Homelessness and Public Transit in Southern California -- What is the answer?

Homelessness is not only a housing issue, but a public transportation issue too. Here is shiny new bus stop seating right across the street from West Hollywood City Hall that no paying or prospective transit passenger on their morning commute can use because it has been taken over by a sleeping homeless person.

Other scenarios people who use transit are all too familiar with:
- A homeless person takes up multiple seats with their belongings forcing other people to stand.
- A homeless person either under the influence of alcohol/drugs and/or is mentally ill is disruptive and threatening to other passengers.
- A homeless person who hasn't bathed in several days makes for an unpleasant ride for everyone else around him on the bus.

This post is not meant to be a general complaint about "the homeless".  I have tremendous compassion for homeless people.  We are speaking of  flesh and blood human beings here who deserve our consideration and respect and help.

However, allowing homeless people to take over public transit infrastructure hardly seems fair to the paying transit passengers who deserve safe, clean, comfortable rides.  (If you are someone who drives a single-occupancy automobile thinking, "Well, what's the problem?  I'd stand for a homeless person,"  I'd ask you in return, "how often do you have to?"  It's easy to invoke someone else's inconvenience in the name of one's own compassion.)

When increased homelessness spills onto the transit system and its infrastructure, it suppresses transit ridership because it makes the journey less comfortable and for some people less safe.  So then some people who can afford to opt out of the system, do.  I don't have any raw numbers, but I certainly have an endless supply of anecdotal evidence from people who tell me this is one of the reasons they personally avoid using transit or have stopped using transit.

There are two basic visions of public transit I come across:

(A)  "Public transit is method of moving masses of people of all classes and demographics conveniently from place to place, increasing mobility, cultural opportunity, and economic prosperity, while helping the environment and quality of life for all by providing an reliable alternative for people who would otherwise exacerbate traffic problems by driving more cars on our already clogged roads."

(B)  "Public transit is a form of "transportation welfare" meant to provide a subsistence level of mobility to poor people who would, of course, get their own automobile as soon as they have the means and opportunity."

Too many people think of transit in Southern California solely as (B) and therefore don't see the problem here.  Having lived in New York, and other cities, I envision transit as (A), and that is why I seek to improve it for everyone in the Southern California region, because I see everyone as a potential user.

However, it is increasingly clear to me that unless we do a better job of addressing the issue of homelessness in Southern California, our best efforts to improve transit here are going to be inhibited.  In essence, those of us who are transit advocates need to become homelessness advocates out of necessity.

What is the scale of the homelessness problem in Los Angeles?  The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) estimated 59,000 people on the streets of Los Angeles County.  That is truly a heartbreaking number.

So how can we solve this?  The City of West Hollywood addresses homelessness with a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, collaborative response.   The City also has a five year plan to address homelessness.

However, no one city or one community can solve the issue of homelessness for the whole region.  All of us in Southern California need to do our part, and every community in Los Angeles County needs to do its part too.

In March 2017, Los Angeles County voters passed Measure H to raise money to address the issue of homelessness.  Los Angeles County also has 47 Strategies to Address Homelessness.

What do you think?   Constructive and compassionate solutions welcome.

-----

Edited to add:  A Social Services Manager from the City of West Hollywood has informed me that if we see a homeless community member in West Hollywood who we would like to help, please call WeHo’s homeless concern line at 323-848-6590. They will meet the homeless community member where they are at and offer services to help get them off the street. 

Metro Los Angeles has a homeless task force.  An article about how Metro is expanding its homeless services appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Press on June 1, 2019.  Please click here to read it.  

Take WeHo's Cityline's Shortline on Saturday Night

This past Saturday night I was getting ready to head downtown for a night of dancing and frivolity when I remembered the City of West Hollywood's Cityline bus has a new Saturday evening shuttle service called the Shortline, which transports people point-to-point to/from the Red Line Station at the southwest corner of Hollywood and Highland to/from the southeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Heights.

The shuttle service is free(!) and runs from 7:30 PM to 1:00 AM, every 10-12 minutes.

Why? Crescent Heights?

Take a look at these maps of the free entertainment shuttles for the Pickup Line and Sunset Trip in West Hollywood.

You can transfer between the Shortline and either of these shuttles at Crescent Heights.

The service worked beautifully.  I look forward to this new and easy way to getting to/from the Red Line on Saturday nights.

