This New LA Metro Station Should be PACKED - Here’s Why It’s Not
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- Опубліковано 29 тра 2024
- Ever stepped out of the new Bunker Hill metro station in Downtown LA and wondered why all you see is a car centric mess? Or why it seems somewhat under-utilized?
Music Artist/Credit: Home (purchased).
You nailed it. LA can build the nicest billion dollar transit, but few people are going to ride it if there are highway-like streets surrounding it. LA needs safe, narrow streets with curb extensions, and protected bike lanes. And your pedestrianization idea around this station is wonderful. Someone send this video to StreetsForAll. They might advocate for this idea.
😂one controversial lane re-imagining at a time for SFA. I agree though, SFA seems like one of the few advocacy groups that can make real change.
Indeed, the whole of L.A. Downtown within the 10, 110, and 101 expressways should be excluded to all traffic save transit, emergency, service, and resident's vehicles. This way you can have a walkable downtown and arts district... and room for skid row sidewalk settlements to metastasize into the street.
fair point, they probably have to be careful about spending their political capital.. which is tough since they do seem to be one of the few groups that gets things moving a bit faster in LA@@ehoops31
You forgot that the lines that serve it are plagued by street running!!!!! Remove the street running segments
@@edwardmiessner6502capture some of the viaducts and reroute the A and E lines onto them off the streets.
I was recently was traveling in Tokyo. Many train stations in Tokyo are gigantic 7-8 story tall malls filled with shops grocery stores, desert and snack shops, restaurants. The mall is literally built on top of the train tracks, you get off the train walk up the stairs into the mall. Or you can take another exit up the stairs and get to the street.
Train companies in Tokyo are profitable - not from passenger fares. They make their money by charging rent from all the stores in the train station/mall complex.
In fifty years those stations will be ghost towns. Japan, Korea, Italy, Germany, Spain...they are all dying off from staggeringly low birth rates and populations are plummeting. This is happening across the industrialized world and rebuilding families should be the number one priority. Not building monolithic train stations for people who won't exist in the future.
It's the same in Toronto!
LA is still very far away from having the traffic sufficient enough for a shop at a transit station to do business.
🤯 So we gotta build malls!
@@franko8572 No?!? You gotta build the stations where "lives" take place!
Building the stations before the development seems illogical but if you think about it, the hard part is done. This is the strategy a great deal of cities around the world take. It's an investment for the future, and one that doesn't necessarily have to pay off immediately. As long as LA City is willing to work with developers in the future to help transform the area, I can't see how this was a bad investment. It's certainly piqued interest for future development and can incentivize DTLA to change in the future. Also keep in mind, the problem with DTLA for the longest time was that it was a commuter focused area with no real residents at all and only businesses. People commuted far and wide to get to the area. At least some of those people now have alternatives that we had hoped for decades ago. Build and they will come.
I agree and think the station is a good investment overall - we can add even more room for density and development by removing the giant thru-way along the station to help make this place residential.
The biggest investment the city of LA ever did for DTLA was building Staples Center, if you track development from there it’s been a horrendously slow process to transform Downtown to where it is now, and it still needs so much more. I just see this as another step in that snails-pace process haha. Eventually it could be great though, as an LA native it feels like we are always waiting for the city to be better than what it currently is
Well, they had the Red Lines before WW2 but they stripped it all to build roads, and LA was born. So none of this will matter for the future, you'd be surprised how the tracks and train station get OLD and tattered real quick, and they will continuously be need to be replaced and maintained, and if you look at the rest of the city - none of what you say will happen and will fall into disrepair.
I agree. China has done this with their high speed stations and it worked out really well
Same, the roads are wide already, hard to make the roads wider when it's surrounded by apartments already.
As someone who commutes through Wilshire/Vermont, the reason for its popularity is not the urban design around it. It's currently the best place along with Wilshire/western to transfer to other metro busses going along Wilshire Boulevard through Beverly Hills, and to Westwood and Santa Monica, and all the neighborhoods west of these Wilshire/Western. If the D-Line extension is ever finished, the "popularity" of these two stations would decrease a lot
He also doesn't really understand bunker hill his basically dead at night because the proximity of things are office buildings. Vermont/Wilshire has entire neighborhoods surrounding it
@@bserpasThere are many things the author of the video doesn't understand. Why would a CROWDED city be considered as PROPER (he kinda means this towards the end). I have been living in LA for 5 years now after living my entire life (I'm 44) in BIG (CROWDED) cities like NYC and Istanbul. The life style in LA is so relaxing compared to other big cities. That's why many people from those big cities desire to move to LA like I did. Driving or even walking on those large but kinda empty-ish roads/streets is a joy. I would never want to go back to those mass transport centric and CROWDED cities ever again for living. Pushing those crowded-city/poorish-people problems and possible solutions onto the people who likes LA style of living is nonsense. LA doesn't need more mass transit lines which almost nobody would ever use.
@XtroTheArctic I've been to NYC and Chicago and get the whole car culture growing up here See, the metro rails are beneficial here in LA in a way though. You're right that we don't use it that much. Preferentially, here in LA I would rather take the metro any given day over driving if the connections make logical sense. I work from home now but prior to this I would take the metro since the expo line from where I live was a 10 minute walk to the station from home and a 5 minute walk to the office. 40 minutes where I could relax, nap, get things done. Versus driving that I just idle in my car for the same time or even longer depending on the traffic.
I also can't wait for LAX to finish the connection directly to the airport. I would rather take the expo to Crenshaw/lax lines instead of driving or paying for parking near the airport.
So in some situations the rail system is amazing. Other times like getting to Knotts or Magic Mountain yeah definitely I'll prefer driving any day since it's convenient.
Agree the bus lines add a lot to the immediate area’s popularity, as does the urban design. But don’t see why the D-line extension happening would harm the overall popularity a ton though...within a month of opening the extended D-line will be popular considering it runs along Wilshire’s density. (as long as we add more security tho, since some take buses for that reason over the D line)
@@XtroTheArctic The real solution isn't to force public transit on everyone, it's to give people the option to choose something other than a car. If you want to travel in a car that's amazing; but, why do I have to pay $400 a month on a car payment + $200 a month on insurance +$160 a month on gas + about $2,000 a year on maintenance (about $11,000 a year total) just to be able to get to work so I can earn money to pay for my car. The way things are in most american cities, it is literally impossible to live life without a car. To reiterate, if you want a car great. But it shouldn't be the only option.
