Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Open Discussion: Subway: "...ready to be taxed for...":
The traffic problem has many factors...
-Old streets that were never meant for buses (let alone the mega buses, that are stretched twice as long. Say on Vermont in Koreatown. Just completely insane to run these huge buses all day on these old dilapidated streets.Say Vermont and Washington. It creates chaos on the right lane.
-The freeways are from the 50's. Hopeless. The pasadena freeway, lol. Its a joke in 2008.
-Overzealous builders.
-Lack of leadership.
-Huge gap in the rich and the poor. Terrible schools. If 30 or 40% of highschool kids drop out, that must keep adding pressure on the bus system. And lots of other factors.
Posted by Anonymous to L.A. traffic sucks: Let's fix it! at 6:52 PM
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He is right, of course, and I agree and thank this reader for his comment. I am sure, though, that each one of us can come up with a list of factors contributing to the problem.
But like I always said, the only reason I pointed out the reasons for the problem, or the only reason I created the blog in the first place, was to come up with SOLUTIONS to the problem, not to "rant and rave" about it like some may have believed. I was, and I am, only interested in SOLUTIONS to the problem. I really see no other reason to talk about it. Academic discussions can be left to the academics and their hypothetical but impractical "solutions" can be left where they belong: in academia. Real solutions to real life problems should be seriously considered.
I believe this is a serious problem, perhaps one of the most serious problems facing metropolitan areas the world over this century. Somebody somewhere in positions of power, influence and authority should start making it a priority to find ways to solve it.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
RE: [Reader comment]: "The traffic problem has many factors..."
Monday, May 15, 2006
SOLUTION TO "WHY L.A. traffic sucks #8: Pesky annoying quirks: Dips and Potholes"
RE: my own post: WHY L.A. traffic sucks #8: Pesky annoying quirks: Dips and Potholes (Wednesday, May 03, 2006)
Scanning the webpages of http://www.lacity.org I came across the solution to this problem:
http://www.lacity.org/BOSS/index.htm
"The Bureau of Street Services delivers valuable services to customers in a timely, easy-to-do, business-with manner that positively impacts the quality of life for the community. Every customer contact is a positive experience resolved with courtesy, empathy, and professionalism. We maximize our funding potential."
But these "valuable services to customers" are not about to deliver themselves. YOU have to request them. Dips, potholes, torn-up streets, or any of the other problems below, slow down traffic. So if you are aware of any of these, especially dips, potholes or torn-up streets anywhere in L.A., please fill out the request form or call the number below.
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http://www.lacity.org/boss/request.htm
Bureau of Street Services
Service Request Form
This form is intended to be used by the public as an easy way of submitting Street Services Service Requests electronically.
Please complete the items below and select Submit.
If this is an emergency, please call us on (800) 996-CITY or (800) 996-2489. You must be using a Forms-capable WWW client to be able to submit comments.
If your WWW browser does not allow you to submit this form,
please e-mail your request to: BOSS@bss.lacity.org
Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
email Address:
Type of Problem (please select one of the following}:
Pothole or request for street repairs
Street Needs Resurfacing
Tree needs Trimming
Tree or branch fell in street
Alley needs cleaning
Street needs sweeping
Object/debris in street
Leaf blower violation
Broken or damaged sidewalks
Sidewalk obstruction
Problem with/on median island
Damaged guardrails
Downed palmfronds
Others
Enter problem description below:
Enter below the location/closest address to the problem
(If no address, please tell us the name of the street and the nearest cross street)
Enter additional comments below:
Reset: Submit:
Thank you for your input. Please feel free to e-mail us, if this form will not work for your web browser: BOSS@bss.lacity.org
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There you go!
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Photo courtesy of Martin Reis/Martino from his blog Bike Lane Diary
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Make it viral. Make it vital...
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Friday, April 28, 2006
"WHY" L.A. traffic sucks #4: Pesky annoying quirks: Unprotected Lefts
WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #4: PESKY, ANNOYING LITTLE QUIRKS THAT SLOW DOWN TRAFFIC: UNPROTECTED LEFTS
Steev, an "angeleno" friend of mine, cynically jokes that angelenos "love unprotected lefts just like they love unprotected sex!" (hah-hah, very funny, Steev!)
