Broadway Transit Mall Hardly A New Idea

Wow! I have imagined a similar setup on Broadway myself.

The more I have read through old L.A. Times articles, the more I am convinced that every transit idea has already been imagined in this town.

The only difference is that now we should have streetcars running down there also, if only for the fact that streetcars are 100% no emissions (at the source). Of course, in 1977 streetcars were considered dead. Now, they're wanted again, at least on a small scale.

I'm talking a true streetcar, not the "Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric. More like the PCC cars used by the Los ANgeles Railway.

Scott,

You make a great point. Buses are extremely noisy and tend to kick up all sorts of dirt, debris and generally make for a rather unpleasant street scene. Walk down the east side of Main between 7th and 4th and it is pretty obvious - also on 5th, 6th and 7th itself. Buses also queue along the sidewalk, blocking the street from pedestrials and - well, I know this is quite unscientific, but I find them to be ugly, obnoxious and grimy for te most part. Even the newer, hi-tech looking buses are very noisy, though they are supposedly low or non-emission vehicles.

The problem I see with rail or streetcars on Broadway is tying it into the existing bus system. Since people get delayed or inconvenienced by transferring from one vehicle type to another, solving this problem will be crucial to the viability of a non-bus transit system on Broadway.

Just a thought - imagine LA without buses on every major street... a city with rail based trunk lines and smaller bus feeder lines. People might actually get used to walking a few blocks to do things, as in the big East Coast cities. LA seems perfect for that, but I am not a transportation engineer... others may have better ideas than this. Let's hear them...

Being that the tracks for streetcar already exist under Broadway's asphalt, utilities do not have to be moved and adding streetcars would be rather inexpensive. The Transit Mall idea makes this all the more appealing. It also does not have to preclude bus sevice.

The Cental City Association supports the streetcar concept on Broadway and the CRA has a study. I attended a presentation of this at the Metro Citizen's Advisory Council is it was encouraging.

They can really use a streetcar stop in front of the Orpheum theater, there are huge crowds out front just waiting for a car alternative, and the potential for an entertainment/theater district is huge there.

It's the first successful historic theater reuse in Downtown, and a streetcar will help bring back that noir feeling from the '20s

I saw that article in the L.A. Times Saturday morning. I'm very uneasy about all this because the plan, as it is, doesn't seem clear at all. Quite likely, I'm slow on the uptake here. But, after reading the article, I'm still befuddled.

The L.A. Times article is incoherent. In the article it states that Broadway "is already one of the city's most heavily trafficked on foot." Yet, the caption in the accompanying photo states "vehicles, except buses and delivery trucks, would be banned to encourage more foot traffic"(!). Huh?! Broadway needs more pedestrian foot traffic?

Further on, when I read "other have indicated an interest in returning upscale shopping destinations to the area", I'm not clear who the unmentioned other people are nor why they aren't named. Does Macy's Plaza have too many customers?

All this kind of talk makes me uneasy. I always hear negative comments from the affluent and hipster set about what's wrong with Broadway. Recently, with the forthcoming opening of the Chapman Building at 8th & Broadway, a person mused about the crappy neighborhood and how quickly it would be swept away. No one, other readers or the website disputed what seemed like common sense. This sentiment is widespread. This chatter gives me the creeps and reminds me of ethnic cleansing. Serious words, I realize. But, while I'm all for improvement, let's not destroy what makes the place lively and wonderful in the first place.

I agree with David Kennedy's misgivings about the construction of a transit mall on Broadway based on a number of points

1) I would be extremely reluctant to do anything that changed the present street scene that exists on Broadway. BROADWAY WORKS ! It has been the one consistent thriving commercial district in Downtown that has survived for decades without the intervention and subsidization of the CRA. It is organic to Los Angeles and reflects the true soul of this city far more than the social engineered fantasies envisioned by developers and politicians as represented by the LA Live and Grand Avenue projects.

2) For a long time now, it has been agreed that a renaissance of night life on Broadway would depend on the revitalization of the historic theaters on Broadway. The theater owners and folks like Linda Dishman of the Los Angeles Conservancy have often contended that the theater district needed greater parking capacity on Broadway. I'm not sure moving all traffic and parking to Spring and Hill streets would really assist the effort to bring back the Historic Theater District.

3) What purpose would the transit mall serve? What transit connections would be served at the north and south ends of the restricted stretch of Broadway? In Chicago, the transit mall on State Street was designed to take pressure off heavily used trains within the Loop. However, as Steve pointed out in a previous comment thread, this experiment failed and State Street was reopened to vehicle traffic.

4) Money. The same day the Times ran an article on the transit mall in the California section, the front page carried an article in which Roger Snoble worried about a shortfall of funding for completion of rail projects. If MTA must prioritize its funds, I would prefer greater spending on bus and rail routes. The capital that would be expended on reconstructing seven blocks of streetscape on Broadway along with the necessary construction on Spring and Hill streets to ease the increased flow of traffic would be better spent on rail projects already underway so they can be brought to their completion.

It’s great to see downtown L.A. undergoing such a rapid renaissance and would love to see The Broadway Transit Mall succeed! But then again, I remember the “malling” of State Street in Chicago and how miserably it failed. Even with Chicago’s great rapid transit system, breath-taking architecture and fantastic anchor department stores of the time, [Marshall Fields and Carson Pirie Scott], when people couldn’t drive down the main drag to get the stores, business dropped considerably. Many stores closed. Only the transit-dependent were shopping. This was not good for economics. The State Street transit mall was eventually rescinded, the street reengineered again and reopened to normal traffic. The area sprang back to life soon thereafter.

I hope the planners can learn from Chicago’s mistakes and do it up right by investing in and revitalizing all of the vintage theaters in the district, keeping the Hispanic culture, allowing UNIQUE shops to flourish [we don’t need another Old Navy, Z-Gallerie, Restoration Hardware, etc], and provide ample, convenient parking.