Solving LA traffic (Pasadena, Burbank, Santa Monica: taxes, living in, cost of)

[breakaway]

I keep hearing about how bad traffic is. I have a question...in a lot of cities, most of their offices are in downtown, so you get congestion during rush hours. But I think that in LA, most of the jobs are actually quite spread out through the city which I think is a really good idea...so why is there so much traffic?
And does everyone go to work at the exact same time? Maybe if people had different time shifts, it wouldn't be so bad.
LA seems like a pretty rich city because of all the people paying taxes, so why not build trains and more buses?

[SandyCo]

Breakaway, many of your assumptions are incorrect, unfortunately.

The fact is that the population of L.A. has increased tremendously in the last forty years, and the infrastructure hasn't been improved or increased to match this growth. The subways and rail lines that have been built are only a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.

People do work different shifts. That's why morning rush hour lasts now from 7:00 a.m. (or earlier in outlying areas like the Inland Empire) until 10:00 a.m.! The problem is that too many of us live far away from our jobs, because of the high cost of housing.

L.A. isn't a rich city, by any means. Over 60% of us are renters, for example. And there is a very large underclass of immigrants, legal and illegal. This is a city of a very few "have a lot"s, and a huge population of "have nothing"s!

I think these problems started back in the 70s, and have only gotten worse. Our politicians are useless, and they do absolutely nothing to try fix any of these problems.

[dtran103]

Public transit is the key. I don't agree that it's just a drop in the bucket at it's current state. It's actually quite extensive as it is now. LA needs some line extensions and handful of more lines to become useful to atleast a substantial portion of the population. The other remedy is to built high-density housing around these existing transit centers.

[kwirk]

I believe one of the reasons traffic is so bad is because of the large number of people working in the entertainment industry. Those of us who work in the industry constantly switch jobs every 3 or 4 months due to the freelance nature of our work. I would love to live somewhere close to my job, but my next job could either be in the South Bay, Hollywood, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, who knows...

[Californiaguy2007]

City of L.A has a population over 4 Million,L.A County has over 10 Million,Greater L.A has over 18 Million and this doesn't include the tourist population,and you wonder why L.A has traffic.LOL

Even if they have more Trains and Buses their would still be Traffic in L.A...People in L.A love their vehicles and the population continues to grow.

[Dennis P]

Just too many people living in this area for the current network of freeways and surface streets to handle. Add to that the fact that we Californians LOVE our vehicles, and refuse to part with them, even to rideshare. Not to mention that public transportation initiatives are more often than not voted down.

[Sorcerer68]

I've always thought the solution was twofold: trains and urban villages. Lately I've been riding public transportation (long story about how my BMW got destroyed and why I'm sick of driving). This and my weight gain in Hawaii have given birth to my little experiment...

Anyway, the city has already gotten hip to Smart Development i.e. building higher density housing along transportation corridors. The problem is that most of these corridors are buses. People are still driving and traffic gets worse, effectively slowing the buses.

In my informal poll in the last couple months since returning to L.A., I've found many people willing to ride trains but not buses. Trains have absolutely no impact on surface traffic but are very expensive to build. Our gargantuan city surface area is a challenge for subway/train service.

The biggest hurdle is getting Angelenos out of their cars. Most of us still think public transportation is for poor people. NYC residents mostly take public transportation and 87% of Manhattan rents. You rarely see a Ferarri or a Bentley in Manhattan. Rich people are shuttled about in Town Cars, people take cabs but the vast majority take the subway. Everyone having a car there is out of the question. It's different here and that's why it's such a challenge.

Our gravitation toward Adaptive Reuse Redevelopment has been two steps forward, one step back. People are moving closer to work but some are commuting out of downtown to work. There's been a generational change in thinking. The younger generation (for the most part) is doing the reverse of what their parents did: they are moving out of the suburbs and back into the city. We like to walk out our doors and have goods, services and opportunities right there. We're on the tail end of this, the rest of the country has been at it for over a decade. We just started 7 years ago and it was a slow start. It is happening. The writing is on the wall for the slow death of solely car-based communities. How long will this all take? This remains to be seen...

Personally, I understand and live the urban village concept. I abhor commuting. I've only done it once for about 6 months. Never again. I live where I work and play. Getting around traffic in L.A. is second nature at this point. The problem is, most haven't caught on.

[tired of being inside]

Sorcerer68, you've answered a lot of my questions in different posts and I really like the wisdom in this one. Where, IYO, are the best urban villages in LA? I've heard you talk a lot about Santa Monica and OT Pasadena, but I gather that few residents there also work there. You also mention you live in the Hollywood Hills. I had always thought that was more car-centric, simply because of its geography (i.e., most business districts and other urban village support are generally found in flatter areas). I hope this doesn't sound stupid, but is it just a matter of taking a nice stroll down the hill and you're on Sunset or whatever major village street you spend time?