Comments on: How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/02/02/how-can-transit-backers-sway-conservatives-oberstar-joins-the-debate/ Covering Los Angeles's livable streets movement Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:34:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Erik G. http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/02/02/how-can-transit-backers-sway-conservatives-oberstar-joins-the-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-141271 Erik G. Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:13:58 +0000 http://la.streetsblog.org/?p=31001#comment-141271 I'm always hesitant to use Berlin as an example, Damien. They had a bit of planning "help" from the RAF, the USAF and Red Army Artillery, and then West Berlin ended up with under-utilized ring-railways like the above thanks to the policies of the Soviet Union and the then East German SED, now the German political party PDS. IIRC, the corridor above was once all railway but then had the road added when the railway was cut-off from the East German Reichsbahn (Reichsbahn controlled the railways in West Berlin too) system by the Berlin wall. Of course we have examples too such as I-10 through East L.A. (on the former PE ROW, which still exists as the one-track San Bernardino Metrolink Line) and I-90/Mass Pike into Boston along the former Boston and Albany ROW, which is still used for commuter and passenger trains to Framingham, Worcester and on to Chicago. That said, I think Berlin is a great example for L.A. interms of bike and pedestrian planning. The city is very spread out, infact it is less dense than L.A. The bike track system was begun in West Berlin in the mid 1980's and has now been expanded into the former Soviet Sector of the city since the reunification of the city in 1990; there was no bicycle path/track/loane system at all in East Berlin during the existence of the DDR! If only L.A. could have such a system 25 years from now! I’m always hesitant to use Berlin as an example, Damien. They had a bit of planning “help” from the RAF, the USAF and Red Army Artillery, and then West Berlin ended up with under-utilized ring-railways like the above thanks to the policies of the Soviet Union and the then East German SED, now the German political party PDS.

IIRC, the corridor above was once all railway but then had the road added when the railway was cut-off from the East German Reichsbahn (Reichsbahn controlled the railways in West Berlin too) system by the Berlin wall. Of course we have examples too such as I-10 through East L.A. (on the former PE ROW, which still exists as the one-track San Bernardino Metrolink Line) and I-90/Mass Pike into Boston along the former Boston and Albany ROW, which is still used for commuter and passenger trains to Framingham, Worcester and on to Chicago.

That said, I think Berlin is a great example for L.A. interms of bike and pedestrian planning. The city is very spread out, infact it is less dense than L.A. The bike track system was begun in West Berlin in the mid 1980′s and has now been expanded into the former Soviet Sector of the city since the reunification of the city in 1990; there was no bicycle path/track/loane system at all in East Berlin during the existence of the DDR!

If only L.A. could have such a system 25 years from now!

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