Public transportation is having a renaissance in Los Angeles. A region that in the postwar era had its once-extensive streetcar system dismantled has re-constructed a rail and BRT system. Ballot measures funding transit improvements enjoy broad public support, with the most recent initiative passing with over 70 percent of the vote.
But somehow rail and bus ridership in LA is declining. Unlike cities that are also investing in transit – such as Seattle and Houston, where ridership is increasing – LA’s passenger numbers are falling faster than even those of stagnant transit systems facing maintenance challenges.
It’s true that the well-known systemic factors adversely affecting ridership in other cities, such as inexpensive gas, subprime auto loans, and app-based ride hailing could be particularly impactful in sprawling LA. It’s also quite possible that gentrification is hurting ridership, displacing low-income transit riders and replacing them with wealthier millennials who may like living near a subway stop but also frequently use car-based modes.
But as a Californian, I believe that LA’s car-centric culture is to blame.
Not only do my LA friends refuse to join me on transit, but they often fight hard to prevent me from using non-car modes – even when transit would be faster than driving. Having never used rail or bus systems, they insist that they are overrun with criminals and homeless individuals. In one instance, I agreed to let a friend drive me a single block to Koreatown’s subway station because, to him, walking to a transit stop in Los Angeles was unimaginable.
This irrational inflexibility at least partially explains why, in spite of transit improvements, ridership is declining. With such a powerful car culture, multimodal infrastructure improvements will not solve the problem alone.
So how can LA Metro and other transit agencies stop ridership from decreasing? I suggest they target particular Angelenos.
We can divide LA commuters by how likely they are to ride transit using NYU sociology professor Steven Lukes’ power dimension construct. Lukes was the first to analyze power’s three dimensions, a method of analyzing the different ways power or dominant cultural beliefs impact people. Using the construct, I have identified three kinds of Angelenos.
| First dimension | Second dimension | Third dimension | |
| Description | B is harmed by, disagrees with, and actively resists A, but A prevails | B is harmed by and disagrees with A, but is not able to attempt resisting due to defeatism or fear of retaliation | B is harmed by A, but supports A’s actions and may even take action to further them. |
| Transportation examples | An individual wants to use transit and does so, but her bus route is regularly stuck in traffic. Ridership declines due to the resulting unreliable service, and the route is discontinued as a result. She proceeds to try an alternate two-route option, but at least once per week traffic congestion causes her to miss her scheduled transfer and wait 30 minutes for the next bus. She looks for housing in neighborhoods with better transit service but cannot afford it. With no other options, she cancels her planned spring travels, instead using all of her hard-earned savings to buy a car. | An individual enjoys riding transit on business trips overseas and wishes their hometown had similar options. However, she feels that urban planning patterns in America make non-car modes infeasible here. Though it is stressful for her, she drives everywhere. She allows extra time to get where she needs to go but is still late more often than not. On a recent morning, her car would not start. She did not consider any non-car options, hailing a surge-priced Uber after learning their friend couldn’t drive them. | An individual fights severe traffic congestion daily, missed two weeks of work recently due to a car crash-caused injury, and is disputing the insurance company’s determination that he was at fault for the crash. However, he ecstatically shows off his new car, which he has already given a name, to friends and family. He spoke at a recent city council meeting against a proposal to construct a new bus lane because the project would eliminate 20 parking spots and make it easier for residents of low-income areas to access their neighborhood. |
Most LA drivers’ mentalities towards non-car transportation fall into one of the three categories above. Some actively wish they had more options to get around; others don’t enjoy the car experience but do not think anything else could ever be practical in their city, while the remainder have come to see their cars as bastions of freedom and perceive any transportation improvement that is not a road expansion as bad.
To attract first-dimension individuals, LA Metro and other agencies should simply continue to pursue multimodal upgrades. In the short term, attracting third-dimension individuals is not feasible – remember that even in cities with world class transit systems, around a quarter of residents inexplicably drive.
Second-dimension individuals, on the other hand, present marketing opportunities LA Metro and other regional transit providers may not be fully taking advantage of. As summarized above, these individuals are not fans of cars. Although they do not currently think that there are other viable transportation options, they can be convinced otherwise.
Possible strategies include:
- Working with businesses to publicize transit as a normal way to get to them. Stores, restaurants, and breweries could list nearby transit routes and stops on their websites, offer rewards such as discounted or free transit rides (as businesses frequently do for ride hailing) to customers, and post signage near their establishments directing patrons to them. To supplement this, LA Metro could publicize fun ideas for transit-oriented outings via its blog, The Source.
- Conducting door-to-door outreach to residents and employers near successful routes, emphasizing their on-time performance and travel times relative to congested highways. Using this data, LA Metro can encourage employers in well-served areas to provide transit benefits.
- Utilize the local entertainment industry by offering incentives to movie and TV show producers to film scenes in which characters use transit as a regular mode of travel – but not to producers planning to film a disaster scene or use the system as the butt of a joke.
Photograph of Los Angeles Union Station by Thomas Hawk.
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