Today's Headlines - more at Metro

12/13/2011

Metro Civil Rights Report, LA Traffic, OCTA & HSR, Sylmar To LAX Rail, Senate Transpo Bill, TIGER III & More

5 Experts For And Against LA's Approach To Bikes
Curbed LA

19th Century California Bike Routes Weren't Too Shabby
Curbed LA
Blum's Bicycle Map Of California Roads (1896)
Big Map Blog

Bakersfield Council To Consider Resolution To Oppose Bullet Train
Los Angeles Times

Commuting Puzzle: Why Driving Is Rewarded Over Taking The Bus
New York Times

Congress Continues To Wrangle Over Long-Term Transportation Legislation
National League Of Cities

Does LA County Need A Rebuilt Men's Central Jail Downtown?
Curbed LA

Driving Drops Again, But What's The Big Picture? ("Americans have sustained annualized driving drops for six consecutive months, the longest sustained drop since 2008. This also comes at a time when the country showed positive economic growth--2 percent annualized growth in the third quarter--and a string of positive, private sector job reports. These divergent trends reinforce the recent decoupling of VMT and economic growth. But does aggregate driving tell us the whole story about American driving habits?")
New Republic

Federal Audit: Metro Failed To Research Effects Of Fare Hikes, Service Cuts
Southern California Public Radio

Federal Officials Criticize MTA For Not Reaching Out To Riders
Los Angeles Times

FTA Releases Civil Rights Compliance Report On L.A. Metro
StreetsBlog LA

Has The Sun Set On Suburban Sprawl In California?
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

High-Speed Rail Could Draw O.C. Funding
Orange County Register

How We Got This Way (Los Angeles Has Always Been Suburban)
KCET

L.A. Drives Us Crazy Again: But Maybe All This Traffic Bustle Is An Upbeat Sign That We're Not Going Bust
Los Angeles Times

LB's New Gerald Desmond Bridge Will Have Dream Bike Path
Curbed LA

Metro Chastised For Poor Civil Rights Practices
LA Weekly

Metro's Changes Criticized
Los Angeles Daily News

Mitt Romney: Metro-Friendly Moderate?
Transportation Nation

MTA Responds To Civil Rights Violations Cited In Federal Audit: The Agency Plans A New Civil Rights Monitoring Program, Improved Review Of Projects And Increased Language Assistance For Passengers
Los Angeles Times

Murals To Flower On LA Walls Once Again
Southern California Public Radio

New Bike Lanes On Washington Place In Mar Vista
StreetsBlog LA

New Bipartisan Jobs Bill Proposes $35 Billion For Transportation
Transportation Issues Daily

OCTA: Hold Funds Until High-Speed Rail Fixes Its Finances
Voices Of OC
OCTA To Call For Moving HSR Funds
California High Speed Rail Blog

Please Combine The Sepulveda And Van Nuys Transit Projects Into One Rail Project Between Sylmar And LAX
Ride The Pink Line

The Relationship Of Title VI Requirements To Planning Processes In Florida (74p. PDF)
University Of South Florida Center For Urban Transportation Research

Road Rage: A Symptom Of Much More Than Bad Traffic?
NPR

Senators Make Case For Mass Transit Tax Credit
The Hill

Title VI Compliance Review Of The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro): Final Report (61p. embedded document)
U.S. DOT Federal Transit Administration Office Of Civil Rights via Scribd
Civil Rights Corrective Action Plan (47p. embedded document)
Metro via Google Documents

To Sleep On The Subway, Maybe, But To Dream? Poor Chance
New York Times

Transit Benefits On The Line ("How important is this transit benefit? Would it do any harm to extend it? Why has it gotten lost in the congressional shuffle? Is mass transit really at a disadvantage with respect to roads and automobiles? Aside from tax benefits, are there other ways to encourage mass-transit commuting?")
National Journal Transportation Experts Blog

Transit's Not Sucking The Taxpayer Dry -- Roads Are
StreetsBlog DC

USDOT TIGER III Grant Awards Announced (Updated)
Transportation Issues Daily

Webinar: Leading Innovation In A Time Of Change
(Wednesday, December 14)
AASHTO Subcommittee On Organizational Management

With Full FTA Civil Rights Report Due This Week, Metro Plays Chess With Bus Service Changes
StreetsBlog LA

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