Streetsblog Los Angeles

Photo: Sir Baldilocks/Flickr

(editor's note: This is the fourth part of our ongoing series where residents defend the "alternative transportation friendliness" of their community.  While I'm still taking submissions at damien@streetsblog.org; I thought I'd share my thoughts on my community.  You can read previous posts on Claremont, Downtown LA and Mid-Wilshire for inspiration.)

When my wife and I first discussed moving to Los Angeles, we had a lot of the concerns that East Coasters, scared by the daunting image of Los Angeles as a Car Culture Capital.  To counter our fears, we used the Walk Score website to pick a community that would at least be walkable.  Thus, we ended up in the border area between the Orthodox Community and West Hollywood, the neutral zone between Beverly and Melrose.

However, this area turned out to be a great place for non-auto transportation.  I now live two blocks away from two bus stops, and have a somewhat longer although easily manageable walk to the Beverly Rapid Lines.  In about twenty minutes, these buses can take me to the Red Line stop at Beverly and Vermont where I can take a train that connects me anywhere.  A three seat ride isn't a perfect trip, but I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go via transit with a minimum of walking.

But the ability to walk to get pretty much anything one wants or needs is the real attraction of the area.  The open-seven-day-a-week Third Street Farmer's Market at Third and Fairfax is the anchor of walkability; but the wide sidewalks and crossings needed by the Orthodox community provides as complete a pedestrian network as you're going to find anywhere in the city.

Food, entertainment, shopping is all a half mile walk away.  For someone like me, that loves to cook, to have access to an organic market, a Ralph's, a Trader Joe's, a Whole Foods and the Farmer's Market all within a mile trip; well, that's a piece of heaven.  And I still haven't even mentioned the Pan Pacific Park right in the heart of the area for anyone looking for some open space.

While nobody is going to mistake Fairfax for Silverlake anytime soon, you have easy access to 4th Street for a relatively easy ride most of the way Downtown and can take local streets to the attractions along Melrose or Hollywood Boulevard.

Fairfax may not be the first place that comes to mind when Angelenos think of car-free, or in my place car-reduced, living; but there is something for users of every mode of transportation.

Claremont Station. Photo: Szoksnapshot/Flickr

(editor’s note: For more people stating the case for their communities, check out Dana Gabbard’s love of the Wilshire Corridor and Steven Frein’s description of the Downtown)

I just got back from Cambridge, England, where I stayed for 2 weeks. The city of about 100,000 seems to have more bikes than people, and indeed the medieval city core streets are closed during many parts of the week to car traffic. There is convenient bus and rail to local and long distance destinations. I did not set foot in a care the entire time I was there.

In Claremont, as in Cambridge, you can be carless. It’s true that we’re talking about suburbia (population 35,000). However, Claremont has a walkable/bikeable downtown village that provides all kinds of services and entertainment. Larger grocery stores and other services just outside the village are easily reached by walking or biking. Foothill Transit provides local and longer-distance bus service.

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Photo: Marco Siguenza/Flickr

(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of local residents talking up their neighborhood in an effort to discover Los Angeles’ best community for car-free living based on transit accessibility as well as bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.   Yesterday the Southern California Transit Advocate’s Dana Gabbard took up for the Wilshire Corridor.  Today Steven Frein speaks up for Downtown Los Angeles)

Living in Downtown Los Angeles give me a distinct advantage
in being able to use public transit to get to anywhere in the greater Los Angeles area. 
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) benefits from the “all
roads lead to Rome”
syndrome as most bus and subway lines begin or terminate in the downtown
area.   DTLA has a variety of local and regional lines that make it
impossible not to use public transportation to get anywhere relatively easy.

I often take the bus from DTLA to Glendale for work.  There are several
routs to choose from and I have tried them all.  I enjoy crating new opportunities
of seeing the city using the vast infrastructure that is afforded to downtown
residents.  The question of best community for transit is a good one but
living in DTLA takes the cake with availability of service.  I know some communities
are underserved and I hope we can improve transit options in those areas, but
for me, DTLA is the clear winner in this question of best.

The Tut Bus in front of the LACMA. Photo: The Metro Library

(Editor's Note: This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of residents defending their community as the best for car-free living in Los Angeles.  Make your submissions to damien@streetsblog.org.  For more information on the series, visit yesterday's story.)

I am a resident of the Wilshire corridor (especially the stretch from Alvarado to Fairfax). I live, work and do most of my living along that famous boulevard. And do so easily sans car. Wilshire is lined with places to eat, nightspots, markets, medical offices, famous museums, etc. Apartment complexes cluster in the Miracle Mile, Wilshire Center, Westlake, etc.

Daytime you have frequent local public transit service from Metro (Line 20--downtown L.A. to Westwood Bl.) and Big Blue Bus (Line 2--Westwood Blvd. to downtown Santa Monica). Overnight line 20 serves the entire street (16 miles!) with owl service that operates on a 30 minute headway! Plus you have the Rapid 720 and during weekday peak the Super Express 920 for key linkages and long-distance travel. Western Ave. to downtown L.A. is also served by the Metro subway. Several neighborhoods (Koreatown, Miracle Mile, Pico/Union) have DASH community circulators. And via various connections you have access to the web of Rapid, busway and Metro Rail services that criss-cross the County plus Metrolink and Amtrak for regional access and beyond. It can be mindboggling when you understand how transit access along Wilshire works and how to make use of it.

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