^I've taken that line from downtown LA to Culver City and am excited to take it the rest of the way to Santa Monica.

 

It looks nice for what it is but many of the station locations are not ideal.  They are not in the center of commercial areas.  A lot of them are in random, mostly residential areas.  And I find it a bit odd that the terminal station in Santa Monica is in a somewhat random spot and they didn't decide to turn the line northward and get one more station in another part of the densest area of Santa Monica. 

 

Its a 2 blocks from the pier / 1 block from the mall / prominade.  Its actually a pretty great location, though everything but the pier faces away from it because its new.

 

I'll agree with you about other station locations though...

Los Angeles Tries to Prove that It Doesn’t Necessarily Need the Car

By Sheila Marikar , JUNE 1, 2016

 

These are iconic images of Los Angeles: the Hollywood sign, bumper-to-bumper traffic, red carpets rich with sequin-spangled starlets. One image that, until recently, came to almost no one’s mind was a railway. But the city is now trying to slough off the stereotype of being only for people who can tolerate spending most of their waking hours in a car, or who rage extravagantly against that fate. Late last month, the L.A. Metro opened an extension of the sky-blue Expo line (named after Exposition Boulevard, which it runs alongside), which now carries passengers from downtown to Santa Monica and the Pacific. The line is meant to serve more than sand-pail carriers. It links two of the city’s busiest business districts, downtown and the tech-startup-heavy community known as Silicon Beach, and makes stops in other spots populated with potential commuters, like the University of Southern California and restaurant strips in Culver City and the Palms.

 

MORE:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/los-angeles-tries-to-prove-that-it-doesnt-necessarily-need-the-car

Expo Line doesn't have enough rail cars for its surging ridership

 

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-metro-rail-cars-20160807-snap-story.html

 

Before the doors to the Expo Line train slid open, letting in a gust of hot summer air, Metro riders at the Farmdale station in West Adams had already backed away from the edge of the platform, shaking their heads.

 

The train, packed with evening commuters, pulled away without anyone boarding.

 

“I love the train, but I don’t think I can keep doing this,” said Cindy Rodriguez, 38, who had stood in the sun for half an hour as two full trains passed by. “At least you can get on the bus.”

 

Two months after the debut of light-rail service to Santa Monica, it has become clear that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority does not have enough rail cars to accommodate the Expo Line’s surging ridership.

Why the Expo Line to Santa Monica marks a rare kind of progress in American cities

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-expo-line-hawthorne-20160518-snap-htmlstory.html

 

This is a nicely written article; more sophisticated and nuanced than most mainstream NP columns.

The huge Measure M vote is coming up next week.  It will extend the 30-year Measure R 1/2 cent tax indefinitely (it is currently set to expire in 2038) and will add a 1/2 cent on top of that.  So if this passes, a whopping 2% tax will exist in LA County for buses, commuter rail, subways, light rail, and HOV lanes.  The base sales tax in LA County will become 9.5% and since some municipalities have their own sales tax, it will exceed 10% in places.  However, California prohibits a municipal earnings tax, so while regressive, the overall local tax burden for LA County residents is not as extreme as it appears.

 

Here is some opposition:

 

These guys oppose the fact that transit line improvements and new lines will not be coming to Long Beach, Compton, Inglewood, and East LA anytime soon.  Measure R prioritizes the Wilshire subway and the Supulveda Pass tunnel, each of which are $10 billion projects.  In short, Measure M prioritizes getting people who already have cars out of them as opposed to serving those who can't afford them at all. 

Compton and Long Beach are already served by the Blue Line, and East LA is served by the new leg of the Gold Line which opened a few years back. The regional connector will allow riders on the Blue Line to have a one seat ride to Union Station, which should help make that ride a little easier. Also, the Expo Line runs through some pretty poor neighborhoods, and the Crenshaw Line, which is currently under construction) will serve disadvantaged neighborhoods (including Inglewood) as well. The Wilshire subway should be prioritized!

The huge Measure M vote is coming up next week.  It will extend the 30-year Measure R 1/2 cent tax indefinitely (it is currently set to expire in 2038) and will add a 1/2 cent on top of that.  So if this passes, a whopping 2% tax will exist in LA County for buses, commuter rail, subways, light rail, and HOV lanes.  The base sales tax in LA County will become 9.5% and since some municipalities have their own sales tax, it will exceed 10% in places.  However, California prohibits a municipal earnings tax, so while regressive, the overall local tax burden for LA County residents is not as extreme as it appears.

