r/CarIndependentLA
Shoutout to this Metro bus that entered a gridlocked intersection and blocked cross traffic for an entire green light cycle
u/culo_de_mono — 1 day ago
Metro Rail overlaid on an old Pacific Electric map.
u/MasStew — 24 hours ago
Reckless Driver Plowing Thru Bike Lane 23rd
This was last Sunday August 9. Called the non emergency number and they answered right away but they never followed up for the video. The driver turned off the road when they saw me trying to get the plates after this. Hoping someone on here recognizes the car
u/2_two_two — 1 day ago
Pasadena to Host CicLAvia Open Streets Event on Colorado Boulevard Mid-November [11/15/2026] - Pasadena Now
Event: CicLAvia Pasadena, an Open Streets event.
When: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026.
Time: Hours have not been announced.
Cost: Free; no tickets required.
Where: A portion of Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, with a connection to the Metro A Line Memorial Park station. Route maps and street closure information will be released in the coming weeks.
For more, email city planner Tony Jusay at ajusay@cityofpasadena.net, or visit cityofpasadena.net or ciclavia.org.
u/regedit2023 — 24 hours ago
West Hollywood Launches E-Bike Incentive Program Offering Free Electric Bicycles to Residents - WeHo Times
The City of West Hollywood has launched a new incentive program that will provide up to 50 residents with vouchers covering the full cost of an electric bicycle, part of an effort to reduce car trips and advance the city’s climate action goals.
Applications will be accepted through Aug. 31, 2026. The program is open to West Hollywood residents age 18 and older, with 50 recipients to be selected through a random lottery expected to take place in early September. Residents from low- to moderate-income households will receive priority.
The vouchers can be redeemed at Bike Shop LA, a West Hollywood retailer participating in the program. In addition to covering the full purchase price of an eligible e-bike, each voucher includes bicycle maintenance for the duration of the participant’s involvement in the program.
Eligible bicycles include commuter, cruiser, cargo and compact folding e-bike models.
u/regedit2023 — 24 hours ago
▲ 129 r/CarIndependentLA
Covid was a tragic golden age for pedestrians and cyclists.
u/405freeway — 2 days ago
▲ 92 r/CarIndependentLA
The crosswalk designed to appease angry drivers (The Future Is LA)
LA protects drivers' feelings at pedestrians' expense, and it's killing us. A crosswalk in my neighborhood makes people wait up to 60 seconds so cars don't get annoyed. Pedestrians give up and just cross. Why have a signal at all?
It all stems from the city's codependent relationship with drivers. We won't achieve Vision Zero until it ends.
u/futureis_la — 2 days ago
▲ 26 r/CarIndependentLA
Hollywood Bowl to Hollywood/Highland station
Mostly a rant:
Why is Highland a 7 lane mega highway between the Hollywood Bowl and the B line station. Why can’t this just be a 2 or 4 lane street with wider sidewalks and better pedestrian infrastructure. It’s so frustrating walking in that area after an event and having cars rip 80 down the road with families and children walking around.
u/kanji_kun — 2 days ago
Low-density suburban sprawl EXACERBATED the wildfires last years. Densification and moving away from suburban sprawl is necessary if we want to prevent future catastrophes.
One comment I saw today talked about how density would worsen things like the wildfires from last year, and we need to preserve single-family homes.
Not only is this completely false, but low-density development actually CONTRIBUTED to the fires being as disastrous as they were.
In particular, the comment said stuff like:
> We shouldn't slap skyscrapers in SFH
And
> If you slap large housing developments in some neighborhoods like parts of Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Brentwood, and whatnot, the next wild fire will kill far more people and destroy a lot more real estate than people realize.
The premise might make sense on the surface. But once you peel back the layers, you can see why this argument completely falls flat.
To be quite honest, those neighborhoods should've never been built where they are. Reckless low-density suburban sprawl pushed development out into fire-prone areas.
And this isn't just my words. This article by the Guardian did a good job discussing how low-density sprawl exarcerbated the fires.
> A century of foolhardy development, including public subsidies for rebuilding in the firebelt, hugely contributed to this tragedy, writes our architecture critic. LA must rethink – and build upwards not outwards
Of course, he then proceeded to talk about how density is a bad thing, and used another example of rows of abandoned cars as an example of the disastrous evacuation from the fires.
Except.....low-density development CAUSED the rows of abandoned cars and heavy traffic.
There are two reasons.
By separating housing from work, it forces people to actually drive.
By opposing density, public transit isn't able to operate, because it would become a money pit. The lack of alternatives forces everyone to drive, which in turn causes traffic. Densification actually causes LESS traffic, once you reach a critical mass, because alternatives to driving such as biking or transit become more feasible.
And of course, last but not least - densification helps discourage more sprawling far-flung neighborhoods from development into fire-prone areas, like Tarzana, Encino, Woodland Hills, or Brentwood, as this chart shows.
u/MookieBettsBurner10 — 4 days ago
▲ 280 r/CarIndependentLA
Thank you all so much <3
New crosswalks at 70th and Menlo in South LA, painted by volunteers to protest for safer streets and a more effective government. Was such a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Hopefully these get replaced with proper crosswalks, topes or speedbumps, and maybe a traffic circle!
Thank you all so much for coming out and volunteering!!
If you want to join our efforts, go to peoplesvisionzero.org/volunteer
Love you guys!
u/jonnyshotit — 3 days ago
▲ 75 r/CarIndependentLA
Got an escooter and love my car independent life in LA
I've been trying to use my car less especially for stupidly short trips and getting a scooter has made that a lotttt easier.
We live in LA so I'm not pretending I'm living some completely car-free lifestyle . There are places where I'm still taking the car.
