Today's Headlines - more at Metro

12/16/2011

60 Freeway, Gold Line Expenditures, BHHS Drilling, TIGER III, Bus Shelters, Van Nuys At 100, ONT & More

60 Freeway Closure Sends Commuters To Metrolink: Ridership Was Up Thursday On Metrolink Trains, As Commuters Scrambled For New Ways To Get Around
NBC Los Angeles

60 Freeway Shutdown Makes The Case For Dedicated Truck Lanes
Whittier Daily News

100 Years Ago Today: Pacific Electric Railway Reaches Van Nuys, Launching "Wonderful Growth" In The San Fernando Valley
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Advocates For California's High-Speed Rail Line Speak Of State's Growing Transporation Needs
National Association Of Railroad Passengers Press Release

AEG Officials React To New NFL Timeline
Los Angeles Daily News

All Aboard The Transit Hackathon Express: One Day Event Uses Data To Find Creative Solutions To City's Transportation Woes
Montreal Gazette

Antonovich Calls On MTA To Review Gold Line Expenditures
Glendale News-Press

Blocked 60 Freeway Doubles And Triples Drivers' Commute Times: Motorists Taking Alternate Routes Find Other Freeways And Surface Streets Clogged ("Engineers continue assessing damage to the bridge burned by the truck fire and vow to reopen the 60 by 5p.m. Friday.")
Los Angeles Times

Caltrans Will Tear Down Portion Of Overpass Where Truck Ignited
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

City To Start Yanking Out Tracks From Southern Pacific Railroad's Old Alameda Rathole Section
Curbed LA

Congress Puts Off Key Decisions On Transpo Bill And Transit Tax Benefit
StreetsBlog DC

DOT Takes "We Can't Wait" To Heart; TIGER III Projects Announced Ahead Of Schedule
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Early Data From SFPark: Drivers Still Flock To Blocks With Pricey Parking
StreetsBlog Network

Editorial: High Hopes For New Port Of Long Beach Executive Director Christopher Lytle
Los Angeles Daily News

Environmental Drilling Begins At BHHS
Beverly Hills Courier

Free Rides On New Years Eve
Riverside Transit Agency

GOOD Attacks! L.A.'s Traffic: Will You Be There?
GOOD via Facebook

Have Yourself A Merry TRANSIT Christmas (Beautiful transit holiday photos from around the country)
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

High-Speed Rail In California Is Worrying Itself To Death
StreetsBlog DC

In Chicago, Some Find Public Transit Fares Linked To School Attendance
WBEZ

Infographic Of The Day: How Bikes Can Solve Our Biggest Problems
Fast Company Design

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's A...Flying Car? ("A $30 million hotel planned for the northwest corner of Fifth Street and Colorado Avenue could be shot out of the air by, of all things, a flying car.")
Santa Monica Daily Press

L.A. Airport Board Discusses Closing One Ontario Terminal ("Ontario International, which has two terminals, has seen a sharp dropoff in passenger traffic. Inland Empire leaders want L.A. to surrender the airport to them.")
Los Angeles Times

LA Streetcar Not Among Winners Announced For 2011 TIGER Grants
Blog Downtown

LA's Christmas Story: No (Bus) Shelter For Mother And Child (Rainy weather prompts the author to share his story that, four years later, bus shelters have not been replaced along Santa Monica Boulevard in West L.A.)
CityWatch

LADOT, Planning, Update Council On Bike Plan: Everything Is Peachy
StreetsBlog LA

L.A. Moving On Up In Milken Study
LA Observed
Best Performing Cities 2011: Where America's Jobs Are Created And Sustained (40p. PDF)
Milken Institute

Metro Board Members Lecture Agency Over Civil Rights Violations: A Federal Audit Finds Civil Rights Violations In The Way Metro Eliminated Bus Lines, Among Other Issues, Prompting Criticism From Elected Officials. The Agency Has Released A Corrective Plan
Los Angeles Times

Metro Suspends Bus Cuts, Additions
EGP News

More Congressional Outrage On High-Speed Rail ("The entire high-speed rail program has been a bait and switch operation,” said T&I Chair John Mica")
Transportation Nation

Nearly Half Of TIGER Award Money Goes To Roads, 29 Percent For Transit
StreetsBlog DC

Ontario Airport Could Close One Of Its Two Terminals
Los Angeles Times

Raising The Gas Tax Makes (Dollars And) Sense
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Santa Monica Approves $9.5 Million To Upgrade Expo Line Stops
Curbed LA

Santa Monica Authorizes Funding For Metro Station Improvements
Santa Monica Lookout

