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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Los_Angeles_Pacific_Electric_Railways_%28Red_Cars%29.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e

by JJMcJ 7y ago

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Los_Angeles_Pacific_Electric_Railways_%28Red_Cars%29.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Los_Ange... The immense streetcar network in the Los Angeles area.

asdff 7y ago
Ripped out to run busses on freeways. Look at how that turned out. They were about to build an extensive subway network and grade separate many of the streetcars, but urban planners back then didn't think it would be possible for freeways to experience traffic. Now, 60 years later, we are paying out the ass and taking decades on transit builds and all there is to show for the last 25 years of LA Metro is three light rail lines (none are grade separated, are crowded and delayed during peak hours, and they take 40 minutes to go from their termini to downtown), one heavy rail line that doesn't have enough stops or short enough headways, and a stub with, once again, not enough stops or short enough headways that they've been working on extending for three years and won't finish for another 4. There is also a BRT, which was supposed to be rail and funded to be rail, but LA Metro backed down to the 50 NIMBYs in the room screeching during the public presentations instead of plugging their ears and building better transit for the hundreds of thousands living along the orange line. This city has 18 million living in the metro area and the transit system is an embarrassment. Every other major artery should have rail running underneath it by now. The whole LA basin should have a fisherman's net of trains criss crossing it by now. The only saving grace is if the federal government one day steps in and plows through these transit projects with the army corps of engineers. LA Metro is in over its head and can't be trusted to pick a contractor that isn't going to overstate, embezzle, underdeliver, then get picked for the next contract because they've made friends with the board and did just sooo well on that last project that was overbudget and behind schedule.
- JJMcJ 7y ago
  Headways - I believe many Pacific Electric routes had a car every 5 minutes. Not once every 1/2 hour like a lot of light rail. As somebody besides me put it, if you have to check the schedule it's not a real transit system.

by JJMcJ 7y ago

asdff 7y ago

Ripped out to run busses on freeways. Look at how that turned out. They were about to build an extensive subway network and grade separate many of the streetcars, but urban planners back then didn't think it would be possible for freeways to experience traffic. Now, 60 years later, we are paying out the ass and taking decades on transit builds and all there is to show for the last 25 years of LA Metro is three light rail lines (none are grade separated, are crowded and delayed during peak hours, and they take 40 minutes to go from their termini to downtown), one heavy rail line that doesn't have enough stops or short enough headways, and a stub with, once again, not enough stops or short enough headways that they've been working on extending for three years and won't finish for another 4. There is also a BRT, which was supposed to be rail and funded to be rail, but LA Metro backed down to the 50 NIMBYs in the room screeching during the public presentations instead of plugging their ears and building better transit for the hundreds of thousands living along the orange line. This city has 18 million living in the metro area and the transit system is an embarrassment. Every other major artery should have rail running underneath it by now. The whole LA basin should have a fisherman's net of trains criss crossing it by now. The only saving grace is if the federal government one day steps in and plows through these transit projects with the army corps of engineers. LA Metro is in over its head and can't be trusted to pick a contractor that isn't going to overstate, embezzle, underdeliver, then get picked for the next contract because they've made friends with the board and did just sooo well on that last project that was overbudget and behind schedule.

JJMcJ 7y ago
Headways - I believe many Pacific Electric routes had a car every 5 minutes. Not once every 1/2 hour like a lot of light rail. As somebody besides me put it, if you have to check the schedule it's not a real transit system.