LOS ANGELES | Transportation News & Discussion

[caligrad]

^^^^ Somebody is hyped on Coffee HAHA. a little lost in translation?...... are we talking about transit or Hollywood and movie stars ?. I see you added that second paragraph after you originally posted.... it really isn't needed....... nothing relating to transit.... And relax..... either way its a win win whether they pass the tax now or hold off onto the next one in 2016 or, hopefully, we get both passed. Your response really doesn't need to be half as dramatic as it was.... That being said in regards to your obvious Hollywood statement....

L.A. has slapped Hollywood in the face a LOT in the past decade, reason why a lot of the little movie studios left and why the big movie studios decide to film in other cities, states and countries. The whole freaking movie "Battle: Los Angeles" was filmed in Louisiana. THE WHOLE FREAKING MOVIE and its based in L.A.... Do I wish LA would bend over for the movie industry a bit more??? YES. without the movie industry, L.A. wouldn't be here and even if it were here it wouldn't be nearly as half the size it is now and San Fran would easily be king of the west. RELAX. Hollywood is a very important part of the city, its been discussed time and time again. the reason why other cities and countries are begging for Hollywood to film in their locations, sometimes for FREE. because of the economics trickling that is involved when movies are being filmed.

My neighbor felt the same way about L.A. as you do.... guess what he did....Moved to Seattle and loves it........ care to follow suit?? why stay in a city that is to dysfunctional for you to bare when there are plenty of other options available.........obviously something is keeping you here. And family bet not be the reason. people leave there families all the time and relocate for places that better suits their needs.

Ive defended your posts in the past and said I really love everyone's opinions and ideas but my god enough is enough.

And world city...... Go anywhere in the world and ask people what cities do they know in the USA. New York, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Fran and Miami are the top of everyones list. Globally recognized, acknowledged, economic super power in its own right. L.A is a World City. hell there are songs about the city from European artists and New Zealand artists.

[losangelesnative]

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/04/0...way-extension/
METRO wins yay beverly hills can suck it because the court ruled in favor of metro

[Muji]

Minor news, but the westbound section of the Wilshire Boulevard bus-only lane is being extended from Western to Highland Ave in May. Interestingly, the plan is to first build only the westbound lane to West LA before looping back in the other direction.

Source: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...o_highland.php

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

i would like to say one thing and one thing only... FUCK BEVERLY HILLS! I hope metro sues to get their attorney fees back as well

[blackcat23]

http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/04/03...l-fantasy-map/

Move L.A.’s Measure R2 Draft Proposal, Including Their Rail Fantasy Map

Measure R2 would dedicate $27 billion to new rail capital. Here are Move L.A.’s new rail lines listed roughly west to east:

• Orange Line Light Rail: The existing Metro Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) could be converted to light rail.
• Sepulveda Connector: A new north-south rail line could extend from Sylmar to LAX, roughly parallel to the 405 Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard. This could include a mega-project multi-deck bypass highway tunnel (with cars, buses, and trains) under the Sepulveda Pass. At last Friday’s event, HDR InfraConsult’s Mike Schneider estimated the Sepulveda project cost at “$6 billion to $8 billion …or maybe up to $20 billion.” With tunnel highway lanes operated as toll roads, Measure R2 funding could be part of an overall Public-Private-Partnership.
• Green Line to Torrance and Long Beach: The Metro Green Line light rail could be extended south from its Redondo Beach Terminus, connecting to the South Bay, including Torrance, then east through Wilmington to connect to the Willow Blue Line Station in Long Beach.
• Hollywood-Crenshaw Connector: The under-construction Crenshaw Line could be extended north to connect with the Purple and Red lines, on Wilshire and in Hollywood, respectively.
• Burbank Airport 5-Freeway Connector: This rail line could extend north from Union Station, roughly parallel to the 5-Freeway, connecting to Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, then south to the Metro Red Line North Hollywood Station.
• Glendale-Pasadena Connector: This rail line could extend east-west, roughly parallel to the 134 Freeway, connecting to the Metro Gold Line in downtown Pasadena.
• West Santa Ana Branch Corridor: This future rail line could extend south from Union Station through Southeast L.A. cities connecting with the Metro Green Line then heading diagonally southeast to Cerritos, at the edge of Orange County.
• Gold Line Eastside Extension, Phase 2: The existing Eastside Gold Line would be extended from East Los Angeles via two spurs. The north spur could extend directly east to South El Monte. A southern spur could connect through Montebello and terminate in Whittier.
• Green Line Extension to Santa Fe Springs: The Green Line could extend east to the Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station.
• Foothill Gold Line Extension Phase 2B: The Gold Line’s Foothill Extension, currently under construction, will extend the line to Azusa. This further extension would take the line to Claremont and Montclair at the border between L.A. County and San Bernardino County.

