As a native to LA, growing up in Calabasas, I’ve always wondered why LA isn’t the best city in the world. Some people may tell you that it is. But, let me tell you why I think otherwise.
We have the best weather, hands down. I’ve been to over 20 countries and I can still say without a doubt that Los Angeles has the best weather year-round. That definitely is a plus, but there is no shortage of cons that will offset that.
Traffic is a word that stands so vivid in the mind of Angelenos that the 101 and the 405 have a more negative connotation than ‘el diablo’ himself. There was Carmaggaedon a few years back. And an interesting point that Charles Montgomerey made in Happy City is people who commute more than 1.5 hours a day tend to have higher rates of divorce. Basically, traffic makes people more anxious, increases blood pressure, and generally makes people more unhappy.
That being said, Downtown Los Angeles was pretty run down until very recently. It can’t compare with Manhattan, Chicago, Miami, or the other cities just yet. But that’s just for now. I’m a pretty optimistic person and I think that LA is going through the same process that certain areas of New York and Chicago went through and we just happen to be 10, 20, 30+ years out.
The Subways in New York tended to be a rather sketchy place until the mayor started telling officers to arrest people who would jump the front gates, without purchasing tickets. As a kid who understands what being a stupid little kid is like, that upsets me. Yet, that decreased crime in the subways of Manhattan by greater than 20%. So the people of New York have safe (most of the time) transportation by subway, bus, taxi, uber.
The people of Los Angeles have bus (which is rarely ever used, in comparison to other cities), taxi (which aren’t in every neighborhood unless you call quite a bit in advance), and uber…. and driving, That is, if you are fine sitting in traffic.
Most other major cities in the world have public transportation that is much more efficient and much more available. Being in Hong Kong, which has the highest rated subway system in the world, really made me appreciate how much more seamless life is when you have cheap public transport that can get you basically anywhere around the city.
We don’t have a free market (of transport) and it hurts the poor the most because they usually have to live in housing that farther from centers and pay for cars, gas, and insurance that can end up costing them much more than what public transport would cost.
It would be better for the economy, it’d make people much happier, and it would make life easier for the 2-3 million living in LA city and 9-10 million living in LA county. I would love to see a Happy City sometime soon but it will take a culture change, and government who cares about the long term. The last time I can say confidently that we had an altruistic politician was in the times before computers were invented, tech ruled all, and way before the Kardashians.
Anyways, if this is something you’ve been thinking about check out these links:
Part of why Los Angeles doesn't feel like a city like New York may be its geography. The buildings and social places are very spread out and feel very scattered. When I used to live in Beijing, China, everything I needed was walking distance. In the city, the metro was usually faster than driving because of heavy car traffic. Although LA has the metro lines, they don't always take you all the way to where you need to go, so it is easier to drive there yourself.
ReplyDeleteTraffic sucks in L.A. The transportation system in Amsterdam is much more efficient than getting around L.A. I agree with Felicia. I wonder what their secret to efficient transportation is.
ReplyDeleteFelicia has a good point. Beijing is like Hong Kong in the way buildings are close to each other (so does Canton where I came from), and LA can't do that perhaps in consideration of the frequent earthquake (?). It reminds me that in Canton I needed to commute from my home to workplace everyday by underground and the time for one way was about 40 minutes. I complained a lot about the distance, until I found that the two places are only 17 miles away from each other. That's about 20 minutes drive in LA and it suddenly feels really close! I drive to San Gabriel all the time and feel no pressure at all. The only difference is that I have to drive here while I could take a nap or read a book in the underground in Canton.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of efficient traffic does affect the quality of a city. It takes people longer to commute (in other words wasting time), burns more fuel, and increasing the accident rate.
Spending a semester in Europe and then returning to L.A. traffic has made me hate traffic more than I already did, which I didn't even think was possible! It blows my mind that L.A. still has not figured out a half-way decent public transportation system for individuals to use. What you said about anxiety and high-blood pressure I think it 100% accurate when it comes to sitting in traffic. L.A. is a very desirable place to be, but the traffic really turns people away. I would love to work and live here in the future but am seriously considering otherwise. I really don't know what L.A. is going to do in the future regarding the traffic problem, but hopefully they get something figured out. I'm starting to think it may be too late to do anything since the layout and the design of the city has already been established and trying to put in a decent public transportation system might make traffic worse and things more complicated.
ReplyDeleteThe LA Metro is currently working on new projects to extent public transportation as far as Santa Monica and hopes to double its reach by 2017. You should check out some of their plans, the LA Metro Design team has won international awards for their work in rebranding and reestablishing new public transportation, such as the light rail. The biggest problem is changing the identity that public transportation has in Los Angeles, as many are unaware with new advancements and new stops most people are hesitate to leave their cars at home.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.metro.net/projects/