Archive for the 'Los Angeles' Category

Transitography 51: Museum Transit

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on March 5, 2008
in Getty Museum, Los Angeles, MAM, Metromover, Museum Park, Museum of Science and Tram
. 3 Comments
Transport, originally uploaded by blupic.com.

I was scanning through images on Flickr, when I came across the Tram which transports visitors to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. I couldn’t help imagine what Miami’s Museum Park would look like if our planners would integrate the existing (currently closed) metromover station with the upcoming structures. Unlike the Getty’s mover, ours would connect the museums directly to the public transportation system rather than a parking lot at the bottom of the mountain. Do our Museum planners have this type of foresight? Or will metromover users disembark in an unsightly and inhospitable delivery bay?

Via artbabee’s Flickr…

To Learn More about the Getty’s Tram, Click Here…

News Brief

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on February 25, 2008
in Air Powered Car, BMW, Coral Gables, Kendall, LRT, Los Angeles, NIMBY, Palmetto Bay, Stagecoach, Trolley and William Kerdyk
. 1 Comment
As some of you may have noticed, two of Transit Miami’s writers, Andrew Davis and James Wilkins, have departed due to personal time constraints. Meanwhile we welcome the addition of our latest writer, Rob Jordan, who will be working his way into the website over the next few weeks. Transit Miami is looking for some new talent to contribute to the site weekly, if you think you’ve got what it takes to write for Transit Miami, send us an email and some writing samples: movemiami@gmail.com…

Local:

  • Palmetto Bay NIMBYs are fighting an unlikely foe: Palmer Trinity. When residents turn their backs against school expansion out of a fear of more traffic, there is something critically wrong… (Miami Herald)
  • Despite the overwhelming success of the Coral Gables Trolley, plus numerous reports and independent studies which underline the very basic point that the transit system reduces city congestion and the need for 713 downtown parking spaces, Vice Mayor William Kerdyk is still having trouble finding a steady funding stream for the Coral Gables Trolley… (Coral Gables Gazette)
  • The Sunpost, has become the latest newspaper to publicize Norman Braman’s efforts to hoodwink the community into thinking that streetcars, tunnels, and public works projects are a sham… (SunPost)
  • The Public Works department has made a recommendation to cancel the 104 street widening project in west Kendall. (Community Newspapers)

Elsewhere:

  • Damien Goodmon proposes the most asinine reason why a Light Rail Line should not be built in Los Angeles: Kids leaving school will get hit by the passing trains… (L.A. City Beat)
  • Is Suburbia the natural evolution of development? Nope! (Planetizen)
  • Phobia of Public Transportation? Have no fear Stagecoach has prepared a manual for Britons who have become too accustomed to personal vehicles, explaining the intricacies that come with riding a bus. (Telegraph)
  • The Air Car: The world’s first fully air powered, zero emission vehicle to go on sale by summer 2009 in India and some other select countries. The $12,700 CityCAT is powered by 340 Liters of compressed air at 4350 psi, can travel up to 68 mph, and has an estimated range of 125 miles. (Popular Mechanics)
  • Photographs of the BMW X6 sport utility coupe. (It’s Knuttz)
  • A Funeral Dinner on a subway. (Oddity Central)

LA: Streetcars in the Planning

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on February 13, 2008
in Broadway, Downtown, Flagler, Los Angeles, Pedestrians, Retail, Streetcars, Theaters and complete streets
. 4 Comments
Add Los Angeles to the list of cities looking to resurrect their former streetcars. The Red Line (pictured above operating on SF’s Muni) is seen as a pivotal part of LA’s multi billion dollar plan to resurrect the Broadway Theater District. The “Bring Back Broadway Initiative” aims to rebuild a downtown corridor once bustling with entertainment, nightlife, and shops.

Bringing Back Broadway will create a plan for a vibrant Broadway district that provides entertainment, eclectic cultural amenities and diverse retail options for Downtown residents and visitors to one of Los Angeles’ most remarkable historic areas, while serving as a central focus for revived downtown streetcar transportation.

An innovative aspect of this project is the involved financial participation of private investements along the corridor. Immediately parallels with Miami’s Flagler Street come to mind. A corridor once filled with life, shops, and bustling with activity, we can learn from Los Angeles by creating public/private partnerships to redevelop this critical downtown corridor.
Much more fundraising is left to be done if the ambitious effort is to be realized, and of paramount importance is getting all property owners involved in their share of the rehab. Standing outside the Los Angeles after the presentation, Michael Delijani pointed to the $1 million in yearly assessments collected by the Historic Downtown BID as a sign that owners would do their part. He told how improved cleaning and trash collection have already bettered the Broadway streetscape.

