The ULI is starting to plan for next year’s conference on transit-oriented development in the Los Angeles region. It’s a good and timely topic, given that transit is expanding in the county — thanks to Measure R — and there are still many, many opportunities to put more housing development near transit.
Here’s the flyer from ULI:
Click above for a larger image.
The second page of the flyer is after the jump.
Categories: Policy & Funding
Y Fukuzawa, talk to the Bus Riders Union. Their goal is to halt rail expansion and keep it as a safety net for the poor. They believe any expansion outside south LA is “transit racism.”
Currently traveling throughout Asia with lots of transit pics. East Asia gets transit right from the fare system, fare gates, development of land surrounding the stations, you name it.
I have to wonder why LA Metro keeps looking at the wrong places when all they have to do is just look across the Pacific to see how to improve mass transit systems. Better frequencies, data collection through tap-in/tap-out logical distance fares, efficient system of express, limited and local services from data collection, huge ad revenue, businesses operating directly at the stations, all move millions of commuters every single day. Why could the Asians do it in two decades when LA can’t even figure out how to fix TAP? Maybe the simple answer is to just ask them for advice.
Build homes and businesses upwards, not sideways. Everywhere I go, business towers and condos over ten storeys tall. And no, I don’t think it’s because of strict earthquake regulations in California; Japan recently had a 9.0Mw earthquake and not a single skyscraper or condo fell to the ground near Tokyo. Building upwards allows for a more walkable city instead of K-Marts, Walmarts and Costcos that are the size of a football field, or even more if you include the parking lot.
Stop making public transit as a safety net for the poor with a cheap flat rate fare mindset and start making into a for-profit business through distance based fares.
Enslaving Angelinos to pickup 90% of LA Metro’s budget through taxes and federal grants in order to run public transit “as means for the poor” is inexcusable when cities like Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taipei earns a farebox ratio of over 100% which they can fund public transit pretty much on their own without taxpayer subsidies.
And it’s not like there are no poor people in these cities either; poor people in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong get along just as fine under a more logical distance fare system, the only difference is that it doesn’t suck away hard earned Japanese yen, Korean won, New Taiwan Dollars, or HK Dollars from other people through taxes.
we need much more transit and much faster. and also built faster. and drinking machines at bus stops thanks