As someone who has spent 43 years in transportation, from hostling engines at Taylor, to planning the 710 tunnel project, it is interesting to see the range of perspectives in this thread.

The Pasadena Freeway was not that badly designed for its time, it is slower, functions better, and, ironically, is somewhat safer than many LA Freeways. We really built some screwed up freeways in the late fourties and fifties with too many on and off ramps, inadequate weaving areas, and poor freeway to freeway connections.

All day service would be very much welcomed and would probably add significantly to the ridership on WES, as only about 40% of transit if home-to-work or work-to-home, and about half of off peak trips are home-to-work.

The effective application of experience and education in transportation planners is a highly subjective area. I've seen complete dolts and quasi professional political hacks with years of "experience", and I have seen newly minted kids just out of school who have the "knack" and get things real fast. On the whole, my career has benefited from my experience when dealing with people who want to understand and solve a real transportation problem, and my experience has been a problem when dealing with those who seem more interested in contract steering or political butt kissing.