Quiet Commute, Pullman Porters, Predicting Traffic, Research Roundup, Biking To Work & More

2 New Parks In Santa Monica Calling For Community Input
LAist

105-Year-Old Fondly Recalls His Days As A Pullman Porter: Ben Isaacs Came Forward After The Times Wrote That Lee Wesley Gibson, 100, Was The Oldest Surviving Such Porter
Los Angeles Times

Biking To Work: Sounds Good in Theory
Wall Street Journal

Bus Yard Housing Plan Revived
San Francisco Examiner

City And County Leaders Break Ground On Civic Park At Grand Avenue Project
Los Angeles Times

City Buying Chinatown's Blossom Plaza Development Site
Curbed LA

Concept For U.K. Bullet Train Revealed ("The interior of the design is meant to be akin to an open-plan interior, like you'd find in a cutting-edge office...It's not about being shoe-horned into a hot and sweaty commuter train. The first-class cabins will feature a bar, cabins suited to business meetings or family trips...a children's play area.")
Fast Company Co Design

Create Our Contest Contest ("we want you to create our next big contest. Pitch us your idea - in video or essay format - for the chance to make your idea come to life.")
Amtrak

Data Crunchers Ready To Predict Traffic Tie-Ups ("With huge increases in the use of traffic cameras, roadway sensors and GPS-linked devices like cell phones, transportation agencies are now grappling with a flood of data available to tell them how well vehicles are (or are not) moving.")
Detroit News

Discovery: Some Westside Unity Amidst The Infighting
CityWatch

Downtown's Civic Park Breaks Ground, Look At Latest Renderings
Curbed LA

Is Infrastructure Our Economy's Only Hope For Recovery?
Infrastructurist

Mixed-Use Downtown Development Puts Standard Malls' Tax Yield To Shame (Downtown mixed-use generates more than 30 times the tax revenue of malls)
Citi-Wire

The Nimblest City: Slate Readers' Best Ideas For Making Transportation More Efficient
Slate

OCTA And Teamsters OK New Bus Contract
Voice Of OC

OCTA To Charge For Bus-Schedule Book
Orange County Register

Oil Runs Deep In L.A. History: The Southland Is Replete With Examples Of The Petroleum Industry's Handiwork, And Heres A Guide To Some Of The More Notable Oil-Related Sites
Los Angeles Times

Putting Some "Mute" In Your "Commute" (Pilot program will test feasibility of "Quiet Commute" cars)
New Jersey Transit

Research Roundup: High-Speed Rail, Transportation Statistics, Transportation Taxes
(A closer look at recent research and publications on topics of interest)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Ridership Down In America? Look Deeper
Human Transit

Riverside Argues Effects Of Long Beach Port Expansion
Riverside Press-Enterprise

A Streetcar For Oakland? A Student Shares His Plan
San Francisco Chronicle

Tech Advances Improving Transportation Efficiency
ThomasNet News

Tech Talk Podcast: Wi-Fi On Trains And U.S.B. 3.0
New York Times

Westside Extension Would Tunnel Under Beverly Hills Main Disaster Shelter (PDF : p.3)
Beverly Hills Weekly

Arroyo Parkway Renaming, L.A. Port Traffic Up, History Pin, Crosswalk Designs & More

After I-15 Work, Freeway To Phoenix Will Become Focus ("Las Vegas and Phoenix are the two largest cities in the country not linked by an interstate highway.")
Las Vegas Sun

Angelenos Torn Over Funds To Fix CA's Oldest Freeway
American Public Media Marketplace

Bike Parking Takes Over Car Parking Spaces
Spacing Toronto

Bill Lockyer Needs To Show Wall Street The CalPIRG Study
California High Speed Rail Blog

Chicago's Transit Chief: Transit Chief Richard Rodriguez Combats A Monumental Fiscal Crisis
Governing

Five Benefits Of Cycle Commuting
TreeHugger

Frustration With Stop-Gap Funding Shows At DOT Town Hall
StreetsBlog DC

History Pin: Google In Partnership To Take On "Augmented Reality" & Map The World's Photos And Stories
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Is Bike Polo The Next Big Sport?
GOOD

Measure R Set-Aside Ensures Funding For Bike/Ped Projects
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

Officials Want To Better Manage Parking In Van Nuys
LAist

Port Traffic Jumps At L.A., Long Beach: Demand At The Twin Port Complex In June Also Prompts The Hiring Of Hundreds Of Part-Time Workers
Los Angeles Times

Postcards From Our National Transportation Funding Meltdown
StreetsBlog DC

Proactive Use Of Social Media In Public Transportation (TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has issued a request for consultant letters of interest in conducting a synthesis to help identify challenges and successful practices related to the implementation of social media platforms into transit agencies’ marketing and communications strategies)
U.S. Transportation Research Board

