LAist: Same Number of Commuters, Different Methods

acidmnky

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:56:31 -0800

Maybe the planning commissions and the city council need to STOP trying to seed an ideology that will not work in this town... What do they think the people who need cars should do? Do you think people like paying $2.50 a day to ride a bus round trip five days a week? Do you think people who already own cars are going to just stop everything and switch to riding Metro? LA is filled with hundreds of thousands of artists and musicians who need to transport equipment to gigs, valuable set ups and kits that they can't carry without a car, "people who do jobs Americans won't" that need trucks for gardening, landscaping, construction. People who run animal rescues have to transport endless amounts of supplies. People have big families and need the space in their cars. I can go on and on. It's friggin' Los Angeles. If you don't like traffic, this is probably not the place for you. Many corporations are allowing for more and more telecommuting...at least one day a week. This seems like the most practical campaign to wage while the government is too busy coming up with incentives that don't help anything, like access to a carpool lane even if you are alone, for buying a Prius. STUPID!

NathanBowers

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:59:35 -0800

Subway and bus stops need to be spaced at reasonable intervals, but each stop imposes a time cost. In LA there's just no way to have enough stops AND have reasonable travel times. Because of this, you have to have a car in LA (if only to drive to the subway), and if you've already sunk the cost into having a car you're going to use the car instead of public transit. LA is just too sprawled out for practical public transit. The real solution is telecommuting.

fabricio

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:00:39 -0800

Ohh come on... what you are doing is thinking and being practical. That doesn't apply in the overspender "the more gas I consume and the bigger the better" mentality of southern california.