The map below depicts the once far reaching tracks of the former Pacific Electric lines in Los Angeles:

News Briefs

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on September 10, 2007
in 836, Bayfront, Charlotte, Eurostar, Light Rail, Los Angeles, MDX, News, Santo Domingo, Skylift, Subway and Sunpass
. 0 Comments
Global:
  • Can’t believe we let this one pass under our radar for so long, but, the Caribbean’s second urban transit system is currently under construction in Santo Domingo. The 9 mile system will feature 16 stations, 10 of which will be subterranean. The system is set to open February 27, 2008 at a cost of nearly $700 Million…
  • The Eurostar set a new Paris-London record recently, completing the journey under the Chunnel in 2 hours and 3 minutes. The upgraded service is due to the completion of 68 miles of British high speed rail, stretching from the tunnel to the recently restored Victorian styled St. Pancras International Station.
National:
  • The Charlotte Light Rail system hasn’t even opened yet and it is already spurring Transit Oriented Development, 10 years ahead of planners’ forecasts. The development will offer 2,500 dwellings in mixed high density apartments, condominiums, and town homes will offer residents the ease of urban living just outside the city center.
  • How to curb LA’s growing parking problems? Eliminate parking requirements in new developments, of course. The best remedy to a downtown cores parking problem is to only make it more scarce.
  • The most accessible U.S. Airports. Notice how they are all linked to their respective cities by Public Transportation. Coincidence, we think not…
Local:
  • MDX to place Sunpass on Sale again. The transponders will be selling for $8.36 instead of their usual $25 price. Discounting a tolling device isn’t exactly the best way to reduce congestion, especially when the toll money is reinvested in highways rather than public transit…
  • Confusion on the 836…
  • BoB has some exclusive pics of the Miami Skylift being placed in Downtown Miami…
  • DWNTWN Miami will do nothing to solve any of the tangible problems facing our downtown. Unlike most of the materialistic or cosmetic fixes people in this city tend to turn to, removing O’s and coming up with some catchy phrase will not solve Downtown’s woes. Can we get some real ideas now?

Pimp my Bus: The LA Solution to Shallow Riders

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on July 10, 2006
in Commuting, Los Angeles and bus
. 0 Comments

Mariel Garza of the Los Angeles Daily News recently conducted her own personal Transit Challenge, where she depended solely on the Public Transportation in Los Angeles for a Month straight, Impressive. All in all, her experience flat out sucked (from her perspective.) Her daily commute (50 Miles) aboard public buses took around 3.5 hours a day (this is what Sprawl will do to Miami eventually, especially if we keep expanding the UDB to build lame, poor-planned suburban developments.) She neglected to talk about how much money she saved from not having to fill her gas tank, but, harped about the $75/Month bus pass she purchased.


However, to ride the L.A. DOT’s commuter express past a few miles say, to or from the San Fernando Valley you must purchase an extra stamp for $17 a pop. A bus pass for $75 a month hardly seems like a big incentive.

The LA system seems to be as well planned as the independent, extremely non-interconnected, tri county transit authorities. I wonder if their monthly passes are as difficult as ours to attain, where you have to travel to strip shopping centers to purchase one. All in all, Garza, learned about the problems of Public Transportation in her neighborhood, but provided little insight as to what could be done to improve it or make it efficient enough to improve her commute. Maybe “tricking” out the buses on Pimp My Ride, would entice a few of the more materialistic LA riders. LA’s problem is similar to Miami’s in the sense that it’s extremely difficult to coerce anyone to abandon their vehicular dependency, to a certain extent at least. Inching along independently in thousands of cars along the highways is some how more efficient to everyone than working to seek an alternative.

But the most important thing I learned from my bus experiment is that it is both humbling and humiliating to be dependent on the bus. When you drive, you are in control of your destination and thus, in a way, your destiny. When you ride the bus, you give up control to the bus driver, to the other passengers and to chance itself

My car certainly isn’t taking me to destiny, I’m headed to work. Humiliation should never be a feeling evoked by using public transportation and thus here lies one of our fundamental issues in openly adopting transportation use. I guess it just isn’t “cool” anymore to ride the bus to work, or it must that we are so concerned with how others will perceive us if we did so…


Just a Reminder: Transit Miami’s Summer Transit Challenge is still going on, so send me your latest Transit story…