States Foreit $10 Billion Annually Thanks To Outdated Gas Taxes
StreetsBlog DC

Streetcar Misses Out On Federal Funds Again
Los Angeles Downtown News

Transit Users Await Congressional Action On Pretax Benefits
Washington Post

Two-Month Drilling Study To Begin On BHHS Campus: In An Effort To Stop Metro From Approving A Subway Route That Goes Under The High School, BHUSD Has Hired A Firm To Determine If Faults Under The Campus Are Active
Beverly Hills Patch

U.S. Stands By California Bullet Train Project Despite Critics ("We are not going to flinch" on support, an official says at a House committee meeting. The opposition alleges political corruption in the granting of federal funds for the Central Valley segment.")
Los Angeles Times

U.S. To Fund 46 Transportation Projects In 33 States, Puerto Rico
CNN

Westside Subway Extension Feud: Did Metro Rig A Century City Fault Study To Move The Purple Line?
LA Weekly

Why The Feds Continue To Back California's High-Speed Rail Project
Infrastructurist

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

12/15/2011

Crenshaw Westchester Station, Bullet Train Problems, 60 Fwy Closure, Congestion Pricing, Downtown Parking, AB 32, Metro Library Research, ULI & More

60 Freeway To Be Closed "Into The Weekend" As Bridge Demolished
Los Angeles Times

Are Streetcars The Answer To our Transit And Environmental Needs? ("The streetcar system came to an unfortunate end in 1954, when the last trolleys were pulled from the streets and replaced with buses financed by General Motors. In the conversion process, the transit system was defrauded by company executives and mobsters, several of whom went to jail.")
Minnesota Post

Battlefield L.A.: Where & Why War Came To Southern California
LA As Subject via KCET

Behold: Metro ExpressLanes Congestion Pricing Transponder!
Curbed LA

A Blueprint For Beating Traffic (successful congestion pricing project)
The Atlantic: Cities

Breaking News: High Speed Rail Designed To Achieve High Speeds (Response to yesterday's critical Los Angeles Times article)
California High Speed Rail Blog

The Bullet-Train Misfire ("It's not easy to sell a major infrastructure investment in the fourth year of a bad economy. If California and other states want to reap the potential economic and environmental benefits of high-speed rail, there's very little margin for error.")
Governing

Bullet Train's Travel-Time Mandate Adds To Ballooning Of Costs ("The ballot measure for the project required that the L.A.-to-San Francisco trip take no more than two hours, 40 minutes. Achieving that would mean building more viaducts and tunnels, which are costly.")
Los Angeles Times

Bus Riders Suffer As City Builds Rails
USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

California High-Speed Rail Going Without Statewide PR Contract
Sacramento Bee

The Case For Congestion ("This doesn’t mean that cities should strive for congestion, but they should recognize that traffic is often a sign of dynamism. Moving vehicular traffic is obviously a necessary function, but by making it the only goal, cities lose out on the economic potential created by the crowds of people that bring life to a city.")
The Atlantic: Cities

Downtown Parking Lot Maps (Aerial photographs of many U.S. cities show just how much of our urban centers are dedicated to parking. The visuals may be surprising)
Skyscraper Page

Feds Urge States To Ban Texting, Talking On Roads
Associated Press

Filling The Gap: Chandler Blvd. Bike Lanes Coming Soon
LADOT Bike Blog

Free Holiday Rides On Metro
Los Angeles Downtown News

High Speed Rail Authority Set To Extend Comment Period On New Business Plan
San Francisco Examiner

L.A., Metrolink Work Toward Bike-Friendly City
USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

Light Rail & Streetcar Conference (November 11-13, 2012 : Salt Lake City)
APTA / U.S. Transportation Research Board

Manhattan Beach Trolley Talks Trail On
Easy Reader News

Metro Ignores Bus Riders, Mayor Ignores Housing Authority, Council Members Ignore Reality
KCET

Metro vs. Reason: Agency Calls Foundation's Light Rail Slam "Factually Challenged"
LAist

A More Perfect Union Station: D.C.'s Train Station Is A Mess. Again (Proposals for improved pedestrian access)
Washington City Paper

New And Powerful Transportation Research Tool: Metro Library Launches Robust Catalog Portal
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Policy In Motion: Transportation Planning In California After AB 32
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Rail Outlook 2012: Passenger Rail (Executives from transit systems around the nation, including LACMTA, explain what they see for the coming year)
Progressive Railroading

Rep. Waters Seeks Westchester Stop On Crenshaw Light-Rail Line
Daily Breeze

Senate Commerce Committee Sets The Standard For Transpo Performance
StreetsBlog DC

Senate Committee Takes Positive Steps For Freight, Multimodalism, Performance And Safer Streets
Transportation For America

Subway Swipe Peddlers Aren't Stealing From The [N.Y.] MTA, New York Court Of Appeals Rules ("The court indicated a lesser charge — unauthorized sale of MTA services — would be more appropriate.")
New York Daily News