 

 

Which means that with Columbus' 2.5% earnings tax and 7.5% sales tax, even if the tax passes L.A's local consumption and earnings taxes are still lower than Columbus' Of course, I'm not familiar with L.A.'s property tax structure, so I don't know how much revenue per capita they are receiving from property taxes.

The huge Measure M vote is coming up next week.  It will extend the 30-year Measure R 1/2 cent tax indefinitely (it is currently set to expire in 2038) and will add a 1/2 cent on top of that.  So if this passes, a whopping 2% tax will exist in LA County for buses, commuter rail, subways, light rail, and HOV lanes.  The base sales tax in LA County will become 9.5% and since some municipalities have their own sales tax, it will exceed 10% in places.  However, California prohibits a municipal earnings tax, so while regressive, the overall local tax burden for LA County residents is not as extreme as it appears.

 

Here is some opposition:

 

These guys oppose the fact that transit line improvements and new lines will not be coming to Long Beach, Compton, Inglewood, and East LA anytime soon.  Measure R prioritizes the Wilshire subway and the Supulveda Pass tunnel, each of which are $10 billion projects.  In short, Measure M prioritizes getting people who already have cars out of them as opposed to serving those who can't afford them at all. 

 

I'm not attuned to LA politics or specific demographics, or even Measure M, which sounds very aggressive, but these 2 councilmen (well, the older guy is an LA councilman) are arguing that they supported expanded rail but that now, under Measure M, their communities (African American, no doubt), are now getting shafted with vague commitments and a more aggressive timetable for wealthier, non-African American communities.  If true, their opposition is understandable. 

They have a really complicated situation there where each of those three taxes can pay for specific things but not other specific things (i.e. two can technically pay for subway tunnels but the first one can't, and the third one can't in practicality because it sunsets in 2038).  So it's like a complicated Ven diagram that keeps their agency from being able roll things out in the order that they'd like.  Part of their criticism is that M is basically a "blank check" and doesn't dictate any specific formula or location for what will be funded, and it's not sunseted like R was (in fact, M extends R indefinitely and then adds a 1/2 cent on top). 

 

As we have discusses previously in this thread, LA would be best served by expanding the heavy metro network in the city proper with the contemplated West Hollywood extension (connecting the existing line in Hollywood with the under-construction Wilshire extension), and a 4-track line under Santa Monica with express tracks that continue as the planned Sepulveda pass to the San Fernando Valley and the Orange Line BRT. 

 

The other project that they claim they will begin is the Alameda Corridor to Orange County, but they can't go past the county line until Orange County passes its own tax.  Here is an opportunity to do a real express train that will really get a lot of people off the expressways but if they don't set it up for express tracks from the beginning then it's a huge opportunity lost.  They have a 20-mile dead-straight 100-foot wide ROW sitting there.  Do the math on how express trains could beat cars during off-peak travel times, let alone 2-hour traffic jams.  But people aren't going to tolerate a 20-mile, 20-stop traditional light rail ride like the Expo Line. 

 

 

 

 

 

69% voted in favor of transit in LA County. It is expected to raise $860 million/year, estimated at $100 billion over 40 years.

 

http://t4america.org/maps-tools/state-policy-funding/2016-votes/

That's fantastic.

LA's Measure M represented half the of total dollar amount of all transit projects/programs on the ballot last night -- nationwide.

69% voted in favor of transit in LA County. It is expected to raise $860 million/year, estimated at $100 billion over 40 years.

 

http://t4america.org/maps-tools/state-policy-funding/2016-votes/

 

I voted for it. Good to see others did as well.

Elon Musk to buy used tunnel boring machine from LA MTA, try to figure out how to make one that digs 500-1000x faster: 

 

http://www.dailynews.com/science/20170129/hyperloop-competition-brings-new-mass-transit-technology-to-life-in-hawthorne?source=most_viewed

 

 

Well if you dig 500x-1000x faster you need thousands of dump trucks lined up to haul away 1/4-mile to 1/2-mile x 21ft diameter of dirt every 24 hours.  Elon Musk is on crack. 

