A light-rail line, when built carefully to fit its surroundings, can create a corridor for high-value commercial and residential development.
But a train rumbling through busy intersections in front of shops, homes and schools can also condemn a community to permanent second-class status.
The Expo Line, now being constructed to eventually run from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, is already alarming residents and business owners in both South-Central and the Westside.
That’s because the light-rail line’s planning methods call for trains to run at street level through busy intersections, including the neighborhoods surrounding Dorsey High School and the Westside Pavilion shopping mall.
Metro’s Grade Crossing Policy dictates whether a train crosses an intersection at street level, is elevated above the crossing or put underground.
Adopted in 2003, the policy favors car traffic volume in decision-making: Train tracks are slated to be built above or below streets at the intersections that move the most cars, since these are most likely to see traffic snarled by the trains.
Coincidentally, the intersections with the most car traffic – and those set to get grade-separated crossings – tend also to be in more well-off neighborhoods. Those areas tend to have vibrant commercial centers, which in turn generate car traffic.
In the low-income neighborhoods in which apartment dwellers will look straight out their front windows to see speeding trains, and where retail stores already lead a fragile existence, the rail line could become a development death sentence.
Land values can quickly be dragged down by a poorly executed rail line. If trains take up lanes previously used by cars, the area’s traffic-handling ability is reduced. When that happens, developers must downsize any new building projects to fit that lower capacity.
When running trains make it difficult for cars to drive in and out of store parking lots, or to easily make turns, a rail line can be disastrous for retailers.
If, on the other hand, a rail line is built with grade separations and attractive enhancements, it can easily promote new development in a distressed area. But without proper community safeguards, a train can also be a nuisance that scares off anyone planning to build a commercial or residential development.
Vicious cycle
It’s a vicious cycle: Once an at-grade train is put into an at-risk neighborhood, the area is unlikely to ever develop the density and vehicle traffic required to meet the grade-separated crossing standard.
Some argue an at-grade crossing can be built as a first-step, to be followed by an elevated or underground crossing in the future, when an area has developed. But the at-grade crossing is itself a barrier to development and neighborhood improvement.
In other words, the current Grade Crossing Policy discriminates against underdeveloped neighborhoods, denying them opportunities to enjoy the same economic prospects as areas that have already been substantially developed.
The policy is viewed warily in some reasonably well-off areas as well.
The intersections of Olympic Boulevard at Overland Avenue and Westwood Boulevard fell short of the standard for an elevated or underground rail crossing. But there’s plenty of car traffic from the nearby Westside Pavilion and an elementary school near the tracks.
That has well-connected homeowners in the area furious they did not get the above-street crossing designation granted to other Westside intersections such as two other crossings along Olympic– one at Bundy Drive and another at Cloverfield Boulevard.
In virtually every instance in which it has been applied, the current Grade Crossing Policy has drawn fierce opposition from the communities it is intended to serve. This continuous chorus of complaints from our constituents cannot be ignored by the Metro board.
Criticism of the Grade Crossing Policy has not been unique to local communities. In fact, the State of California Public Utilities Commission, which has ultimate jurisdiction over these matter, has not yet approved two of the most controversial grade crossings on the Expo Line; grade crossings which were, of course, expeditiously “green-lighted” under the current Metro policy.
The Obama administration recently adjusted the funding criteria for transit projects to correct an unintended bias favoring thoroughly developed communities over developing neighborhoods. The same adjustment must be made for grade crossing standards.
For all of these reasons, and because of intense pressure from the communities I represent and from other regions of the county, I request a careful re-examination of the Grade Crossing Policy. I further request a suspension of grade-separation decisions until a clearly underwritten policy that supports community safety and, where appropriate, local economic development is approved by the Metro board.
Mark Ridley-Thomas is a Los Angeles County supervisor. He also is a director of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority.
