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That's because the trains in LA suck for actually getting anywhere. The city is so spread out and car oriented the trains are useless for most people. Many tra

That's because the trains in LA suck for actually getting anywhere. The city is so spread out and car oriented the trains are useless for most people. Many train stops in LA proper are at retail/consumer locations rather than commercial centers where most people work. So you take a train into the city and you then need to catch a bus or cab to where you actually need to go. So you skipped some freeway traffic but get stuck in road traffic. It's more of a pain if you're in the suburbs around LA. Because of the sprawl the trip from your home to a train station isn't a walkable distance. If you take public transit for that portion of your commute you're not seeing any sort of time savings. If you drive to a train station you have all the expenses of a car and the crappy commute time. Because you basically need a car in most of Southern California you might as well use the freeways. The traffic sucks but at least you have your own radio, AC, and ability to get off and grab a coffee. The sprawl imposes a sort of fixed commute time for any given distance. You might as well be relatively comfortable in that commute.

bsder 7y ago
It also doesn't help that the trains are so terribly slow. I semi-regularly have to go from San Diego to Orange County. I could put a car at the Orange County terminus point so I'm not impacted by the bad connectivity to the stations themselves. It takes almost 2 hours to so from San Diego to Irvine by train--most of it spent getting from San Diego to Solana Beach. You'd be better off driving to Solana Beach, except that most of the rush hour traffic issues are between San Diego and Solana Beach. So, once you reach Solana Beach, you might as well drive the rest of the way. It also doesn't help that parking at Old Town is a disaster--you either get there by 7:00AM or you're not getting parking. Um, if I leave before 7AM, San Diego to Irvine is roughly a 1 hour drive. On top of that, the train is semi-regularly stopped because someone decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of it. This means that your train is stopped 3+ hours AND YOU CAN'T LEAVE. Why would I take the train at that point?
- musicale 7y ago
  > It takes almost 2 hours to so from San Diego to Irvine by train--most of it spent getting from San Diego to Solana Beach. The schedule seems to indicate that it takes 11-12 minutes to get from San Diego to Solana beach. Where is the extra time coming from? How synchronized is local transit (MTS trolley or bus) with commuter rail (Amtrak) ?
  - bsder 7y ago
    12 minutes is a bit fast from San Diego to Solana Beach--even at California freeway speeds that's a 20 mile drive. Amtrak shows me 29-39 minutes from OLT (San Diego Old Town) to SOL (Solana Beach). I have never seen it that fast--I would estimate 40-60 minutes is the variance. Amtrak moves pathetically slowly until Solana Beach. Maybe something has changed recently, but I'm skeptical. I'm probably going to wind up on the train again this month, so I'll be able to check that. It's kind of funny, because if I could originate at Solana Beach, the commute would be fine. The Amtrak flies north of Solana Beach (Amtrak shows about 65-75 minutes from Solana Beach to Irvine--and that's actually pretty accurate and just about as fast as driving). The problem is that in rush hour you can't get to Solana Beach--it's basically due north of some of the worst San Diego traffic chokepoints. > How synchronized is local transit (MTS trolley or bus) with commuter rail (Amtrak) There seems to be some synchronization, but the buses go preferentially to downtown and are very slow in other directions. Unfortunately, San Diego Downtown kinda ... sucks. If you want to go east on something like El Cajon Boulevard into interesting areas where your "environmentally conscious" folks probably want to live, the buses take forever--something like 40 minutes to go 8 miles. Generally if I'm using Amtrak, I'm driving to the starting station and picking up my second car at the ending station. This, of course, means that I'm now an entitled car user complaining about lack of parking. :)
sieabahlpark 7y ago
This is my mindset about commuting in LA. I could drive 30 minutes to the nearest train but where am I to park my car once I'm there? I live on the west side and it's a joke.
downrightmike 7y ago
Germany is just as sprawled as a country comes and their public transport is awesome. But then again they invested in it and didn't have the automakers dismantle the rails.

bsder 7y ago

It also doesn't help that the trains are so terribly slow. I semi-regularly have to go from San Diego to Orange County. I could put a car at the Orange County terminus point so I'm not impacted by the bad connectivity to the stations themselves. It takes almost 2 hours to so from San Diego to Irvine by train--most of it spent getting from San Diego to Solana Beach. You'd be better off driving to Solana Beach, except that most of the rush hour traffic issues are between San Diego and Solana Beach. So, once you reach Solana Beach, you might as well drive the rest of the way. It also doesn't help that parking at Old Town is a disaster--you either get there by 7:00AM or you're not getting parking. Um, if I leave before 7AM, San Diego to Irvine is roughly a 1 hour drive. On top of that, the train is semi-regularly stopped because someone decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of it. This means that your train is stopped 3+ hours AND YOU CAN'T LEAVE. Why would I take the train at that point?

musicale 7y ago
> It takes almost 2 hours to so from San Diego to Irvine by train--most of it spent getting from San Diego to Solana Beach. The schedule seems to indicate that it takes 11-12 minutes to get from San Diego to Solana beach. Where is the extra time coming from? How synchronized is local transit (MTS trolley or bus) with commuter rail (Amtrak) ?
- bsder 7y ago
  12 minutes is a bit fast from San Diego to Solana Beach--even at California freeway speeds that's a 20 mile drive. Amtrak shows me 29-39 minutes from OLT (San Diego Old Town) to SOL (Solana Beach). I have never seen it that fast--I would estimate 40-60 minutes is the variance. Amtrak moves pathetically slowly until Solana Beach. Maybe something has changed recently, but I'm skeptical. I'm probably going to wind up on the train again this month, so I'll be able to check that. It's kind of funny, because if I could originate at Solana Beach, the commute would be fine. The Amtrak flies north of Solana Beach (Amtrak shows about 65-75 minutes from Solana Beach to Irvine--and that's actually pretty accurate and just about as fast as driving). The problem is that in rush hour you can't get to Solana Beach--it's basically due north of some of the worst San Diego traffic chokepoints. > How synchronized is local transit (MTS trolley or bus) with commuter rail (Amtrak) There seems to be some synchronization, but the buses go preferentially to downtown and are very slow in other directions. Unfortunately, San Diego Downtown kinda ... sucks. If you want to go east on something like El Cajon Boulevard into interesting areas where your "environmentally conscious" folks probably want to live, the buses take forever--something like 40 minutes to go 8 miles. Generally if I'm using Amtrak, I'm driving to the starting station and picking up my second car at the ending station. This, of course, means that I'm now an entitled car user complaining about lack of parking. :)

sieabahlpark 7y ago

This is my mindset about commuting in LA. I could drive 30 minutes to the nearest train but where am I to park my car once I'm there? I live on the west side and it's a joke.

downrightmike 7y ago

Germany is just as sprawled as a country comes and their public transport is awesome. But then again they invested in it and didn't have the automakers dismantle the rails.