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On May 8, LA Metro opened the first phase of a significant extension to its heavy-rail subway system. I got to check it out on opening day and to say that it will alter life in the city for thousands and thousands of people is not an understatement.
In recent years, Metro has been expanding its light rail system, but this is the first expansion of the core subway lines since the 90s. With decent headways, the new extension will beat private vehicle traffic in all but the most idyllic traffic scenarios along one of LA’s most populated corridors. 3 new stations were opened this month, with 4 more coming next year.
With that pre-amble out of the way, this excellent series interviewing all of the artists involved in the artwork for the new stations. It gives you a good feel of the stations and their importance to the city.
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Learning a bit about how the red-light network works in LA is interesting, but I found myself frustrated at this generally-uncritical discussion of LA’s broken system. Lip-service was paid to optimizing the system for multiple modes of transit—light rail was even mentioned—but anyone who spends time outside of a car in Los Angels knows the system is completely optimized for the needs of the private vehicle at the expense of others.
In the episode, LA’s system was touted as “state of the art”, but it is decidedly not. It is outdated technologically and philosophically. For example, LA still uses in-road sensors at lights. These sensors completely miss cyclists. And most LA streets still require pedestrians to press the beg button to be given permission to cross, with no priority given to their passage. Other cities are far ahead of LA in these areas.
I’d expect better from 99% Invisible: Ask, how does the system quantify and prioritize pedestrians? Could more be done to optimize streetlights for public transit? (It could.) Or better, does optimizing the system for rush hour private vehicle traffic work against public transit? (I suspect it does, particularly along the E and A Lines downtown.)
What a missed opportunity to take a really interesting look into how LA’s traffic system works today, is frankly, stuck in the past, and could evolve in the future.
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This has been making the rounds. The short film portion is beautiful and haunting, but it’s the choreographed sequence on the risers that is truly captivating. From what I can tell, the sequence is even a single shot.
Years ago, the choreography in the video for Tilted by Christine and the Queens grabbed me in a similar way. You may have already seen the GENER8ION video, so be sure to watch this one too.