I have yet to see the Con-Expo@Grade folks act in such an unhelpful and divisive fashion in any of the blogs where the Expo Line is discussed. We get that you folks are extremely frustrated with the lack of public transportation options in our fair city. We get that you’ve been waiting for a long, long, long time for a real commuter solution in the congested western part of the city. And now, finally, the Expo Line will provide a key piece of that solution. But wouldn’t you know it, there are complexities and concerns which your fellow citizens have that differ from yours because they will be directly and perhaps severely impacted in a way you will not be. Darn those pesky folks, they actually want their concerns addressed! And you have every right to disagree with them, but nothing justifies the ugliness you bring to the public discourse. You are not the only ones who feel frustration, impatience and wishing this could all be worked out ASAP so we could just get to utilize this long overdue public transportation. However if you want someone to blame for the threats of more delays, look in the mirror gents, because your denigration of fellow citizens does not move us towards the progress you so desperately want. On the contrary, you push the already concerned folks on the westside into a more defensive and entrenched position. If that is your plan to hasten the Expo Line into fruition I can see it’s going to be a long wait for us all. How about instead of attacking your fellow citizens you actually contribute to the solution, try listening to their concerns (as if your beloved Granny owed a house adjacent to the tracks) and then help them in their efforts to get some relief from the city. That is the ONLY way to hasten the arrival of the Expo Line and might even lower costs by avoiding lawsuits, etc. Or, you can continue to make your snarky comments and get older and older waiting the Expo Line to become a reality. Suck it up, dudes, and do the right thing. Otherwise you have become the “NIMBYS” you seem to so vehemently loathe. As in, “I don’t care that my fellow citizen’s neighborhoods have been ruined by the Expo Line because it’s NOT IN MY BACK YARD.”

Where did this take place?
In Highland Park…At Ave 61 the gated section of the Gold Line this was ruled a suicide by eyewitnesses and investigative reports
http://lafd.blogspot.com/2006/12/trespasser-killed-by-metro-gold-line.html

The problem is we know that at-grade trains result in more fatal collisions than grade separated trains. Were some of those people being reckless? Probably. But it’s still tragic, and bad press.

One thing Goodman talks about is externalities. The Blue line has resulted in over 90 fatal collisions in 20 years. Say (just making this up) 70 of those could have been avoided by grade separation (and the rest were suicides). So what’s the cost to society of those dead? Shouldn’t that be a “cost” that we explicitly consider when we decide which design is more expensive?

If you value human life at $5 million each (I know it’s ghoulish, but economists do it), grade separation could save over $10 million per year, $100 million per decade, $1 billion per century, on the Blue Line just by having a lower death toll. Hence, it truly pays for itself in the long run.

My description of the old systems wasn’t precise. They were actually streetcars (Los Angeles Railway) and interurbans that operated like streetcars closer to downtown (Pacific Electric Railway). For example, the Venice line westbound was a streetcar until Vineyard Junction (where Venice Bl and San Vicente Bl meet) and then it had its dedicated right-of-way to Venice. Vineyard Junction was where they had planned to build a subway to downtown which, surprise, never came to be.

If you weren’t around to see them in operation (I wasn’t), you can get an idea of what the Venice line looked like here (http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/vsline.htm). I was amazed that there was a partial 4 track (local/express) route to Pasadena (http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/psl.htm). When I look at these photos, it makes me want to cry to think of the great public transit system the LA metro area could have had by simply upgrading and adding to this rail backbone. It seems that since the 1980s this system is slowfully and painfully being resurrected from the grave. The Cheviot Hills people want to pour more dirt on it but it’s like a zombie that refuses to die. This just shows that a good idea can be killed but eventually it reincarnates in another form.

I also like noticing small details in these photos, like the newspaperboy standing on the corner of Venice & Vermont. I guess kids were smarter back then. They knew not to get in front of a moving train, unlike the students at Dorsey High.

Light Rail Tattler,

Your a little crazy. There is no doubt that political ‘lobbying’ goes on behind the scenes. It happens in all parts of the world, we are just not as transparent. When you get caught, it’s called bribery. When you don’t get caught, it’s called a ‘political donation’. I digress, that is a whole ‘nother issue.

Light rail through any means is a good thing. Buses suck.

Does anybody know about the bike path that was supposed to go along the side of the expo line?

The lawsuits would still be more cost-effective than the grade separations that even if they got them, they’d sue because it is going through their area. Besides the legal fees for the lawsuit and having an Light rail line serving the Westside is a LOT more cost effective than the regional cost of killing a vital transit project.

Few care.

Did you hear some of the drivers at the Expo board meeting? They were pissed. Take your case to them. Maybe they’ll drop their lawsuit.

The new system doesn’t operate in mixed traffic. The impact of a grade-crossing is no more than a streetlight.

Damn, now that you hate me, I guess I’ll have to cancel my plans to buy a “share the road” bumper sticker from your bike shop.

So, we decide to build at grade, the NIMBY homeowners sue, and Metro wastes money fighting off lawsuits. I wonder how many grade separations those legal fees could have bought.

I don’t know how carefully most voters read the fine print of Measure R. They probably just said more freeways, more money for local street repairs, more trains, more bus operating money (them talking: “I’ve heard about those trains, but I’ve never seen or ridden them”). Sure, what the hell.

Despite the passionate pleas from drivers that the at-grade crossings would turn their streets into parking lots and kill their children, the FEIR was passed. Sounds like drivers are not as influential as you think.

Measure R passed in West LA (remember, it had to pass with 2/3rds of the vote). This means that most West LA residents looked around at what kind of light rail other areas had, looked at the projects in Measure R (grade crossings and all), and said, yeah, we want this.

If there is a problem here, I guess democracy is to blame. Perhaps our politicians and 66% of us are all really, really stupid. Perhaps the geniuses are the ones posting paranoid rants on blogs.

“The Light Rail Train injures and kills with governmental immunity.”

Light rail is population control. Didn’t you get the memo?

Also, Siemens makes better trains that Breda so there.

This all of course was driven by various government policies, etc. Car culture wasn’t inevitable but a product of specific choices, deliberate or accidential.