Comment by 0x457
15 days ago
I live in LA and ride Waymo, subway and trains often (decided not buy a car after u-haul rear-ended me on a red light...).
There is no way metro and trains will be a solid way of transportation in LA for at least a few more decades, even if people of Bel-Air stop fighting trains that go deep under Bel-Air and people of valley stop being unreasonable. Even if next president, rollbacks contingency requirement changes that trump did. Even America remember how to build large infrastructure projects.
It will never be the ideal "you're always at most 20-30 minutes of walking away from the station" density here in LA.
> Autonomous private cars is not the technological progress you think it is. We’ve had autonomous trains for decades, and while it provides us with a more efficient and cost effective public transit system, it didn’t open the doors for the next revolutionary technology.
There is a huge difference between going on rails and going on public roads. There are plenty of "dead end technologies" that we use to this day.
> There are plenty of "dead end technologies" that we use to this day.
Good point. However that does not apply to self driving cars because the problem it is trying to fix is a lot more complex then how to heat your microwave burrito more quickly. Self driving cars shares many of the same problems with human driven cars, including traffic congestion. If we see a mass employment of self driving cars in our cities, these problems will still remain, and the only thing this technology has solved is the need for commuters to pay attention 100% of the way. While nice, that is not revolutionary.
I think you are underselling your city here. LA has an excellent bus system which can be improved further still. LA also has the potential of installing a world class bicycle infrastructure, and me personally I am fairly optimistic that sometime in the near future, your city will put my city of Seattle to shame with your bike network.
> I think you are underselling your city here. LA has an excellent bus system which can be improved further still. LA also has the potential of installing a world class bicycle infrastructure, and me personally I am fairly optimistic that sometime in the near future, your city will put my city of Seattle to shame with your bike network.
No really, insanity that usually happens inside a bus in LA aside, it still goes on the same congested roads. "Bus Only" becomes a suggestion once rush hour starts (I can see bus only line backed up by not buses every day our of my window).
I mostly use metro because buses not worth it for me. Metro network is either wonderful stops or very bad stops. There is a massive "cleanup" attempt before the Olympics. Some will be right where you want to go and some are in the middle of a freeway 20 minutes of walking away from anything.
The fact that K line does not go through Getty Center to please a handful of people and car brains saddens me.
> LA also has the potential of installing a world class bicycle infrastructure
Please no. Cyclists are probably the most hated category on the road even by other cyclists. I'd ban cycling on public roads in most of LA if it were up to me.