Do our streets prioritize human life? The simple answer is no. As we all know, Los Angeles is a dense and sprawling city that requires most residents to have a car. Los Angeles also has an expanding public transportation system that enables you to access most of the city. However, Los Angeles is not bicycle friendly. While there are designated bike lanes, a cyclist is not always safe commuting to and from their desired destination.
“In an average year, about 11,000 bicyclists get injured and about 160 bicyclists die across California. About one-quarter of these injuries and deaths happen in Los Angeles County.”
The way our streets are designed is the root cause of this issue and other prevalent issues like bus transportation. There is a strong need and some effort (but not enough) to improve traffic safety, enhance access to jobs, provide mobility options, and improve bus reliability. If you pay attention to most streets with bike lanes, the bike lanes are typically adjacent to the ongoing traffic and there is an additional lane dedicated to parking. In other words, the bike lane is in between the driving and parking lane, making it very unsafe for those commuting on bicycles.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is currently working on a mobility project for Venice Blvd which aims to improve this current condition. They are proposing to have parking-protected bike lanes, which would act as a 94% crash reduction factor. This would protect bicyclists from moving traffic, reduce the vehicle lanes pedestrians must cross, and buffer pedestrians from moving traffic. They are also proposing to have designated lanes for buses, which would provide efficiency and increase bus speed. The overall goal of the designated bus lanes is to get individuals to and from their desired destinations at a faster rate. On an average weekday, there are about 561,000 bus trips around Los Angeles County. A high percentage of these bus riders are people of color, people making less than $50k/year, individuals who do not own a car, and individuals who take the Metro several times per week. Most of these individuals have to wait at bus stops which are typically never shaded and exposed to direct sunlight. Therefore, it is important to take these factors into consideration because the ultimate goal should be to create safe and efficient neighborhoods, streets, and even on a smaller scale, bus stops.
A Los Angeles Times article talks about the ways our bus stops and stations can increase human vitality and safety. In other major cities, metro systems are full of commerce whereas Los Angeles’ stations are “divorced from daily life.” There are no retail spaces or ways to interact with other individuals. With automated card machines, it can sometimes feel very unsafe and unsettling, especially at night if you are waiting at a stop alone. I think increasing human presence at stations, whether it is through food shops or ticket stations run by individuals, would play a large role in decreasing safety and maintenance issues. These are just small examples of ways we can create a more vibrant and safe community centered around the individuals that live in it and their needs. Therefore, it is important to pay close attention to the way our streets are designed and more importantly, vote for these mobility and safety projects because they can make a huge impact on the safety and equitability of our streets.
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I thought you raised such an important point about something society tends to not really speak about especially in California today. Having lived in four different countries, I see Southern California and its transportation struggle the most. I have never taken a bus around this area, mostly because of me feeling unsafe but I wonder if that will ever change in the near future. Great post, I enjoyed reading it!
I enjoy the stance being taken from the first few sentences. It really allowed me to understand the tone and topic of the blog post. Its surreal to think that although southern california is very much a commuting community, its biggest city makes it difficult. I enjoy the topic of the public transportation (the bus system) because i regularly use this mode of transportation and i can agree that it is very unreliable when it comes to certain stops. I think that an addition of stops and bus routes could increase not only the efficiency of the overall system but the safety for those who walk or bike to their transportations.
This is such an important topic; you bring up so many good points. If we don't address the way our streets are designed, we cannot have safe and walkable cities, full stop. There was a really interesting case study that I looked into for one of my public policy and planning classes that investigated Curitiba, Brazil for its bus rapid transit system and how that completely revitalized the city. It implemented corridors of rapid travel to bring people in to concentrated areas with mixed use development that also have a robust system of walking and biking paths. I wish we had even a fraction of that kid of infrastructure here - our quality of life would be so much higher.
I am glad that you brought up this topic because it is not something that has often come to my mind but should be something that has more attention. I am surprised that even with all the injuries and street safety issues there haven't been major efforts for change. It should not have to be a dangerous or risky thing for people to get their jobs or from one destination to the other. I also am intrigued by the idea of making bus stops more friendly and comfortable for riders because I have not ever really noticed a change in bus stops or their settings and safety at all for a very long time.