I'm hoping we can harness the dark power of real estate developers to our advantage. I have a feeling that once they realize how much more profit they can generate by removing parking and building near transit, they'll be all over themselves lobbying against parking minimums and measures to better transit. Of course, there is the whole issue of affordability, but at least with walkability and transit, people will be better off financially and have more energy to organize.
Some of the problems are the transit lines themselves. They dont go where people want to go. They go where the planners said where we wanted to go. Also, its not safe. In San Jose (where I worked for over a decade) they expanded the light rail system for its East / West axis in the late 1990's. This is the Silicon Valley! All of us who used the light rail pleaded "make it right down San Carlos Street from the east end of San Jose (Alum Rock) to the main train station (Diridon) in downtown. Direct. No, the planners had a better idea. Everyone will take the north / south line way up past downtown, change at Baypoint and THEN swing back into east San Jose. It added another 45 minutes to the trip. Planners then shamed residents for not using their "great idea" when no one used it. Then transit planners are upset that "no one is using the light rail". If the USA (outside NYC / Boston / San Francisco / Chicago) want people to use public transport like this they have to really spend the time, the money and really study to see how and where and why people move in a city. Its mostly "see, we built it, Americans dont like it, we're backwards and love cars" insted of asking the right questions. I liked your video and I think you have some great ideas.
When a country and culture forgoes exceptionalism and embraces mediocrity you get mediocre results, mediocre doctors, engineers, architects etc. When people are encouraged to be average you have average results.
Sounds like Communist China bully planning. Audit needed as big projects always have big money and scams.
In the 90s, the voters would never have approved removing two car lanes along popular east-west streets and using them for light rail. Even now, plans for bus lanes along El Camino failed because car drivers objected to removing parking lanes. In any case, it doesn’t really matter because downtown San Jose is not a particularly important destination in Santa Clara county. In fact, light rail and BART are not really suitable for San Jose at all given how little transit ridership there is in the city.
In the 1990''s the voters DID approve an east west axis to the VTA Light Rail. And of course, the palnning comission made it so that it could NEVER compete save time and get people around San Jose quickly. They had Meetings on where to build this east / west axis. The sad thing was, they already knew where it was going to be built. They meets were held as to saw "we took reisnt and actual user input". @@my2iu
great ideas. Hopefully we're inching closer towards more reliable public transportation in LA
Yeah, letting criminals back out on the streets without so much as bail is doing its part to keep public transport in LA populated with muggers and rapists … GOOD JOB, LA !!
They need to clean up the public transit too. People don’t take transit in LA because it’s also super sketchy where you will often see many people urinating and shooting drugs into their veins while on the train or platform
You mean miles away?
I would totally use the metro in LA if the station's surrounding areas were actually walkable. Why can't every station above ground look like the wilshire/vermont one???
Excellent video, as always. As nice as large sweeping reforms would be, LA can improve substantially with just modest changes like getting rid of redundant roads and filling them in with apartments and/or green space, just as you described.
Hopefully an org like StreetsforAll can push for this plan! They recently got the city to (sort of) commit to looking into a freeway removal, which is great, and Bunker Hill seems like a cheaper road removal which could happen more quickly.
Love your video... stay safe biking around...
California ridiculous gas taxes, should be such a 'deterrences' and also a PR for local gov and developers to 'approaching' a Mid-dense Urban planning like those in Europe cities, instead of Auto-centric suburbs which is waste of lot of lands. Benefits of having mid-dense residentials build is also impact on Transportation effectiveness, social impacts of it's people (more ‘socialized’), ease policing methods (less space acres to search) and maybe suppress stupid prices of apts there. LA has a great climate for outdoor activity, too bad pollutions is even worser than NYC there. Don't let the Automobiles overtakes and pollute even more, investing on that solution it's preferable option.
When I first arrived in the US in 1999, it was in LA. Then over the years, I've moved everywhere including NY. But LA gave me the feeling of what my grandaunts told me when I was so young to remember anything. They said LA is America. They told me that they would walk everywhere and was surprised to find out that their shoes were still clean at the end of the day. I've lived in NY for decades but I still think LA is the America I know but when I come to visit -- I'm only disappointed by its missed opportunities to become a walkable city with that gorgeous weather.
It’s just the homeless population and the muggers that are the problem….
Get rid of the homeless. It's so scary to ride the train these days. I rode the Expo line from USC to La Cienega station. Two episodes of a man screaming at everyone on the train and Metro workers not doing anything about it. It's so terrible. I'm sticking with Uber and using my car. Please have security ride the trains and kick people off that are drinking, screaming, and being a nuisance.
CityNerd will call you a racist for that.
Aren't you exageratting? 😅
You’re right!!
METRO OR NOT, IT ABOUT SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY!!
No one will use metro on US & Western country even it new build if it’s unsafe.
THIS IS BIGGEST DIFFERENT IN CHINA, EAST ASIA, SOME SOUTHEAST ASIA COUNTRY VS US & WESTERN MINDSET & LAWSUITS!!
Ppl scare shit out of their head use metro in US because they might get a homeless assault & spit on their face for no reason or just because they’re fk hate you, hate your looks, hate your race!!
You might get racist hate crimes attackers you because of your race!!
Ppl cant fk walking in street, parks & metro safety enjoying their moments with their friends, their kids because they might facing druggies homeless & druggies thugs, criminals BEATING SHIT OUT OF THEM TO ROBBED OR KNIFE STABBING TO GET ROBBERY RIGHT IN DOWNTOWN IN BOARD DAYLIGHT!!
The ridiculous stupid is, DRUGGIES HOMELESS IS NOT CONSIDERED AS DRUGGIES ADDICT BUT IN US/WESTERN THEY CONSIDER IT MENTAL ILLNESS PROBLEMS!!
And thugs, criminals did robbery facing the SOFTEST PUNISHMENT LIKE A JOKE!!
Law system protect & support druggies homeless/druggies zombies, thugs, robbery & criminals more than laws abiding ordinary people!!
Druggies zombies/druggies homeless, robbery, thugs & criminals HAVE MORE FREEDOM, MORE HUMANITY RIGHT, MORE PROTECT BY LEGAL LAWS & JUSTICE LAWS SYSTEMS!!
US & Western use to be developed & well education country with lawsuits system!!
But now US & ALOTS WESTERN IS LAWLESS, LAWLESS & BACKWARDS!!
