GROUNDED AND LIBERATED
DAVID L ULIN spent a day criss- crossing Los Angeles by train to discover if the city’s 100-year- long love affair with the car is finally coming to an end David L Ulin花一整天乘鐵路穿梭洛杉磯，看看當地人是否會從此捨棄百年來以汽車代步的習慣
Los Angeles goes car-free – seriously? By DAVID L ULIN
都會鐵道遊
不用汽車代步也可以暢遊洛杉磯嗎？撰文： David L Ulin
In May 2016, as petrol prices rose throughout California, a billboard for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Metro for short – appeared in one central neighbourhood. The image was simple: a woman’s arm handcuffed to a petrol pump, with the message: ‘Free yourself. Go Metro.’
The city (and the county) have prioritised light rail and rapid bus routes since the Blue Line – which travels from LA’s city centre to Long Beach – began running trains in 1990. In the same month the billboard was erected, Metro opened the extension of the Expo Line, restoring rail service between central LA and Santa Monica for the first time in more than 60 years.
Still, public transport remains a complicated sell in LA, famously a city of the car. After all, that Metro billboard is geared towards drivers, which suggests how much of the new LA is rooted in the structure of the old. Plus, the intersection at which it went up – the so-called Fairfax Asterisk – won’t have a rail link for seven years.
But is it possible to get around LA without a car? That’s been a subject of debate for 50 years.
In his 1973 essay Autopia, Dutch travel writer Cees Nooteboom frames it this way: ‘ With their cars, Angelenos go places, they travel infinite numbers of kilometres in a world that continuously remains Los Angeles. Cars do not designate a lack of freedom but rather freedom itself.’
If this were true in the 1970s, it is much less so today. Southern California drivers often find themselves confronting a rush hour that lasts the entire day.
But to see that LA is in a state of transformation, all you have to do is put your feet on the ground.
Beginning with the opening of the Blue Line, Metro has built 170 kilometres of track (more than Chicago’s El or the San Francisco Bay Area’s Bart system) on six different lines. Last autumn, voters passed Measure M, a sales tax increase predicted to raise US$120 billion (HK$936 billion) that will help fund a number of rail projects over the next 40 years. This means the construction of two new lines: the Crenshaw and the downtown regional connector, as well as the expansion of three existing ones. Examine a map of what the system will look like in 2040 and you begin to see a comprehensive system.
The irony is that this forward planning is also a return to the LA of a different time. A hundred years ago, the Pacific Electric Railway Company operated an enormous trolley system, with more than 2,100 trains running daily along 1,600 kilometres of track. Nostalgics like to point out that the new lines – the Blue and Expo, the Gold and Crenshaw – follow old Pacific Electric rights of way. It’s a
加州於2016年5月宣佈汽油加價，杉洛 磯都會運輸署（當地人習慣簡稱Metro）在當地某中心區域豎起一個廣告牌。廣告牌上的圖畫簡單直接：一個女人的前臂被手扣鎖在汽油，泵上 廣告大字標題道寫 ：「解放自己，選乘鐵路」。
自從Blue Line線於1990年開通市中心至長灘路的 線後，杉洛 磯和整個縣一直鼓勵居民以輕便鐵路快和 線巴士作首選的交通工具。就在Metro豎起戶外廣告牌的同一個月，旗下的Expo Line線鐵路延線亦正式開通，在60多年後再次提供行走洛杉市磯中心至聖塔尼的莫 卡服務。