TriMet Says Crackdown On Fare Cheats Is A Success, Even If It Hasn't Quite Paid For Itself Yet
Oregonian

Urban Land Institute Celebrates 75 Years Of Leadership In Community Building: December 14 Proclaimed "ULI Day" By Mayors, City Council Members In More Than 30 Cities ("Established in Chicago on December 14, 1936, ULI was created to research, analyze, and encourage responsible patterns for long-term urban growth, and to conduct inquiries into what constitutes sound real estate development projects and practices. Starting with about 200 developers based in the U.S., the institute’s membership grew incrementally, and ULI now has nearly 30,000 members worldwide, with 51 district councils in the U.S., 16 national councils in Europe and Asia, and primary offices in Washington, D.C., London and Hong Kong.")
Urban Land Institute Press Release

U.S. To Award Up To $527 Million For Infrastructure
Reuters

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

12/14/2011

Gold Line Bridge, Alameda Street, Westside Bike Projects, MAP-21, HSR Hearing, Gas Tax & More

Agenda 21 And Other Wacky Theories ("Anti-smart growth ideologues have never shied away from half-truths and dubious arguments, but recent references to Agenda 21, Portland, Detroit, and Denver are unusually strange.")
New Urban Network

Alameda Street Train Tracks Being Removed ("The effort is on to remove all remaining track on Alameda between First and Seventh streets.")
Los Angeles Downtown News

Building A Better Gas Tax: How To Fix One Of State Government's Least Sustainable Revenue Sources (24p. PDF)
Institute On Taxation And Economic Policy
Executive Summary
Press Release

California DUI Deaths Drop To Record Low: California Also Marks The Biggest Single-Year Decline In DUI Deaths In 14 Years. Officials Credit Safety Campaigns
Los Angeles Times

Cellphone Use While Driving Can Kill, NTSB Says, Urging Full Ban
Los Angeles Times

A Closer Look At The Senate's MAP-21: State Of Good Repair
Transportation For America

Federal Transportation Bill Could Mean Big Changes For Freight -- Or Not
Mobilizing The Region

Fitch Affirms Alameda Corridor Transportation Auth, CA's Ratings At "A/BBB+"; Outlook Stable
MarketWatch

FTA: Metro Deficient In Five Of 12 Civil Rights Categories
StreetsBlog LA

Gold Line Basket Bridge Getting Its Weave On In Arcadia
Curbed LA

High Speed Rail Route, Business Plan, Deserve A Chance
StreetsBlog LA

House To Hold Hearing On "Skyrocketing" Cost Of California High-Speed Rail ("The California railway proposal has received more money from the Obama administration than any other project, making it a prime target for GOP critics.")
The Hill

How The Tea Party Is Upending Urban Planning
The Atlantic: Cities

L.A.'s Bike Lane Blues ("After a few blocks of riding, that bright green starts to dim, with sometimes huge splotches chipped off and eaten away, revealing the black pavement and gray concrete beneath. And that’s after a second coat of paint had been added. In a month.")
The Atlantic: Cities

Los Angeles Schools To Sue California Over Bus Cut
Sacramento Bee

McCaskill-Collins: Tax Cuts With A Side Of Infrastructure, But Hold The Transit
StreetsBlog DC

Metro Chastised For Poor Civil Rights Practices
LA Weekly

No Accountability For State DOTs On Highway Projects
StreetsBlog DC

Opinion: Gold Line Transports Gold To Region ("The current construction project is expected to generate nearly 7,000 new jobs (2,600 in construction) and $1 billion in economic output for the region during its four-year construction period.")
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Reclaiming The Interstates From Ike
California Planning & Development Report

Regional Planning Is The New City Planning
GOOD

Revenue For Road Repairs: Raise It Or Reform It -- Is It Time For States To Rethink The Gas Tax?
Governing

San Francisco Finds Performance Parking Less Responsive Than Expected
Greater Greater Washington

Senate Banking Committee To Vote On Transit Section Of Transpo Bill Friday
StreetsBlog DC

Senators To Committee: Protect Transit Benefits Before It's Too Late
StreetsBlog DC

Silver Lake "Road Diet" Would Trim Traffic Lanes Instead Of Carbs
Eastsider LA

Suspicious Package At Union Station Prompts Evacuation
Los Angeles Times

UCLA, Stan And Ollie: Hardy Advocacy Of A Transit Laurel For The Blue And Gold
CityWatch

US Congress Eyes Freight Mobility Fund: New Initiative Proposes To Fund Freight Projects By A New Tax On Users
IFW

USDOT TIGER III Grant Awards Announced ("A number of TIGER III grant announcements are leaking out in advance of the official USDOT announcement.")
Transportation Issues Daily

