, both funded by the original Measure R.

Before hearing any details about the possible 2016 ballot measure, 70% of poll respondents said they would definitely, probably or maybe vote yes. After respondents heard a few of the details, the rate dropped to 63%; but after they received all the information, it rose to 79%.

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said improvements to streets or freeways were their top priority. About one-fourth preferred light-rail and bus projects.

Asked to rank whether projects were very important, more than 80% supported retrofitting bridges, tunnels and overpasses. About 79% supported keeping transit fares low for seniors, students and the disabled, and 64% were in favor of connecting public transit to regional airports.

The poll also suggested that Westside residents would be more likely to vote for the tax increase if Metro improved traffic flow on the 10 Freeway and extended the Crenshaw Line through the Miracle Mile and into Hollywood.

San Fernando Valley residents would be more likely to approve the measure if Metro widened the 101 Freeway at “key bottlenecks” and built a north-south light-rail line along Van Nuys Boulevard, researchers found.

Respondents living in north Los Angeles County were more likely to approve the measure if Metro widened bottlenecks along the 5 Freeway in Santa Clarita, Newhall and Castaic, and built the High Desert Corridor highway from Palmdale to Victorville, the poll showed.

Those living in southeastern Los Angeles County were more likely to support the tax hike if Metro widened the Golden State Freeway between the 605 and 710 freeways and built a light-rail line between downtown Los Angeles and the Orange County line, through Paramount, Bellflower and Cerritos.

The research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, which primarily does work on government tax increase issues, performed the survey.

The poll, conducted by telephone from March 17 to 29, surveyed 1,414 county residents, or about 200 people from each of the county's seven areas. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, and slightly higher for subgroups.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...507-story.html

[M II A II R II K]

LA Streetcar Project Moves to Next Phase

Read More: http://urbanize.la/post/la-streetcar...ves-next-phase

The proposed Downtown LA Streetcar officially moved to its next phase this morning, when the Los Angeles City Council's Transportation Committee voted 5-0 to allow Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc. (LASI) to contract out the preliminary engineering work for the project.

- The proposed 3.8-mile route would run in mixed traffic between the Civic Center and South Park neighborhoods along Broadway, 1st, 11th, 7th, Figueroa and Hills Streets. Unlike the Metro Rail system, which connects Downtown Los Angeles with adjacent neighborhoods and cities, the streetcar would provide function as a local circulator for residents and visitors. The design phase for the project is expected to begin next year. Operations are expected to commence by 2020.

.....

[202_Cyclist]

Last night I had the opportunity to hear Prof. Ethan Elkind, the author of Railtown, speak about the history of LA's red car streetcar system and LA's effort to build a new and modern rail transit system over the past half century, starting with former Mayor Tom Bradley's championing heavy rail in the 1970s. I encourage people to read this book if you have the opportunity.

Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City

"The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city.

Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision.

Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow."

http://www.amazon.com/Railtown-Fight.../dp/0520278275

[Quixote]

It looks like we're switching to a letter-based naming system. Say hello to the E Line...


Gokhan/The Transit Coalition

[bzcat]

Originally Posted by Quixote

It looks like we're switching to a letter-based naming system. Say hello to the E Line...

Well, Expo has been using the blue E since about 3 months after line opened so that branding is not new. It's already appears in all the station signage in Phase 1 of Expo.

Metro announced a couple of month ago that E line will change to gold color on the map once regional connector opens in 2019~2020.

[bzcat]

LAWA wants you to play a game (literally) and provide feedback on design of inter-modal transit centers.

http://beatlaxtraffic.com/

[Eightball]

What's up with the metro bus fare readers/machines (on the buses themselves) not being able to be used for reloading your TAP card. They've had that in DC for at least 5 years... annoying