LOS ANGELES — From Crenshaw to Century City to Little Tokyo, workers are digging tunnels, laying track, and building stations in a massive expansion of LA Metro’s rail system. Billions of dollars are being poured into three major projects even as ridership continues a multi-year slide. LA Metro wants to reverse that decline.
Total ridership on Metro’s subway and light rail lines dropped 4.9 percent in 2018 from the prior year and 7.3 percent over the past five years. Dave Sotero, spokesman for LA Metro, says it is a long-term trend that’s not limited to Los Angeles. “It’s a shifting of transportation patterns that is being observed across the country,” he tells Trains News Wire.
There are bright spots. Ridership on the light rail Expo Line, which runs between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica, grew slightly last year and has more than doubled since 2013. The Gold Line, from East Los Angeles through downtown LA to Azusa, declined 3.4 percent last year but is up 25 percent over five years. But the overall downward trend is troubling for a car-centric metropolis that seeks to relieve its traffic congestion and reduce its carbon footprint.
Sotero calls it the Uber/Lyft phenomenon: “People are taking different ways of getting around where they need to go. They may not be using the transit system as much as they have been prior to the advent of these services.”
San Francisco, New York, Boston, and other cities have seen transit ridership wane and have also pointed toward ride-hailing services. A widely cited report by transportation consultant Bruce Schaler projected that these companies would collectively carry 4.2 billion passengers in 2018. Uber started in 2009 and Lyft in 2012.
A separate report from the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis found that Uber and Lyft users in major cities reduced their reliance on bus transit by 6 percent and light rail by 3 percent. But the effect of these services is more nuanced, especially in Los Angeles.
While nearly 20 million reside in the LA metropolitan area, its population density nowhere rivals that of New York, Boston, Chicago, or other large US cities. Numerous freeways, wide streets, and ample parking encourage driving. Even in rapidly-growing downtown LA, most residential buildings provide on-site parking. “In a place like southern California that is designed for a car, if you don’t own one, chances are you wish you did,” says Michael Manville at UCLA’s Luskin School of Urban Affairs.
Manville notes that transit ridership in Southern California started to fall more than 10 years ago, pre-Uber, suggesting that other issues are involved. The most significant of these, he says, is vehicle ownership.
From 2000 to 2015, the share of households in the region without vehicles fell by 30 percent. A 2018 report Manville authored concluded that “living in a household without a vehicle is perhaps the strongest single predictor of transit use.”
In Los Angeles, that’s less of a choice than an economic necessity. Data from each of these studies agree that ride-hailing users skew younger, more affluent, and more college-educated. Public transportation use in Southern California is highly concentrated: 60 percent of transit commuters live in 21 percent of the area’s census tracts. While total transit travel in the LA metropolitan area ranks just behind the tri-state New York City region, per-capita transit use ranks 10th, behind Seattle, Philadelphia, and Honolulu.
“We are focused on increasing ridership,” Sotero says, noting the construction projects, plans to expand and improve the rail network, and added security to counter safety concerns.
While eastern cities are struggling with 100-year-old transit infrastructure, LA’s oldest light rail line dates to 1990. Nevertheless, the Blue Line, connecting Long Beach with downtown Los Angeles, is in need of repair and upgrade. LA Metro is spending $350 million this year to replace tracks in street-running segments and replace the entire 22-mile catenary system. Four additional crossovers will be installed and the signal system is being upgraded.
To complete the work in the shortest possible time, LA Metro elected to close entire segments of the Blue Line on a rolling schedule. From January through May, service is suspended from downtown Long Beach to the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station. Following that, through September, the northern section from downtown Los Angeles to Willowbrook will close. Bus shuttles are being provided. When the work is complete, riders will see refreshed stations with additional amenities including digital train status displays.
Now, LA Metro is looking to “partnerships with private companies to help with the first mile/last mile connections to the transit system,” says Sotero. A one-year pilot program with ride-sharing company Via allows Metro riders to call for rides to three stations: Artesia, El Monte, and North Hollywood. Although fares are subsidized by LA Metro, it will still cost $1.75 with a TAP card and $3.75 without. But ridesharing, which is also offered by Uber and Lyft, means other riders may be picked along the way.
The agency’s newest partnership brings the concept of car-sharing to 25 Metro park-and-ride lots. San Francisco-based Getaround enables vehicle owners to rent out their cars while they are unused. Metro says prices start at five dollars per hour and include insurance and roadside assistance. Shared cars are equipped with hardware and software to locate and unlock the car through the Getaround app, eliminating a physical transfer of keys.
But will these initiatives be enough to stem the loss of transit riders? As long as private automobiles remain attractive economically and by convenience, experts see an uphill battle. “You need to not have land-use policies that encourage people to drive everywhere,” says UCLA’s Manville.
