Canoga Avenue busway advances

The MTA on Thursday said that after looking at all the options, it would like to build a 4-mile-long busway along Canoga Avenue in the San Fernando Valley to connect the Orange Line busway and the Chatsworth Metrolink station.

The agency had been looking at options for putting mass transit along Canoga and decided that the busway, built atop an old rail right-of-way, was the best and most affordable option. The project would also include an adjacent bike lane.

Walt Davis, the project manager for the proposed busway, said it could be up and running by 2013, but that's mostly contingent on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board moving the funding up by several years. Currently the project isn't due to open until 2016.

I asked whether buses would get more green lights as they crossed east-west streets in the Valley to avoid a problem that has plagued the Orange Line, which must frequently stop because of cross-traffic.

Davis said the project would negotiate traffic signal prioritization with the city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation. In an allusion to the problems that have beset the Orange Line, he said that the bus "doesn't enjoy" as many green lights as the MTA would like.

--Steve Hymon

Comments

[Dan Wentzel]

"Given a FREE choice, people prefer cars. FREEDOM of the road will win out over rail anywhere,"

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Free choice? Roads are hardly free. People who choose or are forced to drive a single-occupancy vehicle don't make a "free" choice. They make a government subsidized choice, just like transit riders, and currently do not have to internalize the moral hazard costs of reduced economic productivity to do congestion to say nothing of the environmental hazard of pollution and global warming. We ALL pay for six decades of social engineering in favor of a car culture without a mass transit alternative.

Many people have cars not out of free choice, because there is no transit alternative for them. Only the automobile-entitled believe that everyone would, of course, make the same choice they would. And, given how much more crowded the buses and rails are, fewer people can afford this "freedom" of the automobile.

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"Trains lost out nearly a century ago in this country and in this city."

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The variables that led to the evolution of the car culture are unraveling. Ever-rising gasoline prices and congestion and three million more people moving to Los Angeles County over the next three decades are finally trumping the original variables that enabled six decades in social engineering in favor of the car culture. The unplanned sprawl that created this mess just isn't economically viable anymore.

Those variables are changing and therefore the equations from 60 to 100 years ago are irrelevant to the future.

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"Bottleneck Blog was supposed to be about traffic congestion, AUTOMOBILE AND TRUCK TRAFFIC CONGESTION not this barely relevant "metrorail."

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Here's a newsflash. Maybe there is NO automobile-based, road-based solution to our transportation problems -- only the slow unraveling of a high-quality car culture to document.

The "types" you mentioned just may have a different and economically viable and environmentally sustainable vision of Los Angeles. I have no doubt that like other cities with world class transit: Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, etc., that have comprehensive transit systems and choking congestion, Los Angeles will still have millions of automobiles. However, Los Angeles will never again be a high-quality automobile-entitlement, automobile-expected town. It may be car dominant, but not at the same quality we used to know. The future of Los Angeles will not be the same "car-only except for buses for'poor people who would only drive if they could."

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http://www.transit-insider.org/master.html?http://www.transit-insider.org/chandler/page2.htm#robbins

Go to Kymberleigh Richards superb Transit-Insider website for more detailed analysis of the Orange Line, including Proposition 108.

[Richard H]

Bus only transit extremist? LOL. Got news for you, I really couldn't care. You trains fanatics, err, "rail fans" are just so easy to provoke.

Bottleneck Blog was supposed to be about traffic congestion, AUTOMOBILE AND TRUCK TRAFFIC CONGESTION not this barely relevant "metrorail". Let alone monorails. I guess it does bring out certain types.

Count the number of cars on the road. Trains lost out nearly a century ago in this country and in this city. Given a FREE choice, people prefer cars. FREEDOM of the road will win out over rail anywhere, I don't care what country you're in. Japan? Japan built trains and Japan is broke.

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE SECTION 130265 is state law.
I'm just quoting the text of a state law.

Got a quotation of Prop 108?

Or am I just to take you at your word?

[Dan Wentzel]

"Some enlightenment is required for the train fanatics that want to turn the San Fernando Valley Orange Line Busway in a light rail train line."

Gee, being called a train "fanatic" by a bus-only transit extremist. Gee, I'm hurt... NOT.

And, here's some enlightenment for you...

The right-of-way was purchased with Proposition 108 funds, which mandates that if a non-rail transit project is placed on the alignment it must be converted to rail within TEN YEARS of that project beginning service.