L.A. must be one of the FEW cities in the world with such a ridiculous traffic light system. How is it possible that the second largest city in the country has a traffic light system from 40 or 50 years ago? It's absolutely ridiculous. No wonder there are traffic problems in L.A. In Dallas and Houston, to name just two other American cities, ALL the intersections - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM - have PROTECTED LEFTS (I simply can't believe that, when it comes to traffic, Texas is more advanced and efficient than "cutting edge" California!!) . Protected lefts allow traffic to flow better.
There is NO QUESTION ABOUT IT: unprotected lefts are slowing down and clogging traffic in the L.A. area. Waiting in line for the last few seconds of a YELLOW light to make a left while all the oncoming cars whizz by and practically RUN A RED LIGHT EVERY TIME to get past the intersection, too many cars are stuck waiting in line to make a left. NOT enough cars are allowed to turn left. Sometimes, the line of cars spills out onto the left lane and blocks and clogs the lane, bloking and clogging traffic for all cars on that lane. Unprotected lefts are contributing to the unbelievable traffic mess in L.A. and someone needs to do something about it!
SOLUTION #4: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT?
At whatever cost, PROTECTED LEFTS need to be added to ALL major intersections WITHOUT EXCEPTION as soon as possible in the whole L.A. area. Period. Case closed. End of story.
There are simply NO counter-arguments on this one. The cost? What cost? Put a $0.25 toll on everyone making a left in L.A. and you'll have enough millions to upgrade the traffic lights of the entire country. Even insurance companies would contribute to the fund: there'd be a lot fewer accidents in L.A. and a lot fewer people going in for "road rage" psychological treatment (don't you feel like SHOOTING those who RUN A RED LIGHT and keep you from making a left turn? :-)
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Photo: one of the few PROTECTED LEFTS in all of L.A.: FOCUSING ON THE SOLUTION [solutions are in GREEN: go! let's do it! problems are in RED: stop!]
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
WHY L.A. traffic sucks #2: Bad (or not exactly forward-looking) design
Before proposing solutions, we might want to figure out WHY L.A. traffic sucks so bad. "WHY" there is a problem might yield some answers on "HOW" to solve it.
WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #2: BAD (or not exactly forward-looking) PATCHWORK DESIGN
If you look at a layout of the city and get a bird's eye view of traffic at the busiest times, you soon realize that a lot, if not most of the traffic is moving east to west (a.m.) or west to east (p.m.) (Let's forget about the 405 for now and traffic coming from the Valley either through the 405, Laurel Canyon or the 101. Traffic from the Valley is a whole other animal). For traffic moving east or west of the 405 freeway at any of those times, the problem is compounded by the fact that when the freeway was built, it was built in such a way that only a few major streets (Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice) were chosen to have overpasses built over them. The rest (essentially all other minor streets) were BLOCKED by the freeway. Whether you're going east or west, to get past the 405, you have to go through one of these major streets. Smaller, stop-sign riddled streets are good only to get as far as the 405, then you have to get on one of the major ones to get past the 405. Having so much traffic redirected through these major streets (Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice), which were not meant to handle such a high volume of cars, is one major problem that needs to be addressed and fixed. Either more overpasses need to be built, or the whole 405 from Sunset to Venice needs to ELEVATED (or INTERRED) to allow more traffic to flow UNDER IT (or OVER IT) east to west and west to east.
This is about as realistic a project as expecting a complete subway system or a monorail to be built any time soon.
For traffic going north-south, anywhere in the middle of the so-called "West Side", there is NO freeway that allows you to get from, say, West Hollywood (the Strip) to I-10 in a hurry (if you take the 101, you'll have to go in a circle all the way around downtown. A risky proposition at busy times). La Cienega (or better yet, Crescent Heights) is your best bet. I never counted them, but there's a lot of lights from Sunset to I-10. The absence of a fast track north-south thoroughfare is a glaring oversight. Most of the gridlock that develops on the streets going north-south from La Cienega to Vine is a direct result of this "missing freeway," one that apparently no one in the 40's and 50's had the foresight to build.
