I haven’t designated a central core for South LA because this is primarily a huge residential reservoir feeding directly into the three regional cores. However, there are a number of commercial districts that could greatly benefit from access to a unified mass transit system, namely downtown Inglewood, the USC area, Crenshaw Plaza/Leimert Park, and Century Boulevard. South LA sustains pretty high densities across the entire district. Over 800,000 people live in this 54 square mile area, yielding an overall population density of 14,860 people per square mile. The 34 currently proposed stations within those 54 square miles yield a station density of .63. This lower station density is more acceptable here because of the predominately residential, non-central nature of the district. However, due to its densities, this district could definitely support infill stations and additional lines running along any of the major east-west and north-south thoroughfares, thus boosting the station density.
All lines running through this district except for the Green Line feed into one or more of the three regional cores. These lines therefore act much like trains running the length of Manhattan into the Bronx, or trains stretching out radially from Manhattan deep into Brooklyn. The district's densities and orientation already provide the support for these lines carrying passengers into the core. All that is missing other than the lines themselves is the core infrastructure to receive those inbound passengers.
The Green Line offers a glimpse of the system’s possible southward expansion. Initial expansions at both ends could connect the Green line to LAX and the Norwalk Metrolink station, plugging LA’s local transit network into the larger regional, national, and international travel networks. In the more distant future, the office clusters around LAX along Century Boulevard and in El Segundo could become a fourth nucleus anchoring a network radiating into the South Bay region.
1 comment:
Looks like you have a wrong pic (the station map is correct but you have yesterdays numbers instead of South LA's) . I really like your blog though - I'm interested in your methodology of calculating station density, how you look at census data, and what programs you use to do data analysis. Keep up the good work!
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