They’re create UNBELIEVABLE RIDICULOUS STUPID LAWS SYSTEMS TO PROTECT & SUPPORT THESE DRUGGIES, THUGS & CRIMINALS IN THE HEARTBEAT!!
This is why US, Western nowadays is fails & falling so fast so bad downhill because they’re blind & brainwashed for too long!!
Anyone committed crimes but if they’re homeless, druggies then it switched to MENTAL ILLNESS PROBLEM - so no punishment, no jails. WALK AWAY FREELY, NO CAUGHT, NO JAILS!!
Us & Western get brainwashed for too long too deep that’s why they’re lost basic common sense & basic logic already!!
I've been reporting them using their Transit Watch app every time it; we shouldn't have to tolerate this behavior . Besides, they're always encouraging us "If you see something, say something".
There were two Metro workers that helped when I pointed out a man screaming at himself. It's changed in the past few months.
1000%. I made a point to check out the station after getting lunch with a friend last week. (My most direct route would’ve been to walk back to 7th/Metro). The obscenely wide roads that are part of the standard planning process for LA Metro/LA City need to be thrown out, trashed, eradicated. Granted, this was planned, designed, and funded at a time when mitigating for increased VMT wasn’t yet the statewide standard. But it’s still a travesty that it was (is) EVER normal to design something like this and sell it as a transit improvement.
🚄🚅🚈🚝 I love trains ❤
I have a folder about ''transportation''
thank you chou chou chouuuu : )
What is station traffic like at commute times? You mentioned you visited after lunch, and the video inside the station was shot before 1 pm. These are not peak times.
I’m not saying you or LEJ are wrong, I’m just saying that your evidence isn’t rigorous.
That is a fair question. I take the E Line around once a week at rush hour, usually on a Wednesday or Thursday. It is as empty then as it is during the midday. Eastbound, the trains are fullest between Culver City and USC, and they start to empty out at Pico and LATTC. Most of the remaining riders get off at 7th/Metro.
First fully nude homeless person I ever saw was right outside the station there where you were filming. Good times.
Coming from NYC, I was curious about the LA subway. It may have location problems, it is not the main reason why people are not using it. When I came down a downtown station, I surprised how nice it is. Then I saw homeless people with obvious mental issues were ready to jump on other people. One homeless guy actually did it. Please get your record straight. People don’t use it because it is NOT safe.
Bingo
too many times we see mentally dangerous people riding the subway with others in the NYC. We moved to TX were happy that we dont need to take public transportation anymore, lol.
@@eggheadegghead you and city government could have taken responsibility for providing people with mental health issues the healthcare they need but I guess we don't do that in America because .
You could have stayed where you were at if we shed all the toxic bullshit we have around homeless people (including mentally ill ones) being homeless because they all somehow deserved it. Like did the court of prosperity hear every case and was like "you're too weird, homelessness for you. Indefinitely because the US has no support system to speak of."
It is very safe, actually.
@@mooviemusicfan I’m on the J Silver Line (bus) line this very second. The stench, insanity and Mental issues are insane. The subway is no different than bus. I’d never ever ever ride public transport if I were a woman.
Thanks for making a video on this! I actually recently took the A Line from Long Beach to watch a play in the Bunker Hill area - I also ate at a cafe nearby and then went to one of the museums. It was honestly a fantastic experience. Plenty of Metro ambassadors at the Bunker Hill station, and the places I needed to go was within 1-2 blocks of walking... but you're right that the streets could definitely be more pedestrian-friendly.
tbh, an immediate issue I face is LBT buses not being frequent enough. The train can be great, but it's not so great when you don't live close to a station and "the last mile problem" is in fact "the last 5+ miles problem." So I have to do bus>train or train>bus when LB buses are either every 30 minutes or every hour. LB buses generally don't have late night service either, so that also shuts down a lot of bus/train combination trips for me. I'm envious of LA Metro and LA DOT that has slightly better frequencies and run later bus service than LBT. 😕
And this is why LA should have focussed on making great transit for the dense core instead of trying to cater to every suburb. Instead, they built transit that requires multiple transfers, is not all that efficient anywhere you go and you end up with long light rail lines that don't really get you to your destination. I'd rather there be pockets with fantastic urbanism and transit rather than bleh all the way around.
Consider biking to the station! It's pretty easy to bring your bike onto a metro train and take it with you. Plus there's the added bonus of easily being able to bike around DTLA, which has some nice new protected bike infrastructure.
@@AdamFaruqiI have a bike that I often combine with my commute on the train (and sometimes bring on the bus). Multimodal commuting is an amazing time-saver, but it's not always perfect. (1) if I'm going somewhere that's not my workplace, I don't know if they'll have adequate bike parking, and (2) frankly, the infrastructure to/from the Long Beach train station closest to where I live is pretty terrifying. Ideally I try to reduce time spent on the road there, because I think I'll die on those streets one day. It just isn't the safest (stroads, door zones, one center-running bike lane, a street where you're biking in the gutter while cars often go 50 mph, etc.).
But I definitely don't count out bikes as an option; I went from Long Beach to Santa Monica a while back taking my bike on the A & E trains and it's so great to bike around Santa Monica.
1 the Wilshire Vermont station was busy long before the apartments and stores were built,
2 the grand Avenue station was basically built to serve the grand park corridor and disney concert hall, to fulfill a promise made to disney years ago,
3 the residents and offices in the area would block any development in that area, and there's absolutely no way the city would allow that street to be removed, it's a vital street during the rush hour, and a bunch of commuter bus routes use it
I got the impression that it was to get people closer to the museums nearby so you don't have to walk from Civic Center Station. From my experience, it's just not well known. I asked the staff at The Broad about the station that's literally behind them and they didn't know what I was talking about.
Civic Center Station is the Red Line (I guess it's called B line now). This station is A and E lines. So the trains that stop at Civic Center wouldn't even go here.
Downtown LA is trying to improve the transit oriented development around Bunker Hill. Previously only 33% of DTLA was residential. But I think they're trying to up zone it now to be more like 80%. Hopefully in another 10 years we will see a huge transformation.
Call them out, LEJ! Let's pressure LA to improve its transit and streets!
Great Video as Always! I visited bunker hill sta during the opening and it was quite busy, and i went there again ~2 weeks ago on a weekend and there was a decent amount of people, ao it seems like the museums drive alot of the traffic to the station
Thanks! Yeah I totally get that weekends here attract some more people - and if more gets built all around it, it can live up to it's true potential and become an all hours station I hope!
