This morning, the Hollywood Entertainment District, the local Business Development District, and City Council President Eric Garcetti announced the opening of a new website to help residents and visitors better navigate the streets of Hollywood. Navigatehollywood.com is still ironing out some wrinkles, but at first glance has done a pretty good job of recognizing that there are a lot of different ways to travel through Hollywood that dont' involve a car.
The website has five sections: one for cyclists and pedestrians, another for section for transit riders, a third for taxi users, another for drivers and a last one with service updates. By placing driving as an equal partner with other transportation options, it encourages people to move to or through Hollywood in ways other than driving.
The page for cyclists and pedestrians is pretty cool in that it allows users to find bike routes, shops, racks, lockers and places to get air pumps. I have to imagine that would be a very handy tool to have city-wide, especially if the site syncs well with blackberries and I-Pods.
For transit users, a click of the button shows where bus stops are for both Metro and DASH buses as well as the rail stations.
There's a definite value in finally having information from LADOT, Metro and local amenities all available at one place. The more you play with their maps, the more you can see how ingrained infrastructure for non-drivers really is in the Hollywood area, yet so many people don't think of traveling their without their automobile.
Personally, I think this site should become a model for a city-wide transportation website. Garcetti mentioned during the conference call that providing this kind of information was one of his major transportation goals. If that's the case, then using this site as a model for the rest of the city should be at the top of the list.