SOLUTION #2: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT?
Someone told me in L.A. that the METRO RAPID red buses had a device (a transponder?) that would signal their approach to all the forthcoming traffic lights and turn them to GREEN so that they would have a straight shot all the way down Wilshire to the ocean. There's an idea! If you look at the traffic going in any direction on Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice at peak hours, you find that what is slowing down traffic and keeping it from flowing are all those traffic lights. There are way too many cars on the road to allow any one of them to advance quickly enough past enough intersections before the lights turn RED and traffic has to to stop and back up for miles. The result is a constant bottleneck backed-up traffic jam gridlock.
The SOLUTION has to be keeping those lights GREEN long enough to allow as many cars as possible to flow past as many intersections as possible. In other words, these major streets (Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice) should become for three to five minutes, if not longer, virtual freeways. Digital cameras with sensors could be installed in the whole L.A. area and linked to a computer system that would regulate the flow of traffic east-west and north-south. A 21 century solution for a state on the cutting edge of science and technology. Radio and television could be used to educate, remind and help the public to enforce the system.
If anyone counters that giving precedence to east-west traffic over north-south traffic would force redirecting twice as much traffic onto the already super-clogged 405 freeway, I'd say that this solution cannot be applied without allowing some kind of traffic to flow north-south. This, in turn, cannot be done without building some overpasses north-south over some key intersections over these major streets (Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice). OR regulating traffic in such a way that traffic north-south WILL keep flowing on selected streets (La Cienega and Crescent Heights to get to the I-10, etc), whereas on most minor streets, precedence will be given to traffic east-west to keep flowing longer. The current system of allowing as much GREEN light for traffic to flow east-west as for traffic to flow north-south is NOT working. Here's one instance in which equality fails, and fails miserably: allowing as much GREEN light to east-west traffic as to north-south creates constant bottleneck backed-up traffic jam gridlock IN EVERY DIRECTION. SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE.
Complete freedom to get in your car and go anywhere in any direction at any time is creating an unmanagable mess, a mess that the current freeway and road system cannot handle. This mess needs to be regulated somehow. If regulating use of your car won't work in a city where everyone is so dependent on the car and where no politician would dare implement it, then where that car goes and how it gets there at peak hours CAN BE regulated, HAS TO BE regulated, MUST BE regulated or the city will continue to have this bedlam.
A website could be created for commuters to input their daily routes. Obviously, if there is a larger area east to west than north to south, then there must be more traffic going east to west (and viceversa) than north to south (and viceversa). If more people are going east-west than north-south, then traffic should flow longer, faster in that direction at that time. This is a simple democratic solution: majority rule.
This is America, the land of science and technology, the land of "ingenuity". A test could be run to see how many MORE cars can make it from Ocean Boulevard (Santa Monica) to Highland (Hollywood) or viceversa on any of these major streets (Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice) if the lights are kept GREEN for one, two, three, four, five... minutes longer UNINTERUPTEDLY. Once the system is in place in coordination with all the cities that make up the area, it can be tweaked until it works perfectly and works for everybody.
This system might have the unintended consequence of forcing drivers to drive more intelligently and find creative ways of getting where they're going WITHOUT having to rely on the same old ways of getting there.
These measures need to be applied only during rush hour: 7:00-9:00am and 4:00-7:00pm.
No one solution will work magic and solve all of L.A.'s traffic problems. This will work ONLY in conjunction with all the other ideas I am proposing: a sum total of ideas working together in concert.
It's an idea worth trying. Anyone have any better ideas? I doubt it. According to most science-fiction writers, when it comes to transportation (especially public transportation), we're way behind schedule (especially here in America. Europe and Japan are light years ahead in public transportation). Keep on dreaming of electric "air surfing" and flying saucers, subways and monorails...
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Photo: FOCUSING ON THE SOLUTION [solutions are in GREEN: go! let's do it! problems are in RED: stop!]
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Make it viral. Make it vital...