Great video! LA has some plans to improve the area with widened sidewalks on Flower, bike lanes, and even closing upper Grand to cars between 1st and 2nd (see the LADOT Downtown LA Mobility Investment Plan), but you are definitely right that the area simply needs more housing. Metro was able to work with a developer to reinforce Historic Broadway station so a 60 story tower could be built directly on top of that station (hopefully that will break ground soon). It’s a shame they didn’t do that here.
I’m hoping eventually there can be something like the car-free district you proposed. It just makes so much sense. Sadly, downtown has no representation on city council since KDL has been so terrible, but hopefully that can change soon. Downtown is going to add so many new residents with how much housing the new zoning plan allows, so they need to figure it out how to make the most of the transit that’s already there.
Thanks! Would be great if the city council actually orders LADOT to expedite the originally promised bike lanes and improvements. I saw on StreetsBlogLA that they silently dropped adding them at some point despite saying it would be done, but i’m not shocked that happened haha. But damn a car free district in DTLA would be nice.
I recently got a master plan of all the current and proposed residential and commercial developments for DTLA from a realtor. I’ll have to take a look at it to see what’s happening with this area.
Awful video
Dude doesnt live in LA and doesnt follow
Street people of los angeles
Or dtla crazies on IG
bunch of shit everywhere
Looters
People getting robbed
Its not clean
Its not safe
LA metro isnt safe at all anymore
People doing heroin in the train stations
Dude prob has never taken the blue line or purple line at all
I grew up on catalina and 6th st
Took metro everyday
Shits ass
Its full of ass
Smells like it
Looks like it
Also that coffee bean is gone sadly
Same with the dennys and gas station that was across the street
People dont come there because of jobs lmao
About a month ago, a homeless man stabbed someone to death on the metro. Security is good at the stations, but the trains are a different story. There are some pretty crazy people who practically live on the train. Even though I live next to a metro station, I just dont take it a lot because of safety considerations.
That’s the main problem right there. Last time I rode the gold line there were about 5 homeless in each and every car? They smelled hideous. They had all their carts and possessions and blankets over their heads, sleeping. This is their home and we are invading it.
Yep, I'm from the UK and couldn't believe how crazy it was every time I rode the Metro
I checked out this station to see The Broad and MOCA and it was too tucked away and hidden. It really doesn’t need the exit to the street, it should only have the exit that leads you to the little plaza next to The Broad leading you to Grand. It’s busier up there than that terrible street with nothing on it.
TFL in London has got through tough times by selling off land it owns to developers or building its own commercial properties. The city of LA should be capitalising on little used stretches of road like this to boost transit oriented development and make some money back. I remember visiting LA years ago (before Google Maps), arriving at the Greyhound station with no way to get out other than a shuttle bus to a hostel which when I got to it felt like it was surrounded by pedestrian hostile roads so felt I trapped and unable to explore without jumping on the shuttle to the beach provided by the hostel.
It was only when I revisiting later and could afford to rent a car that I drove past the same hostel and realised how close it was to the airport and beaches. Having the transit options then would have totally transformed my experience of the city.
Dude they put the greyhound station right in skid row as a middle finger to anyone who dares to not drive in by car. It was deliberate, nobody can change my mind.
Selling the land off is probably a mistake, if we compare what East Asian transport companies are doing. Basically, they should lease the land or build on it and lease the property space. If the city won’t have a vision, then maybe the transit company should be building what will bring people to them?
@ Yes. I think, a high-density mixed use building with both commercial and living space would be ideal. High traffic businesses on the bottom, like cafes and fast food restaurants, then on the top would be apartments. The city could either build it up themselves to lease, or just use a zoning law/city ordinance to mandate that the property developer build it to include those specifications. A very simple idea, that would take advantage of the tax revenue generated from the small businesses and residential property, thereby cutting the long-term costs.
The other problem is the lines are gross and dangerous! Never felt safe on the trains… security is almost non-existent!
The lines are hardly usable
If nobody uses it.. it will always be unsafe 😢.. however it's interesting to see that the system is growing and I'm sure at some point things will change.. please don't let it get as disgusting as NYC's.. 🤮
Also: it takes time for behavioral patterns to change. People aren’t taking the train to or from here because, if they had to go to or from here in the past, they had to do it some other way-or not do it at all. Those habits usually don’t change overnight.
Overall the metro is dirty and dangerous. That's why people don't use it.
@@peterwelby It's still pretty dirty. I'll give you that. But have you ridden recently? They've stepped up their security.
@@peterwelby 100% I'm laughing at the comments on this post how they're claiming it's EVERYTHING except the real reasons why people are no longer using the MTA 🤣
@@AdamFaruqi there was a stabbing just the other day at the Little Tokyo station with the new so called 'beefed up security.'
I’m kinda hoping that the area will get more transit oriented over time, it often makes sense to build the station first then let the transit get developed around it, but this is Los Angeles, so that might be rather difficult.
I think the roads have been seen as a hurdle by being there to potential developers, but with the station's low usage (and not very much new surrounding development), there's a legitimate and compelling argument to make for their removal.
@@mrxman581 Thank you for assuming I didn't know what I was talking about. Now I'll try again to explain in more detail what I meant in my "assessment". There is a whole city block west of the station that's on an incline, half comprised of wider roads than normal for Downtown that's clearly from several decades ago, and the rest is grass. Meaning, no people and no buildings. Personally, I think something could be added there and the roads could be modified, as part of developing the surrounding area. Which would mean converting newly renovated roads from the city over to privately held land. I'm indifferent about preparing developed areas beforehand, I think it could happen either way, Honolulu's Skyline is a blatant example with it's westernmost stations placed in the middle of fields because of future projects going to be taking place in those places.
LA will NEVER become transit friendly until the City of LA smartens up and hires Transit Cops. That's right - cops who police the trains! It's NOT SAFE to take mass transit in LA!
The residents in the apartment building on the right at 5:21 would sue the city for literally hundreds of millions of dollars if anyone tried to remove the upper part of HOPE ST next to their building. They had a problem with the Disney concert hall because of the concave glare and they got the city to CHANGE DISNEY CONCERT HALL.
Trust me, your idea won't happen.
I visited LA in August and was really surprised at how the Expo Line trains emptied out at Metro Center station before continuing through downtown. I would have expected the new tunnel to have retained a lot more riders continuing out to the other side of the city. But I also noticed that a lot of system maps in the stations and on trains were outdated and showing the old routes, and the lines traced on Google Maps' Transit layer hadn't been updated either (I could get schedules, but nothing reassuring me by looking at the map layer that showed the train line actually existed -- fortunately that seems fixed now). Hopefully it's just that people have old travel patterns stuck in their heads that will change over time.