    

A Look at Metrorail's Crenshaw/LAX Northern Extension Project to West Hollywood and Hollywood

Metro is currently studying extending its coming Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line, which is expected to open year, further north to Mid-City, West Hollywood and Hollywood.  This Northern Extension would provide a mighty north-south rail transit corridor connecting four rail lines (Green, Expo, Red and Purple) -- five if you count the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project under study.

Following this Feasibility/Alternatives Analysis of five potential alignments for the Northern Extension (seen below), Metro will now preparing an Advanced Alternatives Screening Study to gather public input and further analyze the five alignments to help determine which alternatives will be studied further in a subsequent environmental analysis.

Measure M allocates $2.24 billion to the project, with a groundbreaking date of 2041 and project completion date of 2047. Metro is conducting this study now as there are efforts underway to identify funding to accelerate this schedule.  ALL projects look for additional funding to speed construction.  Please do not be daunted by the currently scheduled completion date.   That can and will be moved up.  This project can certainly be made shovel ready soon.

Metro has been holding a series of community meetings about this project.  I went to the first one and it was exciting to see a room full of people eager and excited for a Metrorail project to be built and built soon.

One of the things I learned is that Metro expects this line when completed to be one of the heaviest used light rail lines in the country, with its connection to five Metro rail lines, LAX, Hollywood, West Hollywood, and major bus corridors.  That sounds like an excellent reason to find the funding to speed up construction, doesn't it?  Perhaps even by the Olympics in 2028.

One of the things mentioned by Metro is that the further west the proposed alignment, the more job centers that are accessed by it.  When I inquired if the alternative analysis had studied nighttime ridership, they mentioned it had not.  We know that this area has a large number of nighttime riders and employment.  Any late night ride on a crowded 4/704 bus will tell you that.  Hopefully, Metro will choose alignment A or B.  C is another meritable choice.   My personal opinion is that LaBrea is too far east and misses too many ridership generators such as The Grove, Cedar Sinai hospital, and the Beverly Center.  Also, based on these numbers in the Feasibility Analysis I would be surprised if the Vermont alignment makes it any farther in the studies for this project.  There is, however, a separate Vermont Corridor project underway.

Metro has one more community meeting scheduled for this phase of the process -- Thursday, March 28, 2019, 6 – 8 p.m. West Hollywood Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069. Accessible via: DASH, West Hollywood Cityline and Metro bus lines 4, 10, 16, 30, 105 and 704. There is limited street parking and a parking lot available.

EDITED TO ADD:  I attended the March 28th meeting and heard the following:  "The Fairfax alignment accesses twice the number of jobs as the La Brea alignment, and the La Cienega / San Vicente alignments have twice the number of that."

Please check out Metro's website for the Crenshaw Northern Extension at metro.net/crenshawnorth and if you cannot attend, please let Metro know by email that you support this project and which alignment you support (hopefully "A/B" or at least "C") at crenshawnorth@metro.net.

Originally published on March 27, 2019
  

What I Learned at the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project Community Meeting

Transit advocates have been dreaming of a public transit rail line through the Sepulveda Pass connecting the San Fernando Valley to the Westside for a long time now, from as far north as Sylmar to as far south as LAX.  The Transit Coalition has supported this concept as its proposed "JEM Line" for years.

Metro has been moving forward on its version of this ideas as the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, and has been having community meetings to brief stakeholders and obtain feedback on where it is in the development process.  Please view the presentation we saw at the community meeting by clicking here.

Here is where we are at in the current round of the process.  It is best to think of this project in two basic segments -- (1) between the Valley and Westwood and (2) between Westwood and LAX.

Valley  to/from Westwood

The first thing you should know is that there is already an East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Light Rail Project that has been approved by Metro.  Therefore, whichever Valley to/from Westwood alignment Metro chooses will need to take this other rail project into account.

Here are the four proposals still in the running for the Valley to/from Westwood segment:

MRT means Monorail.  Many people who've been to Disneyland or Disneyworld ask, "why can't we just do a Monorail?".  As you can see it would be one of the lower ridership options.  Also, as a new type of vehicle for rail transit for Metro, monorail would require a new type of maintenance yard, and also a new classification of labor trained to maintain and operate it.  Therefore, I don't expect it to go much farther in the analysis process.

This leaves HRT1, HRT2 or HRT3.   While HRT3 is predicted to have the most ridership upon completion, the direction of travel pretty much ends this route eventually being extended up to Sylmar in the future.  Why do that when Metro is already building an East San Fernando Valley Light Rail?  As Metro Staff explained, the light rail project is meant to be a local service, while this Sepulveda Transit Corridor project is meant to a regional rail project, where stations will be farther apart.

