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October 6, 2008
Long Beach Press-Telegram Says 'No' to Measure R
In a scathing editorial, the Long Beach Press-Telegram is telling people to vote no on Measure R, the LA County ballot initiative that will raise the sales tax one half-cent in order to raise $40 billion over 30 years for transportation projects. Complaining that Southeastern LA County will not get much, if any, of the funding (did they even speak up like the San Gabriel Valley did?) and focusing their attention on West LA commuters and the proposed Subway to the Sea, the paper seems to ignore that their region's constituency ties for second in usage of said subway. And this is only the beginning in the fight over Measure R.
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Love long beach and all, but their thinking here is backwards. Any public transpo... even the ones that don't necessarily serve your direct community (and they do Long Beach - see above "their region's constituency ties for second in usage of said subway") - any public transportation makes the county and city of Los Angeles a more attractive destination for tourism, residency, and business. Stop focusing on West Side vs Long Beach and start realizing it's really about LA vs San Fran vs Boston vs Dallas vs NY vs DC. And right now we're getting smoked (or more appropriately... smogged?)
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Hey!
Don't confuse the P-T with the rest of us!
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I typically ignore the LBPT, and this is no different...
I commute from Long Beach to Santa Monica every day. Give me a way to get there via train, even if it does mean going to downtown to change trains for Santa Monica! The current option of a train to downtown LA, then a bus to Santa Monica is no option, at 2 hours and 10 minutes each way.
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interesting point, robdaemon. I'm curious what the total time for a full Blue Line to full Purple Line trip would be. 52 or so minutes for a full Blue Line trip, right? Then Purple Line could be another half hour from downtown to end of the line Santa Monica. 1 hr, 20 mins cool with you? What is your driving time?
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1 hour 20 min would be only about 20 min increase in my commute time from Sherman Oaks to Westwood. The Sepulveda pass via the 405 is just insane at times. Granted do I often take some side routes that cut my time tremendously.
I'd gladly take the leisurely way to and from work. I'd opt for Metro Rapid service but that's more than double the time of my current route in and out of West LA.
Bring on the Purple Line!
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@antith3tic, and imagine if the Santa Monica Corridor is also built to connect to the Purple Line from Hollywood/Highland?
So the Metro Rapid 761 is not working for you? I've taken it in non rush hour times from Ventura/Van Nuys and it was a leisurely 40 minutes, but have yet to use it during rush hour.
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This is similar to arguments made by opposition in the Valley despite numbers that show the West Side Extension would improve commute times across all of Los Angeles County due to the disproportionate influx of people who work in the West Side from various regions.
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I know if they built that H/H connecting line into Westwood, there would be 40 people in my office that would immediately be out of their cars; well besides getting to the Metro Rail station.
The Rapid 761 line commute times is the same if I took the freeways home but 10x better as I'm not dealing with traffic. I caught up on my reading over the summer taking the bus.
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I use the rapid 761 to go between Sherman Oaks and UCLA almost every day as well! My fastest door-to-door (ie: my condo front door to my office door) time has been 35 minutes, but that was unusual as it was the earliest bus (so no traffic on the 405), and I happened to get to the bus stop right when the bus showed up.
Typical door-to-door times are 45 minutes, and at rush hour it can be an hour. But it's nice not to have deal with traffic. On the bus, I read or play games and do e-mail on my phone.
But I also think that a sepulveda-pass subway or light rail line (maybe along the center of the 405?) is something that is underprioritized at metro. That section of freeway is SUCH a bottleneck at rush hours. It makes anyone think twice about going to or from the valley after work, and that shouldn't be the case.