Is Los Angeles car crazy?

There was a headline on the BBC website that said Could bike lanes reshape car-crazy Los Angeles?. I’d like to try to answer the first question, is Los Angeles car-crazy? I’d also like to discuss a few issues with the article that shows a slight rewriting of history.

Yes, if you really want to move around Los Angeles you need a car? Well, perhaps. I’ve been to events in Los Angeles are just used the bus and trains to get around. I’ve even got the bus from LAX down to Redondo Beach and then cycled up to Santa Monica for lunch. Yes, that is some distance, but most of it is off-road away from those ‘crazy’ Angelenos. I saw lots of other people cycling, running, roller blading, walking, or just sitting along the path. It was buzy. Busy enough that you could walk that some people in Los Angeles like to move around using modes of transport other than their own private motor vehicle.

Los Angeles is relatively dense, compared with other sprawling North American cities. Compared with say Phoenix, it is positively ready to have some decent public transport. Of course, that is mostly because it used to have a fairly extensive public transport network. There were trams running along those wide streets, connecting the dense housing areas near the city with the center. The bus network is, for example, significantly better than Phoenix. Over in Arizona, the buses barely run once an hour along the wide streets, because there is insufficient density for much better service. Los Angeles, but buses run more frequently. They are also very good value for money.

Should LA build more cycle lanes? Yes, of course. People should be given options for moving around the city. This should include walking, cycling, using buses and trams, trains, and even a private motor vehicle. I’ve been to places where you are in a hotel and across the street is a restaurant you’d like to visit, but there are no sidewalks to get to the street, and no pedestrian phase to cross the street and certainly insufficient time to cross over the eight or so lanes. I just wanted to walk, but was not given the option to do so.

Should it take so long to build those cycle lanes? No. But there is a problem that once you’ve forced everybody to buy a car and then move all the jobs and retail to locations far away from where they live that they have to drive, it is hard to then convince them that things could be any different in the future. Yet these are the same people who go to places with no cars and enjoy it, whether that is Disney Land or pretty much any European city.

Cycle lanes are part of the solution, but it is not the only thing that needs to happen. Allowing small stores in residential areas, and having cycle parking at those locations, would help. Building cycle lanes to schools, and cycle parking at the schools would also help.

Could Los Angeles, the host city of the Olympic games in 2028, run a car free event? I doubt it, but with enough political will they could. It would probably require getting every bus that side of the Mississippi to help run a public transport network that could work. Just run a bus along every main avenue and boulevard every 10 minutes and make them free. That could work. Number those services from west to east and from north to south. Make it easy to navigate, easy to use, and introduce it a week or so before the games so the locals get used to it.

I still remember all the fuss that the Olympics had in London. They created special lanes for Olympic vehicles to get around without getting stuck in traffic. They were empty and most athletes, press, and competitors just used public transport. I went to watch the Women’s Marathon event, and just got the train into London and then walked the rest of the way. I didn’t see a car on the streets. So yes, Los Angeles can do it car free, and I think they should. As I said, this will be a political issue more than a technical issue.

But, does LA have a car culture? Well, yes, but I don’t think it is special. Yes, you see some fancy cars. But you also see the same moving junk heaps that you see everywhere else. Cars that people don’t love, and just hope that they’ll work the next time, just like their vacuum cleaner. I don’t think most people in LA think of their car as special, but like most people in New York, Toronto, Paris, or Tokyo do. They just think it is a tool that they use to go from A to B.

Tokyo has a crazy car scene, but nobody would say that it is a car-crazy place. Most people take the train to work. Owning a car is difficult as you have to prove you have a car parking space big enough. Many of the roads out of the city are tolled. It is easy to drive there, and I have, but it is not a cars first city. LA didn’t use to be either, and it doesn’t have to be in the future. Politicians in the past choose to rip apart neighbourhoods to build freeways, allowed the trams to be removed, and then created single-zoning residential areas to force people to drive everywhere. Tokyo choose to build train lines. Los Angeles didn’t, until fairly recently. Los Angeles could easily build more train lines, more cycle lanes, and improve pedestrian safety. They could invest the money to do that. Or they could just add a few more lanes to I105.

So, no, Los Angeles is not a car-crazy city. It is a place that has only invested in car infrastructure and then wonders why everybody drives. It is a place that needs to have politicians who want to provide alternatives to driving, and more importantly invest the money into doing those and not continuing to invest in more car-crazy roads. They could also densify, increase mixed-use zoning, and invest in a high quality bus network.