Duh, just put Tesla motors in them to make them do 0-60 in 4 seconds

Duh, just put Tesla motors in them to make them do 0-60 in 4 seconds

 

This is a political move by Musk.  An EV-only 5-mile toll tunnel under the Supulveda Pass would be a massive win for the Muskman but the LA MTA just got a huge infusion of taxpayer cash and that tunnel is going to be light rail.  And he's so dumb because in five years the Big 3 + Toyota + BMW + everyone else is going to be building more and better electric cars than Tesla. 

 

 

Just was in LA and rode transit / did ride share the whole trip.

 

Observations:

 

The Expo Line is great - it connects some of the best neighborhoods in LA together, I can grab wonderful Japanese food at Sepulveda, look at art galleries at the Culver City arts district or see a festival in dowtown without changing lines - its also only a quick (relatively given the reality of LAs geography) rapid bus trip ~20 mins to Venice from Downtown Santa Monica.  However, one critique I have is that it always seemed to be just slightly out of the way of all of these districts but downtown.  12 min walk to Sawtelle from the Sepulveda station, 5 min walk to santa monica brew works, 15 min walk to the arts district, my feet were pretty sore.  I stayed in Culver Cityish though I wish Airbnb would be more specific about the location as I was 15 mins away from the train which during the winter when I walk less made my feet sore (though there was a bus literally every 10 mins or less on the weekdays from where I stayed), so that wasn't too bad, though I wish LA County would fold the Muni buses on the west side like Culver City bus and Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica) into metro.  You can still get a cheap muni transfer but it would make transit more accessible on the west side of they did that.

 

Uber Pool works shockingly well in LA - I was able to get from Sepulveda Expo to the Getty Center in 10 mins with a 2.99 pool trip. By transit that would have been like 40 mins :/.  The most I spent was 8.99 to get to LAX also from Sepulveda Expo, and it was only that much because there is like a $6 surcharge for going to LAX.  It seemed like from Culver I could get to most of LA by Uber Pool ~30-40 mins for less than $10.

 

The only downside of pool is dealing with other people, if your driver picks up someone in the Santa Monica Hills (like happened to me on one trip) prepare for all the worst stereotypes of wannabe rich people in LA... :/

 

The other project that they claim they will begin is the Alameda Corridor to Orange County, but they can't go past the county line until Orange County passes its own tax.  Here is an opportunity to do a real express train that will really get a lot of people off the expressways but if they don't set it up for express tracks from the beginning then it's a huge opportunity lost.  They have a 20-mile dead-straight 100-foot wide ROW sitting there.  Do the math on how express trains could beat cars during off-peak travel times, let alone 2-hour traffic jams.  But people aren't going to tolerate a 20-mile, 20-stop traditional light rail ride like the Expo Line. 

 

LA really needs to beef up and electrify the corridor between DTLA and Anaheim (and maybe also towards Burbank - which right now is a transit black hole in spite it being a major job center), its already served by pretty frequent Amtrack service, and ridiculously anemic Metrolink service.  The later needs way more trains to be effective.  A train every 15-30 mins would work for something like this, then there would be proper express service to OC - streetcars / light rail could provide local service in the north part of the county.

I kind of wonder if we're at "peak uber" at this point -- it was very rapidly adopted in the cities where it existed first and by 2014 was basically everywhere.  Is its use still growing rapidly or really at all in a place like LA?  If not, it illustrates that it's not really eroding public transportation (especially peak-hour) ridership in significant ways.  Yes, bus use is down in LA by 5-10% but it's not down 20-30%, which would basically be a death blow. 

 

Unfortunately Uber doesn't have to share its information with the public (and might not have to share specifics even if it goes public) and so we don't really know if its growth rate is accelerating, holding steady, drifting downward, or even if its overall use is drifting downward in specific markets.   

I'm not sure, and remember I was using pool (where other users are picked up as well) not normal uber as that would have been too expensive for what I was doing.  I am concerned though that their business model doesn't work right now (its running on VC funds and hype in a classic silicoln valley sense) and the end game is driverless cars as people are too expensive :/.

 

The two worked well together, some of LAs bus connections aren't quite right for getting from area x to area y, but there are plenty where taking the bus is way better than doing uber (Rapid bus from Venice to Culver City for instance).

 

One more critique on the Expo line, Cincinnati isn't alone in having stubborn city officials stopping traffic lights from being timed right.  The whole line past Exposition Park grinds to a halt as it joins the blue line running in the median of a city street with unusually short blocks for LA, they could save upwards of 10 mins if they just added signal prioritization to this stretch - making the line even more competitive against I-10 for trips to Santa Monica.  I'm shocked given how forward thinking LA is about transit right now that they haven't done this yet - even Highland Park on the Gold Line appears to have done this (though its a separate city).