可是在，杉洛 磯這個私家車極為遍普的市，城 裡 推廣公共交通工具是個不簡單的。，任務 首先 Metro的廣告是以車主為對象，顯示新興市鎮仍受制於舊有的。規劃 此外，新市鎮座落於居民稱為Fairfax Asterisk的交通交匯點上，未來七年都不會有鐵路直達。
凡此種種，令人不禁懷，疑 若沒有私家車代步，是否可以在洛杉磯暢行無阻？這個問在題， 過去的半個世紀，以來 一直是大眾熱烈討論的。題目
荷蘭旅遊作家Cees Nooteboom於1973年發表的文章〈Autopia〉如此講述當地的情況：「洛杉磯的居民駕著車到處去，在偌大的杉洛 磯裡兜兜轉轉，駛過不知多少公里。汽車並非代乏表缺 自由，它就是自由的。象徵 」
如果這是1970年代情的 況，那麼今天已經不如當年般自由了。南加州的駕駛者經常都要面對擁擠不堪的交通情況，繁忙時段已不分晝，夜 整天如是。
不過果，如 你要證明洛杉磯在正 轉變，只需腳踏就實地 行了。
自從Blue Line線設來開以 ， Metro至今已在六條不同的路線設鋪 達170公里的路軌（比芝加哥的El或三藩市的灣區 Bart鐵路系統還要長）。去年秋季，選民投票通過增加銷售稅的Measure M法案，預計增可加1,200億美元（ 9,360億港元）收入，未用作來40年多項路鐵 興建工程的。款項 工程括興建兩條分別行走Crenshaw和連接市中心及其他地區的新路以線， 及擴充三條現有的。路線 不妨想像一下2040年鐵的 路系統在地圖上的，樣子 就可全面了解整個系統的。佈局
諷刺的，是 這項具前瞻性的，規劃 其實只是重回洛杉磯昔日曾經歷過的發展階段。一個世紀，之前 Pacific Electric Railway Company電車公司曾經營一個龐的大 有軌電車系統，每日有超過2,100班車於1,600公里的路軌上穿梭往還。日歡懷舊的人總愛指出Blue、、Expo Gold及Crenshaw四條新路線，不過是追隨Pacific Electric電的車舊路線而已。這現象再一次說明，市在城 發展的過程中，的古老 東西都可以再變成新鮮事物。
現有的鐵路系統令洛杉市磯 中心
reminder that, when it comes to the life of cities, everything old can be new again.
Nowhere is this clearer than the present system, which has helped rejuvenate central LA. Of the six rail lines, five run through the city centre, which has reemerged as a social and cultural hub. To explore LA by rail, it makes sense to start here: at Union Station, perhaps, where the Red, Purple, and Gold lines stretch to Pasadena, East Los Angeles and North Hollywood; or a mile south, at Metro Center, where the Red and Purple lines connect with the Blue and Expo, offering access to Long Beach and Santa Monica.
In the course of one long day I rode the entire system: all 93 stations.
I found myself in Azusa, Universal City, Redondo Beach; from the San Gabriel Valley to the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay. For visitors, the appeal may be more specific: from Metro Center,
THE RAILWAY IS A WAY TO REIMAGINE LOS ANGELES WHILE ALSO RECONNECTING TO ITS HISTORY鐵路系統不僅重塑洛杉磯的面貌，同時令這座城市再度與歷史接軌
you can take the Red Line to the heart of Hollywood; the Expo Line to the beach. Travel in the other direction and the Blue Line brings you to the Watts Towers, the magnificent monument Simon Rodia spent 30 years erecting. Or take the Purple Line to MacArthur Park and visit Langer’s Delicatessen, a local classic. (For more must-see spots on the train network, see the box on page 44.)
Transport makes a city – or remakes it, in the case of LA. A century ago, when most of this place was still undeveloped, communities grew up around stations on the Pacific Electric lines. Today, the challenge is more difficult because the city has been built. These new lines must conform to the landscape that surrounds them, rather than the other way around.
‘ We’re playing catch-up,’ explains
Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, ‘building this system through the teeth of the built-out city.’ It’s remaking a landscape that already has an identity and shape.
Autopia was an idea Nooteboom borrowed from Reyner Banham, the British architectural historian. Yet even Banham realised that such a designation ‘offers a misleading truth because it is persistently interpreted as referring only to automobile transport, and that interpretation is so trivial and so shallow historically’. What he was saying is that LA is a young city; that we need to give it time to grow.
