Streetsblog Los Angeles

James McDuffie, Metro safety ambassador, stands at his post at Flower and 23rd Sts. photo: sahra

“Ooh — careful!” I gestured to James McDuffie, a safety ambassador for the Expo Line, as a bicyclist came riding up quickly behind him on the sidewalk.

McDuffie shook his head as the 50-something year old gentleman passed between us without slowing down. Together, we watched him shoot out from one sidewalk, cross diagonally through the intersection (and train tracks) at Flower and 23rd Sts., and hop up onto the sidewalk on the other side.

“He comes through [here] every day,” said McDuffie.

And every day, the man rides the sidewalk along Flower St. and heads diagonally across the intersection without much regard for the light. McDuffie says he hasn’t been able to get the man to heed any of his requests to slow down or wait for the light.

“Even the Sheriff told him to wait once,” said McDuffie, apparently to no avail.

Bicyclists’ tendency to disobey traffic regulations are the biggest safety concern, says McDuffie. As safety ambassador, part of his job is to help educate the public about how to navigate the intersections where the Expo Line passes through. But because of their speed and positioning in the road, he can’t reach out to cyclists as easily as he can pedestrians. He had had to watch helplessly as a cyclist heading eastbound on 23rd St. turned southward onto Flower St. without looking and was hit by a car just a few days prior.

“There are a lot of close calls with bicyclists,” he said.

Not that pedestrians are particularly receptive to his requests to obey traffic regulations, even when it is in their best interests.

“Hey, sir! Don’t stand on the track!” McDuffie called out to a young man who had ignored the yellow and black “Wait Here” signs painted on the sidewalk and stepped out into the middle of the tracks.

Hearing McDuffie, the youth slowly backed his way to the sidewalk without looking at us. And then appeared confused when the light changed but the white “walk” sign didn’t appear.

“You can go now,” McDuffie suggested, encouraging him to push the pedestrian crossing button next time.

Beyond education, safety ambassadors must keep track of how people are using the intersection. The data he provides to Metro is used to improve safety signage and infrastructure at crossings.

He’s seen some of his suggestions materialize in the form of larger and more visible signage at crossings.

But other things remain unaddressed. Read more…

Looking down from a bridge in Cheviot Hills at the proposed future Expo Bike Path. Photo:LA Streetsblog/Flickr

A group of Cheviot Hills residents who’s property abuts the proposed Expo Bikeway on the Westside of Los Angeles have filed suit for the second time in two years alleging that environmental clearances given the bikeway were given in error.  Their first lawsuit, filed in June 2010, resulted in the City of Los Angeles and Caltrans reversing their original environmental clearance decisions and re-working their studies.  The bikeway was granted a second environmental clearance, known as a Categorical Exclusion (CE), in November of 2011.

The second Categorical Exclusion (published here, on Streetsblog) was received no better than the first.  Attorney S. Zachary Samuels filed suit again alleging that the new CE is no better than the old one.   While the current complaint is not available online, passages appearing on Courthouse News sound word for word identical to ones from the 2010 lawsuit.  Named in the suit are the FHWA, who provide the $2.5 million budget for the bikeway, Caltrans, who granted the CE, the City of Los Angeles, who applied for the CE and Metro, who is responsible for building the bike path.

The lawsuit only covers the portion of the bike route in the City of Los Angeles, and not the part in the City of Santa Monica.  The 3.85 miles of bikeway would run mostly along the Exposition right-of-way owned by Metro from Robertson Boulevard and Venice Boulevard to Centinela Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard where the path is picked up by Santa Monica.

Details on the lawsuit are sketchy, but based on what appears in the Courthouse News article, we can make some assumptions about the lawsuit’s chances of being successful.

The homeowners say the bike path would run behind their properties and “through what is now green space which serves as a buffer between the I-10 freeway and the plaintiff’s homes and other homes.”

Read more…

Night riders on the Expo Line include people headed to L.A. Live and a 24-hour recycling center on Alameda

“Can you really take your bike on the train??” one of the two girls at the Expo/Vermont station asked me, incredulous.

