Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I walked to this parade from my place in Central Hollywood and back home when I was done. Every road from Hollywood and Vine to Santa Monica and La Cienega was full of pedestrians, even the small residential roads. I doubt many at the parade were able to drive in as all the roads around Santa Monica Blvd were shut down - we tried to take the bus but got off when we realized the pedestrians were moving faster than traffic.
1.6 million living in a dense area I can buy, but I don't think 1.6 million people in Los Angeles live in a dense, contiguous, walkable urban area. I mean, does Philly/Boston/SF/DC really have that either?
That's what the claim was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
Anyhow, it's the percentages again versus absolute numbers.
I'm still curious about the percentages. I mean, 9.22 percent of Philadelphians commute to work by walking. That's roughly 135,000 people. Even if we assume that L.A. was number 51 on the "Top 50" list of pedestrian commuters at 4.50 percent, that's only 166,500 bike riders. And that's being as generous as possible. It's very possible that L.A. could fall well below the 4 percent range and possibly even in the 2 to 3 percent range. So even in absolute terms, I don't see how the data gets you there (with the exception of bus riders, but as stated before, we have to assume that the bulk of them live in the core, and that's a huge assumption).
1.6 million living in a dense area I can buy, but I don't think 1.6 million people in Los Angeles live in a dense, contiguous, walkable urban area. I mean, does Philly/Boston/SF/DC really have that either?
Anyhow, it's the percentages again versus absolute numbers. Oh, also the huge latin american population that has a much lower response rate to these things--during the census you'd hear people on the airwaves telling the spanish speaking population that the census was going to entrap them. Oh joy.
Neither do I - I'd say about 500k - 800k... maybe a little bit more.
I'm going to see if I can dig up this web page I saw that broke down Los Angeles commuting and included walkers and cyclists.... We'll see if I can remember where it was.
Here is what wikipedia says:
In the same year, for the City of Los Angeles, of the 1,721,778 workers aged 16 or older, 63.3% commuted to work driving alone, 11.5% commuted by driving in a carpool and 11.0% commuted by public transportation. The percentage of population using public transport in Los Angeles is lower than other large U.S. cities such as Chicago and New York, but similar to or higher than other western U.S. cities such as Portland and Denver. 63.8% of public transportation commuters in the City of Los Angeles in 2006 were non-white, 75.1% were Hispanic and 73.9% were foreign born. 79.4% of public transportation commuters earned less than $25,000 and 37.6% had no vehicle available to them for their commute.[22]
Adding up those figures gives you 85% - so that leaves 15% to bike/walk.... That doesn't really sounds right though.
I'm still curious about the percentages. I mean, 9.22 percent of Philadelphians commute to work by walking. That's roughly 135,000 people. Even if we assume that L.A. was number 51 on the "Top 50" list of pedestrian commuters at 4.50 percent, that's only 166,500 bike riders. And that's being as generous as possible. It's very possible that L.A. could fall well below the 4 percent range and possibly even in the 2 to 3 percent range. So even in absolute terms, I don't see how the data gets you there (with the exception of bus riders, but as stated before, we have to assume that the bulk of them live in the core, and that's a huge assumption).
LA has a dense, centralized cluster of residents and amenities (downtown/hollywood/south LA) but what it does not have is a dense, centralized cluster of jobs.
Jobs are highly decentralized in Los Angeles (mostly due to our economy which is less driven by finance/insurance or other industries that tend to need clustered employment, and more driven by trade, tourism, and manufacturing--all of which are not housed in office towers).
This is the reason we can't walk/bike/etc to our jobs. All Angelenos can easily walk to amenities, but the type of economy we have here really does not lend itself to giving a small group of people intensely convenient access to jobs. LA as a whole has a short average commute time--due to our decentralization of jobs--meaning that generally people aren't too far from employment. But what you don't see that minority for which their job is right next door (That 9% in the City of Philadelphia who can walk to work). I'm pretty sure that even most people who live downtown in LA don't work there.
Cars are incredibly convenient for accessing LA's dispersed jobs, and our comprehensive bus system is the next best option given resources.
The train lines will never connect everyone to their job--they will just get them closer to a place where they can then take a bus.
It's not really a parade either... They call it a costume carnaval.
Plus no mention of the video I posted from Hollywood Blvd on a totally banal day, but still full of pedestrians even on a less crowded evening? (and a really annoying wanna-be singer).
Last edited by munchitup; 04-19-2012 at 12:19 PM..
If this is the case, then how can you possibly say that LA is comparable to DC? LA and DC offer two completely different lifestyles. Keep in mind that DC's dense neighborhoods are all adjoined. So you walk from Ledroit Park (my old hood) a little ways down to U Street, then to Adams-Morgan, then to Mount Pleasant, then to Columbia Heights, etc. Or from Shaw, to Logan, to Dupont. That's what people want: a contiguous, unbroken, interconnected series of urban neighborhoods. You're not really living in a "city" if you have various pockets of urbanity scattered all over the place. That's essentially what Atlanta offers.
Aren't these guys saying exactly what I said above?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lumerian Feast
Many different neighborhoods are walkable in and of themselves -- Los Feliz, Pasadena, Hollywood, Santa Monica, etc. The problem is that you frequently need to get from one area to the other, which you can't generally do by walking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BRinSM
As for walkability, much of Santa Monica is very walkable, especially if you are north of santa monica blvd and/or west of lincoln. venice it nice and parts of marina del rey aren't too bad either. there really are plenty of walkable neighborhoods in LA, the thing is that most are not connected by anything other than 5-6 lane thoroughfares with 45mph speed limites which are not conducive to walking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by matt345
Like you said, places like Los Feliz and Silver Lake are quite walkable by themselves, but really how many residents actually work there and spend the majority of their lives in just those neighborhoods? You have these pockets of pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that developed during the streetcar era, with car-centric suburban neighborhoods filling in the spaces in between.
You obviously don't understand how big Los Angeles is, or you'd realize how ridiculous it is to think that the ENTIRE CITY would be one big "contiguous" walking utopia.
For whatever reason you seem to think that you should be able to "walk" from Santa Monica to West Hollywood to Hollywood to Downtown, regardless of the fact that NOBODY would walk that distance in ANY city.
You obviously don't understand how big Los Angeles is, or you'd realize how ridiculous it is to think that the ENTIRE CITY would be one big "contiguous" walking utopia.
For whatever reason you seem to think that you should be able to "walk" from Santa Monica to West Hollywood to Hollywood to Downtown, regardless of the fact that NOBODY would walk that distance in ANY city.
What, you mean people don't walk from the South Bronx to Brighton Beach?
Last edited by munchitup; 04-20-2012 at 10:31 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
