As we've seen since we implemented gate latching in late June, the system is working smoothly and without incident. Moreover, revenues are up and we are now able to obtain true ridership numbers, where people are going, and where people are coming from, etc.
Cycle-users will please take note the number of times the words “Lane Takes” and “incur” or “intrude” or “encroach” plus “lane” appears in the report. (The “Find” tool found under the “Edit” menu on Acrobat Reader can be used for this purpose).
The key sentence, found on page 7 of the report, is:
Similarly, widening entrances at the following stations would encroach on traffic lanes: Jefferson/USC, Exposition Park/USC, Exposition/Vermont, Exposition/Western, and Exposition/Crenshaw.
Recall please that the streets that parallel Metro’s Light Rail Lines are, in the City of Los Angeles, controlled by the move-more-cars-fixated Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). If Metro has to “incur”, “encroach” or “intrude” on the street right-of-way to do a “Lane Take” in order to install the fare-collection equipment, then let’s take a guess who will have priority over the remaining space?
courtesy Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority via Flickr
So when the five above-listed surface stations need their entrances widened, like the Exposition/Crenshaw station pictured left you can be certain that it will be motorists who will be prioritized for the space that remains afterwards. Cycle-users will be lucky if even “Sharrows” remain in areas around these stations!
At aerial stations bikes will also lose, because more of the Metro-owned-and-controlled footprint under the platforms that may presently hold bike racks or bike lockers and could be used without local veto for a Metro-operated bikeshare will be taken for the new additional fare collection machinery (turnstiles, ADA-gates, emergency exits, “gate-help-phones” and fencing).
Streetsblog L.A. will continue to monitor this potential conversion of this hard-won bicycling corridor into a “Black-Diamond Trail” by the turnstile-industrial-complex, but we need regular users of the bikeway to be our eyes on the street for any indications of lane reconfigurations, takings and removals. Let us know if you see something via Twitter (@streetsblogla) or e-mail (tips@la.streetsblog.org).
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