Los Angeles's relationship to public transportation has grown to be a complicated affair. Between public and private organizations, local government, and private-sector technologies hoping to implement their "solutions" to the city's transit problem, where do we draw the line? 

With this complicated mess in mind, students in a recent Harvard GSD design studio led by Andres Sevtsuk dissected the question of what the transit future for Los Angeles could be like. 

Harvard GSD's Travis Dagenais highlights their inquiries and discoveries: "For LA’s transit future, some of the most pressing questions asked by Harvard GSD students are related to access: Who are ‘transit users,’ and who might become transit users if it can improve, by becoming more efficient, accessible, comfortable, and reliable?" 

One aspect of LA's troubled infrastructure is its failure to truly foster walkable communities. A project proposal presented by Andrew Yuzhou Peng and Solomon Green-Eames suggests: "The existing model of transit-oriented development has failed to create truly walkable communities. Our project proposes an alternative approach, through radical community-driven transformations, seeking to imagine how existing neighborhood commercial centers could become mixed-use, dense, and walkable centers, connected via a network of transit boulevards."

As a Los Angeles native, it's exciting and hopeful to see the city's infrastructure and transit system dissected and studied by students across the nation. The studio’s mission statement is particularly salient: "The Future of Streets studio and their proposals aim to enhance the transit experience, while creating a new, more equitable, more accessible version of the LA that millions of people have chosen as home."