Category: Nobody Drives in LA

Nobody Drives In LA — Celebrating Ten Years Since Kicking My Car Habit

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 6 Comments

Today marks the tenth anniversary of my not owning a car. On 18 July 2011, my 1990 Suburu Loyale nicknamed the C.A.R.D.I.S. (Car And Relative Dimensions In Space) blew a head gasket or two somewhere around Niland. It sputtered its last just past North Palm Springs, near the windmills. I had it towed to Desert … Continue reading Nobody Drives In LA — Celebrating Ten Years Since Kicking My Car Habit

Nobody Drives In LA — Sunset4All

~ Eric Brightwell ~ Leave a comment

I think it was in 2019 that Terence Heuston (LA Bike Dad) approached me to discuss the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition's Sunset4All at one of that street's many coffee shops. He described to me the effort to reconfigure Sunset Boulevard -- one of Los Angeles's most iconic streets -- to make it safer, and … Continue reading Nobody Drives In LA — Sunset4All

Nobody Drives in LA — Historic Los Angeles Transit Rail

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 19 Comments

I know that it's not the case -- but even the most recently transplanted Angeleno should know that Los Angeles was built around railroads. The first steam train appeared in Los Angeles in 1869, nineteen years after the city was incorporated. The first horsecar showed up in 1874. The first trolley began operation in 1885. … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Historic Los Angeles Transit Rail

Nobody Drives in LA — Public Stairways, Stair Streets, and Walk Streets of Los Angeles

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 14 Comments

Los Angeles was built around the walker. During the Last Glacial Period, the first humans arrived in Southern California, almost certainly by foot. As the glaciers receded, both these stone-age Paleoamericans and their non-human neighbors carved and shared trails through the green woodland, wetland, grassland, desert, and chaparral landscapes. Some 10,000 years later, the Tongva arrived … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Public Stairways, Stair Streets, and Walk Streets of Los Angeles

Nobody Drives in LA — Get on the Rapid Bus

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 8 Comments

Lately, there's been a surprising amount of talk about dedicated bus lanes and busways in Los Angeles. Metro is currently moving forward with three Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects: the North SFV BRT, the NoHo to Pasadena BRT, and the Vermont BRT. In 2017, Metro created a short, dedicated bus lane along Sunset Boulevard for the Dodger … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Get on the Rapid Bus

Nobody Drives in LA — So Why Are Our Train Stations So Crap?

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 21 Comments

There've recently been a couple of articles in the Los Angeles Times about the various state of local mass transit that have got me thinking. Mehmet Baker's "Metro is hemorrhaging riders. It needs to stop studying obvious fixes and start acting" appeared on Sunday, was good but many of the complaints voiced were the sort … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — So Why Are Our Train Stations So Crap?

Nobody Drives in LA — A Parking Lot Pothole Garden in Echo Park

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 2 Comments

The private automobile is the scourge of cities. In Los Angeles, on an average day, such cars injure or kill 39 Angelenos. They pollute air, land, and water -- except for the electric ones, which rely on child slave labor to mine the precious materials required for their batteries. Electric or smog-box alike, they all … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — A Parking Lot Pothole Garden in Echo Park

Swinging Doors — Los Angeles Train Pub Crawl

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 4 Comments

The train-enabled bar crawl is surely as old as the train itself. The first public transit line in Los Angeles was the Spring and West 6th Street Railroad, a railway founded in 1874 which served Downtown. Surely some bright 19th Century Angeleno had the brilliant idea of using the horse-drawn railcars to carry them from saloon … Continue reading Swinging Doors — Los Angeles Train Pub Crawl

Urban Rambles — The Passeggiata in Los Angeles and the Silver Lake Reservoir Stroll

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 6 Comments

I'm not sure when I first heard about the passeggiata -- a sort of ritualized stroll which takes place along the coasts and in the town squares of many Italian villages. I'm a fan of walking customs around the world, such as competitive pedestrianism, forest bathing, rambles, and walkabouts -- so, of course, the passeggiata is right … Continue reading Urban Rambles — The Passeggiata in Los Angeles and the Silver Lake Reservoir Stroll

Greater Streets — Exploring Valley Boulevard

~ Eric Brightwell ~ 8 Comments

INTRODUCTION Normally when I write an account of one of my explorations, it's after I've concluded it. Sometimes I work on them for months and when I can't stand thinking about it anymore, I just publish it and figure I'll correct the typos later. However, I began exploring and writing about Valley Boulevard more than a … Continue reading Greater Streets — Exploring Valley Boulevard