The observations about station TOD are well-taken, but it feels like that's only part of what's going on.
7th st is pretty much the core of downtown in terms of shops and restaurants, and 7th/metro center is the biggest transfer point on the system. I think it makes sense that it sees far more traffic than other downtown stations
It's the transfer station to the subway.
Good point, tbh I haven’t noticed that the E line has less passengers after departing 7th Street/Metro Center to East LA. The A line still retains a lot of passengers.
Yet the same people in LA that complain about traffic will be the ones to shut down any plans to densify. 😂
Looks like LA has STARTED the process of transit development, but it has a LONG way to go. PLEASE be sure that you VOTE accordingly, and maybe work with other groups/individuals to make these transit stations more about Humans rather than cars.
Once again, i will say that You Must Pressure your Local Politicians to Fix This. This requires Years of Work. And spread the word! You are on the right track in bringing this to everyone's attention.
don't worry when androids come and replace all our needs depopulation will happen you will not need any train stations.
finally someone realizes they barely started on this lol.
Toronto is using TOD planning for the new Ontario subway line. They’re basically planning massive skyscrapers over the stations such as Corktown, King-Bathurst, Exhibition Place and Pape-Danforth. And the plans have been placed on the Metrolinx website for public review. Toronto is already dense and is approaching the density of New York - especially downtown/central area. The problem facing Toronto is overcrowding of Line 1 along Yonge Street, which happens to be the busiest single service in North America.
Toronto as a city is no where near the population density of NYC ( all 5 boroughs combined has a population density of about 30,000 people per Square kilometer. Its even higher during the daytime.
I was shocked to city as large of Toronto with only 3 train lines with 70 stations.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that hates those beg buttons! Cities may think they are a good thing, but it's inherently car-centric design when the pedestrian should have the right of way instead of forcing them to press a button. I mean, do drivers have to pull up to an intersection, and lean out of their window to push a button in order to get a green light in their favor? No, they just wait and the light appears! They simply exist so that car traffic signals can minimize the car travel “delays” associated with people who need to cross a street on foot. They effectively penalize you for not having a car, and I've seen these in NYC too...which is pretty ironic for a city whose huge subway system is its backbone!
And absolutely having transit-oriented development is important! Transit is for, well, PEOPLE! And transit stations aren't gonna get a lot of usage if there's not much surrounding it. I mean when stations in Brooklyn and Queens like those in Bay Ridge or Junction Boulevard first opened, there was NOTHING surrounding them! It was only when people started building development around said stations that people started to move in. Same case with the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail! So much development like around Essex Street has popped up in Downtown Jersey City because of that light-rail! If you build it...THEY WILL COME!
I grew up in Downtown Los Angeles! I was a regular at the Pantry and Clifton's Cafeteria and Grand Central Market and the now closed Arc Deco Movie Theaters where i would walk with my friends to go to them. I even worked in a Flower Shop and a Burger King that was underground for the summer. I was 15 y/o and i got to my shift i went to change and when i came out of the dressing room we had been robbed! 😂 So much fun! I explored everything!🤩❤️
The worst part of that is that all of this expect the housing was included in the approved construction plans. Closure of Hope street, bike lanes, road diet, ...
LA Metro just decided not to follow the plans and to widen the roads instead. Completely mind boggeling how a transit agency does something like that.
There was an article from the LA streetsblog a few days ago comparing the city-approved plans with the build reality, I probably can't post links here.
I would like to see them get sued for that, not sure where they even got the budget for road widening from.
Maybe this would even be worth its own video
In places like Korea and Japan, the sidewalks are safe to walk, with fences, and trees, sometimes multiple fences and tree lines, to make the people comfortable to walk. They have sun shields at intersections to shield you from the sun. And there's always multiple dinning areas in the station and around the station. The town or neighborhoods best foods are available in the station.
The US government just isn't capable of building things that serve the community. The US is all about division and grievances.
That's the station I use to get to my office. The entire area is really just focused on office space and cultural attractions. Maybe only 500 people actually living with 500' of that station. The area surrounding that station is basically a freeway on ramp. Some nice shops and a pedestrian stretch would be genius!
Just get some of those little tents and cardboard boxes on the sidewalk, that is affordable dense housing.
I think you got your cart before the horse here. Transit first development after. Are you simply advocating for what should be the next steps? Also you made some selective choice of shooting locations and viewpoints. The station is connected to a nice plaza by The Broad with food trucks parked on Grand, at least on weekends. Yes the area west of Hope street you highlight needs some help deprioritizing cars but the connectivity to the museums, and theatres on Grand mean the station does have some serious trip generation potential, though not in the middle of the day on a tuesday. So does the Bunker Hill station merit more TOD north and west of it, definitely. That said you gloss over the fact that there is a pedestrian plaza and a bridge to connect to the upper part of Grand Ave. You probably could have made some more nuanced points about car oriented planning talking about what is east of the station (for example the viaduct that is the upper and lower parts of Grand Ave, yuck!).
Totally agree that transit normally comes before the TOD, but since there only two properties ever planned for development here (at least that I was able to research) I wanted to point out how removing the roads here could work as a plan to create more density. I think the bridge they built was good too, but doesn’t make up for the overall car centric-ness around the station.
@@lej_explainsI read an article about how Los Angeles spent millions on the parking garage for the Disney Concert Hall & it’s been way under parked it’s entire existence, requiring general funds to subsidize the bond payments. Using parking in that structure to compensate for only service vehicle access to the new buildings could be a big win
No one is going to take public transit in a city / county that has no bail and immediately releases criminals back on the street. Why would I want to be in an unsafe place like public transit when I can take my own vehicle? It’s that simple.
That's just because you're scared of the big world. No reason why the rest of us should shake in our boots.
I live near the Vermont station and one of the major reasons I chose to live there was that I'm walking distance from a station that has good access to downtown and lots of groceries and good food. I mostly use the train to go to Hollywood and Downtown because I don't like parking there but I'm definitely in that group that had no idea Bunker Hill had been redone - it was always just a stop on the way to Little Tokyo. I love that you don't just point out the shortcomings of what happened but also suggest positive changes to make the best of what we got. Let's hope they can start turning the roads back toward walkability soon!
