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A Busway In 'America's Suburb'

Posted by: Chris Steins

18 October 2005 - 11:00am

Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley has outgrown it's reputation as 'America's Suburb' and become a high-density community -- now complete with its own dedicated busway, modeled after the system in Curitiba, Brazil.

The Orange Line marks a compromise from an actual Valley rail line that transit planners long dreamed about but nearby residents opposed for almost two decades. Officials switched to the busway approach seven years ago after concluding that it would cost 75% less than a rail system. They traveled to Curitiba, Brazil, to see its system of busways that crisscross the region.

...But the Orange Line 'doesn't go anywhere you would want it to go,' said Joel Kotkin, a Valley Village resident and Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. 'It's a tour of the industrial bowels of the Valley. And there's no place to stop to get a cup of coffee.' "

Full Story: Is a Busway the Valley Way?
Source: The Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2005
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By monitoring these sorts of time-based changes, planners and policymakers could potentially take on a better understanding of how places change and what patterns might be causing urban problems.
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