Andy Chase

Ray Bradbury has written an opinion piece in the L.A. Times, saying that the solution to L.A.'s traffic problem is to put up a Monorail system.

Incredibly, a company offered to do so for free in the 1960's; they would have recouped the construction cost by operating the system and collecting tolls. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors turned them down. Granted, the L.A. freeway system probably still worked pretty well in the 1960's, but wouldn't you like to climb into a time machine, grab each of those board members by the collar, and shake vigorously while shouting WHAT... WERE YOU... THINKING!?

People are often surprised to hear that L.A. does have a subway. I rode it a few times from the valley to Hollywood, and to downtown Los Angeles. It was fast and efficient, and there was nobody on it. I'm sure there are a lot more passengers during the morning and evening commutes, but the larger problem is that the L.A. Metro just doesn't go anywhere; there are two stops in the valley, but unless you live within a couple of miles of those it's going to take you at least half an hour just to drive to the subway station. I'm less familiar with the other lines, but generally they all follow major street routes across the city; there are no branches that would make it a useful way to commute for anybody who doesn't live right near those main arteries.

There's also the fact that there's a certain segment of the population, the one that gives L.A. its well-deserved flaky reputation, who would never lower themselves to get out of their luxury SUVs and ride public transportation with the unwashed masses; if you ride the subway nobody can see what an expensive car you have, and having an expensive car (and having people see you in it) is well worth spending two hours in traffic on your way to and from work.

Plus, I'm sure the road construction companies would spread all sorts of stories about how the monorail projects in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook went.