I had just ridden up from a meeting with the folks from City Lites about their upcoming sports and health event and thought it would be a good opportunity to see who was riding the Expo Line. I’d been keeping an eye on the stations all week and hadn’t seen more than a few people at the stops at any given time.

“Yes, of course,” I told her, a little puzzled. Then it dawned on me. “Have you ridden the train before?”

“No, this is our first time!” she looked at her friend. “We’re really excited!”

Although now at the end of their first year as grad students at USC, they complained they still found L.A. “really hard to navigate” and the idea of riding a bike “terrifying.” So, the Expo Line represented a painless portal to adventure and freedom to them.

I was a bit surprised at how full the train was when it pulled up. I mean, it wasn’t Red or Blue Line-full, but there was at least one rider on each side in every row of seats. I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised — it was 9:30 on a Thursday night and many of the folks on board were headed either to L.A. Live or somewhere downtown to go out.

Night riders on the Expo Line.

Read more…

Kids describe what a healthy community looks like to them at the Advancement Project's booth at the South L.A. Rising event. photo: sahra

If you were an alien that landed in L.A. this weekend, you could be forgiven if the juxtaposition of the festivities surrounding the opening of the Expo Line and the ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots (Civil Unrest or Rebellion, depending on your perspective) left you a little confused.

Flying over South L.A. in your UFO, you would have seen a number of things that might have seemed contradictory: Small armies of parents taking their kids to ride the new Expo Line shepherded safely by colorfully-dressed Metro ambassadors; a small and rather rag-tag group of zombies dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in a parking lot near one of the train stations;

Zombie flash mob at the Crenshaw stop of the Expo Line.

TRUST South L.A.’s flash mob asking Metro to consider the housing rights of residents living near the train stops; theater performances by the Watts Village Theater Company; the Community Coalition-sponsored gathering at 81st and Vermont celebrating South L.A. Rising; and two separate gatherings on the corners of Florence and Normandie — a riled-up one led by a group called the Coalition for Community Control over Police and a more celebratory one led by the 77th Street Area Community Police Advisory Board and the 77th Street Area Clergy Council.

B.C. from the Black Riders (the new generation of Black Panthers) after her speech calling for African Americans to unite to fight the system instead of each other.

Although seemingly disparate, the events were linked by underlying messages of unity and a call for all Angelenos to invest in South L.A. and participate in breaking down the boundaries between it and the rest of the city. Read more…

Touring Expo phase II corridor by bike with contractors, planners, and Expo BAC members. Photo from the pedestrian bridge overlooking the trench right of way following the 10 freeway crossing.

On Earth Day this past Sunday, the Expo Line Phase II Bicycle Advisory Committee, of which I am a member, was given a tour of the Expo corridor and bikeway proposals with a few of the private consultants and public planners involved in the project. Looking at diagrams is never a sufficient replacement for some on the ground perspective, so I was glad we had this opportunity to scope everything out. It was also exciting to see a few testing trains in operation in preparation for tomorrow’s opening.  I had not had a chance to get out and see the trains in action previously.

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A small contingent of BAC members and interested parties met up a little earlier than the scheduled meeting where Phase II begins, to take a look at the tail end of the Phase I bike route and get a sense for how it will flow together. While I am incredibly excited about the opening of the Expo Line, looking at the bikeway connections in Phase I did not inspire confidence in Metro and LADOT’s ability to plan for pedestrian and bicycle facilities to connect to rail stations.

As with many grand infrastructure projects, the engineering of Phase I overlooks many of the details of both form and function that matter to people at the street level. Either they still don’t get it, or Metro and LADOT just don’t care to make more than a minimal or required effort. What ever the case, bicycling was clearly the afterthought in the Expo planning and engineering.

Even simple and inexpensive things such as wayfinding are deficient, especially where on-street facilities transition to off-street paths. The crosswalk connecting to the La Cienega station from the northeast intersection corner was less than ideal. It is broken up by a right turn pocket with a traffic island. The island had landscaping across most of it, narrowing it to a small choke point, reducing the functionality of the island for people trying to get across and limiting standing room.

