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LA TRANSPO - The Futbol World Cup begins in five days, this Friday, June 12, 2026, in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium. If allowed into the country by the Trump Administration, visitors should begin arriving within days.
Los Angeles is a mega city. It is assumed that there will be World Cup visitors who will logically assume a city of this size has not only a working transit network, but one which takes into account transit rider needs. From the way Metro is operates now, that would be a grave misunderstanding.
Here is one glaring example of forcing Metro riders with luggage into obstacles to their mobility which should have been addressed a while ago.
Expo/Crenshaw Station
With the opening of the mysterious LAX Transit Center, many transit riders will be using this station to get into or leave the city via LAX. Transit riders can get to this station by bus or light rail.
Once they arrive at the station they will need to go underground to the concourse using either escalators or elevators. (Today the up escalator was not working.) To go further underground from the concourse to the train platform, transit riders with rolling luggage will be confronted by a row of gates to pass through.
The glaring problem is these gates have three metal posts on a revolving plate, similar to gates at sporting events. The gates are locked until opened with a TAP card. These gates present mobility issues when just walking through. When pulling one, or multiple pieces of luggage, maybe also carrying a backpack, and perhaps keeping an eye on others they are with, including children, these three post gateways are impossible.
When I have used one of these gates with a rolling briefcase, all forward momentum is stopped while I try to maneuver the handle in some way through or under the posts. It is very difficult, very frustrating, and can crush hands and fingers while trying to pull the briefcase through the now locked posts.
It is a smallish briefcase. Trying to get through one of these gates with heavy rolling luggage would be very strenuous. Additionally, if the transit rider is trying to get to LAX to catch a plane, their already high anxiety level skyrockets as they become stuck in the gate, somewhat akin to the ancient animals that became stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits.
It is almost cruel for force people with rolling luggage to try to negotiate these gates. There is one gate with sliding guards which is easier, but it is at the far end of the row of gates, behind a pillar, unseen to those arriving at the concourse.
It is the same for those exiting the station who, when emerging from the train platform, face a row of hostile three post gates while pulling rolling luggage.
I have previously raised this issue, and cannot fathom how with the foreknowledge that this station would be a critical transfer point to and from LAX, and used for the Futbol World Cup visitors, that the Metro Board, Executive, Administrative and Operations Offices could not know of this debacle and change the gates to ones which help, not hinder, transit riders.
Is there any way to just remove the three posts from these gates so transit riders, with or without luggage, can just walk through after using a TAP card?
Los Angeles, already on the world stage, has this opportunity to show that cars are not the only way to get around, and that a supposedly major transit system is at the ready. But with this station, that is a failed cause.
Does no one at Metro at any capacity ride and test the network as a rider? Isn’t testing the network a responsibility of the Metro Board, Executives, Administrators and those in charge of Operations?
To give Metro Board and officials a demonstration of what this is like, perhaps they should conduct field research. From the Metro Tower, plan on their own, without help from staff, using the Metro website, a transit only trip from there to the LAX Transit Center. Take along just one piece of rolling luggage filled with clothes, and see what it like to just get to the Expo/Crenshaw Station, and then navigate the steel posts gates to get to the train to go to the LAX Transit Center.
Distracted by Riding the D.
Perhaps Metro is distracted with the recent opening of the new stations for the D-Purple Line subway. This is a tremendous accomplishment, done safely and with great potential. That in itself is fantastic.
But, in ways that escape me, Metro’s P.R. campaign is “Ride the D.” When I first read this, the thought was, “Are they serious?” Metro is now on their third set of Tee Shirts which state “Ride the D.” How did this phrase escape to the light of day? It is fine in-house, in offices, at the construction sites, rail yards, but to have such a sexist and juvenile phrase as official P.R. is head shaking.
If there is anyone who does not know what the “D” in “Ride the D” represents, here’s a hint. It stands for D*CK. The asterisk is a vowel, and the choices are A, E, I, O, U. Remember, it’s sexual.
While there are improvements, Metro riders, women, have suffered sexual assaults. Sexual harassment continues in some forms. This phrase just gives license to continue this behavior. Women I speak with remain skeptical of riding Metro because of the public accounts of harassment. “Ride the D” will not encourage more women to ride transit.
As a regular transit rider to reduce my carbon footprint, and I cannot stand driving in gridlock, the Expo/Crenshaw station with the obstructing crossing gates, and the sexist “Ride the D,” the look of the Metro Board, Executives, Administrators and Operations leans towards uncaring and clueless. Metro must do better.
Metro should try to reflect the maturity and dignity of what is supposed to be a world class city. “Riding the D” does not take us there.
(Matthew Hetz is a Los Angeles native and composer whose works have been performed nationally. He is the former President of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and Marina del Rey Symphony. A passionate transit advocate, Matthew is dedicated to improving the rider experience and encouraging drivers to embrace public transportation as a solution to air pollution and climate change. He teaches at Emeritus/Santa Monica College and is a regular contributor to CityWatchLA.com.)
