Took the bus from the office to Echo Park last night and back this morning, and, geez, if even a simple ride down Sunset doesn't make a guy yearn for a fast, modern metro system in L.A. like this imaginary one. In the proposed future L.A. metro system by Damien Goodmon, which was all the rage on local blogs for a bit last year, rail and subway lines would have Sylmar interconnected to San Pedro, Baldwin Park to Santa Monica, and LAX to the Burbank and Long Beach airports. Imagine three transfers one continuous ride on the "Silver Line" from Sunset and Echo Park Ave to reach Venice Beach on a leisurely Saturday. (Link at Metroblogging LA. Some of the comments are good and noble: "I'm crying.")
But, if L.A. ever joins the ranks of modern megacities with real mass transit, we should keep in mind that living with a subway means being in very close proximity to lots and lots of strangers. Check out this hat-tipping transit cop on a platform at Higashi-Kawaguchi station in the Tokyo subway and the throngs of people he's directing:
But the platform traffic in the Tokyo subway appears cozy compared to the jam in this claustrophobic tunnel in the metro in Moscow:
Finally, here's a short video piece by L.A. artist and writer Harry Gamboa Jr., depicting an apocalyptic daydream on the Red Line: