Public Transportation

Metro Subway's Virtual Free Rides End As Turnstyles To Lock Up

If you believe the New York Times, the arrival of "latched" gates at our subway stations this summer is a "milestone," a sign that L.A. is entering municipal adulthood and becoming more like our vastly superior East Coast counterparts. Or, it's just something to make most of us shrug:

L.A. is a Top American City For Living Car-Free?

Los Angeles is America's City of Cars, the town built around four-wheeled transportation, the birthplace of custom-auto culture and couture. But what if our traffic were so bad that it actually encouraged some of you to walk, bike and take the train? That just might be the case as L.A. has ranked a ... More >>

Will the Casden Development Be L.A.'s Bermuda Triangle of Traffic?

Billionaire Alan Casden plans "transit concierge" for his project at 405 and Pico

Railway to Heaven

Measure J Transit Tax Hike: Bus Riders Oppose it, Saying Metro Funneled 2008 Measure R to Fancy Rail, Starving Working-Class Bus Lines

By Hillel Aron The Bus Riders Union put on one of their famous street-theater gigs the other day at Vermont Ave. and Wilshire Blvd. to protest Measure J, a proposed sales tax extension on the Los Angeles ballot that would tax all L.A. County consumers until the year 2069. The performance featured ... More >>

Measure J Transit Tax -- Too Soon?

'Temporary' hike would last to 2068, after most current voters are dead

D.C. Declares Laughable 'Transit Revolution' in Los Angeles While Metro Hacks Bus System

'Tis the season for local and national politicians to co-opt the media into singing their praises. November 6 is right around the corner -- and one positive article by a respected journalist is the (free!) equivalent of 100,000 campaign mailers. But because L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the pres ... More >>

Streetcar for Downtown L.A.? Council Creates Special Voting District So Residents Can Decide

What a romantic day for downtown: Dreams of a streetcar loop from Broadway to 11th to Figeroa to Hill (see map below) have a chance of becoming reality, now that the L.A. City Council has created a special voting district in the area it would service. Residents will be given the option to pay a sma ... More >>

Fake L.A. Subway Map: What Los Angeles Would Look Like With a Comprehensive Rail System

Numan Parada, an L.A.-area mapmaker, created a "fantasy public transit map" for Los Angeles in 2007 -- and it appears the map has gone viral again this spring. Were not surprised. No matter your position on Metro's budget priorities, it's hard not to drool at the prospect of instant rail transport ... More >>

Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Misses Airport by a Mile

Metro line is monument to stupidity

Blade Runner Stadium

Beverly Hills Versus the Westside Subway

Los Angeles Bus Cuts: MTA Axes 305,000 More Hours of Service, Stranding Low-Income Workers in L.A. Outskirts

Beverly PressThe 757, from Hollywood through Koreatown, will no longer run on weekends.​About every six months, we receive a deja-vous press release from the Bus Riders Union, furious at the Metropolitan Transit Authority for a new wave of massive cuts to the decrepit L.A. bus system. The cut ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Blames City's Crap Street Conditions on Ailing Bus System

When in doubt, blame it on the bus​We knew City Hall and the Metropolitan Transit System favored rail over wheel when it came to public transportation, but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's unabashed bus diss on KNX news radio this morning almost made us choke on our flamin' hot Cheetos ... More >>

MTA To Cut Nine L.A. Bus Lines By Dec. 12

Metro board chair Don Knabe says: Buses < Subways < My Car​Updated after the jump: The Bus Riders Union says the latest bus cuts are straight-up racist. Originally posted at 11:19 a.m. As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pumps all time and city resources into three more stops (12 more minutes) onto ... More >>

L.A. Metro Bus, Rail Fares To Go Up In July

​One-way rides for Metro bus and light-rail riders will go up in price July 1 from $1.25 to $1.50, according to a scheduled fare increase that has been on the books for nearly two years. A daily pass will increase to $6 from $5, and monthly passes will bump up from $62 to $75. A Metro spokesm ... More >>

MTA Looks At $1.50 Fares, Laying Off One Of Every Five Non-Contract Workers

MTA​The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pondering deep cuts, including laying off 20 percent of its non-contact workforce, as it faces a $250 million budget deficit, according to La Opinion. Higher fares and fewer bus routes are also on the table. The paper reports that the heads of ... More >>

Supervisor Calls For Audit Of MTA After $30 Million Settlement

MTA​County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has proposed that his fellow board members help authorize an auditor-controller's office look into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's "cost management process" after it recently settled a lawsuit for $30 million. Ridley-Thomas notes that the a ... More >>

Light Rail Coming To The 'Wood And Beyond

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday approved a light-rail line that would run down the "Crenshaw corridor" from Exposition Boulevard to LAX. The line, which could open in 2018, would run through parts of Inglewood, Hawthorne and El Segundo as a much-needed north-sou ... More >>

L.A. Light Rail? Or Keep Your Car?

Villaraigosa's rush aside, the sales-tax increase won't pay off for decades

Running Joke: I Don’t Have a Car in L.A.

LA People 2009: No More Mr. Nice Guy — Damien Goodmon

Two Trains Running -- Or Maybe Not

MTA Headquarters: Have the deciders decided?Photo: Dave Parker/WikipediaDamien Goodmon, South L.A.'s indefatigable public transportation activist, is sounding an alarm about the possible shelving of rail projects in his heavily African American community. Goodmon's group, the Citizens' Campaign to F ... More >>

Rider on the Storm: The Best and Worst of L.A. Buses, Subways and Light Rail

Scenic journeys to hell, on wheels

Proposition R: The Most Expensive

Suburbanites hold the cards in approving a countywide sales-tax increase for mass transit

War Over MTA's "Eternity" Tax

The "temporary" sales tax would last 30 years. It's already set Eastside against Westside

Do You Trust MTA With $40 billion?

Vast sums spent on West Coast mass transit haven't paid off. Now they want a tax

Did Subway Cheaters Put Egg On L.A.'s Face?

MTA is dismantling the honor system, jacking up construction costs and lying about why

MTA's Plan to Gate L.A.

Miraculously, our subways use an honor system. The pencil pushers just hate that

Take This Car and Shove It

An Orwellian “100 percent parking reduction” rule quietly wends through City Hall

What's Smart About Smart Growth?

City Hall's plan for the future expects you to give up the yard, the car - and learn to love density

Go, Henry, Go

Light at the end of the Red Line tunnel

Letters

The Subway Mayor

How a bus-only politician — and a car-obsessed city — are learning to love the underground

Highs and Lows of L.A. Rail

Red Line to Somewhere

Henry Waxman is onboard — sort of

Let Them Pick Up Garbage

A plan for avoiding transit strikes in Los Angeles

Stuck in Idle

Political reasons for the sluggish MTA contract talks

Letters

Derailed Dreams

Bus Riders Union is bad for L.A.'s transit future

Almost Aboard

Eastside L.A. ponders its transit future

Smelly Buses

Audit finds sloppy procedures and interest conflicts in bus contract

The Arroyo Special

The Blue Line is a damned good idea — that costs too damned much

Letters

Fast Track

I got railroaded and now I’m hooked

1997 Timeline

Dig No More

But is this anyway to kill a subway?

Clean Air Takes Back Seat

Gridlock

A Weekly roundtable discussion on the future of transportation in Los Angeles (that is, on the future of Los Angeles)

Limited Access

Ramps and attitudes need fixing on L.A. public transit