As mentioned, Move L.A. calls this their “strawman” proposal. It’s a vision in draft form, put forth to generate discussion. The lines, the boulevards, the percentages, etc. are all subject to plenty of modifications, and a few hurdles, before Angelenos might get to vote on what finally emerges.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

We need this so badly. It will be trans-formative in so many ways

[DJM19]

I know MoveLA is basing those ratios loosely on Measure R, but my dream would be:

35% Transit...Hopefully that extra 4.5 billion could include a line up the coast from LAX or a Harbor Subdivision line. Plus some money should be used to go back and improve service on existing lines, such as grade separation, and maybe expand the stations where they should be major hubs (North Hollywood, LAX...)

20% Transit Operations...Im assuming this money is not just for subsidizing ticket prices but also for the purchase of new trains and new bus shelters, and implementation of technology.

15% Local Return...Hopefully a lot of cities would chose to use this on infrastructure that helps people connect with the system or improving the bus and transit station experience.

10% Roads...I like the idea of spending about 9 billion transforming many roads to "complete streets" while also improving the actual quality of the road.

6% Clean Goods Movement...sounds fine to me, especially if it means more grade separation of freight trains

6% Active Transit...this is a great step toward

5% Metrolink...good

5% Road & Sidewalk Repair...taken out of the highway portion of the bill...represents 4.5 billion dollars, should be distributed based on city population. Like a local return but only for roads and sidewalk repair. This would give LA city about 1.8 billion to do street and sidewalk repair without proposing an additional tax. That is less than half what they want, but it doesn't count the 9 billion in complete streets that surely will include LA in large part.

5% Highway...I think 4.5 billion is enough money to repair existing freeway road surfaces and maybe a capital project or 2...Measure R already includes a lot of highway expansion and upgrading. And I think projects like the 405 expansion will prove to be misguided in hindsight.

[waltlantz]

I know that LA is spread out and polycentric.

But given the amount of rail investment in construction, planned and advocated for, it seems like there is a heavy skew towards much more development being on the west side of the county. Is there really that much of an imbalance in jobs and attractions?

I mean can the east side get along with just the gold line? Or do most of those peeps just work in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena?

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by blackcat23

Not all of the $27 billion is needed to build those projects. The Sepulveda Corridor will be mostly funded by private investors, and you couldn't allocate a disproportionate amount of capital for it even if you wanted to.

Gold Line Foothill Extension: ~ $750 million-$1 billion
* Gold Line Eastside Extension (mostly grade-separated): ~ $1.5-2 billion
Green Line extension to Norwalk (fully grade-separated): ~ $1-1.5 billion
* West Santa Ana Branch Corridor: ~ $1.5-2 billion
* Green Line extension to Long Beach: ~ $1.5 billion
Glendale-Pasadena corridor (mostly grade-separated along Colorado Blvd.): ~ $1-1.5 billion
* Sepulveda Corridor: $4 billion allocation tops because it serves two regions
Crenshaw Corridor extension to Hollywood (mostly or fully grade-separated): $2.5-3 billion
Downtown-Burbank corridor: ~ $1-1.5 billion
Orange Line LRT conversion: ~$1.5-2 billion

* Partial funding from Measure R

You still have a good $7-10 billion left over that could be used for the Purple Line extension to Santa Monica and other HRT extensions. South LA and the bulk of the SGV don't stand to benefit much.

[JDRCRASH]

^ Enter the Vermont Corridor extension of the Red Line? Purple Line extension to Arts District and Whittier Blvd? Maybe even Red Line extension via (under) El Monte Busway and Garvey Ave?

