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Old 05-23-2010, 06:45 PM
 
427 posts, read 1,091,342 times
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As an outsider, it's easy for me to say, "wow, all those cars sure are neat". I haven't experienced the stress of trying to get to work on time in LA traffic. When I'm google mapping LA though, sometimes I get lucky and capture an image of a crowded intersection in a dense, inner city area. All the cars glisten in the sun against a backdrop of well aged concrete and palm trees. Business signs clash with one another. The whole thing just looks exciting, like there's stuff going on. I forgot what my point was. Oh yeah, the cars look neat.
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Old 05-23-2010, 07:57 PM
 
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to me, it effectively squashes any sort of pedestrian activity or vibrancy, and distorts the correlation between the distance/time it takes to get to a place
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Old 05-23-2010, 07:59 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,338 posts, read 93,601,376 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by King0fthehill View Post
it effectively squashes any sort of pedestrian activity or vibrancy

Aren't there places in LA that are pedestrian friendly? Places that should a person want to live the "walkable" life, they could?

Walkable LA
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Old 05-23-2010, 08:05 PM
 
Location: Southern California
15,083 posts, read 20,437,883 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by matt_sfl View Post
As an outsider, it's easy for me to say, "wow, all those cars sure are neat". I haven't experienced the stress of trying to get to work on time in LA traffic. When I'm google mapping LA though, sometimes I get lucky and capture an image of a crowded intersection in a dense, inner city area. All the cars glisten in the sun against a backdrop of well aged concrete and palm trees. Business signs clash with one another. The whole thing just looks exciting, like there's stuff going on. I forgot what my point was. Oh yeah, the cars look neat.
Cars are neat; cars in traffic are not so neat.
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Old 05-23-2010, 08:16 PM
 
938 posts, read 4,087,892 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
Aren't there places in LA that are pedestrian friendly? Places that should a person want to live the "walkable" life, they could?

Walkable LA
Obviously there are, but they are the exception, and not the norm/rule.
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Old 05-23-2010, 08:35 PM
 
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 22,985,474 times
Reputation: 36027
So Californians are just too hung up on their vehicles and would freak out if they were forced to do without. Cars - not worth the expense nor headache.
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Old 05-24-2010, 12:07 AM
 
10,629 posts, read 26,681,323 times
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I don't know that I agree that walkable places are the exception, not the rule. I do think there's a difference between walkable and pedestrian-friendly, though; I remember about 4-5 years ago when there was a pedestrian "audit" (or some such thing) of Hollywood. Teams walked all the streets and tallied all sorts of information about the pedestrian experience. I think Hollywood is extremely walkable, and parts of it are very pedestrian-friendly and enjoyable for their vitality (even with lots of cars around), but some parts of it (we walked part of Sunset Blvd. heading east from Vine) are miserable. Walkable in terms of having amenities, yes; walkable in terms of pleasant, no. Not exactly the kind of street you walk down for a pleasant evening stroll to the store. I loved parts of Hollywood Boulevard, though; tons of cars, but also tons of people, wide sidewalks, lot of activity, and generally enough interesting things going on that my walk home from the Hollywood and Vine station was invigorating, not boring. Our stretch of Sunset, on the other hand, was boring, dismal, dirty, unpleasant, and depressing, despite having some interesting buildings and useful stores. I think quantity of cars are one part of the equation when it comes to pedestrian levels and vitality, but just one component. Many of Manhattan's streets are jammed with cars, but it's easy to tune them out when they're going slowly, the streetscape is enjoyable, and the needs of traffic aren't automatically put above the needs of pedestrians.

I think there has been increasing attention paid, both in LA and elsewhere, to the needs of pedestrians beyond the basics. LA has many highly walkable neighborhoods, but I think where they will really benefit is from making the connections between them nicer for walkers. Some neighborhoods flow into one another, but many of them are divided by large busy streets or highways that effectively make it difficult or at least unpleasant to walk between them. It makes for a region filled with islands of pedestrian activity.
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Old 05-24-2010, 12:36 AM
 
Location: Northridge/Porter Ranch, Calif.
24,495 posts, read 33,233,414 times
Reputation: 7610
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chatteress View Post
So Californians are just too hung up on their vehicles and would freak out if they were forced to do without. Cars - not worth the expense nor headache.
Better to be an enthusiast of cars than to be using drugs, or in a gang, or smoking, or being a couch potato.

-Fleet
Owner of 4 cars!
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Old 05-24-2010, 01:01 AM
 
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 22,985,474 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleet View Post
Better to be an enthusiast of cars than to be using drugs, or in a gang, or smoking, or being a couch potato.

-Fleet
Owner of 4 cars!
Of course it is better than those vices you mentioned. My issue with the whole car obsession is that So Californians act as if they are allergic to public transit, which is why efforts to improve our mass transit gets stifled in the process.
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Old 05-24-2010, 03:02 AM
 
Location: Northridge/Porter Ranch, Calif.
24,495 posts, read 33,233,414 times
Reputation: 7610
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chatteress View Post
Of course it is better than those vices you mentioned. My issue with the whole car obsession is that So Californians act as if they are allergic to public transit, which is why efforts to improve our mass transit gets stifled in the process.
I'm not sure but it's probable that there are those who own a car also use public transit. And use the car for weekends only.
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