But it has helped me replace it for atleast 60% of nearby trips.
Right now I am using scooter
-For all nearby trips
- For quick coffee stop
- for getting bread/milk and eggs (because I need to get them every 2 days for some reason)
My scooter (hiboy S3) has been pretty nice for this because it's small which I really like. Like the switch from car to scooter is soo refreshing at times..
I also like that life with scooter is kinda pretty straightforward. I don't need to plan a whole ride around it. If I want to go somewhere nearby I just grab it and go.
And TBH the biggestttt and most fvrt thing for me is that I get to avoid parking part.
You know when you drive somewhere that's literally 10 minutes away and then spend another 10 minutes looking for somewhere to park? Yeah. Not having to do that is great.
I've also started noticing how much more I pay attention to the neighborhood when I'm riding instead of driving. I see little stores which I didnt know exist. For eg the other day I realized we had a tech shop in our neighorhood (and I still got everything online smh)
Obviously I dont use it for every trip and there are roads around LA where its pretty hard to ride on scooter. But for the short stuff it's very useful and helped me be a little independent of my car.
u/Puzzled_Platypus_391 — 3 days ago
Beverly Hills Opts Out of D Line/La Cienega Bus Lanes (Green Portion)
At today's WSCCOG meeting Beverly Hills announced that they will not be implementing the bus only lanes on La Cienega Boulevard within their city limits (the green portion of the map) that runs from Clifton Way south to Olympic Boulevard despite them still being built in West Hollywood, Los Angeles and Culver City.
The proposed improvements would bring bus only lanes, transit signal priority and queue jumps to La Cienega Boulevard La Metro Route #105 stretching from Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood south the D Line at La Cienega/Wilshire in Beverly Hills and further south to the E Line La Cienega Station in Culver City.
City staff didn't even bring the item to city council to vote on and per the council rep at today's meeting that decision was based on the fact the the one community meeting they held for it in Beverly Hills (out of 6 meetings total) didn't have enough attendance to warrant the implementation for the lanes despite the corridor recieving the most feedback out of any of the others for this project especially because it would have also provided a direct bicycle connection to West Hollywood as well.
u/UrbanPlannerholic — 5 days ago
[LAist] LA Mayor Bass wants public transit to be free. Metro puts that price tag at over $1 billion
>Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass surprised some transit advocates during a speech at Union Station last month when she proclaimed she wants a "long-term financial strategy and plan" to make public transit on L.A. Metro free for everyone.
Light on details: How Bass plans to achieve this and what exactly the timeline is remains unclear. In a follow up statement, the mayor’s office told LAist that Bass “plans to introduce a motion to explore what further steps are needed to go fare-free.”
What has Metro said: Bass’ announcement comes just a few years after Metro executives said free transit would cost more than $1 billion annually for the region. At the same time, the agency, which is facing mounting political pressure to strengthen fare enforcement, is pouring tens of millions of dollars into taller fare gates that are designed to make it harder for riders to skip out on paying.
u/WeAreLAist — 7 days ago
▲ 302 r/CarIndependentLA
We're painting crosswalks this Saturday in South LA!
Also, I've been working on our website!
Sign up to volunteer and check out our corners map by going to peoplesvisionzero.org
Much love as always <3
u/jonnyshotit — 6 days ago
L.A. has more than 20,000 vacant lots. They could help solve the city's housing crisis
Los Angeles has more than 20,000 privately owned vacant lots that are already zoned for housing, and UCLA cityLAB is trying to show how some of them could be turned into smaller-scale ownership housing instead of sitting empty. The idea behind the “Small Lots, Big Impacts” initiative is to use these lots for gentle density projects like duplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, small condo communities, and other missing-middle formats that can be sold individually at lower entry prices than a traditional single-family home.
The first pilot round selected three designer-developer teams, each expected to build at least five for-sale units on a small vacant lot in L.A. The projects will get some financial and regulatory support, including low-interest financing from Genesis L.A., and a portion of the homes must be reserved below market rate for low- or middle-income buyers. The broader goal is to prove that L.A.’s many small vacant parcels can support a new version of the starter home without requiring high-rise development or dramatically changing neighborhood character.
L.A. has thousands of vacant residential lots, but turning them into attainable ownership housing still means dealing with land costs, financing, permitting, neighborhood pushback, construction costs, and HOA or condo structure issues. Do you think small-lot ownership projects like this can scale in Los Angeles?
u/ShanetheMortgageMan — 8 days ago
Recommendations for honest/reputable used car dealerships in the LA area? (Budget ~$12k–$16k)
Hey everyone,
I’m currently in the market for a reliable used car (looking mostly at compact sedans/crossovers like Honda Civics, Mazda3s, or Hyundai Konas) with a budget around $12k to $16k.
I’ve been browsing listings online (CARFAX, Autotrader, etc.), but I’ve noticed a lot of independent used car dealers around LA—especially spots like STG Auto Group—have pretty mixed or terrible reviews when it comes to hidden fees, forced add-ons (GPS, paint protection, dealer prep), and high-pressure sales tactics.
I'm hoping to get some real recommendations from locals:
- Which dealerships in or around the LA area (including Valley, SGV, South Bay, or OC) have you had a genuinely good, hassle-free experience with?
- Are there specific franchise dealers (e.g., specific Honda, Toyota, Mazda, or Hyundai locations) that stick to straightforward pricing and respect the state's $85 doc fee cap without throwing in thousands in surprise fees?
- Are places like CarMax or Carvana worth paying slightly more for just to avoid the dealership games at this price point?
Appreciate any advice, dealer callouts (good or bad), or tips on navigating used car buying around here! Thanks in advance.
u/Public-Hospital-9491 — 6 days ago