Highland Park is a neighborhood in the city of LA, not a different municipality.

Oh your  right it is.  Very hard to tell in that region what's LA proper and urban suburb.

With the passage of the new gas tax in California, these road and transit projects are getting a boost in the LA basin...

 

Los Angeles is on fire.  Not literally, yet, but you know what I mean.

Still has a long way to go (esp perceptionwise), but its kind of my source of feel good urbanism news and bodes well for the rest of the country.

 

I read urbanize.la now and then to see what's going on, its pretty awesome.

Here’s what the New Metro Station at LAX Will Look Like

Metro just released renderings of the airport connector, and it’s going to be a thing of beauty

http://www.lamag.com/driver/presenting-lax-rail-station/

Here’s what the New Metro Station at LAX Will Look Like

Metro just released renderings of the airport connector, and it’s going to be a thing of beauty

http://www.lamag.com/driver/presenting-lax-rail-station/

 

Looks great, though as it stands the Flyaway bus to Union Station is faster.  I bet the Crenshaw line opening will eliminate the need for a flyaway bus to Westwood.

Here’s what the New Metro Station at LAX Will Look Like

Metro just released renderings of the airport connector, and it’s going to be a thing of beauty

http://www.lamag.com/driver/presenting-lax-rail-station/

 

Looks great, though as it stands the Flyaway bus to Union Station is faster.  I bet the Crenshaw line opening will eliminate the need for a flyaway bus to Westwood.

 

And when the Green Line is extended to Anaheim, travel from LAX to cities along the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner line to San Diego will be very convenient.

At 2:45 the reporter visits a house in Upland, CA, which is about 35 miles from downtown LA.  The realtor mentions the train:

She claims it's only a 45 minute ride to LA, but Google says Upland Station to Downtown LA's Union Station is 1h6m between 1h21m and costs $10 each way. That said if your job was in the Inland Empire and you only went into the city for Lakers games, Dodgers games, and LAX it might not be that bad of an option.

 

I find the Inland Empire pretty interesting. The Riverside-San Bernardino MSA is the 13th largest metro area in the country with 4.5 million, yet it doesn't seem to have any sort of identity or national presence. Its by far the largest MSA without a pro sports team. They don't even have a minor league soccer team which is baffling. There doesn't appear to be many job centers in the area either, except for some logistics manufacturing at highway intersections. Does most of the population commute into LA or Orange County?

^ The fact that the IE is its own metro area is completely ludicrous. Southern California (outside of San Diego) is one giant urbanized area, and splitting the IE off from LA metro makes no sense. I work with quite a few people who commute to downtown LA from Riverside, and if you were to visit Union Station around rush hour, you'd see tons of people scrambling to commuter trains that take people out to San Bernardino, Riverside, etc. The area really doesn't have much of an identity aside from being a dustier, cheaper LA with even worse air pollution. There are little historic downtowns in some of the older cities out there, but nothing notable, and I definitely don't think they really have their own economic pull. There are some notable institutions in the IE, like UC Riverside and Cal State San Bernardino, and there is a ton of manufacturing and light industry out there, especially around Ontario, but for the most part, it's just sprawl. I think they actually do have some minor league teams, but everyone out there identifies as being part of the Los Angeles area, and they lack the money and prestige that coastal Orange County has, so I can see why they don't have more in the way of sports teams. It's a pretty weird, soulless area outside of small, old pockets.

A friend of mine in LA who may be relocated to Cleveland was asking me how long does it take to drive to other cities with major league sports teams, especially hockey since Cleveland only has IHL. I told him Pittsburgh and Columbus are both 2 hours away (or less if you drive very fast and traffic is good) and Detroit is 3 hours or less. He laughed and said that in Southern California, any destination that's 90 minutes away is close enough to be considered part of the same metro area.

^^Don't forget about Auto Club Speedway! ;)

I don't have a link but some interesting maps have been created illustrating single-family versus multi-family construction in LA since 2000 and with no space left for traditional single-families, multi-family structures are coming to dominate.  They have something call the small lot ordinance which enables construction of new single-families on as little as 600sq feet of land, which has motivated some tear-downs, but more and more light industrial land and old commercial is being rebuilt as multifamily housing. 