Some Cities Want Les Roadways, Not More
American Public Media Marketplace

Zebras, Puffins, Pelicans Or Hawks For Pedestrians? (The Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices provides guidance for state and local governments about where crosswalks should be installed, but does not provide guidance on specific conditions and design)
The City Fix

30/10 Petition, Google Parking, Metro Blue Ribbon Cmte, State Transpo Statistics, Unlocking Freight & More

Blue Ribbon Committee: Metro Should Focus On The Lines People Use
StreetsBlog LA

Cities' Woes Linger, Thousands Of Jobs Will Go ("Cities and counties are in sorry shape. What's more, they may be among the last entities to feel like they've emerged from the recession.")
NPR

Civic Pride Shaping Civic Park: Downtown's $56-Million Project, Which Has Its Official Groundbreaking Thurday, Audaciously Aims To Be Many Things To Many People -- And That Leaves Some Devilish Details To Sort Out
Los Angeles Times

Cordova Road Diet Completed ("May be continued down Cordova all the way to the Del Mar Gold Line station, which will be a substantial connection for bike users that may need access to the metro Gold Line station.")
Brigham Yen

Do Angelenos Long For "Steel Clouds" Above The 101?
Curbed LA

Editorial: Tax Truth: We Need To Raise The Levy On Gasoline
Washington Post

Google Your Next Parking Spot
GOOD
Open Spot App

Happy 20th Birthday, Metro Rail! Militant Footage Of The Blue Line Grand Opening
Militant Angeleno

Metro Tips Its Hand On Endangered Bus Lines
StreetsBlog LA

Next Stop - California: The Benefits Of High-Speed Rail Around The World And What's In Store For California (47p. PDF)
CALPIRG Education Fund

New Shared-Track Alternative For Bullet Train Minimizes Costs, Eminent Domain But Reduces Future Service Between Los Angeles And Anaheim
TransitRider OC

OCTA Soliciting Metrolink Improvement Ideas, Including On-Site Car Washes, Oil Changes
TransitRider OC
Metrolink Station Parking Management Study

Petition Supporting LA Metro's "30/10 Plan"
Move LA

Port Activity Significantly Increases
Los Angeles Business Journal

State Transportation Statistics 2009 (STS is now a web-only publication)
U.S. Transportation Research Board
Statistical Chapters Index
Full-Text Report (143p. PDF)

To Cut Gridlock, Drivers Should Pay For Fast Lane, New Study Says (After three years of false starts, new interest in congestion pricing)
Chicago Tribune

Unlocking Freight (Second in a three-part series titled Transportation Reboot: Restarting America's Most Essential Operating System, report explores what is changing in America and the impact of those changes on the demand for new transportation capacity)
AASHTO
Key Findings
Full-Text Report (40p. PDF)
Part One: Unlocking Gridlock: Key Findings / Full-Text Report (48p. PDF)

Whitman Criticized For Opposing High-Speed Rail
San Francisco Bay Guardian

Will California Achieve Its Anti-Sprawl Targets?
StreetsBlog DC

Blue Line At 20, The Math Of Traffic Jams, Amtrak & Bikes, L.A. Downtown Streetcars, Art Leahy Profile & More

26 Years Ago: Updated Pershing Square Rededicated
Blog Downtown

150th Anniversary Of First Market St. Rail Line (The Market Street Railroad was dirty, noisy and ultimately a financial flop, but it started something in a city known for streetcars)
San Francisco Chronicle

Amtrak Going Bike-Friendly: Bike To The Train, And Vice-Versa!
Infrastructurist

Are You For/Against Closing Street Segments?
Planetizen

At The Wheel: Art Leahy, Boss Of The MTA, Says Getting Around Should Be No Problem: Just Leave Your Car At Home
Los Angeles Magazine

Blue Line At 20: Welcoming The First Metro Rail Project And Its Continued Success (Part II of anniversary commemoration includes photo and video links, opening festivities and inaugural ridership numbers)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Chicago And New York Score Big Bucks For BRT
Architect's Newspaper

Crews Test Soil For Light Rail
Santa Monica Daily Press

Equation: Factors For Predicting Phantom Traffic Jams
Wired

Growing Freight Demands Reaching Crisis, AASHTO Study Says
The Trucker

Hahn Succeeds DeLong As ACTA Chairman (Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority)
Progressive Railroading

The Incredible Shrinking Crime Rate: Downtown Crime Drops 10% In First Half Of 2010, Outpacing Goal
Los Angeles Downtown News

Interview With Tom LaBonge
LADOT Bike Blog

It's Finally Here!: It's Taken Nearly Two Decades, But Intelligent Transportation System Technology Is Beginning To Exert An Influence
Better Roads