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

^ Enter the Vermont Corridor extension of the Red Line? Purple Line extension to Arts District and Whittier Blvd? Maybe even Red Line extension via (under) El Monte Busway and Garvey Ave?

Yes, that's what I was thinking. That map represents a near full build-out of the 2009 LRTP. The only missing projects are the Purple and Green Lines to Santa Monica, Vermont Corridor Subway, "Silver and "Yellow" Lines, and Harbor Subdivision.

If we assume that my ballpark estimates are about right, then we have $7-10 billion left on the table. That's enough to get the Purple Line to Santa Monica (~ $1.5 billion) and start extending the Red and Purple Lines south and east. The significance of Measure R2 is that it finally gets the suburban LRT lines off the table and allows us to concentrate on more expensive projects to places that will require high-capacity, grade-separated lines.

[edluva]

Originally Posted by caligrad

L.A. has slapped Hollywood in the face a LOT in the past decade, reason why a lot of the little movie studios left and why the big movie studios decide to film in other cities, states and countries. The whole freaking movie "Battle: Los Angeles" was filmed in Louisiana. THE WHOLE FREAKING MOVIE and its based in L.A.... Do I wish LA would bend over for the movie industry a bit more??? YES. without the movie industry, L.A. wouldn't be here and even if it were here it wouldn't be nearly as half the size it is now and San Fran would easily be king of the west. RELAX. Hollywood is a very important part of the city, its been discussed time and time again. the reason why other cities and countries are begging for Hollywood to film in their locations, sometimes for FREE. because of the economics trickling that is involved when movies are being filmed.

i think you missed my entire point, which was to highlight the fact that LA's economy is so braindead and pathetic that it has to bend over to an industry which attracts losers and douchebags (those we affectionately call "artists") from all over bumblefuck america, in order to produce a cumulative revenue so small it can yet be rivaled by a single F500 company

LA can't even put in green bike lanes, because it has no economic leverage against its production companies. that's fucking sad.

now what was that you were saying about economic powerhouse?

[DJM19]

Originally Posted by edluva

i think you missed my entire point, which was to highlight the fact that LA's economy is so braindead and pathetic that it has to bend over to an industry which attracts losers and douchebags (those we affectionately call "artists") from all over bumblefuck america, in order to produce a cumulative revenue so small it can yet be rivaled by a single F500 company

LA can't even put in green bike lanes, because it has no economic leverage against its production companies. that's fucking sad.

now what was that you were saying about economic powerhouse?

That's not exactly unheard of. Lots of places considered to be doing well economically bend over backwards on a regular basis to let business trample over residents quality of life. I'm thinking of any place in Texas, really.

[OhioGuy]

Is West Hollywood getting screwed over once again? The Crenshaw line extension should end up further west than what this map appears to depict. At the very least the line should travel up La Cienega (or perhaps better yet up San Vicente) to Santa Monica Blvd before turning east. Fairfax is a bit too far east to conveniently serve the heart of West Hollywood.

Originally Posted by blackcat23

http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/04/03...l-fantasy-map/

Move L.A.’s Measure R2 Draft Proposal, Including Their Rail Fantasy Map

[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

Is West Hollywood getting screwed over once again? The Crenshaw line extension should end up further west than what this map appears to depict. At the very least the line should travel up La Cienega (or perhaps better yet up San Vicente) to Santa Monica Blvd before turning east. Fairfax is a bit too far east to conveniently serve the heart of West Hollywood.

No West Hollywood is not getting screwed again because there's been no formal environmental report on how the Crenshaw corridor will travel northward. It could go up La Brea, Fairfax. La Cienega or San Vicente. For the Move LA map purposes Fairfax was pick to visually explain the purpose and connection.

[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Not all of the $27 billion is needed to build those projects. The Sepulveda Corridor will be mostly funded by private investors, and you couldn't allocate a disproportionate amount of capital for it even if you wanted to.

