Today's Headlines - more at Metro

4/26/2013

HOV Lanes, 405 Widening, Perris Metrolink, Caltrans, Highway Trust Fund, Bike/Ped Lobby, State Gas Taxes & More

405 Freeway Widening Project Delayed By A Year, $75M Over Budget
Los Angeles Daily News

Airline Uncertainty Pushing Some To Amtrak
My Fox DC

Are Some Caltrans Employees Moonlighting On State Time?
CBS Los Angeles

BART Lays Out New Safety Initiatives For Customers And Passengers
San Francisco Examiner

Building A Bike And Pedestrian Lobby With Teeth ("A group of advocates for safer streets in New York is looking to put financial and electoral muscle behind their efforts, forming a political action committee called StreetsPAC. The group will ask candidates in the city’s upcoming municipal elections to answer questionnaires about issues such as pedestrian infrastructure and investigation of traffic crashes.")
The Atlantic: Cities

BYD To Build Electric Bus Assembly Plant ("The Shenzhen-based producer of electric vehicles will break ground on May 1 for an assembly plant in Lancaster, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, to make electric buses for US and Latin American public-transportation markets.")
China Daily

Caltrans Workers Hit The Highways To Clean Up California
Caltrans News Release

Chicago Ready To Roll Out Bike-Sharing ("Hundreds of three-speed bikes painted "Chicago blue" will hit the streets in June when the city debuts a bicycle-sharing rental program that originally was set to launch last summer.")
Chicago Tribune

Driver Ticketed For Using iPhone's Map App Isn't Giving Up Yet (Driver who maintains that he was driving safely at the time, isn't taking 'convicted' for an answer. Urged on by supporters, he has filed another appeal)
Los Angeles Times

"Etsy"-Type Flea Market, Food Fest To Begin In Historic Core This Summer
Blog Downtown

Federal Road Fund Could Go Broke By 2015
Stateline
Statement For The Record: Status Of The Highway Trust Fund (6p. PDF)
U.S. House Of Representatives Budget Committee

The Future Of Driving ("But smarter driving will lead to more driving, because smarter driving reduces the cost per mile of vehicle usage. The end result of additional driving could be more traffic and more aggregate fuel consumption.")
New York Times

Ho Chi Minh City Scrambling To Put Transit In Place Before People Start Buying Cars ("Once people get into a car, it's hard to get them out.")
The Atlantic: Cities
Easy Riders (A case for bringing subways To Vietnam)
New York Times

How Gross Is The Air Of The NYC Subway, Really?
The Atlantic: Cities

How TIGER Transformed Transportation Planning -- And Lived To Tell About It
StreetsBlog DC

Just How Screwed Is The Highway Trust Fund?
Governing

Los Angeles Retains Notorious Rankings For Worst Smog, Traffic
Reuters

Metro Board Approves Toll Lane Project
Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Metro Drops Monthly Toll Lane Transponder Fee On 110 And 10
Curbed LA
A Monthly Toll Road Fee Exits Early
Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

Passenger Rail An Economic Driver
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Perris: County Officials To Counter Environmental Group's Judgment Proposal
Riverside Press-Enterprise

Perris Valley Line: Deadline Set To Address Environmental Issues (Metrolink)
Riverside Press Enterprise

Pondering A Mileage Tax And A Reduced Federal Role In Transportation
Land Line

Road Work To Cause More Traffic Delays In Seal Beach
Long Beach Press-Telegram

Running Of The Bull: Cable Cars Are Trundling Money Away From The Transit You Actually Use ("Maintaining cable cars for city tourists while struggling to provide core transit service is a bit like polishing the heirloom china for the guests while sending the kids to school with no shoes.")
SF Weekly

Smart Displays Beam City Information Directly To Your Phone ("Need to know when the next bus is coming? At a Connecthings-enabled bus stop, just wave your phone and the information is already there." Are the digital displays at bus and train stops already out of date?)
Fast Company Exist

State Motor Fuel Taxes 2013 (4p. PDF)
American Petroleum Institute

State Of The Air 2013 (179p. PDF : "Los Angeles remained the city with the worst ozone pollution problem, but reported its fewest unhealthy ozone days since the State of the Air reports began. Los Angeles has one-third fewer days of unhealthy air than in the first report.")
American Lung Association
Report Card: California (County by county)
Report Card: Los Angeles County

Toll Lane Transponder Fee Suspended For L.A. County Residents ("For the next six months, residents will not be charged a $3 monthly maintenance fee for transponders used on the 110 and 10 freeways' toll lanes.")
Los Angeles Times

Torrance Historic Bridge Revamp Costs Balloon Due To Structural Cracks
Daily Breeze

Underground Cellphone Service Expands, But Some Call For Quiet
New York Times

U.S. Traffic Congestion Again On The Rise After 2-Year Slump, New Report Says
The Trucker

Using Census Data For Transportation Applications (130p. PDF : conference proceedings)
Transportation Research Board


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