This is what the rail system signifies: a way to reimagine LA while also reconnecting to its history, of ‘going back to the future’, in mayor Eric Garcetti’s phrase.
How far can you travel without getting in a car? With the Olympics coming in 2028, many of Metro’s new projects have been fast-tracked. It is a cliche of LA that the city is always in transition; always looking to reinvent itself. But that doesn’t mean the rail system is not a shift in how the city regards itself.
‘ Why this is a revolution,’ Hawthorne suggests, ‘is that, if you take the train or bus, you’re paying attention in a different way to the physical design of the city. You’re connected more directly to the public realm.’
重拾活就力， 是最佳證明。條在六 鐵路線當中，五條貫穿市中心，令這一帶再次成為社交和文化樞紐。如想探洛索 杉磯鐵路沿的線 風光，最理想的起點莫過於Union Station車站，因為這是Red、Purple和Gold三條路線的，起點 可分別前往帕薩迪納、東洛杉磯和北荷李活；另一個理想的起步點是往南行一哩左右到Metro Center車站， Red和Purple路線在那裡與Blue和Expo線交匯，乘客可轉車前往長灘和聖塔莫尼。卡
我就花了一整天，踏遍洛城鐵路系統全部93個車站。
我由位於San Gabriel Valley山谷的Azusa站出發，前往San Fernando Valley山 谷的Universal City站，再到位於South Bay區的Redondo Beach站。對於洛前來 杉磯旅遊的人來說可， 能心目中有些特別想前往的的，目 地 例如在Metro Center站出發利，用Red Line線前往荷李活中心地帶，或坐上Expo Line線的直列車 抵海灘。乘Blue Line線往另一個方向走，就來到Simon Rodia花了30年建成的宏偉地標Watts Towers塔群。或者坐Purple Line線到MacArthur Park站，前往當地著名的Langer’s Delicatessen餐廳。閱（參 44頁了解洛路城方 網絡內不可錯過的熱門景點。）
這個故事說明了交通如何令城市興旺起來，而在洛杉磯這個例子中，市城 因交通發展而蛻變的。出新 面貌 一個世以紀，前這裡大部分土地尚未，發展 多個社區都是圍繞著Pacific Electric電沿車 線車站發展而成的。今天，由於城市已發展起來，要建新方路就困難得多了。新路路須圍線的必軌 依周 的建築地形而鋪，設 再也不像以往那樣，路軌所到之處，就會吸引人們前來大興土木了。
《洛杉磯時報》建築評論專欄作者Christopher Hawthorne表示：「我們需要在高度發展的市找城 中 尋夾縫，去發展方路系統，正現 努力迎頭趕上。」也就是要重塑一個經已成形並有其獨特貌面 的城市。
Nooteboom的〈Autopia〉有汽車烏托邦的意思，那是向英國建築歷史學家Reyner Banham借用的概念，後者是專門研究南加州的外海 先驅。但即使是Banham亦承認，這個名稱「只道出一個具誤導成分的，事實 因為人們往往只將之詮釋成針對汽車運輸的，史概念 從歷 意義而言，流於膚淺和瑣碎。的」他 意思是洛杉磯仍是一個年輕的城市，我們需要耐心等待它發展成熟。
這是就洛杉磯方路系統的真正意義，不重僅塑洛城的，面貌 同時令這個城市再度與歷史，市接軌 套用 長Eric Garcetti的話就， 是「回到未。來」
沒有私家車你能去哪裡去？奧隨著 運將於2028年在洛杉磯舉行， Metro亦了加快多個新項目的發展步。伐 說洛杉磯不斷蛻變，已是老生常談，但是方路系統的確改變了當地人對洛城的看法。
Hawthorne解釋道：「這確是一種變革，因為坐當你 上方路或巴士時，自然會以不同的方式留意城市的實體設計，讓你與公共領域有更直接的聯繫。」