Art of Sidewalk Transit:
Even with a wrecked rotation, wild card win has Diamondbacks believing they can beat L.A. (Washington Post)
The D-Backs had to use their two best starting pitchers to vanquish the Rockies on Wednesday night. That means they’ll have to start the series tomorrow night at Chavez Ravine with the back end of their rotation.
But there is this: The D-Backs won 11 of 19 games against the Dodgers this season. And the Division Series is best-of-five, meaning there’s not as much margin of error for either team. The Source predicts this series will go the distance and if you’re a Dodger fan, it might be easier to self-remove your fingernails ahead of time.
That said, The Source also heartily predicts that barring a major meteor strike, the Dodgers march to the World Series is inevitable. As is traffic for the playoff games, the reason you may consider taking the freebie Dodger Stadium Express bus from Union Station and Harbor Gateway. More here about that.
Also from the Dept. of Sportsing: the Rams are looking pretty good at the quarter-mark of the NFL season and they host the stumbling Seahawks on Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum. The Expo Line and Silver Line are good ways to reach the gridiron but allow yourself a few extra minutes as CicLAvia also has a major event in DTLA on Sunday and many other people will be using Metro Rail throughout the day.
And from the Dept. of Hockey: the Kings begin their 2017-18 campaign tonight against the — booo! — Philadelphia Flyers, a team whose thuggish glory days are long gone. Staples Center is just steps away from Pico Station, shared by the Blue and Expo Lines.
Speaking of glory days, watching this never really gets old as there’s no better feeling in life than being in the exact right place at the exact right time for the rebound.
Should Metro adopt distance-based fares (Streetsblog LA)
A topic oft-discussed on the comment board of the Source over the years and one that was briefly discussed at a Metro Board Committee meeting.
The idea is the farther you travel, the more you pay. In other words, a fare increase for those who left the car at home and took transit instead! If you want that, raise your hand! I don’t but as Streetsblog pointed out, a peer review panel a couple of years ago recommended it as a way of making fares more equitable.
Proponents sometimes say such a fare system could also make short trips cheaper, although I don’t see that as likely to happen. Metro’s $1.75 regular adult fare is already less expensive than most other major transit agencies and Metro already subsidizes about 80 percent of each ride — and there are heavy discounts available for low-income and senior riders.
As the Metro system expands, I’m sure this conversation will keep happening. But there’s nothing on the table currently and I feel a Big Yawn coming on.
Things to read whilst transiting: So, someone tells you someone is using private planes who probably shouldn’t be using private planes. How do you figure out the who, what, when and where? Good explainer in Politico on how a major story was reported. The NYT today also has an excellent piece of reporting on a major Hollywood mogul and his unseemly ways of conducting business. Neither story likely would have come to light without professional journalists doing some digging.
Subway planning needs to address the dreadful walking experience around stations (LA Magazine)
Excerpt:
The Purple Line’s Fairfax and La Cienega stations will need the most help, since many riders will attempt the half-mile walk to destinations like the Grove, Farmer’s Market, Beverly Center, and Cedars-Sinai. A walk to any of these places from the subway should take between 10 and 15 minutes; shorter than hailing a Lyft and sitting in traffic. But will the walking experience be like? If it’s unpleasant, will people say, “Screw it, I’m driving next time”?
I extremely highly concur with reporter Neal Broverman on this. I hope he does a similar piece looking at the sidewalks around section two of the subway to Century City and section three to Westwood.
Westwood is especially important. The Purple Line station nearest to UCLA will be at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. That’s the south side of Westwood Village. The campus is on the north side. A reasonable person might say that everything humanly imaginable should be done between now and the Ribbon Severing to ensure there are as many great walking, biking and bus connections between the subway station, the village and the campus.
Don’t bury that bone and forget where it is, Neal! Keep writing/digging!
Related: UCLA is pondering greatly expanding its student housing and the structures pondered aren’t exactly next to the train, so says Urbanize LA.
Council defends hole in bus shelter logic (Stuff)
Of course they do! The problem involves precipitation, as you may have wildly guessed.
GM and Ford lay out plays for more electric models (NYT)
With increasing talk of gas-powered cars being banned one day (but no day soon), GM says it will introduce 20 new models by 2023 and Ford 13 models in the next few years.
In another NYT story, Ford’s CEO says that the company is planning for a future in which two-thirds of all vehicles will be electric or hybrids by 2030.
But there is this little detail:
In the first eight months of 2017, even with federal tax incentives, Americans purchased only about 60,000 battery-powered electric vehicles, and about the same number of plug-in hybrid models, according to Hybridcars.com. That amounts to 1 percent of the market.
Things to listen to/watch whilst transiting: I actually had a colleague question this week “who is Tom Petty?” We whilst not be speaking for a while and I’m strongly considering a call to human resources!
Categories: Transportation Headlines
When I attended UCLA I commuted by driving the approximately 20 miles from Alhambra and parked in a school parking lot at about the same location as the planned subway station at Wilshire/Westwood Blvd. The school ran frequent shuttle buses from the parking lot to campus. Perhaps the school could run shuttles from the subway station to campus if the subway is used heavily by students. After a year of making that commute, I rented an apartment on the edge of campus and was then able to walk to my classes.
The sidewalks on Fairfax needs improvement; the ficus trees need to removed so the sidewalk will remain in good condition.
Glad that someone is addressing the street and sidewalk conditions outside of the stations. Neal Broverman rightfully points out the conditions along Fairfax and La Cienega that make walking to major destinations a short distance from the stations so unpleasant. I’ve made the walk from the Grove to LACMA a few times and it’s jarring on the nerves. I hope the people who can improve the situation are listening.
I recommend that he write a companion piece to this article focusing on the crappy conditions outside some of the Red Line Stations, my local station at Sunset/Vermont for instance. Walking north of that station is a totally unpleasant experience. 2 drive thru banks with massive parking lots and a gas station have cars weaving in and out of them along Vermont Ave. I’ve seen many near miss collisions between cars and people walking to and from the station and surrounding hospitals. There is also the massive Barnsdall Square Shopping Center that makes the other side of the street equally unpleasant. Add in the homeless camps that are a constant feature and it’s not surprising that people would rather choose to drive.
Wasn’t the grove owner talking about finding a street car from his mall to the subway? Seems a little redicupous to me but hey, if he wants to pay for it by all means.
Correct. He was talking about it but the project hasn’t gone anywhere. He would need permission from the city of L.A. to run tracks on Fairfax — and I’m guessing that’s a steep climb.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
yeah its a shane they like didnt create and build those places right near the subway stations……
Even with the hole in the roof, that bus shelter is significantly better than the ridiculous ones the Big Blue Bus installed over the past few years. No shade, cramped seating — just plain wrong.