Even when building trains, it still seems that it’s all about the car in L.A. Getting a new bike route is better than the former lack of one.  In the case of the Phase I Bike Path, critical deficiencies at various points diminish the usefulness of this route as a feeder for the rail line or as a stand alone facility.  Metro representatives often remind me that cars take priority at intersections and cannot have their green time affected.  Bicycling ridership is modest, they say, never acknowledging that bicycling remains marginal because it is marginalized by design.

Take for example the absurdity of this post on bicycling safety along the Expo Line from Metro’s The Source. Riders are directed in the post to cross tracks as close as possible to 90 degree angles, but the bike lane striping pictured does not allow enough room to do so properly. Have none of the people responsible for designing streets and rail crossings ridden a bike since they were children? The depth of incompetence and lack of basic understanding of operating a bicycle within the American traffic engineering profession never ceases to amaze and dumbfound me. Read more…

As part of a collaboration with Intersections, South L.A. I had a chance to speak with Damien Goodmon, the head of the Citizen’s Campaign to Fix the Expo Line.  While I jokingly refer to Goodmon as “my evil twin,” a reference to both some people getting us confused and his no-holds barred style of advocacy; I’ve come to respect him for relentlessly pushing his causes even though I don’t agree with him all the time. Of course, I’ve never been on the receiving end of one of his attacks.

On Monday, we were joined by Intersections’ film maker Molly Gray and we chatted about the campaign, lessons learned, the Crenshaw Suhway, and what are the next steps for the Citizens’ Campaign.  At one point (not included on the film) he stresses that it’s the Citizen’s Campaign to FIX the Expo Line, not defeat it.  In their view, there are still crossings that need to be improved before they can rest.

When asked about Farmdale Station, Ground Zero for the battle over grade crossings and safety, and whether he was happy with it, Goodmon gave a complicated answer, “Absolutely not. But it’s hard not to claim victory when you see what they were going to do at this intersection and others … I want to believe the kids are safer than they would have been. Safe would have been grade separating it.”

Intersections posted the video as well, feel free to join the conversation there as well.

WVTC Performer Raul Cardona with Lady Gaga wax figure. Photo Credit: WVTC

In economics, “free riders” are usually a bad thing.

Starting Saturday, however, Metro encourages you to test out the Expo Line on its opening weekend by free riding to your heart’s content (well, from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M., that is).

To make the proposition more inviting, Metro is throwing itself a party on wheels.

To kick off the events at the new stop at Expo Park/USC, members of the Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) will board trains with riders, traveling with them and performing site-specific, cultural pieces at several stops. Attendees will have the opportunity to take (and keep) Polaroid photos with performers. Performances are scheduled for 10:00 to 10:30 A.M. at the Expo Park/USC Station, 11:00 to 11:30 A.M. at the La Cienega Station, and 2:00 to 2:30 P.M. at the 7th St./Metro Center Station.

Because one theater experience on a train is never enough, a mime from the 24th Street Theatre will travel along the line and performing at the four major stops of the route. And yes, I’m pretty sure that their mime will be a lot better than this guy. Read more…

Metro offers "ethnic media" a preview tour of the new Expo Line. photo: sahra

I was invited to join other members of the “ethnic media” (Metro’s term, not mine) yesterday for a preview of the Expo Line. Set to open to the public on April 28th, trips between Culver City and downtown L.A. along the 8.6 miles of new line will be free all of next weekend.

The Metro folks were genuinely excited to be opening the new line to the city and eager to share their hopes for the economic benefits it would bring, plans for the expansion of the rail system to other parts of town, and the extensive safety campaigns that had been waged to educate the neighbors of the new line and the people that traversed it regularly.

They forgot to mention the crash that had happened just that morning at a crossing near USC.

The incident occurred at an intersection where cars previously could turn left without having to wait for a signal. My observation of that intersection (which has been intermittent) is that some people seem to be confused by the change and try to take the turn anyways. Waiting for that signal to change so you can make a left can be frustrating — the sensors don’t pick up bikes and, apparently, do not pick up the lighter golf-cart type vehicles staff at USC sometimes use to get around campus. The driver of one such cart, realizing that the signal wasn’t going to change, felt he had no choice but to take his chances and cross the tracks. Trying to merge back into traffic or cross lanes to push the pedestrian crossing button were not viable options for him at rush hour.