Those old industrial corridors oftentimes have disused rail lines running through them which can be converted to light rail.

 

Given LA's regional commitment to investing in transit this could be really good for the region going ahead.

^^Don't forget about Auto Club Speedway! ;)

 

Yeah if that area did have a major league team they'd have to be called the Primers or Burnouts or Grinders

"...and there is a ton of manufacturing and light industry out there, especially around Ontario, but for the most part, it's just sprawl."

 

Yep, and getting worse - I have family near Lake Elsinore; the daily commute over the Ortega to San Clemente used to be 45 minutes - it's now well over two hours. They work in residential construction so even if transit was available, it wouldn't be feasible. I was just there earlier this month and they were pointing out new subdivisions (the smallest had 300+ homes) going in along the 15 from Temecula to Corona and there's no escaping the god-awful traffic.

... and there's no escaping the god-awful traffic.

 

Yes there is. It's just that many American developers/"planners" lack the awareness or will to design low-traffic development patterns.

"...and there is a ton of manufacturing and light industry out there, especially around Ontario, but for the most part, it's just sprawl."

 

Yep, and getting worse - I have family near Lake Elsinore; the daily commute over the Ortega to San Clemente used to be 45 minutes - it's now well over two hours. They work in residential construction so even if transit was available, it wouldn't be feasible. I was just there earlier this month and they were pointing out new subdivisions (the smallest had 300+ homes) going in along the 15 from Temecula to Corona and there's no escaping the god-awful traffic.

 

I just drove through Corona and Temecula on the 15 on my way to San Diego last week.  The first thing I noticed was all of the new construction.  The hills used to be bare on that drive; now, as you pointed out, there are subdivisions everywhere.  It sure does spoil the view.

"...and there is a ton of manufacturing and light industry out there, especially around Ontario, but for the most part, it's just sprawl."

 

Yep, and getting worse - I have family near Lake Elsinore; the daily commute over the Ortega to San Clemente used to be 45 minutes - it's now well over two hours. They work in residential construction so even if transit was available, it wouldn't be feasible. I was just there earlier this month and they were pointing out new subdivisions (the smallest had 300+ homes) going in along the 15 from Temecula to Corona and there's no escaping the god-awful traffic.

 

I have a cousin that moved from Long Beach to Murrieta last year and she still works...in Long Beach.  Her commute is insane.

 

 

I have a cousin that moved from Long Beach to Murrieta last year and she still works...in Long Beach.  Her commute is insane.

 

I'm counting 75 miles RT...so almost 2 hours each way on a good day. 

 

Sounds about right.  My cousin does stay in hotels sometimes overnight for which her company pays her to do for those "I'm getting off work late and I don't feel like driving 2 hours back home."  Must be nice...

Sounds about right.  My cousin does stay in hotels sometimes overnight for which her company pays her to do for those "I'm getting off work late and I don't feel like driving 2 hours back home."  Must be nice...

 

Is Long Beach really that expensive?  Or are there no homes with yards? 

 

 

^$250K gets you a run down 800 square foot bungalow.

^$250K gets you a run down 800 square foot bungalow.

 

Bingo.  My cousin's house in Murrieta looks like a typical McMansion in Mason or Medina (with stucco, of course) for about $450,000.

LA council OKs $4.9 billion contract for new rail system at LAX

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/LA-council-OKs-49-billion-contract-for-new-rail-system-at-LAX--54429

LA council OKs $4.9 billion contract for new rail system at LAX

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/LA-council-OKs-49-billion-contract-for-new-rail-system-at-LAX--54429

 

What is the actual construction cost?  That price tag is shocking.  Does that cost also include operations for a set period? 

 

TBM's with purple cutter heads have arrived in Los Angeles:

 

Digging the 9-mile tunnel under Wilshire will begin this summer and the line will be operational in 2026. 

Very foolish of them to start boring with these machines before Elon Musk unveils his breakthrough boring machines!

Very foolish of them to start boring with these machines before Elon Musk unveils his breakthrough boring machines!

 

The downtown regional connector is going to open in 2021, three years before the Wilshire project is finished.  So by 2024 we should see a huge jump in rail transit ridership in LA. 

West Hollywood still pushing hard to get light rail ASAP. @CurbedLA @metrolosangeles

https://la.curbed.com/2018/5/10/17336670/west-hollywood-train-light-rail-metro?platform=hootsuite