The L.A. Times just published an article (click here for link) making the argument that Los Angeles is the most “forward-thinking” public transit in the world. Now, I love public transit. I take the metro daily. I utilize the bus system when I need to (or just when I can, the DASH stops running at 7:00pm. But come on, LA’s public transit is terrible and the only “forward-thinking” it’s doing is just making sure it doesn’t close down entirely.
Here’s the situation about public transportation in our fair city. Los Angeles is 500 square miles and has 80 metro stations. Just to give you a little perspective, Paris is 40 square miles and has 245 metro stations. Now, we do have a bus system that serves as a mesh to link these few stops together, but it’s hardly a progressive system.
I feel we are far short of a good system, and let’s just say many stops away from a “forward-thinking”. Here are some ways to get there.
- Connect to LAX
- Connect to Burbank Airport
- Connect to the beach
- Create ‘express lines’, so if you’re traveling from Downtown to Long Beach you don’t have to stop at every stop.
- Connect to San Pedro port, Marina Del Rey Port, or Long Beach Port.
- Run past 12:30am.
- Wi-fi. A transit system that has wi-fi would be “forward-thinking.”
- Flying trains would also be “forward-thinking”.
- Don’t color two of your metro lines blue and just call one of them “expo”. It’s confusing.
Leave any comments for what else LA could do to make our metro system more forward thinking.