That’s a tough prescription for Angelenos used to their cars. But along with building out and enhancing its transportation network, LA Metro is testing the waters of technology to attract new riders and bring back those who have defected. In Sotero’s view, “We’re one of the most ambitious agencies in terms of trying to change the paradigm.”
I guess everyone commenting has forgotten about the LA basin’s Pacific Electric network of yesteryear, the 1100 mile system going virtually everywhere from Anaheim to San Fernando, Santa Monica to Riverside. Had it and let it dissipate until almost everything was gone at the end of the 60s. Right up there with Pittsburgh’s destruction of its commuter service and abandonment of the NY,W&/Boston in greater NYC, or the C,NS&M and C,A&E in Chicagoland. Anyone remember Texas Electric? The list goes on, as do the failures to recognize the assets by all parties at the time.
While the debate rages over public transit vs private auto and such ride hailing services as Uber and Lyft, let us not forget that nothing stays the same and things always change. The day will come when Uber and Lyft will also be a relic of the past and everybody will either be traveling by driverless cars or even passenger carrying drones and let us not forget as far fetched as it might seem the so called Star Trek technology of beingbeamed up or being ableto move oneself through the air or over great distances is not so far fetched after all. As for today’s generation and the life style of today, people buy, sell and trade through the internet. People either work from home or spend more than half of their day at the office working and given the chance, more companies will be erecting facilities for their employees to eat, sleep and spend whatever free time they have within their facilities which will be like the old company towns of the last century and no need to commute or travel from work to home and back thus eliminating the need for any public transit. Who needs public transit when everyting you do is done through the internet and no need to travel when everything is brought to you, No matter what improvements or advances are made in public transit, there will always be a generation of people who prefer the freedom of being able to go where and when they desire on their own scheduleswithout being held within the constraints and waiting for a train a trolley or a bus. Just imagine what comes next when and if another generation learns how to fly and own their own flying craft whether that be a hybrid auto/plane or a drone.. A bit of history here: Back in the old days when this nation was being settled and people were forever moving, there was no such thing as public transit Almost everybody had a horse or carriage or a wago and if you lived near a river or lake you traveded with your canoe or a raft. An it is not much different today if you look at and compare historical periods.
There are many issues with transit, some of which are mentioned below. Perhaps the biggest is the limited service area: once you step off the train, you’re on foot, and you can’t get very far on foot very fast, so your overall trip time becomes longer very quickly as compared to other modes. Transit oriented development helps, but only goes so far.
I’d recommend a system with smaller stations, shorter trains, fewer stations, higher frequency (10 minutes or less, 5 minutes or less being ideal especially on shorter lines), more hubs, and autonomous vehicles to get you where you’re going when you step off the train. I’m working on a web page to talk about and demonstrate this. I can post a link if that is allowed.
Blaming Uber/Lyft for ridership declines is like Krispy Kreme blaming the Atkins Diet. There is a couple of ways to increase anything in self-conscious LA. 1) Have the Kardashians feature an episode riding the Metro with their kids. 2) Have the next Marvel movie premiere where the stars arrive live by Metro (don’t forget the red carpet) 3) Have the local media cover a hijacked train by helicopters as it passes through the city. Everyone will flock to the stations and ROW to be seen. 4) Film the next Tom Cruise|Mission Impossible stunt act on the Metro 5) Require the LA Lakers and LA Clippers to ride Metro to reach the Staples Center on game day. 6) Have U2 do an impromptu concert on the roof of a Metro station singing “where the trains have no name”.
After all of that, if it isn’t cache to ride the LA Metro, nothing will help.
Mr. Good – you hit the nail on the head. Especially the part about inflated rider estimates. Also transportation planners present unrealistic costs, which lead to massive cost overruns down the road. This all leads to outrageous cost per passenger mile for these systems. All of which has to be made up for by the taxpaying public.
I would hardly characterize transit investment (in general) as wasteful; it is merely incomplete. Remember, sprawling, auto-centric development is not only terrible environmentally, but also costs the economy untold billions every year in inefficient/long commutes and forced road investment. The takeaway should be less that transit is a waste in that context, but instead that it needs to be a part of a larger effort to reform land use/streets in the country.
As a former food retailing executive, I can tell you why ridership is down – convenience and time of travel. In the supermarket business if your store entry and exit points are not convenient you get fewer customers. If your store is off the beaten path it takes time and people do not come to it.
Where we live relative to where we work makes public transit inconvenient and time consuming. Unlike Europe (or New York City) the U.S. just does not have the “density” of travel to make public transit and particularly light rail a good mode of travel. If it does not come close to my residence and take me close to my job it is not worthwhile the trouble.
