Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
LA is a bit different in that the denser areas tend to be poorer, so there's pedestrian activity in spite of the less-than-amazing streetscape. All things equal, poor(er) areas tend to have more pedestrians than rich(er), bc the poorer residents aren't choice walkers and the richer residents are.
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West Hollywood, though technically not part of the City of LA, is pretty dense, with 19,000/sqaure mile. You see people walking through there/around there all the time. And it's not exactly a poor area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
People are more likely to walk when there are places to walk to.
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Yes, thank you. Now, the quality of that walk---how pleasant, how convenient, etc., is another matter.
As an aside, and anecdotally, I've known a few people who have never owned a car in LA. In the late 90s, I took an extension class at UCLA. My professor was an Irishman who at that point in time had been living in LA for about 10 years, and when he told the class "I've been living in LA for 10 years and I still don't drive" we were all surprised. As it turns out, though, he basically never left the Westside. He lived not far from campus, and he walked or took the bus everywhere... within the Westside. Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus is actually quite handy to take all over the Westside, and the fare is even cheaper than LA's Metro buses/trains.
If you live in Pasadena and don't really leave the Pasadena area, it's possible to get around without a car. In fact last year, I was without a car for a week while my car was in the body shop because I had a little accident with it (on the freeway, a car in the next lane hit a traffic cone and shoved it over to my lane and I couldn't avoid hitting it---I was so pissed off... but hey, thank goodness for comprehensive insurance coverage, I was only out 200 bucks for the deductible). I only live 8 miles from work, and it only takes me about 45-50 minutes to get to work by bus (I have to take 2 buses). Pasadena is not only served by LA County Metro but also Foothill Transit, LA's DASH buses even go into Pasadena, Montebello Transit goes right to the border of South Pasadena... Pasadena even has its own bus transit system. And, my TAP card is valid on many other bus transit systems in LA County.
Hmm, which makes me wanna ask an off-topic question. I heard that Chicago/Cook County only has 2 bus transit systems, one that serves the city proper and one that serves the suburbs. Is that true? LA County has a myriad of bus transit agencies, many cities have their own bus systems, all overlapping with one another's. I just assumed it was that way in other US metro areas.