Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
After reading the article relating LA Metro ridership, I was shocked by the numerous comments. It is no wonder ridership is declining with all the comments about safety. The top priority for any transit system has to be public safety. LA has a lot of work to do.
How can a city of that size remain viable if public transit cannot be made attractive?
As a potential visitor to LA, this moves the city down my priority list.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pip
Oh.. you can't follow newspaper comments. Its generally a freak show.
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You should still visit LA and stay Downtown, which is definitely the place to go and stay now if you're a visitor to the city. It is connected to Santa Monica, Hollywood, Pasadena Long Beach and many points in between by transit as well as Santa Barbara and San Diego by train.
All that said the City and LA Metro did let things get a bit out of control, which they seemed to have reversed now with a heavy police presence on the subway and light rail lines, which should be a permanent thing and not thought of as a temporary solution. It was/is a serious issue and I know it has had an impact on ridership; however many of those comments are over the top and probably bots from big oil or Russia or something. ;-) ;-)
Other reasons ridership has dropped IMO:
1.Charging $3.00 to park at many park and ride stations;
2.People who used to use transit getting priced out of the neighborhoods and moving to be replace by people who would never consider riding transit;
3.Gas prices. Gas prices used to be well over $4.00 a gallon and then the price basically was cut in half for at least the last 3 years. Now that prices are rising again I am sure ridership will start going up.
And it is absolutely crazy to think that LA has the worst traffic in the World. My biased opinion is that it isn't even the worst in the US.