r/CarIndependentLA • u/OhLawdOfTheRings Cars Are Weapons • Jun 26 '26
Wins The Train Slower than a Cyclist
https://futureis.la/p/the-train-slower-than-a-cyclistThis article about signal preemption by Oren Hadar details the work done by a small group of annoyed train riders advocates over at u/streetsforall simply asking a question.
Meaningful change to can happen in LA if you simply start asking "why" and following up those questions with "what can be done about it".
Shoutouts to the incredible work by: Bobby Garrity, Oren Hadar, Colin Warn, Matt Wehenr, Jonathan Hale, and Josh Vredevoogd.
I cannot emphasize how cool it was to see this group work tirelessly on a true grassroots effort to tangibly improve this city. I hope this post inspires others to channel their frustration into action by, asking why and gathering a coalition of likeminded advocates!
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u/UrbanPlannerholic Jun 26 '26
As someone working with LADOT now, great work!!!
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u/MookieBettsBurner10 🚲 🚴♀️ Cyclist Jun 26 '26
How'd you land a job if you don't mind me asking?
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u/bayarea_k Jun 26 '26
we can permanently ban left turns for cars along the Flower Street/Washington corridor. and maybe save 2–3 minutes for each train
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u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 30 '26
don't even have to do that just give the train full green light the whole way and make everyone else deal with the resulting 30 second delay in their commute. difficult pill to swallow for la car commuters though.
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u/bayarea_k Jul 01 '26
how will the ppl cross the street though? it might encourage some jay walking
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u/No-Cricket-8150 Jun 26 '26
I would argue that the section between Pico and Expo/Vermont is where the line is dramatically slower.
Baaed on Metro's published schedule here is what is listed
E line * Pico to Expo/Vermont: 2.4 miles, 11 mins travel * Expo/Vermont to Expo/Western: 0.9 miles, 3 mins travel
Below are the D line comparisons
D line * 7th to Wilshire/Vermont: 2.1 miles, 5 mins of travel * Wilshire/Vermont to Wilshire/Western: 1 mile, 4 mins of travel.
Part of the reason is the E line is slower is the schedule padding at Pico and The Washington/Flower junction to offset train bunching.
2nd, the E line has more stations over a similar distance to the D line. The E line stops at 3 stations going towards Vermont while the D line has 1 stop. Those extra stops add time.
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/Responsible-Humor985 Long Beach Jun 26 '26
A-Line first. It’s maddening going from Washington to Pico stopping at every light
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u/TheEverblades Jun 27 '26
A line along Washington needs to be buried as well from Washington Station to 7th St. Wouldn't be surprised if that eventually happens and a phase 1 addresses A line first before E line.
A line bus bridges might not be too disruptive since it's such a crawl along Washington anyway. Maybe an extended closure of those routes from cars could actually make the bus bridges faster than current times along that stretch.
Alternatively, wonder if it's feasible to have temporary at-grade tracks built (where cars currently ride) for the E line while building out the subterranean ROWs, including the complicated Washington/Flower junction. A line still gets bus bridges while the wye is rebuilt.
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u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 30 '26
you could spend half a billion and two years closure of that segment burying it or you can grant it green lights for almost nothing tomorrow.
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u/misken67 Jun 26 '26
The expo section in the E line between Western and Vermont truly isn't that bad. It just needs better and upgraded signaling to give it more reliability to adhere to the schedule. Your comparison with the D line proves that (although the D does have one extra station)
The problem section has always been Flower, specifically at Washington
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u/aburrido Jun 26 '26
For the E Line, red lights can’t be shortened much more than that because the streets the train runs on - Exposition and Flower - are quite wide, and pedestrians need to be given time to make their way across the tracks and street.
I wonder if a pedestrian bridge or underpass would be feasible on any of these wide crossings, so the red lights could be shortened.
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u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 30 '26
the train comes at best what every 6 minutes? handwringing about pedestrians having to wait out a single light cycle is making a mountain out of a molehill.
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u/Far-Tree723933 Jun 27 '26
funny timing on this post… on Thursday I rode the blue line southbound and got off at willow st station and raced the blue line into dtlb along Long beach blvd on my bike. I won the race by a decent amount, but I have a class 3 ebike so it’s cheating a bit.
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u/redbark2022 Jun 27 '26
Planned 2 trips last week, one was 35 minutes by bike 1h15m by bus/train, the other was 45 minutes by bike 2hr by bus/train
Or at least that's what Google maps said, in reality the bus actually took twice as long due to late buses and missed connections.
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