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
"WHY" L.A. traffic sucks #1: Serving too many masters on your daily commute
WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #1: SERVING TOO MANY MASTERS ON YOUR DAILY COMMUTE
Before proposing solutions, we might want to figure out WHY L.A. traffic sucks so bad. "WHY" there is a problem might yield some answers on "HOW" to solve it.
L.A. is made up of several major "cities" (L.A. proper, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica...).When it comes to traffic, all of these cities seem to have their own rules and regulations, quirks and idiosyncrasies (if anybody knows any different, feel free to correct me). As you drive East or West on any of the major boulevards, you'll be driving through at least 5 different "traffic zones", 5 different ways of doing things, 4 or 5 different police departments. That is a FACT, and I challenge anyone to dispute it.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT? SOLUTION#1: INTER-CITY COORDINATION
I don't know all the traffic ordinances of the five major "cities" (L.A. proper, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica...) that make up the West Side and all the differences among them. But you don't have to be a scientist to know that things feel a bit different in all five major cities. Parking regulations are not the same in Santa Monica as they are in Hollywood (in parts of Santa Monica, off Nielssen Way, they enforce parking meters, or so the sign says, 24/7, and in some parts off of Main Street they enforce them 'till 10:00pm at night. I myself got a ticket a few minutes before 10:00pm, sitting on a sidewalk caffe in front of my car!!).
Calling for uniform, standard and comprehensive traffic rules for the whole L.A. area (L.A. County) might be a good way to speed up traffic. Part of the traffic "artereosclerosis" of the place comes from its "patchwork design," from all these different cities having developed and doing things in ways that keep traffic from flowing smoothly as cars pass from one to the other. This is one instant in which local interests should be secondary to the interests of the whole L.A. area. It may not be popular with mayors and councilmen and their inflated egos and political power games, but it NEEDS TO BE DONE. Getting all these cities to cooperate on this one might be easier said than done, but there's no question that ALL these cities need to act and behave as ONE to keep traffic flowing in the L.A. area.
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Photo collage of L.A.'s cities by italianesco (how'd you like the "House of Blues" touch? :-) Couldn't find an image for the City of West Ho! So I thought the "House of Blues" sign could stand for it just as well... :-)
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Sunday, April 23, 2006
L.A. traffic sucks! Let's fix it once and for all!
L.A. traffic sucks! Let's fix it once and for all!
What would you say of a city with some of the most perfect weather in the world that borders the Pacific Ocean to the West, the Santa Monica Mountain range to the East and an endless urban sprawl to the North and South? Its whole metropolitan area, extending as far north and as far south as the eye can see, holds probably over 20 million people and at least 10 million cars. Its public transport system was dismantled by the oil and car companies in the 30's and 40's to ensure their own selfish success and guaranty the subsequent uncontrollable urban sprawl it spawned--which would ultimately benefit them. The 1965 riots created panic among the richer western inhabitants of the city and killed the construction of a more comprehensive subway system that would have connected the eastern and western parts of the city. Its extensive freeway system, even though loaded with at least 4 lanes in each direction, wasn't meant to handle the traffic capacity it's called upon to handle at rush hour everyday today...
A few decades and major explosive, exponential growth later, what do you have? A little mess of unbelievable proportions that angelenos patiently put up with like herds of sheep in cars as the price of living in an "exciting little hell." You see them scurrying around through backstreets and putting up with endless stop signs--anything, anything to advance past the jammed gridlock and get where they're going. Some people simply refuse to go out at all weekdays from 6:00 to 9:00am and from 3:00 to 7:00pm.
I lived this little "inferno" for three years. While I rode the bus and was lost in a book or magazine, I was oblivious to it. Whenever I drove, I felt like screaming, "Who created this @$#^% mess! L.A. traffic sucks! Let's fix it once and for all!"
While the first part of the title says it all ("L.A. traffic sucks!"), it is the second part ("Let's fix it once and for all!") what we would like to concentrate on. Ranting and raving might bring attention to issues, but I doubt it ever solved anything. I would actually like to propose some simple SOLUTIONS that came to mind while driving around in that maze...
This is something I feel pasionate about. I like writing about things I feel passionate about...
So, for whatever it's worth, here it goes... Take it or leave it...
Make it viral. Make it vital...
