They
say nobody in L.A. rides public
transit. That Angelenos will never
give up their cars. That L.A. was
built up around the car and that's
why public transit will never work
here. People in L.A. need more
mobility than public transit can
provide.
But the Surface Transportation
Policy Project and Southern California
Transit Advocates offer these
rebuttals to what they argue are myths
about public transit in Los Angeles.
They say public transit is critical to
a more livable Southern California,
and that it can and does work here.
Myth
#1: Unlike New York or San Francisco,
L.A. was built up around the
automobile.
L.A. was actually built up around
the streetcar. In the '20s the
Pacific Electric was the largest
electric trolley system in the
country, with 6,000 trains running on
144 routes extending into four
counties. Most of today's major
transportation corridors follow the
routes of old street car lines.
Myth
#2: Nobody rides transit in L.A.
Where transit service is frequent
and convenient people do use it.
Thirty percent of all travel into
downtown L.A. is by transit --
comparing to 38 percent in San
Francisco. On the Eastside it's 25
percent; in Mid-City and the Westside
it's 15 percent. Buses now run every
90 seconds on the busiest routes --
putting bus service here on par with
highly-touted service in Curitiba,
Brazil.
Myth
#3: Population densities in L.A.
aren't high enough to support
transit.
L.A. from the Hollywood Hills to
the ocean to Slauson Boulevard to
downtown has a density per mile
that's equal to San Francisco, in an
area twice the size. Hollywood and
Koreatown are as dense as Paris. West
Hollywood is the densest city west of
the Mississippi. Wilshire Boulevard
and Vermont are very dense corridors.
There are 100 employees per acre in
Santa Monica -- more than enough to
support a subway. Nearly all the City
of L.A. -- excluding the Valley -- is
dense enough for light rail.
Myth
#4: People in L.A. will always choose
to drive.
Policy and funding has dictated
this "choice" and it's not
a choice at all. Government plays a
crucial role in establishing the car
as the dominant mode of
transportation.
Myth
#5: L.A. is a built environment and we
can't change existing land use
patterns.
With the projected population
growth there will be ample momentum to
change. We need to channel new growth
away from open space and into denser
communities along significant
transportation corridors that are
well-served by public transit. We need
to build more affordable housing near
jobs and transit.
Myth
#6: People need more mobility than
public transit can provide.
We are the most mobile people on
the planet. Women now spend more time
in their cars than on one-on-one
childcare. Mobility is highly
overrated -- people donıt want to
spend so much time in traffic. We need
to replace mobility with access -- and
build communities where we can live
and work and shop and play locally
instead of always driving somewhere
else.
Myth
#7: The MTA can't afford to operate
both a bus and a rail system.
Everyone thinks the MTA is a
transit agency and forgets that it
also builds and maintains roads. The
MTA's most recent long-range plan
showed the agency spending $15 billion
on rail but $12 billion on roads. In
the last 10 years two-thirds of all
the agencyıs flexible funding --
funding not earmarked for a particular
mode -- was spent on roads.
Myth
#8: Transit is just not cost-effective
compared to the automobile.
Every mode of travel is subsidized
but we take auto subsidies for granted
-- including the cost of highway
patrols, traffic management, police
work on auto accidents and theft,
street maintenance, parking
enforcement, and "free"
parking, which we pay for through
higher rents and prices and lower
wages. Other costs include air
pollution, loss of open space and
habitat, global warming, peace in the
Middle East. Even conservative
estimates put the cost at 22 cents a
mile, equaling a gas tax of $6.60 a
gallon.
Myth
#9: Traffic congestion is caused by
not enough roads.
It's really because of sprawling
development. In the past 20 years the
population of California's metro
areas increased 20 percent but the
amount of driving increased 59
percent. We're driving more because
of the way we build our communities,
with affordable housing in Palmdale
and Moreno Valley and jobs in West
L.A. and Orange counties.
Myth
#10: Expanding highways is the best
way to relieve gridlock.
There's so much pent up demand
that congestion is the only thing that
keeps people off the roads. A UC-Berkeley
study showed 90 percent of new highway
capacity fills up within five years of
being built. Another new study showed
that if no new highways are built in
L.A. then traffic will decrease.