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Southern California Mass Transit!
It's no secret that Southern California is really congested when it comes to traffic. If you live in
Southern California, you will be spending lots of time in the old car. And if you don't have a car-
well then you might as well move somewhere else.
Local planning officials have tried to build a light rail system. Also, if you check the government
websites, you will find that there are plenty of bus systems. This includes "LADot, the Commuter bus system",
the "Santa Monica bus", the "Culver City bus", and the "Metro bus system".
Recently I considered taking the bus from my home in Santa Monica to my workplace in Century City. And,
although they are both pretty reasonably sized areas, in terms of population, I found that this trip
would be quite difficult.
Let's compare this trip to a similar trip in Oregon. In Oregon, if you live in Beaverton, you will take a bus
to the MAX station, which is the light rail. Then the light rail will take you into Portland. Total trip
time can be well under 45 minutes. The same is true in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.
The problem with Southern California rapid transit is that it is not designed around the freeway.
There should be a "freeway bus" (or better yet, a freeway train). This bus will exclusively run along
the freeway, stopping at every exit. At each exit, there will be bus stops, along with car lots.
Then, each municipality will have local bus systems. For example, Santa Monica will have buses running
from the freeway lot into Santa Monica.
This is the only logical way to design a bus system. In the present state, it's pretty tricky to use
a bus that takes the freeway. You have to get lucky, and be on one of the few routes that does this.
And in LA, if you aren't on the freeway, you aren't anywhere.
comments? You can email me at :
mattinjersey@yahoo.com