TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Maybe We Can Learn From L.A.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 27, 2007

"We don't want to be another L.A."

Over the past couple of decades, this has been the battle cry you'd hear from ardent transit supporters, weary commuters and advocates of better transportation planning in Central Florida. And it's true that we don't want poor air quality, which is typically caused by vehicle emissions and the associated problems from a community that is build around the automobile like Los Angeles. But like the Santa Ana winds that are known for igniting brush fires in Southern California, it appears that another mode of transportation is catching fire in L.A.: light rail.

During the week of Thanksgiving, my family and I visited relatives in L.A. Being an erstwhile resident of this area several years ago, I was pretty much prepared for dealing with the freeway traffic. And for those who think traffic is bad in Florida, the experience of the freeway system in the L.A. metro area is daunting. It is one thing to read and see images of it, another to live it.

The scale of the system is enormous. To put it into perspective, the footprint of the interchange between the 105 and 110 freeways is about the size of Tampa's central business district. As the tallest interchange in Southern California, its highest ramp reaches 170 feet high. Once, this was a model for mobility in the America; someone's vision. In the 2007 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute, L.A. has the highest ranking for travel delay, travel time and wasted fuel for all urbanized areas in America. These are not characteristics most areas strive for.

OK, so what's catching fire in L.A.? It's something old, borrowed from the past and new to this generation that has as its center piece the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) rail system.

Planners in the region have done an imaginative job of integrating a light-rail system with thousands of miles of pavement. Much of the system operates in the median of the freeway, other portions along the center of surface streets and some underground to serve the communities in the hills. Stations are located above and below interchanges, like the 105 and 110.

Yes, Los Angelenos are leaving their cars at park-n-ride lots and commuting to work by rail! Tourists like me and my family used it. We had a station less than a block from our hotel. It was convenient and nice to travel speedily past those other folks idling on the freeway.

Opened in 1990, the system includes five rail lines throughout Los Angeles County. It includes service to many of the popular attractions in the area. The beach, Hollywood, the L.A. airport, the Staples Center, downtown, universities/colleges and medical centers are notable destinations. An effort to revitalize downtown Pasadena a decade ago is anchored by the light-rail service and has been successfully completed. And to really make it good for the beautiful people of L.A., another line from downtown to Santa Monica, dubbed "subway to the sea," is being built.

Since adopting Tampa Bay as my home, I have witnessed several attempts at building a transportation system that features more than the movement of cars.

With the creation of the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority, an entity that can build any mode of transportation, there is some comfort in knowing that we are getting more serious about moving beyond an auto-dependent society and providing alternatives.

So maybe we do want to be another L.A.

Eric T. Hill is a husband and father who lives in Tampa.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT