COVID has gutted public transit in Los Angeles. Will ridership ever bounce back? MORE Katrina Kaiser stands in Union Station, their favorite Metro station in LA. Photo by Nisha Venkat.
COVID-19 has sent LA public transit numbers plummeting. In 2020, just 213 million people used the Metro rail or bus, as opposed to 370 million the year before, according to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
And this year, transit ridership numbers are only slightly increasing. For the most part, Metro’s network of 92 rail stations and more than 2500 buses has been slow to fill back up, even as people venture out again.
Transit Leaders Praise Innovative On-Demand Programs
During a recent press briefing hosted by the American Public Transportation Association, transit leaders highlighted the industry’s ability to launch on-demand transit programs, which flourished during the pandemic.
August 02, 2021 •
Courtesy Photo/L.A. Metro On-demand transit projects that started before COVID-19 have led to robust ridership and speak to innovation that the public will need in a post-COVID world, according to experts during an event last week.
“From the start of the pandemic, the public transportation industry pivoted to meet a new world of never-before-seen challenges,” said Paul Skoutelas, president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) during a July 28 press briefing. “Innovation became survival.”
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Traffic is the worst.
But what can we do about it? Adding more freeway lanes didn t help. Buses get stuck on the same roads as cars. Elon s car-ferrying tunnels aren t coming anytime soon. The impacts of a devastating pandemic emptied the roads for a while, but that wasn t a solution.
When it comes down to it, L.A. County s crippling congestion stems from the basic economics of supply and demand.
In this case, the demand is getting in your car and driving where you need to go using local freeways. The supply is the space we have to drive on those freeways. Crawling in traffic is the price we pay for all driving the same routes at the same time.
Will Congestion Pricing Clear L.A.’s Clogged Arteries?
Los Angeles Metro is considering four congestion-pricing scenarios in the hopes of choosing one by next year. If all goes well, the congestion management pilot could be in play by 2025. Shutterstock/Ali Cobanoglu
The Los Angeles region is exploring several congestion-pricing strategies to combat the notoriously clogged highways in one of the most car-centric parts of the country.
Los Angeles Metro is looking at four possible proposals to enact a traffic management plan that would use some form of pricing-per-user as a means of discouraging car use for transit use. Metro officials plan to have their selection process winnowed down to one proposal by this summer, with plans to begin implementing the project in early 2022. The congestion-pricing pilot would then be operational by 2025.