How not to create traffic jams: Don’t let people park for free

Re:How not to create traffic jams: Don’t let people park for... by tomjakubowski on Saturday April 08, 2017 @04:39PM (#14068892)

I drive my personal car in Los Angeles rarely enough that I should probably sell it. Bicycling, subway, light rail, the occasional bus, and Lyft satisfy 90% of my "long distance" or "carrying lots of stuff" needs, and the remaining trips could be taken care of by Zipcar or rentals.

At least as a person without children, the need for and experience of using a car is simply a matter of where I live and work (and for the weekends, where my friends live). When I lived in Pasadena, commuted to Irvine 3x a week, and didn't have a personal car, yes, life was miserable. When I lived in Venice Beach and drove downtown for work, the tedious, heavily trafficked freeway commute exhausted me by mid-week.

Also, for what it's worth, greater Los Angeles has the highest average density of US urban areas by a pretty healthy margin. Yes, it's denser than the New York or San Francisco urbanized areas. And LA's decentralized commercial districts make it a prime candidate for an efficient, extensive public transit network [1]; there's just heaps of toxic cultural momentum to overcome in order to restore that former feature to our metropolis.

[1]: http://humantransit.org/2010/03/los-angeles-the-transit-metr...

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Re:How not to create traffic jams: Don’t let people park for... by JBlue42 on Sunday April 09, 2017 @03:04PM (#14073802)

If LA could have a better bus lane situation, the buses would be more than adequate. That there aren't, and won't be, dedicated bus lanes put in the situation of not only waiting in the same traffic as you would in a car but also waiting for a bus (typically late, because of said traffic) and even switching and waiting. I'm 4 miles from work and the bus would include one switch and about 45-50 minutes. It's a 10-15 min car ride.

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