There are several intersections along the Expo line path where left turns are now regulated or, in the case of the Gramercy – Expo intersection, are just plain confusing. Read more…

It's over. Maybe.

As excitement builds over the soon-to-be opening of Phase I of the Expo Line, it appears the legal challenges to Phase II may be at an end.  Earlier today, the State of California Court of Appeals Second Appellate Division Eight formally rejected the appeal of an earlier decision that the Expo Construction Authority followed state environmental laws when completing the environmental review of Phase II of the Expo Line that will complete the light rail line from Culver City to Santa Monica.

The entire draft of the ruling can be found here, but here is the most relevant paragraph.  Streetsblog will continue to update this story as people react to the ruling:

We find no merit in petitioner‟s contentions and affirm the judgment. Because we  disagree with Sunnyvale and Madera, and hold that use of projected future conditions as  a baseline for analyzing environmental impacts is proper in this case, we publish that  portion of our opinion.

Update I, 3:00 P.M.: So, it’s probably not over.  A lawyer familiar with CEQA cases and this case in particular notes some language makes an appeal to the California Supreme Court likely because the appeals court disagreed with existing case law from the Sunnyvale decision which said that CEQA studies should be based on existing conditions and not future ones.

Oct. 24, 1990.

As long as I've known Darrell Clarke, he's been willing to defend and promote the Expo Line to anyone who will listen. At the 2008 "Car-Free Wilshire" event on Earth Day, he manned the booths for the Sierra Club and Friends for Expo Transit. Photo:Wad/Flickr

That is the date when the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, one of the predecessor agencies to Metro, purchased the right of way from Southern Pacific that the Exposition Line is being built on. The remarkable thing is among those commenting on the item at the LACTC meeting nearly a quarter century ago is Darrell Clarke. Clarke has been a stalwart advocate of the Expo Line whose role in making it happen cannot be overstated (as has been noted previously on this blog).

It all started with a vision shared by a small group of committed activists along the Exposition corridor. Under the name Committee to Preserve the Right-of-Way they worked to convince the powers that be that the alignment, which Southern Pacific had ceased using for freight service in the late 1980′s, be purchased to save it for use for a light rail line linking downtown Los Angeles and the Westside. Clarke teamed with a rail buff named Russell Davies who also spoke at the 1990 meeting to build support for the purchase. Davies continues his involvement with advocacy to this day as a longtime member of Metro’s Citizens’ Advisory Council.

In that pre-Power Point era they presented an actual slide show to officials, neighborhood associations, business groups and anyone else who might potentially influence the decision makers. By no means was winning the purchase of the alignment a slam dunk. You’ll note there was a gentleman speaking at the 1990 meeting against the purchase on behalf of what then called itself the Coalition Against Residential Rail, the precursor to what is now a coalition of Westside neighborhood groups known as Neighbors for Smart Rail.

The following year the advocates, re-named the Exposition Rail Committee, were at work continuing to answer the claims of the NIMBYs. In 1992, a Preliminary Planning Study was done of the right-of-way followed two years later by a refining Final Draft Phase I Summary Report.

The late 90s were a time of great upheaval at Metro. The consent decree between the agency and the Bus Riders Union which required certain bus level of service standards turned out to be far more expensive to implement than the Board believed when they consented to the decree. The Red Line extension west was stymied by a myriad of natural and man-made forces: Methane along Wilshire, hydrogen sulfite under the alternative routing to Pico/San Vicente, passage of Proposition A in 1998, and certain budget realities. The Eastside Subway Project was converted to light rail and still managed to keep its federal funding. Westside transportation needs in this period underwent numerous studies that took into account the emerging interest in Bus Rapid Transit. Its hard to believe, but there was once serious talk of having BRT along Exposition.

In 2000, Clarke and other concerned advocates formed Friends 4 Expo Transit to promote light rail on the Exposition right-of-way. After a lot of old fashioned grassroots organizing the light rail proponents prevailed in their quest to get Metro to support light rail on the corridor. On June 28, 2001 the Metro Board picked light rail as the Locally Preferred Alternative (agenda item #49B) for the Exposition Corridor from downtown Los Angeles to Venice/Robertson. Read more…