So, unless something legislatively happens otherwise, the Orange Line will have to be converted to rail.

[Richard H]

Some enlightenment is required for the train fanatics that want to turn the San Fernando Valley Orange Line Busway in a light rail train line.

An above ground railway on the old Southern Pacific Chandler Line can't be built because state law prohibits it and has prohibited it since 1991. State Senator Alan Robbins, working on behalf of his rich and politically powerful San Fernando Valley constitutents, in 1991 enacted SB 911 which amended PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE SECTION 130265.

To Quote: "the following apply within the right-of-way of the Burbank Branch line of the Southern Pacific Railroad:
(a) In the area between the western curb of Hazeltine Avenue and a line parallel to and 50 feet west of the western edge of the Hollywood freeway, there may not be constructed any exclusive public mass transit rail guideway, rail rapid transit or light rail system, or other track, other than as a subway system that is covered and below grade.
(b) In the area described in subdivision (c), no station may be constructed, other than a station where the main entrance is located on property that is currently part of the Los Angeles Valley College campus or on that portion of the existing railroad right-of-way located north of Burbank Boulevard and east of Fulton Avenue.
(c) In the area below Tujunga Wash and at least one mile to the east and west of Tujunga Wash, there may not be constructed any exclusive public mass transit rail guideway, rail rapid transit or light rail system, or other track, other than as a subway using boring technology as a deep bore subway located at least 25 feet below ground, measured from the existing ground level to the top of the tunnel."

You want light rail to replace the busway? Repeal the State Law prohibiting it. Be prepared to fight off the rich and powerful San Fernando Valley NIMBY's in the CA State Legislature and the Courts to do it. Or find the public funds to do a deep bore subway. Of course, Zev Yaraslovsky effectively killed that in 1998.

[Alan Fishel]

Let’s save the money for the Canoga Ave extension and put the effort in upgrading the Orange bus line into a LRT line. The line is at saturation and busses can not be added do to blocking cross streets. The busses are small and very uncomfortable inside. A LRT line can carry many times more riders faster, more comfortable and with fewer operators at much less cost than the busses.

So why is any more effort being put into the Orange bus line instead of putting the money and effort into making this a more efficient and faster LRT line?

[Dan W.]

"...create the Ventura Blvd subway."

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I'm all for that as a long-term project.

People who want that should form a lobbying group to make it into the next long range transportation plan in 5 years.

[Alek F]

When will we finally see the Orange line EAST extension - to Bob Hope Airport?!
I think it's time that we do something to create a reliable link to our 2nd busiest airport (after LAX), but... I guess it was wishful thinking...

[manuel]

Leave the OL as is and create the Ventura Blvd subway.

[Scotty]

The mentioned proposed freeway bus that was to run from the NoHo station thru Glendale to Pasadena already exists. It is called Commuter Express!

[Dan Wentzel]

"a bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood and Del Mar Station, which was already proposed as a freeway express line (separate from the Orange Line) using the 134 freeway during last year's public hearings."

Thanks for the correction, Kymberleigh.

With the BRT project connecting to North Hollywood, I just assumed this was an extension of the Orange Line eastward.

So, if I understand the draft LRTP correctly, this would mean (1) the Orange Line going from Canoga Metrolink to North Hollywood, possibly upgraded to light rail at some point, (2) BRT going from North Hollywood eat to the Del Mar Station, (3) possible extension of Red Line to Burbank Metrolink, (4) LRT from North Hollywood to downtown.

Regarding #4, is that run near San Fernando Road or past the Burbank movie studios? I'm trying to get a picture of it.

Thanks.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

Dan, I think you misread the LRTP draft somewhere.

The only projects that extend from North Hollywood that were included in the strategic (unfunded) section were a Red Line extension to Bob Hope Airport, a light rail line between North Hollywood and the Regional Connector, and a bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood and Del Mar Station, which was already proposed as a freeway express line (separate from the Orange Line) using the 134 freeway during last year's public hearings.

The Orange Line is in no way proposed for extension farther east.

[Dan W.]

Good for the Valley.

Eventually the Orange Line will need to be upgraded to light rail.

It will be interesting to see if the Orange Line can eventually be extended east of North Hollywood to Burbank, Glendale and the the Gold Line in Pasadena. Such a project was mentioned in the unfunded portion of the draft LRTP.

[Anthony Fernandez]

The "bus that acts like a train" sure doesn't act like a train.