Hello World

Hi everyone,

My name is Amy and I am currently a student studying real estate development. However, I will admit that urban planning has become a passion of mine as I have been introduced to it by my professors and see a need for CHANGE!! I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived here my entire life. I love living in Los Angeles. But the Los Angeles that I know has traffic that rules our roadways, as thousands of people commute to work every day. Traffic has gotten so bad stopped rush hour traffic on the freeway has turned into a regular pastime. Often, it seems we have to wait an eternity to get to our final destination. I will admit that I am that woman who puts on make-up in the car when the traffic slows my car to a halt.

I did not always use to be a car driver, however, and instead got around using public transportation. Growing up in Manhattan Beach, I was able to either walk to any place that I needed to go, or I would take the bus. Through my experiences, I found that people only use the Metro bus for 3 reasons:

1) People don’t know how to drive or have no driver’s license

2) People have a driver’s license, but no car to drive

3) People enjoy taking the bus and this is their preferred method of transportation

The third reason is the most uncommon, but I have found that some people do ride the bus everyday for the pure pleasure of riding the bus. However, the public transit system in Los Angeles is not efficient and requires lots of time and patience. Also, riders will probably have to transfer a few times from bus to bus or even from bus to train or light rail just to reach their final destination.

My goal is to address the transit problems in Los Angeles and try to figure out a way to solve them. I want all transportation enthusiasts to give me their opinions and ideas and have an active discussion about what is happening within the realm of transportation in Los Angeles.

I also want to get people to leave their cars at home and encourage them to have their first public transportation experience. I know it can be scary for those people who practically grew up in their car, but I promise that public transportation is safe. Most people just keep to themselves, so the buses are usually quiet. Everyone is just trying to get to their destination and is mostly focused on waiting for their stop than on the people around them. So I challenge everyone to take a chance and step outside of their comfort zone and experience the Los Angeles public transit system in any city!

That is all for now, but I look forward to diving into this issue and relaying personal experience as well as academic research and interviews to address this problem and see what LA can do to become more sustainable and pedestrian, bike, and public transit friendly. This is a new era where cars need to stop ruling the roadways!