One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Drive She Said - A Monorail that is.
As anyone who travels by car in Los Angeles can tell you, traffic can be a real pain in the ass. Just try getting from the Valley to Santa Monica in under an hour or from Santa Monica to Downtown without several tense moments and feelings of complete hopelessness, and you'll know what we mean.
And God forbid if there is ever even a minor fender bender. The whole thing just grinds to a halt on both sides. Why people feel compelled to slow down and see an accident we still don't really understand. In short, the freeway system in Los Angeles is a mess and no one seems to have an idea how to fix it. That is, until now.
Ray Bradbury, noted author of "The Martian Chronicles", "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" has the answer in his recent piece for the Los Angeles Times. He wants Los Angeles to build a monorail system.
His comments and observations are very interesting and hopefully will spark debate and lead to action on this type of project. Really, anything that will help with the traffic problem is welcome. Sometimes the more radical idea ends up being the right solution.
Maybe a monorail system is the way to go? But no matter what changes are proposed or how radical they seem, at some point, as Mr. Bradbury points out in his piece, the traffic on the freeways is just going to come to a grinding halt from too many cars and not enough room for them. On that day, it might be too late to fix it. Why not start making plans to fix it now? And maybe those plans should include a monorail.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
