The meager L.A. subway system is in need of expansion, but the
proposal for a three-mile extension the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority has considered is an inefficient way to start.
The proposal would extend the current underground rail system
three miles down Wilshire Boulevard to the Fairfax intersection.
The MTA has not adopted the proposal, though, and it’s
unlikely they will adopt any proposal any time soon ““ which
may very well be in the city’s best interest right now.
By nature, Los Angeles, compared to other cities, is sprawling
in a random, almost unorganized fashion ““ that’s the
way the city was founded, and that’s the way it’s
growing. It doesn’t have a true core defining its identity.
Having a more thoroughly developed, cohesive transportation system
is one way of helping solve this problem. If MTA were to approve
the building of a three-mile extension to the subway, it would be
no more than a Band-Aid for a problem crippling the city. Moreover,
local and federal legislation have left the project, which will
cost around $200 million per mile, with no feasible source of
funding.
The city would benefit greatly from a subway system extension,
but not in this way. Finding more financial resources that would
facilitate an extensive revamping of L.A.’s transportation
system would justify the expense, and benefit the city. The most
reasonable way to approach this enormous undertaking would involve
the mayor’s office and the MTA forming a master plan for the
subway and L.A. transportation as a whole, reevaluating
L.A.’s transportation philosophy.