Dennis RomeroLos Angeles is no longer the car-centric city it once was.
A thriving light-rail system, a resurgent community of bike riders, ride-sharing services aplenty, and a revival of inner-city living mean that L.A. is turning a corner away from being a freeway- and boulevard-dependent metropolis.
A new report by nonprofit consumer group Calpirg says that Los Angeles ranks fourth in the United States for top “high-tech transportation options.”
Among the L.A. options cited by the report, The Cities Where New Technologies and Tools Can Reduce Your Need to Own a Car, is Lyft Line, described as …
… a new option available on the regular Lyft app in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with Via in New York, calculate unique routes based on current requests for rides in the area, allowing riders to share a ride with other individuals at a fraction of the cost of a solo ride.
Bike sharing is also billed as a notable hi-tech transportation option, but it hasn't really hit L.A. just yet.
In any case, L.A. got its high ranking among 70 major U.S. cities based on an evaluation of “car sharing services like Zipcar, bike share and ride sharing systems, apps for navigating public transit and hailing taxis, and virtual ticket purchasing, among others,” Calpirg said in a statement this week.
Credit: Neil Kremer/Flickr
The report found that Los Angeles had nine high-tech transportation services available and 19 total service providers, helping us tie with Boston and New York on the Calpirg list. The organization says:
Los Angeles was recognized for having on-demand ways for drivers to connect with passengers going their same way (like ZimRide). LA has real-time transit tracking apps, but lacks a municipal bike share program at this time or transit agency apps to purchase virtual tickets.
Austin, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., ranked first through third, respectively, when it comes to high-tech transportation options. A Calpirg spokeswoman noted that “none of these options even existed a few years ago.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti was psyched about L.A.'s showing:
I'm so proud that the car capital of the world is evolving into a tech-transportation capital. LA's transportation options have grown at a break-neck speed, on pace with our tech industry, to the benefit of our environment and our economy. I'm proud of our leadership in transportation and look forward to continuing to serve as a hotbed of tech-enabled transit for decades to come.
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