Are You Safe Riding LA Metro Rail Subway Trains
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- čas přidán 22. 04. 2024
- Is the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway system safe. Is crime bad on the LA Metro. Is there a homeless problem on LA Metro trains. These are just some of the questions many Los Angeles riders are asking. They are concerned with all the crime going on throughout the United States these days and folks are legitimately worried about riding subway trains and buses. Many U.S. cities are dealing with increased crime rates everywhere from Los Angeles and New York to Chicago and beyond. This is reporter David Nazar and I began investigating the LA Metro transportation system several years ago. And even back then there were problems with things like fair evasion and various types of crime. Today LA Metro is really a good system with state of the art technology and much improved security measures. And LA Metro has a tough task with Los Angeles County having the worst traffic in the nation. There is no escaping the massive gridlock. So LA Metro is a great option. Riders are just concerned about their safety.
David, thanks for covering this, it is sad.
In your interviews it would be good to ask a few baseline questions, the same ones, to each person. For example:
What Metro line(s) do you use most?
What time of day, and day(s) of the week, do you use it?
Did you use Metro during Covid? Difference before, during, and after Covid.
Great to get first person interviews.
Dealing with fare evasion would have a positive domino effect on the LA Metro. The problem is that many of the older stations on the A and E lines still don't have fare turnstiles. That's how many homeless get on the trains. They need to retrofit these stations with modern fare gates the kind being proposed for BART. I don't like the ones NYC is testing.
Personally, I stopped using the LA Metro during the 3 years of Covid. However, I started riding it again when the Regional Connector opened in June 2023. Even during these last 10 months I've seen a noticeable improvement on the LA Metro.
Rode the LA Metro today, 4-28-24, to attend the Fiesta Broadway event and visit Chinatown. Took the A and E lines several times throughout my 5 hour excursion. Many people riding both lines. I had very few issues, the trains were on time, and the stations were clean including the elevators.
The few problems were one broken escalator on the Historic Broadway station, some homeless guys passed out on the Northbound A line to Chinatown, and discarded food wrappers debris on the same A line train.
Oh, and one Southbound A line train from Little Tokyo station had no A/C.
But, overall, a good experience. No fighting, no loud music, no yelling. Though passengers with bikes don't seem to know where on the trains they need to board with their bikes. That can cause a problem too when entering and exiting a train.
Lastly, I have noticed more people increasingly using the LA Metro more often during the last 10 months. Thanks.
I’ll never forget my first time riding transit in LA (also happened to be my first time riding transit anywhere) and I was traveling alone across town from Westwood to catch the Surfliner at Union Station. Well, I was waiting on a platform downtown for a transfer and a guy five feet away from me got punched unprovoked. Such a random attack… it could have been me! It really doesn’t deter me from riding transit in LA or elsewhere, but it sure did get my adrenaline running.
Here's are tips we all got during the real crime wave in NYC during the early 1980's.
1 - Be aware of your surroundings, see who's coming and going.
I'll update this one by saying get off the i-phone until you see you're safe.
2 - Power in numbers. Don't get into an empty car.
3 - Let a suspicious person see that you are aware of their presence. Criminals like the element of surprise, Don't give it to them.
4 - Carry a bottle of mace or even a simple whistle.
5 - Don't flash expensive jewelry, or any other expensive item that can make you a target.
Police can only do so much and mostly arrive after the fact. The rest is up to you.
So what did NYC do since then to improve security in their metros?
@@buggernut3643 They increased police in high crime platforms and they informed us on exactly what I posted here. Of course there was also the normal cycle of crime just going down. This advice served me well when I lived in NYC. I've never been robbed even when I was on the streets at 3AM.
@@edwinrivera4735 Ah there you go. Maybe that's an idea that LA should copy.
@@buggernut3643 Or maybe folks should use their cell phones less while on the streets. People in public now look like zombies as their eyes are focused on their I-phone oblivious on what's going on around them.
@@edwinrivera4735 I agree that's a bad habit, but crime should be kept under control and we shouldn't have to blame the victim.
I've taken all lines: red, gold, blue etc. It's basically skid row on wheels. The one constant is the 8 am to union on the red line. Like every homeless guy from north hollywood just turn it into their personal hilton. And a majority of riders dont even pay. Just have your spider sense on defcon 5 when you ride, and you'll probably be fine.
I feel like life drastically improved when I stopped using public transportation. I was so fed up having this feeling of being unsafe and in constant alert every single second. All the homeless, people smoking inside the trains, people with mental illness screaming or repeating nonsense. The only place in the world things are like this. I'm so happy Im not american, and looking forward to return to europe. it's not perfect there, but definitely way better, and feels a lot safer.
The Metro is a good option if you want to be a victim of crime.