LA Transit has a "last 5 miles" problem. Many people live 5 or more miles from the stop. The local bus can add 30-40 minutes for what should be a 10 minute car

LA Transit has a "last 5 miles" problem. Many people live 5 or more miles from the stop. The local bus can add 30-40 minutes for what should be a 10 minute car ride. The park and ride lots are always full before 6:30AM, and account for 200 riders at the smaller lots and maybe 1000 at the larger ones. Parking is expensive to build too. Add to that, poor choices to build at grade reduce the effectiveness of light rail. In Pasadena the Gold Line crossing was put at grade across a major artery; should have continued underground for just another mile. This creates a daily traffic jam that lasts for about 2-3 hours. And then through Highland Park, the rail is at grade through a residential street, making it go 5 MPH and it has to obey traffic signals at the same priority as cars. The end result is a 35 minute commute time Downtown for a trip that takes 20 minutes in no traffic, 35 in typical rush hour traffic and maybe 45-50 worst case. People choose to drive instead just to save time...including my best friend who lives two blocks from a Gold Line stop.