The answer is "Yes!" for Kenny Uong who is passionate about L.A.'s buses and trains, knows how to get around without a car, and hopes to inspire others to do the same.
Los Angeles is well-known for its car culture, traffic, and freeways, but it actually does have a public transit system. And there are probably very few people who know and use this network like Kenny Uong, who was recently featured in this article by Nita Lelyveld of the Los Angeles Times. At age 21, Uong just completed his junior year at Cal State Northridge, where he studies urban planning. Uong has thousands of followers on Twitter, where he passionately shares his love for buses, trains, all things public transit, and his adventures across Los Angeles County.
Uong's story is inspiring. Some of the highlights he shared with Lelyveld include:
- He first fell in love with public transportation when he was about 3 years old. His parents did not have a car, and they still do not. The family came to California from Vietnam in 1998, before he was born.
- When Uong was around 5, he started collecting Los Angeles bus and train schedules and Metro brochures. He soon started mapping out the routes and schedules of the buses his family would take, serving like a transit app.
- By the time he was 10, he had memorized the entire Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority public transit system.
- For his 10th-grade English class, he wrote a poem called “Metro is the way to go.”
- For a ceramics class project in 11th grade, he shaped the word "Mobility" in clay, surrounded by images of a traffic signal, a bicycle, and a bus.
- Growing up, his dream was to be a Metro planner. Now as a young man, he is more interested in joining a nonprofit or advocacy group to promote transit justice.
Please read the source article to learn more about Uong and his love for public transit.
FULL STORY: Need help ditching your car for a train or bus? Meet an L.A. public transit superfan
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.