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There's been some talk of making the Purple Line subway for Wilshire Blvd. actually veer off and go through West Hollywood or even making an additional line, say the Pink Line. As Wad explains on MetroRiderLA:
The Purple Line is a 21-hour system committed to solving a 6-hour problem. The bulk of ridership would be coming from rush-hour work trips. But the offices generate very little activity during mid-days and virtually none on weekends...[snip]
WeHo, to its credit, has shown that it is ready for a major investment. Besides the miserable traffic, WeHo has multiunit residences, heavy pedestrian activity and some of the heaviest bus patronage in the county. WeHo would not need to be altered to become “transit-ready”. Beverly Hills, on the other hand, sees minimal pedestrian activity along Wilshire Boulevard. What pedestrian activity does occur is along the touristy diagonal boulevards connecting Wilshire and Santa Monica. So, if the subway were to go through WeHo first, it would actually deliver pedestrians closer to these streets via Santa Monica than Wilshire.
So what do you say? Should the route stick to Wilshire Blvd. as traditionally spoken about, should it zig and zag for Weho, should there be two separate lines, or something else? Vote below!
Map by Wad of MetroRiderLA
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I've changed my mind a bit on this because of something Bert Green said in the comments of the MetroRider post:
"Right now, downtown and Hollywood are densifying at an amazing rate. I don’t believe that would have happened had the Red, Gold and Blue Lines not been built. It is probably a matter of time before growth in employment follow, as a result of the demand generated by a transit-friendly environment."
At first I was of the side that said "zig zag", but the destinations in WeHo are not necessarily permanent, the Purple Line will be. Let the destinations grow from the transit, as Bert said.
No use for the purple line on the weekends? We inner city folks would love to go to the beach without using a car! Most of the Eastside/East LA kids I know never go to the beach 'cause it takes like 2 and half hours on the bus.
regarding the beach, the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus 10 picks you up in downtown, then hops on the ten and drops you off in santa monica right by the beach, usually in 20-30 minutes with no stops between downtown and santa monica.
a million times better than the 720.. but it stops coming back eastward pretty early.
I made a Google Map of my own conceptual Metro line (the Traffic Dodger Blue Line) that would serve WeHo and other high density neighborhoods. Check it out: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=118224662423249406389.00000111e4aa171462a8e&ll=34.020597,-118.398058&spn=0.791062,1.2854&z=10&om=1
Why not have a spur of the Red Line past Hollywood? That would make more sense.
and follow Sunset to UCLA.
I live close to the Western/Wilshire Redline stop. I've dreamed of the subway going all the way down to Santa Monica via Wilshire. But I've always envisioned other lines, too. One going down Santa Monica Blvd and meeting up with Sunset and going to Union Station and on to East Los Angles, but I'll probably never live long enough to see any of it happen. Los Angeles and its environs wll never be on par with cities like New York, Paris, London or other cities with great subway systems, unless we get our act together and build a great subway system that BEST SERVES the people of greater Los Angeles and not let politics get in the way.
You could make the same argument about any number of neighborhoods. For the subway to really be appealing to the people who aren't already dependent on transit it needs to get from downtown to Santa Monica along the most direct route possible while still hitting major employment centers. Because of the density of offices along Wilshire (and in Century City on Santa Monica Blvd), and the residential density within a few miles of either side of the proposed line, that route makes the most sense. I agree that over time development will occur around the stops anyway.
Neighborhoods not directly on the Purple Line route could easily be served by short-distance buses w/ frequent service, like Dash, that would go to the nearest stations.
Right now just getting the Wilshire line funded and built will be a challenge enough. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and talk about spurs or other expensive diversions.
It would be awesome if, at some point, there was a subway through West Hollywood. But for now, speaking as someone who's had to drive east through West LA at 5 pm, where it's desperately needed is along Wilshire. Trying for a spur route would just ensure each project would be built much more slowly, while diverting the route would not only be more expensive but also make the trip more time-consuming - exactly the problem the subway is trying to solve. There should be one kink in the route - it would be silly for the subway not to go through Century City - but from Western to Santa Monica Blvd., and from Westwood Blvd. to the sea, should be along Wilshire.
And as for BH - what's the problem if most of the pedestrian traffic is along the streets coming off of Wilshire, rather than Wilshire itself? As long as the stops are at the most popular streets, then of course people will use the subway.
"At first I was of the side that said "zig zag", but the destinations in WeHo are not necessarily permanent, the Purple Line will be. Let the destinations grow from the transit, as Bert said."
That is such a BS argument because if that is the case then the office buildings in some parts of Wilshire aren't permanent either! And if you're spending $5 Billion dollars to create "future" destinations rather than highlight the ones we do have near the route and densify THOSE (Ain't that Smarter growth) then we would really have a usable transit system that will people will use most of the time and that will get people to clamor for more of it!
This suggestion of "Oh the people can transfer onto shuttles or other buses due north" is silly since the North-South crossing traffic on Wilshire is worse than Wilshire itself making those destinations right near Wilshire downright unattractive to transit because of this distance/transfer/trip time factor thus reducing the benefits this subway would have.
"No use for the purple line on the weekends? We inner city folks would love to go to the beach without using a car! Most of the Eastside/East LA kids I know never go to the beach 'cause it takes like 2 and half hours on the bus."
That's exactly why the purple is never ever going to get built...until they gentrify the inner city and start calling it Metropolitan. As soon as the move all of the wrong colored people from the inner city to Lancaster and San Bernardino, the Purple line will be built.
Jane