Subscribed!
Great video, and that street should 100% converted into pedestrian. We can just use Times Square as proof. One thing I'd suggest though, is that the name "Performing Arts Center" gives us a clear idea on what kind of civic activity this area should be designated for. Plus with major attractions close to it, like Disney Hall, I'd want this area to be perfect for people to wayfind and safely walk to what's already existing around it. If the demand calls for apartments, then sure build them. However way you just "spark" a large area for buskers and artists, this is the number one place it should be, as a pedestrian only road. You've got a sub
Would anyone wanna live there though, with a crowd of people around breakdancers at 9pm? LOL
Many cities went pedestrian-mall crazy back in the 70’s and 80’s … And 89% of them failed.
Most ended up being populated by pigeons, and drunks.
Hell, build some low-cost housing nearby, and you have yourself another ghetto …
Agreed. Affordable family housing at Bunker Hill. #1@@Clyde-2055
@@Clyde-2055 Were there any residential buildings near them? If not, that's probably why they didn't work.
I work on Bunker Hill and use this station often. The worst part for me is no cell signal down there.
Just let her cook!! In a few years development will follow and the system will expand. I guarantee you more people will be using the line by the end of the decade. The station has been open for less than 6 months.
I do not know LA but living in a city with mass transit, New York City, there are reasons for stations that do not seem to fit what a lot of transit channels say, we have some of them. While transit channels want to do something benevolent with their views, there are things they need to learn.
basically LA needs transit oriented development + pedestrianized superblocks around stations + grade separation of the metro for speed to compete with driving for increased ridership
Having to wait 15 minutes to cross and almost being runover at every street is definitely a barrier to adoption 😂
And prioritization of safety. You can have the best metro in the world. No one will use it if youre surrounded by loony crackheads
I use that station to go to work. There's a decent amount of people there when I go home around 430pm.
I checked out downtown LA, and near the station entrance, they've got this big TV board, kinda like what you see in Japan or Asia. And at the Santa Monica station intersection, folks just walk straight across the street to the station, just like Shibuya Crossing. It's cool how LA's starting to feel more like Japan-transit style, bit by bit.
1:57 The trees didn’t give it away… the bus did.
What a pain, even once you're in the station. Give me an above ground train stopping at streetlights and I will just hop on it every time. This is far too grandiose - like the DC metro. If you want riders, put the trains where the people are.
Office space in downtowns across the US are emptying out due to remote online work capabilities. Even the office buildings will eventually be converted to residential. I am in St. Louis, where the huge AT&T building was sold for only 50 million dollars and is scheduled for condo conversion. Whether or not that will actually happen is not clear. The problem is that people in general don't want to live in cramped urban apartments if they not in close proximity to the workplace.
They’ll be back in the office next year don’t worry
Very well done!
Just loving how there are so many transit enthusiast's are making content 🥰!! Keep going bro!!! Oh, and subscribed 😎🤟🏿.
I am a young person from the northeast and LA really gave me quite the culture shock when I visited last month.
DO NOT ruin your city with stupid bike lanes!
Gotta love the confidence to assert there's nothing around the station while showing multiple overhead clips including the Broad, one of the 100 most visited art museums in the world, immediately adjacent to the station and connected via pedestrian-only bridge. I can agree it'd be great to strip out that section of road. I wish they tore out a lot of downtown's streets in general. One of my "favorite" downtown pedestrian moments is 2nd between Hill and Olive, where the tunnel ends. Since the street is one way and there's been fencing on the other side, people will just walk down the side of the road.
I went to a high school down the street from this station, and me and a lot of other kids took the trains home by walking to Grand Park or Union. A lot of the kids who took the train were taking the red line or the purple line though. I was one of the few who went back on the E line and I'm so mad this opened after i graduated high school already 😭
The should market for thrill seekers. The reason I say this is that metro is completely unsafe and you could have bad things happen to you !! Like being murdered, robbery, mug, aggravated assault and raped. The wonderful Los Angeles city council will not ride the metro unless accompanied by a security detail.
Some people would complain about removal of a road, but the opportunity to get so much more is there. Also some cities try pushing traffic to major arteries and then remodel other roads for more local traffic. It means you build the major arteries for a higher use, will turning other streets over to be more human oriented. Of course, this all needs a human oriented city design mandate at city and state level, with mixed use and middle sized buildings.
Would extra entrances with an underground walkway under the roads help as well? I mean, while I would love it to see roads ripped out and beg buttons removed, I'm not sure LA is already in that state of mind for that to happen, a subway might help to make it at least more accessible. There's enough staff hanging around for this subway not to become a big hazard, IMO.
When there is mixed transportation use, many people prefer to use cars. Years ago on the weekend I took the LA metro from Hollywood to see the Disney Concert Hall. The subway was not crowded because many people in the area got around in other ways.
Also, traffic lights for pedestrians are not a bad thing. It protects people when they cross the street. True a person may have to wait for a minute but that kind of behavior is possible. After all taking trains of any kind often involves waiting.
Nice video. I live near San Jose, and like to take the metro rail system to our international air port. Wouldn’t you know it, the rail system doesn’t have a stop at the airport. To get to the airport the traveler has to take a shuttle bus that runs every half hour half a mile from to the airport. To be considered for a position on the planning boards of California it seems a person has to prove they’re stupid.
From Diridon Station to SJC airport directly is almost impossible.
I had a wander around downtown LA on a midweek afternoon last February, Union Station-Chinatown-City Hall area. I have seldom seen such a deserted inner city, apart maybe from Birkenhead on Merseyside in the UK, which seems to be devoid of humans all the time. I guess it's all down to the car minded post war town planners and politicians. I found it all a bit depressing and a touch dystopian, only the sunshine made it bearable. Couldn't even find a decent bar open for a drink! More dwellings and fewer offices might do the trick I guess.
downtown miami is super creepy. so empty
LA was built with suburbia in mind. 20 years ago the place was a ghost town after 6. Nobody actually lived there. There has been recent developments and people actually live there now so it's starting to be a city with stuff to actually do.
One of the reasons I will eventually move out of LA is the lack of public transportation and walkable areas. Driving here is a pain and a lot of places don’t offer a good means of public transportation without having to make 2 or 3 transfers. In my own neighborhood I’m grateful I can walk to at least a target but other than that I always find myself having to drive. Another thing is the urban planning just sucks. You’ll see a lot of empty corporate buildings and homes but there isn’t anything lively where you can just stop every now and then as you walk. I’m looking for coffee shops, boutiques, even a nice park or something. A neighborhood that fulfills all of that within walking distance is impossible to find here.
