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Today, the LA Times reports on the new express service that saves riders 5 minutes. Well, we want that time back. 5 minutes on a practically empty train means a lot: more reading, blogging, sleeping, chatting and sprawling out.
Saving 5 minutes is a waste of time for the MTA's resources and funding. Andrew at Here in Van Nuys has the best idea of converting "the aged 110 freeway from South Pasadena to Downtown LA to a permanent bike route. The highway is unsafe for cars with its outmoded design, but it is perfectly suited to bike riders because of its relatively short length and thrilling curves." And this is not the first time Andrew has had killer ideas about use of freeways.
But that won't happen or any other good and fun ideas that may come along. Winston Churchill said it best: "Americans finally do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted all other possibilities."
We've exhausted our own personal ideas and finally solved it. Jet Packs!!!
Photo by cjanebuy via Flickr
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The five minute reduction doesn't sound like a lot, but in truth it's about fifteen, as the Gold Line's local run is rarely optimal. Besides, 5% under the thirty-four minute optimal route is actually about a 14% time reduction, pretty good.
The Gold Line does not suffer utter indignity, as people imagine---it fetches over 1,000 riders an hour, which is not so bad.
Like so many other rail transit lines, it would be optimized if the bus service on either end of it were optimized--the lack of appeal, as it so often is, is the failure of last line connections, so many of which run only once an hour as you get out into the suburbs. If there were better bus service between the Santa Anita racetrack and the Pasadena terminus, for instance, that would be very helpful for three months of the year, anyway. And better service to Lake Avenue would be helpful too.
I like Andrew's idea to make the Pasadena Freeway a bikes only proposition. Some of the best fun I've ever had on a bike was a morning back in June 2003 when the entire freeway was shut down to vehicles in both directions from its end all the way to Avenue 26 and given over to cyclists to enjoy.
Did you know that the LA area's first "freeway" was a freeway for bicycles?
It was an elevated wooden track built just before the turn of the century by Horace Dobbins, a wealthy resident of Pasadena. It connected Pasadena to downtown LA, running down the Arroyo Seco, along the path of today's Pasadena Freeway.
The Federal Highway Administration's web site has a reprint of an article about the Cycleway, first published in the November, 1901 issue of Good Roads magazine.
The Los Angeles Public Library's Historical Photographs collection also has a nice photo of the Cycleway.
There has also been a proposal to construct a modern version of the Cycleway alongside the Pasadena Freeway following much the same route as the Dobbins' original.