It is quite easy to understand this using zip code studies of where people live and where they work. Apparently the planners of these systems do not know how do do something this simple and wind up with inflated rider estimates.It is not Uber or Lyft; it is stupid planners who waste billions of our money.
Study after study after study has shown that millennials positively detest driving. But you know what they detest more? Waiting, especially without predictability. This is why running *frequent* (ie >= 6 vehicles per hour) service on most lines is essential, as is making sure said vehicles move at a good enough speed (bus lanes and LRT separated from traffic) and that said vehicles go where people want to go (in LA’s case, redesigning the bus network, which to their credit is underway). Put those things together, and you get a network like Seattle…one which incidentally has increasing patronage.
Generally, I wouldn’t expect LAMTA’s ridership density figures to really start to amaze until they reform land use and make that place walkable. Those two things are central to ridership.
To the points about security: a lot of concerns recently raised about that end of things are really just roundabout ways of saying that large, transit rich cities are suffering from their success insofar as they have homelessness crises. While I agree that police presence is a plus (esp for women, given harassment rates), I think there needs to also be a cognizance that some of these issues are societal.
I want people to ride trains but I also do not understand why people don’t like driving. Cars are fun, you are in control, and can go anywhere at any time. They are no wanting to force us in self driving cars. Driving builds skills that help keep brain skills fresh. Why not punish the people who cause wrecks by using their cell phones etc? As far as mass transit. Keep the homeless people and criminals off the trains and the property. Do what DC has done…a very complex pass system to even enter the stations. No sharing either.
I completely agree with David Wire’s and the others’ comments about security being the number one issue. I also noticed that security personnel were “everywhere” initially, with clean train interiors. Now, I rarely see onboard security. I have also experienced intimidation, panhandling and other undesirable behavior. I always carefully check my seat before sitting down to avoid getting my clothing dirty or wet.
If this is the problem, bring back security, and bring back the honour system. The only caveat is, this being Los Angeles, they do not hire goons to do security.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn shyster.
So the article explains why the metro is less needed and can’t adapt into even an outdated unsustainable city model, and we cheer that they are wasting more money on this? Maybe we finally found a useful place for PSR.
So much for the notion that millennials “despise” driving. Although I would believe that Millennials are the generation that uses Uber and Lyft the most. Most millennials I know wouldn’t be caught dead on public transit.
Security is much more of an issue than these transit systems realize, particularly among young women. When I visit a friend in St. Louis I pay the $50 cab fare from the airport to his office in midtown rather than ride the crime infested light rail line. It may not be as crime infested as I perceive it to be but perception is reality for a lot of things.
No two ways about it, if you live in Southern California you gotta have a car. This is not to say that I would not use the transit system were I still living there. From Pasadena (my general area of range) I would take the Gold Line downtown. And if I can at all avoid it – and I have driven in downtown Los Angeles, so I know what it is like – I would not take a vehicle into the downtown core.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
The transit systems that are being built now will be vital for future generations.
What we’re finding is that transit (like freeways, sewers, bridges or any infrastructure) requires maintenance and upgrades. Often, the newer infrastructure costs more to maintain because it’s more extensive and more elaborate (wheelchair lifts, etc.)
I have ridden metros in Boston, New York, Chicago, SF- Oakland (BART and MUNI), Toronto, London, Montreal, Cleveland, Washington, and Edmonton, all hours of the day and evening in all sorts of neighborhoods, without ever feeling a moment of fear. I’d be scared out of my mind to dial up UBER or LYFT.
You folks have hit the nail on the head. Back when the Blue Line opened, there were no turnstiles. Fare inspections was done by big, burly, no-nonsense policemen, who boarded trains frequently. There was also a zero tolerance for breaking rules, famously exemplified by a rider who was ticketed for sucking on a cough drop. Even though the Blue Line runs through the worst neighborhoods in Southern California, it was clean and safe.
Not any more.
The patrols lessened over the years. Enforcement got more lax. They went to turnstiles instead of the honor system. Nowadays, people eat, sell food, drink, smoke pot, put on performances for spare change, on the trains. One rarely sees security personnel. There’s are also a lot of reports of sexual harassment.
Oh, and the Expo line’s ridership doubled since 2013 because the second half of the line was completed since then, making a trip from downtown LA to Santa Monica possible.
Indeed, fear of being a victim pushes so many to choose Uber/Lyft over public transportation. In areas rife with random shootings, like Chicago those of us who’d really prefer to choose inexpensive public transportation are simply not going to do so – out of fear for our well being. Or life, for that matter.
Indeed, fear of being a victim