Laying Tracks: L.A. Business Titans Get Behind Downtown Streetcars
Los Angeles Business Journal

Metro Proposes December 2010 Service Changes
MetroRider LA

Metrolink Ridership Continues To Drop In OC
Voice Of OC

The Relationship, Bus Driver And Passenger
Plus Metro

Report: Roads Laced With Titanium Dioxide Could Help Us Breathe Easier
Auto Blog Green

This Week's Transportation Committee: Focus On A Progressive Van Nuys
StreetsBlog LA

Travel Car-Free This Summer
Your Daily Thread

UCLA, USC & Local Companies Win Federal Money For Clean Energy Research
LAist

A Walker's Guide To Home Buying: Traffic Jams And Aging Boomers Spur A Focus On Walking Distance
Wall Street Journal

What About A New Transportation Policy, President Obama?
Rail Passenger Association Of California & Nevada

Will SB 375 Help Achieve The Governor's Vision For California?
Natural Resources Defense Council

Gold Line Wins Award, Blue Line Upgrades, Bikes And Airports, Whitman And Brown On HSR, BRT Brilliance & More

Accounting For The Economic Payoff Of Streetcars And Buses
StreetsBlog DC

Advocates: High-Speed Rail Tunnel Could Ruin Park
KSWT-13

Arcadia Gold Line Station Relocated -- Slightly
Arcadia Weekly

Art On Track: Public Art Meets Public Transportation
GOOD
Art On Track Website
Art On Track Flickr Photo Collection From 2008 & 2009 Exhibitions

Bicycling Isn't Recreation, It's Transportation (Bicycle access paths to airports for true inter-modal integration)
The L Magazine

Bridge Over Untroubled Waters: Glendale Looks To Build Pedestrian Bridge To Griffith Park
Glendale News Press

California High Speed Rail Authority Opts To Ignore Ridership Problems
San Francisco Chronicle

California Labor Federation On Whitman's HSR Stance
California High Speed Rail Blog

California Low-Speed Rail
Riding In Riverside

A Closer Look At Go511
UCLA Be A Green Commuter!

Do You Read These Planning Magazines?
Planetizen

Eastside Gold Line Extension Earns Construction Award
EGP News

Expo Phase II Work Underway, MTA Chief Talks Cost Control
Curbed LA

Finally, Bike Branding Moves Beyond Hipster Ghetto
Fast Company
Bikes Belong Coalition
People For Bikes

Foothill Transit Tests First Electric Bus
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Here's Something More Important Than The Mayoral Free Tickets (30/10 funding)
LA Observed

High-Speed Train May Share Metrolink Tracks
Orange County Register

Hollywood And Mass Transit: Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?
Huffington Post

In Search Of A Monument That Says "L.A." ("The freeway in Southern California is for the most part "an artistic wasteland...Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley created a West Coast Gateway Committee to solicit designs for a cultural monument that would stretch across the Hollywood Freeway downtown.")
Los Angeles Times

Individuals Save $9,343 By Riding Transit Annually
Public Transportation Takes Us There

Japan May Target California Next In High-Speed Rail Sales Bid
Business Week

[New York] MTA "Card" Game: $1 Fee Eyed For Each New Metro Pass (They litter almost every subway entrance - the ubiquitous, value-exhausted-yet-refillable plastic MetroCards. Now New York MTA has devised a simple, revenue-producing measure that would reduce the litter)
New York Post

Opinion: What's Wrong With This Picture? There Are So Many Problems With The Concept Of Selling Digital Ads On Car License Plates That It's Amazing The Idea Has Gotten This Far
Los Angeles Times

Port Operations Can Improve Without An Act Of Congress
Daily Breeze

Rail Against The Machine: What's So Conservative About Federal Highways? (8p. PDF)
American Conservative via Transportation For America

The Reverse Commute: The Obama Administration Is Trying To Rein In Suburban Sprawl. But Is It Any Match For 70 Years Of Unsustainable Development?
American Prospect
Sustainable Communities: Live Event With HUD, DOT and EPA (July 15)
Planetizen

Spotlight On The World Cup: Brazil Gears Up For Games With Urban Transit Investments (As the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament in South Africa winds down, Brazil's federal, state, and local governments are already set to spend US $6.48 Billion in "urban mobility infrastructure" for 2014 - and that doesn't include private investment. Includes artistic renderings of projects)
The City Fix

"Transit-Enlightened Cities" Showcase BRT's Brilliance
The City Fix

Upgrade Work Begins For Blue Line: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority On Saturday Began Replacing 20 Aging Traction Power Substations And Electrical Support Systems, Thanks To A $71 Million Grant From Federal Stimulus Funds
Long Beach Press-Telegram

Whitman, Brown On Opposite Sides Of High-Speed Rail Tracks
San Jose Mercury News