Re-imagining the Santa Monica FreewayDuring the 20th century the automobile has shaped Los Angeles, creating an urban fabric dominated by boulevards, parking lots, highways, on / off ramps, and 6,732 lane miles of freeway.With the current condition of Los Angeles, typical models of public transportation do not work. This is due to the misalignment of land use patterns and transit connections. Most people, however, live within a 10 minute drive to a freeway on-ramp. With so much money already having been invested in this infrastructure that ties the city together, how can we re-imagine it for future mobility?>>PROPOSAL: To address the future of Los Angeles Public transportation we propose to re-imagine the Los Angeles Freeway system. It is our belief that the city need not invest in a new public transportation system, but transform its existing system of freeways into “trainways”. By simply replacing car lanes with rail tracks, a comprehensive expansion of the LA Metro will commence at a much lower cost due to the rights of ways established by the freeway.The transformation of the freeways will be incremental, starting with converting a single lane in each direction and establishing tolls on the highways that accommodate the new train lines. As express trains are added, taking over two additional lanes, the lots around the stops will be rezoned to increase the FAR and accomodate a mixed land use with easy-to-access public services. The ultimate transformation of each freeway will remove all automobiles and replace the remaining lanes with a new linear park / bike lane parallel to the train tracks, creating new linear high density corridors connecting the city.