The wilshire Vermont station is so ghetto and scary though lol. I feel bad for the people who live next to it 😭
I don't think the lack of TOD at Bunker HIll is the problem - it's that the lines that connect to the Bunker Hill destinations aren't competitive. The Blue Line runs as a tram at street level along Washington street, the Expo line really needs to run on a viaduct East of Culver City, and the East LA line is a tram instead of the heavy rail subway that was promised in 1980. This makes trips from, say, Long Beach to attend the LA Symphony, uncompetitive. It's a trade off between driving and paying to park or attending a concert where the train won't get you and your kids home until after midnight. The 120-minute-long Santa Monica to DTLA Expo service is also not competitive with the 10, and commuters aren't going to switch. Rapid transit has to be rapid.
As someone living in Thailand. This is easily fixable. Just connects the surrounding buildings with an underground walkways. We did something similar to this in Bangkok. Many highrises near a BTS station even foot the bills themselves, just to construct a skywalk to connects the station to their buildings directly and as time pass many buildings did the same and now they're several kilometers long in many area all around Bangkok. Same goes to the MRT. Although, not many private companies are willing to connects with the MRT, as building an underground walkway is far more costly than building a skywalk, but it's still achievable.
In some areas of Bangkok, you never have to touch the footpath, you walk out of a metro station, goes to your destination, without having to walk on the ground.
Pedestrian tunnels would become public urinals, places for addicts to use drugs, etc. Law-abiding folks would be too scared to use them.
@@myoldvhstapes ah............ yes. I completely forgot about the current abhorrent state of things in Liberal cities across America. Welp. Nothing can be done here then. Good luck!
@@myoldvhstapes - He’s talking Bangkok. It’s nothing like the cesspool that is the urban US standard.
@@myoldvhstapes got a short on this (applied to la at least)
LA is still partially stuck in a car culture and slowly transferring to Metro commute mentality. Hopefully the rise in Gas prices will enforce it more. The purpose is easy traffic congestion.
Now in cities, they build subsidized housing for unstable, chronically homeless to live by or top of the stations and the housing and area suffers from weapon violence, theft, store closings, drug activity, loitering, fires etc. The community then wonders what happened to the neighborhood.
To make it even more ironic, there are not that many cars using the roads too!
I went out of my way to visit this station when going to the MOCA and my experience was very similar to yours. Beautiful station but there were literally more of those people in the green shirts (ambassadors?) than people using the trains.
More recently I wanted to go to the broad, but had some other errands to run after. Because those errands required a car I made the whole trip by car. That is a big failure of land use!
Spot on. Although when the Wilshire/Vermont station first opened it was super quiet in the '90s. The development came AFTER. Other examples of this are Hollywood/Highland, Hollywood/Vine, and Pershing Square. The state has high density zoning for station areas so they are growth magnets. The bunker hill station doesn't have a lot of businesses close by, though. Its all musuems, performing arts and hotels.... not very high density stuff.
Building a station takes decades including planning and building. Building retail/housing around it takes just a few years. That's why this is happening, but just wait a couple years.
Being underground in California is insane with all the seismic activity. Hard no to the death trap.
As someone that's been using the Red line since it opened back in 1993 I have to point out 2:16 is simply not true. The Wilshire/Vermont station has been popular ever since it was opened, back when there was nothing built on the street level. The density of Koreatown, plus the fact that both the Vermont bus and Wilshire buses are the busiest in the system explain why the station is always busy.
I think you have missed a few key things in this video about this station. Lets start with why it is located here... access to available plot of land to put in a station. The station is deep due to the geography here. It is below Second street which at this point is a tunnel connecting Hill and Figueroa streets which are significantly lower than the grade Bunker hill. The access roads at the intersection outside connect the at the level of Lower Grand which is a service and parking access to buildings along this section of Grand ave. The Flower-Hope connector is the access between the elevation changes of Upper Grand, Lower Grand and Flower streets. The bridge at the upper level of the station is not yet open, that will connect to the grade of Upper Grand. If this station could have physically been place on the corner of 2nd and Grand it would have, and it would have felt more transit oriented even opening up on to the street.
Your premise that because there is not a plaza that opens up to shops and apartments a few steps from the station doors that this is a poor place for a station and it is not transit oriented are wrong.
This station is placed in an area with established existing developed on a small plot of land that was available. The geography of the area is challenging as it is on a hillside.
Within the 500' of this station is existing residential development. The backside of which is just on the West side of the Flower-Hope connector. There are additional residential buildings to the SE, two office towers to the South, a museum and concert hall to the East and North East. ALL in that 500' radius. The only possible area available for development is the small parcel to the south of the station that was used as the staging ground for construction next to cooling tower for one of the office towers.
The removal of the section of the Flower-Hope connector that you suggest is really not that much land. It is also directly over where the rail tunnel is. The rail line is under Flower and turns on to Second at that station.
The transit oriented redevelopment you desire would mean completely redeveloping a much larger area of more than 6 square blocks, 5 of which are already high density residential.
Your comment is so spot on. So many great locations all very close to this station plus apartments and office buildings. Plus many restaurants. The criticism in the video is unfair and slanted.
@@outbrakeuDo you mean it was unfair to shoot a video showing an empty station while everyone who might use the station was at work? The time at the station of 12:49 jumped out at me. It’s sort of like counting the number of children at a park playground while the children are at school to claim the playground is underutilized. Maybe VEJ is correct, but his documentary evidence is very weak under scrutiny.
Sorry but the fact that the station entrance is literally surrounded on all sides by a road really doesn't help.
I agree with your main argument that there are amble opportunities for transit-oriented development here and the road layout is stupid and annoying, but I think the main reason why you don't see a lot of crowds at this station is because the uses around it (which are mostly museums and cultural institutions) don't generate round-the-clock traffic. Most of the stuff on Grand only sees lots of traffic on the weekends (I used to work at the Broad, so this is something I'm intimately familiar with), which is why the station would be totally dead at rush hour.
By contrast, the Little Tokyo station is also surrounded by streets, and also lacks transit-oriented development (there's literally a *parking garage* across the street from the station), but is really busy because Little Tokyo is a place that people want to go to throughout the day. I think there was also just more community buy-in from Little Tokyo, which is one of those intangibles that's more subjective and harder to measure, but I definitely got the impression that the community was really excited about the new station, especially since they've had to wait since the old one closed. Whereas Bunker Hill is dominated by these institutions, which creates something of a remove from people who would actually use the Metro, if that makes sense.