Basic details about all these alignments may be found on the presentation delivered at the community meeting which you can find by clicking here.

Here are a couple of things I learned from at the community meeting.

• This project needs to go at least as far north as not only the Van Nuys Orange Line station, but the Van Nuys Metrolink station too, so it doesn't overcrowd the new East San Fernando Valley light rail.
• If you want this Sepulveda Corridor project to be eventually extended up north to Sylmar, than you probably want HRT1.
• An option of extending the Purple Line through the Sepulveda Pass was eliminated as it did not have the same ridership potential as a north-south line where passengers could transfer to the Purple Line, the Expo line and ride all the way down to LAX.
• A station on Santa Monica Blvd. was eliminated.  Metro staff informed me that there is a fault line that runs right through Santa Monica Blvd., and they couldn't safely build a station there.  I find that very disappointing.  It makes the need to complete the Crenshaw/LAX line northern extension to West Hollywood and Hollywood all the more necessary.

Westwood to/from LAX
What you need to know about this segment is that Metro is looking at an alignment near Sepulveda & the 405 Freeway or one closer to Centinela.

Here is the Sepulveda / 405 alignment.

For reasons I explained earlier, I don't expect Monorail to make the final round, so I'd pay attention to the one of the left.  Now here is the Centinela alignment:

The most interesting to notice here is that Metro is studying a Purple Line extension going SOUTH to LAX.  I have my doubts as it would reduce the available capacity to transport passengers from the Valley, but Metro is obliged to study everything.

When completed and online, this rail line will be a VERY busy, and one of the major arteries of our transit system.  Metro believes it can promise a 15 minutes time of travel between the Valley and the Westside that will be faster than most auto trips on the 405 Freeway.

There will be one more meeting on this round on February 5th at 6:00 PM, at the Proud Bird Restaurant, near LAX.  Further refinements will take place and there will be a new round of meetings as Metro moves toward its "Locally Preferred Alternative".

You can find more information about this project and share your feedback with Metro at metro.net/sepulvedacorridor and you can see the full presentation from the community meeting here.

What do you think?

Originally published February 4, 2019
  

A View of Metro's NextGen Bus Study Public Workshops

If you haven't heard, Metro is undergoing a redesign of its comprehensive bus network.

The last update was 25 years ago, and so it makes sense to give the whole system a fresh look.

There have been a series of "public workshops" where you can come and check out what is happening and give your feedback.  I went to the public workshop in West Hollywood, and took photos.   This photo below shows the data screen that I found utterly fascinating.

Using location data accumulated from our cell phones as they travel with us via car, rail, bus, bike, and by foot, Metro has acquired data on what trips people are making and where, and at what times during the day.  An 11:00 p.m. map would look very different than a 7:00 AM map or a 3:00 PM map.  It's great this data exists.

There have been several NextGen Bus Study public workshops around the County thus far, and there are a few more still to come:

Pasadena - January 24th
Downtown Los Angeles - January 26th
Inglewood - January 31st
Van Nuys - February 6th

For more information about the NextGen Bus Study, please click here.

I encourage you to get involved and give your input on how Metro should deploy its 7 million service hours of bus service.  The system changes are scheduled to begin rolling out at the end of 2019.
Below are some more photos from the NextGen public workshop held in West Hollywood.

Originally published January 24, 2018
  

A New Map of Metro's Future by Thomas Dorsey

Thomas Dorsey sent me a map of what the Los Angeles Metro Map will look like in 2040.

Isn’t this beautiful?. I may print it out and sleep with it under my pillow. What a dream if we could build it all by the 2028 Olympics?

So while everyone on Christmas Eve sleeps with visions of sugar plumbs, I'll be dreaming of this.

Originally published December 23, 2018
  

New Metro Legend for Rail Lines and Busways Coming

Metro Los Angeles is changing from a colors to alphabet letters when naming its rail lines and busways. once the Regional Connector project goes online Downtown.  Soon we won't just "Take the A Train:" to Harlem in Manhattan.  We will take it when we are "thinking of heading uptown" from Long Beach to downtown L.A.

So I am assuming it will be the "C" train extended north to West Hollywood and Hollywood eventually.  Of course, letters may change or be added and alignment grow and new operational routes become possible.  Here is a look at the system -- in progress.

What do you think?

Originally published on December 11, 2018