Quote:
Originally Posted by Sodha
Why can't the person go Metro today? I do it 6 days a week and love it. Found some cool stuff I've never seen before.
Driving will always be faster no matter where you go. Just give up a few minutes to ride a bus or train and relax (play Angry Birds, check out Twitter updates, read a book, go to sleep). Is there a real reason you cannot go Metro (i.e. live in Porter Ranch)?
|
The issue isn't just being able to physically ride it or not. It's developing a normalcy associated with the kind of urban characteristics we here strive for LA to eventually have. We cannot achieve that kind of normalcy until a "substantial" amount of middle class to upper middle class people ride the subway to bring that sense of normalcy to the system.
Also, tommaso laments the lack of urban pedestrian energy within our walkable neighborhoods in LA. What we need is for an area of LA that is representative of the city/metropolis to function well and feel coherent. That area obviously starts with Downtown LA which is slowly, but surely reaching some kind of normalcy, but is impeded by the glut of surface parking lots that really sever the connectivity within an otherwise potentially very walkable grid.
Until our parking lots in Downtown LA are filled in with mixed-use developments, parks, etc. and fed by a continuous supply of transit riders from the future extensions out to the suburbs, there won't be an area of LA, representative of LA, that will have the kind of urban pedestrian energy that tommaso is yearning for.
That will slowly start to change as more buildings are built concurrently with the extensions being constructed, which will culminate in a lively, coherent, and long over due authentic urban experience that will bring a sense of
connection back to this sprawling, incoherent metropolis.
Threaded Mode