Cars aren't always the fastest way to cross the west side
Google maps now apparently warns you when taking the train to your destination in LA is faster than taking a car.
This is a great feature. I am not sure that there is any other way to convince people that driving is not always the fastest way to get somewhere in this city.
This is particularly true if you start out near a train, but buses, too, can beat cars on some bus-lane routes. Bikes, even, can beat traffic on some routes at some times of day. In Culver, I regularly beat traffic on my bike during evening rush hour on a couple 3 to 4 mile routes I often take during that time. And there are circumstances where I can bike longer distances - 6-8 miles - across the west side and get to my destination just as fast or faster than I can in a car. This is mostly because a bike allows me to skip both the traffic and the pain of parking the car.
The funniest routes in my life are the ones that are pretty much the same time no matter what form of transport I use. My old commute to Riot in 2018 was like that. Driving led to a long and painful parking experience. Riding the bus required me to walk the final distance, which was just about as slow as parking. And riding the e-scooter-adjacent device I used at the time was slower overall, but allowed me to go right up to the door and zip directly inside the building. The commute itself was short enough that these all pretty much averaged out to the same time.
It's very hard to get people with children to change how and when they commute. People with firm start times, too, rarely invite the risk of missing the moment when they're supposed to be clocked in. But they do tend to trust whatever mapping software they're using - within reason. I'm curious if people will trust Google when that map tells them that a car isn't actually faster than the alternative.