Gold Line Foothill Extension: ~ $750 million-$1 billion
* Gold Line Eastside Extension (mostly grade-separated): ~ $1.5-2 billion
Green Line extension to Norwalk (fully grade-separated): ~ $1-1.5 billion
* West Santa Ana Branch Corridor: ~ $1.5-2 billion
* Green Line extension to Long Beach: ~ $1.5 billion
Glendale-Pasadena corridor (mostly grade-separated along Colorado Blvd.): ~ $1-1.5 billion
* Sepulveda Corridor: $4 billion allocation tops because it serves two regions
Crenshaw Corridor extension to Hollywood (mostly or fully grade-separated): $2.5-3 billion
Downtown-Burbank corridor: ~ $1-1.5 billion
Orange Line LRT conversion: ~$1.5-2 billion

* Partial funding from Measure R

You still have a good $7-10 billion left over that could be used for the Purple Line extension to Santa Monica and other HRT extensions. South LA and the bulk of the SGV don't stand to benefit much.

http://media.metro.net/board/Items/2...3rbmitem67.pdf. In attachment D you'll see that there will need more funding for some of the projects that you have listed. In addition that $7-10B over the life of the sales tax may need to factor in cost escalation of materials and project design costs as the system expands.

[inSaeculaSaeculorum]

Has converting the Silver line to LRT ever been considered or is it just obviously not worth the cost/BRT is adequate? I've never rode this line south of downtown.

Also does anyone know why metro never used low floor cars for its light rail trains? I've always enjoyed the way these kind of cars open up to the streets and sidewalks in places like San Diego and Denver when you get off the train as opposed to LA where you walk a long ramps off the elevated platforms, situated away the street's sight.

[blackcat23]

The Harbor Transitway was designed to accommodate light rail, if demand/funding for a conversion materialized. That's probably off the table now, due to the ExpressLanes project.

This might answer your question about platform heights: http://transittalk.proboards.com/thr...gh-los-angeles

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by edluva

i think you missed my entire point, which was to highlight the fact that LA's economy is so braindead and pathetic that it has to bend over to an industry which attracts losers and douchebags (those we affectionately call "artists") from all over bumblefuck america, in order to produce a cumulative revenue so small it can yet be rivaled by a single F500 company

LA can't even put in green bike lanes, because it has no economic leverage against its production companies. that's fucking sad.

now what was that you were saying about economic powerhouse?

No one said economic power house. What does bike Lanes have to do with economic leverage against a production company ? If LA wants to build bike lanes than they will do it. Hollywood is not saying "we don't want bike lanes in our movies so don't build them". working for warner brothers, cant tell you how many countless movies and commercials I have seen being filmed where bike lanes are actually looked for, green lanes and barrier separated. Example. Long Beach has barrier separated bike lanes down some major streets in its downtown and a green bike line in its Belmont Shore district. the movie industry loves using them since bike lanes are the "it" thing now. Hell warner brothers filmed a scene from the big bang theory off set just to use a bike lane to film.and your missing the point of what Hollywood is for. for a movie filming in Long Beach for example, since I was on set recently. there were about 500 people staffed. those 500 people spent their money in all the little mom and pop stores, cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and so on, move just rapped up, took about 2 months on and off location. The local businesses loved us and we love them.

Fortune 500 companies look for the cheapest place to set up shop to pay the less. and they don't even employ that many most of the time. why haven't some cities below LA that are full of them cant seem to pass us by with economic power yet?????? LA has been number 2 for how many decades? Go around the world and mention another city below us and see how many people scratch their heads. mention LA and everyone knows the city well.

I know what your saying but you're the one missing the point. LA is here only because of Hollywood. Why ignore the industry that put us on the map in the first place? doesn't make since. Leave all the big business for our big sister on the east a little sister in the mid west. LA is doing fine with focusing on the industry that made us. What will happen in the near future is companies from other countries, is Asia to be exact, will start setting up their American Base in LA since it only makes sense. Korean Air is one of the first. will be fun to see others follow.

[Muji]

I thought it would never happen after a 4-year delay, but Santa Monica is finally upgrading its bus stops with a design by LOHA. Over 300 bus stops will be rebuilt over the next two years. Some more renderings are on LOHA's website. With this, Expo Phase 2, and a growing bike network, life is going to get a lot better for non-motorists in Santa Monica.

Source: Curbed LA

Photo credit: Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects