[galdosdi]

Baloney. Just add a bunch of buses, with exclusive bus lanes covering their whole route. Choose the initial routes so they'll at least break even.

Bam, you have a good public transit system that is much faster than private cars due to being immune to traffic, and you didn't have to confiscate any property, build anything expensive, or do anything else exciting or risky.

Everyone's obsessed with rail, and rail is nice, but if you already have roads rapid bus transit makes more sense in the short run

[rebootthesystem]

How did you know my name is Baloney Bam?

You must not live in Los Angeles. If you took a lane away on every freeway the mayhem you'd create would be indescribably. In some places you can't due to the topology of the roads.

Besides, buses will guarantee that it will take three hours to move a handful of miles because they would have to get on and off the freeways at regular intervals and brave street level congestion while then making stops at non-existing parking lots (they don't exist now) to pick-up and drop off people.

There are no good mass transit solutions in Los Angeles. I've lived here long enough to see and analyze what is happening from multiple vantage points. We lived by the beach, desert, inland and in a couple of valleys. It's a mess. This megalopolis did not evolve to be mass transit friendly.

I say this with sadness because there's nothing I'd like more than not to own a car. I am simply being a realist on this one.

[galdosdi]

> If you took a lane away on every freeway the mayhem you'd create would be indescribably.

Really? Because all those lanes that have been added over the years don't appear to have made a big difference.

Also, the lane would be replaced with something amazing angelinos have never seen before -- a transport mode way faster than any other. With all the people choosing to use that bus, there'll be less car traffic. Saving half an hour has a way of turning excuses like "the bus is crowded" into jelly.

(Also, if it turns out you're right, lane rules and hours can be adjusted immediately with just a little paint or a sign. This is not risky.)

> Besides, buses will guarantee that it will take three hours to move a handful of miles because they would have to get on and off the freeways at regular intervals and brave street level congestion while then making stops

Um, don't use the freeway then, except where it's genuinely more direct. Then you don't have to take lanes away anyway.

> at non-existing parking lots (they don't exist now) to pick-up and drop off people.

Are you kidding? There's so much space in wasted parking lots for individual businesses, or even street space on these huge wide roads, any of which could be reclaimed.

> You must not live in Los Angeles.

Correct! If I did, I'd be afflicted by the same sad disease as you, lack of imagination.

Fact is, we make it work here in metro NYC, which is as big and sprawled out as LA -- probably more actually. If we can do it, so can you. (Note that by metro NYC I don't mean manhattan and the like, I mean to emphasize the outer parts, the 4 boroughs and 3 detached counties (Westchester, Bergen, Hudson) surrounding manhattan.

I invite you to come tour outer NYC, and see what you think

[rebootthesystem]

> I'd be afflicted by the same sad disease as you, lack of imagination.

And the conversation stops here. Thanks.