There’s kind of a lot wrong here. The lines basically needed to go through there in order to complete the whole blue & gold line project. Since the trains have to be there regardless, best to build a station there (see e.g. West Oakland BART - if the trains gotta be there regardless, try to make some lemonade - a strange & unique urban park-and-ride, in West Oakland’s
case - out of the lemons left behind by urban planners who left the mortal plane before most of us were born!)
Furthermore, many of the surrounding apartments are senior & disability housing, not commuters. Over time the area will redevelop, but because of the nature of what’s there now, it’ll take 10-20 years. Come 2040 we’ll all be talking about how Metro was so insightful to build this infrastructure in preparation for the changes that will inevitably come to Bunker Hill.
@5:55 is part of the problem. They prioritized building a stand-alone station when the surface level could have been mixed-use high rise which a typically stairway/escalator leading down to the station. Why have a complete stand-alone station above ground when you could also have a mix of shops, restaurants, office, etc, above ground and thereby activate the street.
It's a very nice station
You know what I think will happen eventually? They'll keep the road... and put a 5-8 floor building over it. Which is OKAY at that point as long as it doing so doesn't compromise the structural integrity of the building being built. Besides, I think some people may actually find it cool to visit shops over a road or live over one.
This is May of 2024, and there was a recent press conference held by the head of Metro and Mayor Bass. The reason this was held is because no one wants to risk their safety by riding these trains, as there have been increases in violent crimes, drug use, and homeless people on the trains. The head of Metro is asking all law enforcement agencies to help with the situation, but I don't see this happening anytime soon.
I'm confused. The Broad is literally across the street as well as Walt Disney concert hall. Across the street from that is the MOCA. Also close to the Dorothy Chandler, several large apartment complexes, hotels, and dozens of restaurants from take out to ultra fine dining. It's true there are no amenities directly at the station, but restaurants etc are just a short block away. Past MOCA you could catch angel's flight down to the central market. So many great places close to this station. I feel your video, while it looks great may be slanted in the reporting. When you look at options to feed all these destinations, the city/METRO made the best possible compromise. Also, there is literally a bridge over Hope St. To avoid having to wait for cars. I think you left a lot out to make your point.
My criticism of the video is VEJ appears to have picked a time of day with the lowest potential for station use. It’s sort of like documenting that a sports stadium was overbuilt by shooting video of empty seats when there’s no game.
I’m not saying VEJ is wrong. I’m just saying that this video essay is weak.
Missed an opportunity for having a station at the former Arco plaza underground shopping center as on exit from the transit line. It would have brought life back to 5tg 6th Flower and Fig.
You can use transit to enhance the existing infrastructure, as well.
THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT HOW MUCH BEG BUTTONS SUCK!! I also love your car-free street closure plan. BRING BACK BUNKER HILL!!
We shouldn’t even have to call it TOD. Just build development around the stations!
The station is a good jumping off point for the area! Hopefully with persistent pressure from the community, there can be more transit-oriented development in the area!
LA is definitely making a lot more steps to improve its public transportation situation, but unfortunately it will probably be decades before we can fully reap the benefits of it all.
Its so stupid i was recently in Singapore almost every major subway station stops right in the basement of a major mall or shopping center. It was so incredible and so nice because if you dont know where to go to shop or go eat just stop at every metro station
It is being built for our children, not for us. Give it another 50 years and it will densify.
It’s incredibly frustrating that with billions being spent, the urban planning of LA remains so underwhelming and uncommitted to moving away from car centric design.
It's a magnificent station. I started using it to get to work a week after it opened, and I remember how amazed I was upon seeing it for the first time. It is typically a ghost town, and you're absolutely right about needing far more transit-oriented development (but I'm not very optimistic). It would be great to remove the roads right next to the station, as Hope, Fig, and Grand are all so close and can continue to carry vehicle traffic through the area. Could still use Hope to access the parking for the WD Concert Hall as you pointed out, and Flower can end at 3rd instead of sort of carrying on to 1st. I don't have high hopes for this, but it would be amazing and go a long way to creating more traffic in the station.
Gee, could it be the plethora of zombies currently occupying the train cars and stations are scaring riders away? Shocking revelation!
Exactly! They need to hire Japan Rail to consult.
In fact, more transit systems should learn to build new property ON new stations instead of just a lonely station building to utilise its right of space and maximise land usage.
I voted for Measure R back when I was in college which funded this line. There was supposed to be another station at flower and 5th in the heart of the financial district, but that was eliminated to save money. For the Grand Av station, Metro is relying heavily on the connecting bridge, but the station is still hidden away from the activity. It was cheaper to build it behind the museum, but the surrounding car centric neighborhood of ramps and underpasses is very unwelcoming as you illustrate.
that’s super interesting didn’t know they had a plan to build a 5th St station… wish we did.
Roads are sacred DON'T EVEN THINK about removing them or slowing a single driver down.
Also nearly no traffic. Close the streets and build, build, build.
Or, just let more and more people work from home, and we won't need to waste money building train stations into downtown centers that no one really wants to go to. Also, Los Angeles has a huge homeless problem, and people don't feel safe using public transit. I live and work in DTLA, commute in three times a week, and work from home the other two. I gave up on public transit many years ago because I got tired of dealing with feeling unsafe all the time. It's too stressful.
The point of that station is to connect the Blue, Gold and Expo lines and the area attractions are Broad, Disney concert hall and dorothy chandler pavilion ... and it has a pedestrian bridge to avoid the road ..
Its easy to pick a station thats purpose is to connect you to venues that are used in the evenings and go there during the day and say 'hey why is no one using this' .. why not go to little Tokyo or the next station over 7th street metro center and try to say the same thing ....not every station needs to be a whilsher vermont station...
But at the same time improvements could always be made ...I guess my point is that your video starrs off a bit over exaggerating.
First thing: get Metro to make their very dark stations safer by adding some lighting inside and outside. The very station which you talk about in your video, the Wilshire Vermont Station is as dark as it can get right outside its elevators and back entrance on Shatto Place and so is the outside of the Santa Monica Vermont station.
Did you check this stations density during the start and end of the public high school day at the nearby Ramon C Cortines High School of Visual and Performing Arts? aka Grand Arts H.S.?