We’ve been running a quiz about stereotypical views of transportation and urbanization in Los Angeles. Consider a headline that ran in The New York Times in 2006: “In Land of Freeways, Mass Transit Makes Nary a Dent.” I’ll soon address the issue of Los Angeles transit. In the meantime, did you, like The Times‘s headline writer, guess that Los Angeles is dominated by an overbuilt freeway system?
Answer: a half-truth.
Facts and Fiction
Eric Morris discusses stereotypes about Los Angeles transportation in this six-part series.
In a couple of respects, it is entirely justified to identify Los Angeles with the freeway; the city was a pioneer in freeway development. The Arroyo Seco Parkway (today’s Pasadena Freeway), which opened in 1940, is considered by many to be the first true urban freeway. (Sadly, the builders didn’t quite get it right. A jaunt down the road will remind you of a trip to Space Mountain; it twists like a snake, lacks acceleration and deceleration lanes, has inadequate shoulders, and features hair-raising exit ramps with tight turns and 5 m.p.h. speed limits.)
It is also correct that Los Angeles boasts an extensive freeway system. Counting Interstates and other expressways, the area ranks second in the nation in lane mileage, after New York.
But taking into account the area’s vast size, the network is one of the most underdeveloped in the U.S. According to the Federal Highway Administration, of the 36 largest metro areas, Los Angeles ranks dead last in terms of freeway lane miles per resident. (Chicago is second to last, and New York is near the bottom as well. The most freeway-heavy big city by this measure is Kansas City.)
With rock-bottom road space per person, it’s difficult to claim that the system is overbuilt (at least by U.S. standards), or that it dominates the region’s transportation profile. It is, of course, possible that despite the paucity of freeway mileage, Angelenos are disproportionately heavy highway users, perhaps due to the region’s geography or culture. I have some data on this, but to avoid spoiling the competition it will have to wait for a future post.
How did Los Angeles end up with such a skimpy system? Only about three-fifths of the lane mileage envisioned in Los Angeles’s 1959 master plan was ever completed.
Interestingly, the original plans included a freeway smack dab through Beverly Hills. Anybody want to hazard a guess as to why this project was canceled while plenty of freeways through poorer neighborhoods were not? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not because the department of transportation just forgot to get around to it.
Since we’ve seen that the sprawl and smog clichés belong on the proverbial cutting room floor, we’re down to three remaining stereotypes:
- Thanks to the great distances between far-flung destinations, and perhaps Angelenos’ famed “love affair” with the car, Angelenos drive considerably more miles than most Americans.
- Angelenos spend more time stuck in traffic than any other drivers in the nation.
- Los Angeles’s mass transit system is underdeveloped and inadequate.
Tune in next time.
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Doesn’t this contradict his earlier point about sprawl? First he claims that LA is not characterized, but now he claims that the vastness of the city renders the miles of highway inadequate? Am I missing something? This guy is playing with numbers far too much to justify his previously-drawn conclusions.
An ongoing complaint about the development of the Grove, an upscale, outdoor shopping center in Los Angeles, is the traffic it generates despite being so far from the freeway. Much of the nicer parts of the region aren’t served by freeways, whether by collective muscle (Beverly Hills, South Pasadena) or geography (Manhattan Beach, Brentwood). Getting to Orange County requires freeway travel, but many daily trips don’t.
I’ve lived in LA off and on for 15 years including commutes of 25 miles a few times. I actually got to my destinations much more quickly by skipping the freeway and driving on surface streets. Each time, I lived near freeways and followed parallel paths. For example, Burbank to Los Feliz to West Adams to Santa Monica; and Alhambra to Downtown LA to Santa Monica.
LA freeways are at a saturation point that begs for better and more available public transit that does not share city streets with auto traffic, at least in the higher density city core.
BSK, don’t know if you’re missing anything, your logic is just wrong. The argument here is that there is too much density for the amount of roads supports the previous argument.
I prefer to think of a drive on the Pasadena Freeway as akin to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride…
Nothing better than a drive on the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway) in a sports car.
I really think the point about Los Angeles being covered in freeways is false. As was pointed out there are really less freeways/highways there than in other US cities. I find it funny that some people say that it is true because that is their image of Los Angeles, but the facts say there really aren’t any more freeways than other cities.
I would say the smog issue is a half truth and the mass transit as well. While most areas of Los Angeles actually experience low levels of smog, there are still high readings in the distant suburbs right up against the large mountains, which gives LA its 2nd worst air reading in the country even though most residents experience only a few days over the national standard for polluted air (many other US cities have more days in their central core).
On mass transit, while the bus system is actually fairly comprehensive and over 1.5M angelenos take public transit every day, the rail system still has quite a few glaring holes, although this seems to be improving as I know two new lines are opening up in the next 2 years and there is new funding for extending the main subway line across the city along with other lines as well.
The Arroyo Seco Parkway Pasadena Freeway) reminds me of the Interboro Parkway.
We probably drive much less than average, at least those of us in the city, because we estimate that 5 miles takes about 30 minutes. who has time to go much further?
I use the transit system every day and, while it’s frustrating at times, the breadth of the system is pretty amazing.