WHAT Congestion?

by Tony Chavira

The L.A. Watts Times has an interesting article about how the announcement of a Metro Line that goes down Crenshaw Boulevard was a complete surprise.  Especially to those living in the area:

Hundreds of people packed the MTA’s board room at One Gateway Plaza, and overflow rooms had to be opened to accommodate attendees.

“A lot of the people we spoke with did not know what was happening, and the few that did, did not know the extent of what Metro was proposing,” said Damien Goodmon, a spokesperson for The Citizen’s Campaign to Fix the Expo Line (Fix Expo).

“They did not know the street-level design would have taken half of the parking on Crenshaw Boulevard away.”

Although Fix Expo has been critical of the MTA’s process of light-rail development in South L.A., it also described the day’s events as a victory.

An e-mail blast sent by the group after the meeting said: “For the first time in the history of the current process, MTA will now conduct a study and identify a funding strategy to keep the entire Crenshaw Blvd. portion of the Crenshaw-LAX Line in a subway.

Although I guess you have to expect that there will be some kind of added congestion once you've added a light rail line.  It's amazing how differently the streetscape acts without a lane or two.  On the other hand, Joe Urban has an interesting post titled "Can Congestion Be A Good Thing?" where he comments on a neighborhood that experienced an explosion in dense development His answer: "Absolutely"

The first thing I noticed (sitting on a barstool at Keegans) as new housing was finished and more shops opened was the increase in traffic. Previously traffic breezed through, but now cars queued at traffic signals had to wait two or three cycles to get through the University and Hennepin intersection. Congestion, which was once a rarity, is now the rule at peak times.

But hey, if the cost of a little congestion is an urban neighborhood reaching its potential, then I’ll pay that price any day!

It might not be the thing people want to here (especially in traffic-luvin' Southern California), but maybe jam-packing our streets to put rapid transit into place isn't all that bad an idea.  I guess the line will have to be drawn at some point between public and individual transit, it all just depends on what you personally prefer I suppose... we are in a demand-driven economy, after all.

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