Ventura's Cool Video Calling For More Bicycle And Pedestrian Funding
StreetsBlog LA

Video Calls Out L.A. Light Rail Trains For High Costs, Energy Consumption & Slow Speeds
LAist

We Are The 25%: Looking At Street Area Percentages And Surface Parking
Old Urbanist

Westside COG Considers Biking Projects: Representatives From The Westside cities Council of Government Met Monday To Discuss Regional Transportation Planning ("Beverly Hills, Culver City, West Hollywood and Santa Monica as well as Westside portions of Los Angeles and unincorporated Los Angeles County.")
Beverly Hills Patch

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

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

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

12/12/2011

MTA Audit, Union Station Plan, CA Transportation Problems, LA Cycling, Fare Cards, Drilling For Roads & More

9 Non-Ugly Bus Terminals
The Atlantic: Cities

Another GOP Transportation Proposal That's Really All About Oil Drilling
StreetsBlog DC

Are Fuel-Cell Big Rigs The Future Of Trucking?
Whittier Daily News

Audit Faults MTA For Lack Of Planning: U.S. Says The Transit Agency Failed To Consider The Effect Of Eliminating Bus Lines, Adding Services Or Changing Fares. Review Finds Problems In Communicating With Those Who Don't Speak English
Los Angeles Times

Blind Spot: DOT Not Tracking Highway Overruns, Delays
Federal Times

California's Quiet Transportation Problems ("In 2003, the California Department of Transportation identified $28.5 billion in needed upgrades to the state highway system over the next five years. By 2008 (the same year voters approved high-speed rail), that figure had almost exactly doubled to $56.5 billion. In its 2010 annual report, the California Transportation Commission found that $37 billion in local road projects waited to be funded with no money in sight, expected to grow to $79 billion by 2033.")
Public CEO

Can "Flexible Routes" Solve The Challenge Of Serving Low Density?
Human Transit

Editorial: Has The Time Come To Derail High-Speed Rail? No Way
Sacramento Bee

An Encyclopedia Of Land Use Codes (The Codes Project at Arizona State University is a website featuring links to and information about dozens of city codes from throughout history)
The Atlantic: Cities

Fare Jumpers, Meet Your Russian Nemesis: Moscow Subway Deploys Innovative Transit Turnstiles To Deter Farejumpers
Transport Gooru

The Future Of Transit Fare Cards Is No Fare Card At All ("Open payments is considered the next stage in the evolution of fare media - a step up from the advent of reloadable proprietary cards issued by transit agencies...[Chicago Transit Authority] will save $5 million a year because it will no longer have to issue and administer fare media.")
The Atlantic: Cities

Imagining A City Without Its Public Transportation
The Atlantic: Cities

In RC, Completed Trail Also Has Sailboats (Rancho Cucamonga)
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

LA County Metro Delays Bus Schedule Changes Until Spring
Southern California Public Radio

L.A. Cycling Enthusiasts Peddling Citywide Plan
Daily Breeze

Patricia Hu, Director, Bureau Of Transportation Statistics; John Horsley, AASHTO (video : segment linked at right under "Video Playlist" : "What makes up the nation’s transportation infrastructure system. Topics include highways, roads and bridges, rail, waterways, oil and gas pipelines and freight volume and traffic. We will also examine the condition of the nation’s infrastructure, the amount of government money spent on it, and current policy debates about it.")
C-SPAN Washington Journal

Plans For SaMo Airport's Future Pit Bureaucrat vs. Bureaucrat
Curbed LA

Results Are In: Cycling Is On The Rise In Los Angeles!
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

Santa Monica Tries To Figure Out What To Do When Bergamot Station Becomes A Train Station Again
LAist
Santa Monica Residents Look At Bergamot Station Options
Santa Monica Daily Press

Some Good Bicycle News -- From Culver City And Mar Vista
L.A. Eco-Village Blog

Some See Flaws In L.A. Bike Plan
Los Angeles Daily News

Study Finds That There Are More And More Bikers In LA
Curbed LA

Surprise! Transit In The U.S. Gets Just As Many Subsidies As Transit In Europe!
Forbes

Sustainable Public Transportation: Environmentally Friendly Mobility (21p. PDF)
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Transit Users Await Congressional Action On Pretax Benefits
Washington Post

Transportation Authority Pledges $772 Million For BART Extension (BART will extend to San Jose)
Milpitas Patch

Union Station Panel Says Area Could Be Downtown's Next South Park
Blog Downtown

U.S. Infrastructure Is In Dire Straits, Report Says
New York Times

Ventura County To Get Expanded Bus Services By 2025
Ventura County Star

Will California Solve Problems Or Quit?
California High Speed Rail Blog

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.