The Continuing Quest for a More Walkable Los Angeles
Angelenos spend unfathomable amounts of time in cars navigating traffic jams—ones that definitely don’t turn into La La Land-style dance parties. A recent study by INRIX, a transportation analytics company, found that Los Angeles residents spend 100 hours in traffic congestion, the worst in the United States. Despite L.A.’s car-centric reputation, walking and taking public transit is the norm for many Angelenos, especially people of color. According to Los Angeles Metro, the county’s transit agency, most of its passengers are African American or Latino.
Social inequality is baked into the regional land use laws characterized by low-density sprawl that has contributed to car dependence. Affluent, majority-white communities concentrated in the most desirable areas are effectively walled off by “redlining,” segregated housing policies that prevented low-income people and people of color from buying homes and living in white neighborhoods.
Before World War II, L.A. real-estate maps outlined a rating system for home loans based on mortgage risk and investment opportunity. Predominantly black, Latino, and Asian neighborhoods (as well as some white and working-class areas) ranked poorly, and residents had difficulty securing home loans or the funds for home improvements.
That rampant discrimination combined with a persistent shortage of housing near job centers that middle- and low-income people can afford, plus a lack of transit options, has produced the congestion that defines Los Angeles today. Long distances between home and work complicate walking and biking, while the absence of a high-frequency transit network also encourages driving. “Without an understanding of L.A.’s racialized history, we see cars, think it’s been this way and it’s always been this way,” says Monique López, founder of Pueblo, an urban planning firm specializing in social and environmental justice issues. “If we better understand that history, we’re able to dispel that narrative that this is L.A. and this is the way it always will be.”
Expensive housing and epic traffic congestion are the price Angelenos pay for decades of car-focused urban planning. The median income of bus passengers is $16,218 and for rail $24,390. In Los Angeles County, the average costs of housing and transportation amount to 57 percent of an individual’s income: 35 percent for housing and 22 percent for transportation. Low-income residents bear the biggest burden of limited housing supply and the cost of driving. Using that framework, a person making $50,500 or less, would spend about $900 per month on transportation. (A 2017 AAA report found that Americans spend an average of $8,469 per year on car ownership—or about $700 a month.)
Los Angeles County’s transportation choices more closely resemble those of the Midwest and the South than the Northeast: 77 percent of L.A. County residents commute to work by driving alone.
Los Angeles County’s transportation choices more closely resemble those of the Midwest and the South than the Northeast: 77 percent of L.A. County residents commute to work by driving alone. In Harris County, Texas (Houston), 79 percent of commuters drive alone and in Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit), 81 percent of drivers do. (On the East Coast, it’s a different story: In Kings County, New York (Brooklyn), more than 60 percent of commuters take public transit.)
Los Angeles doesn’t have to imagine what would happen if the region doesn’t change its road-warrior ways. It’s already on display in Texas, where low-density land use and fast-paced population growth—4.3 million people moved to Texas between 2000 and 2010—has created an endless dependency on highways. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) expanded one Houston highway from eight to 23 lanes, but that project did not reduce driving times—yet TxDOT continues to pour millions of dollars into expanding its highways.
There has been an overall decline in L.A. transit ridership last peaking in 1985, which is partly attributable to dissatisfaction with available transit options, which in turn fuels rising car ownership. Meanwhile, people continue to move into L.A. County, which could spell even more intense gridlock unless the region re-thinks its destiny by planning for a more pedestrian-friendly future. A walkable city means building more workforce housing, a robust bike network, and reliable transit that puts homes and employment in closer proximity. There are huge benefits in denser, walkable places, including reduced stress, more physical fitness, and less pollution. Walking, biking, and transit also have significantly lower financial barriers to entry; they also offer greater independence for residents, including young people and the elderly.
L.A.’s diversity means walkability can have different meanings depending on the neighborhood. According to the 2016 American Communities Survey, 48 percent of Los Angeles County residents are Hispanic, with 27 percent are white, 8 percent African American, and 14 percent Asian. Some affluent, white neighborhoods foster walkability with farmers markets, coffee shops, and bike lanes: Those amenities are viewed as positive attributes. In black and Latino communities, however, walkability can take on a negative cast when linked to perceptions about personal safety or creeping gentrification.
López studied the first/last-mile issue on the Blue Line, a light rail line that runs through African American neighborhoods like Watts and Compton. She found that many residents were less focused on issues like broken sidewalks that may concern wealthier neighborhoods and more focused on police patrols. She found that many residents avoided stations with a heavy police presence and walked to stations with fewer officers, due to their concerns about past negative encounters with law enforcement. Uneasy relationships between police and people of color affect perceptions about walkability across the country. ProPublica and The Florida Times-Union found that black people were three times as likely as white people to get a ticket for pedestrian violations in Jacksonville, Florida.
For some residents, promoting walkability can also send signals that they may be on the verge of being priced out of a community. “People have grown so accustomed to broken sidewalks, bad transit experiences, and car-driven planning,” says Alissa Walker, the urbanism editor at Curbed LA, which focuses on architecture and real estate. “When something good happens with transit or walking or getting people out of their cars, people see it as gentrification.”
How can the region break the cycle of car dependency, integrate new modes into its transportation mix, and make the entire package palatable to all Angelenos? Transit and planning officials can start by creating walkable communities around major transit corridors. Building grocery stores, shops, and schools within a smaller radius would encourage more regular walking trips. Residents also need to adjust their thinking. Walker suggests that residents should draw a two-mile circle around their homes, and try to walk, bike, or take transit within that circle. For people who are physically able, “even just a few trips during a week or the month that aren’t in a car add up in a big way,” she says.