April 13, 2017 by CallisonRTKL

FUTURE CITY L. A. – Part I: Mobility

This blog entry is the first of a series by CRTKL’s Nate Cherry that investigates changing attitudes and with them, the changing physical environment of Los Angeles.

If you know anything about Los Angeles, you know that the single occupancy car has played a big role in our cultural ethos. You only have to watch the opening scene of the smash hit movie La La Land to understand how large a role cars, and with them, traffic jams, play in our collective imaginations. Since the Red Car lines were torn up from the streets in the early ‘60s, the car and the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine has dominated how we get around and how we think about our city.

As a fellow Angeleno once put it to me, “Time in my car is ME time.”

To her point, cars are specifically designed to mitigate the effects of boredom in traffic. For many, they are a kind of sanctuary. See Netflix’s series on design, Abstract, specifically Ralph Gilles’ episode on car design, and the message is clear.

The car is an important tool—not only a convenient way to get around, but now a symbol of our identity. However it’s becoming clearer every day that the costs of our obsession with gasoline-powered, single occupancy cars are pretty steep, including loss of productivity, extreme impacts on air quality and among the highest costs of living in America.

Measures M and R

Nearly 70 percent of Angelenos approved Measure M last year, adding a half-cent sales tax that will create more than $800 million a year to improve public transit. This comes less than 7 years after we passed measure R, an equal sales tax increase. The result of this commitment at the ballot box has resulted in new transit options in L.A.; not only is there an extensive light rail system that serves a large portion of the city, but the MTA has also introduced a bike sharing program. But is our use of public transit actually increasing? Our intellect tells us, “Of course I am pro-transit. I will vote for the transit measure,” and yet, when it comes to our personal behaviors, if we have a car, we tend to use it.

Autonomous Vehicles

An example of new technology that is really capturing people’s interest is the self-driving car. And cities are catching on, collaborating with private companies that are developing autonomous buses. In fact, a number of smaller cities in L.A. County are testing them right now. The idea of AVs as public transportation is attractive because of their reliability both day and night, plying across preset routes linking people to the light rail lines or other modes of public transit. We have experience working with cities and AVs, most recently in Las Vegas where they were used as a demonstration project, and I will say that AVs do one thing very well: convince the non-initiated to use public transit. It’s interesting to see how technological gizmos such as touch screens and digital readouts reassure riders that the ride is safe. I guess it’s needed, and if that is what it takes to make more of us use public transit, then I am all for it!

Fuel Cell Cars

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are also a remarkable innovation, in that they burn liquefied hydrogen and emit only water. This technology is not something that is only “in development.” In fact, you might have noticed the advertisement for the Toyota Mirai during this year’s Superbowl.

The Mirai is impressive, but what is even more impressive is the political will that goes with the innovation to make it viable. In 2015, Mayor Eric Garcetti initiated the Sustainable City Plan, which creates ambitious goals for 2035, including creating charging stations for fuel cell cars. As of mid-2016, there are over 40 charging station in California, with a goal of 100 stations by 2024. If you sign up for a lease or purchase one of these fuel cell cars, the state will give you the first three years of hydrogen fuel for FREE.

Electric Cars

Much further along are the sustainability goals that the city has set for electric cars, which envision installing 1000 EV charging stations throughout the city in the next two years. Aided by private sector contributions, the LAPD has added 100 BMW i3 electric cars, and the Tesla Model S will be added soon. Incorporating e-vehicles into the city’s fleet is a smart move. It helps to normalize the message of using more sustainable alternatives to gasoline-powered vehicles, and all of this will cut greenhouse gas emissions. The plan will cut emissions by 45 percent in 2025, and 80 percent by 2050, with the intent of making Los Angeles “the first big city to achieve zero waste.”

Looking Forward

As they say, one step at a time.

The greatest impact of technological change happens when the culture shifts to maximize its benefit. We are currently thinking about transportation in a traditional mindset; by that I mean that the single occupancy vehicle dominates the transportation landscape—for now. People will soon realize that this is a state of being with very limited returns, contingent upon cheap fuel, significant infrastructure investment and low interest rates. But even though the new cars I mentioned have an environmental benefit, the addition of more new vehicles on the road will only compound traffic congestion.

My point is that these innovations are cool, but we have to get beyond the fascination with the technology and begin to question our collective transportation habits. For example, often the first question I get about my own bike commute is, “How fast is it?” as if getting from A to B as quickly as possible is the only consideration. Like all of our “lifestyle choices,” how we move around the city is a habit. Thinking about the impact of our commute on the communities in which we live is something that (I hope) will naturally lead us to ask, “What else can we do to make our city more livable by changing our habits?”

What I do like is that, in our discourse, we are starting lessen the friction against using public transit. Design of the public realm has a huge role to play in this, and culturally, millennials are starting to link transportation choices to health and wellbeing—not only as individuals but as communities of concerned citizens. Recently, I’ve see more Angelenos questioning their habits and incorporating usage of other modes of transport like public transit, biking and walking as a part of their daily routines. The futurists I talk with agree that mobility is moving toward being shared, multimodal and free or virtually so.

Studies show that even the most ardent driver among us only uses his car about 5% of the time. If the reason you drive to work is because you always have, maybe it’s time to question that assumption, at least a day a week. I predict there will be a tipping point in the next few years where we will look back at our behaviors and marvel at how much time, energy and resources we dedicated to single car ownership and auto-oriented mobility.

In upcoming blogs, I will investigate the impact this shift is having in the physical design of our city.

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CallisonRTKL

For more than five decades, Callison and RTKL have created some of the world’s most memorable and successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions and public entities. In 2015, our two practices came together under the Arcadis umbrella, expanding our sphere of influence and the depth and breadth of our resources. Our team is comprised of nearly 2,000 creative, innovative professionals throughout the world who are committed to advancing our client’s businesses and enhancing quality of life.