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10/01/2010

405 Bridge Change, BH Bike Lanes, Figueroa's Future, Calif HSR "Will Be Built", Amtrak's Big Plans, Redevelopment Agencies & More

50 Excellent YouTube Videos About Urban Planning (including Transportation: #26 - #36)
Democrablog

Amtrak's $117 Billion Plan For High Speed Travel
Fast Company

Avoiding Car-Centered Language: A Directive
Human Transit

Beverly Hills: Grade-Separated Bike Lanes For Santa Monica Blvd?
Examined Spoke

Book Review: Rival Rails: The Race To Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad By Walter R. Boreman: The Players In The Transcontinental Railroad Saga Were Legion, And The Knowledgeable Author Endeavors To Cover Them All ("What the Southern Pacific extorted from Los Angeles: a $610,000 bond issue, plus control of a small local railroad that was the city's link to the coast. What choice did L.A. have? The Big Four, in addition to the Southern Pacific, owned or controlled every other railroad with any chance of laying tracks into the city in 1872.")
Los Angeles Times

Calif. Gets $194M Federal Grant For High-Speed Rail
Sacramento Business Journal

California's Personal Vehicle Sharing Law Could Diminish Need To Own A Car
StreetsBlog SF

Caltrans Closes 7 Rest Areas
Etrucker

A Chat With Earl Blumenauer About Livable Communities And Right-Wing Paranoia
Grist

Cities With The Worst Traffic Nightmares: A New Study Shakes The Foundations Of How Americans Judge Traffic
ABC News

Citizens United Against Metro (p.4+ of 40p. PDF)
Beverly Hills Courier

Community Wins 405 Bridge Change
Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

Editorial: Bridge Plan Is Getting Somewhere
Daily Breeze

Editorial: Put The Brakes On Red-Light Cameras: It's Questionable Whether The Devices Reduce Accidents, And They Certainly Don't Earn The City Money
Los Angeles Times

Feds Forcing New York To Change Font On 250,000 Street Signs
Transportation Nation

Get Big Blue Bus On Google Transit!
LA Subway Blog
Link To Petition

How Do You Count The Crowds Going Through Times Square? (video)
BBC

How Flawed Formulas Lead Down The Road To Sprawl
StreetsBlog

Imagining Figueroa's Future: Two Workshops Focus On Corridor Between South Park And USC
Los Angeles Downtown News

Is Effective Decision-Making Possible At The Regional Scale? (The fractiousness of Bay Area transit)
Next American City

Lawmaker Says Congestion-Relief Bill Would Create Better Flow Of Freight
The Trucker

Lots Of Cash And Little Scrutiny In City Redevelopment: City Agencies Meant To Improve Blighted Areas Are Rife With Problems That Cost The Public Millions
Los Angeles Times

New Coalition Launches To Press For A Transportation System That Works for All Americans
Transportation For America

New Report Paints Murky Picture Of Inland Commutes
Riverside Press-Enterprise

New Survey: Carless Options In San Francisco And Boston
The City Fix

Opportunity For All! Sign The Transportation Equity Pledge
Transportation For America

Patch, The WalMart Of News? AOL Takes On Longtime Local Bloggers With Its Hyperlocal News Sites In Los Angeles
LA Weekly

Poring Over The 2009 American Community Survey Numbers
League Of American Bicyclists

Reformer Elected To Head ATU Transit Union
Labor Notes

Residents Call Again For Crossing Closure: L.A. Business Owners Continue To Disagree With Them About Crossing At Doran And San Fernando
Glendale News Press

Some Santa Monicans Think Constellation Blvd Stop Is Just Fine
Curbed LA

Texting Bans Don't Reduce Crashes; Effects Are Slight Crash Increases
Highway Loss Data Institute

Van Ark: HSR "Will Be Built"
California High Speed Rail Blog
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9/30/2010

Uphill Battle In BH, Owl Service History, LA's Red Light Problem, Summer Of Recovery, National Rail Plan & More

The 24-Hour City: 104 Years Of Owl Transit Service In Los Angeles
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Activists: Mayor, High-Speed Rail Jobs Conflict
Orange County Register

Are We Building New Roads And Highways Based On Incorrect Data?
Infrastructurist

Audit: L.A.'s Red-Light Cams Are Ineffective
KABC

Breakdown: Traveling Dangerously In America (Parts 9-12 of a multi-part joint-investigation series)
The Center For Public Integrity & News21 National
Part 9: Reincarnated Carrier: Illegal Bus Company Re-Opens Under New Names ("One bus company managed to stay on the road despite repeated violations and fines. It was easy: The owner just kept registering his company under new names.")
Part 10: Crashes Without Cause: "Black Boxes" Could Solve Crash Mysteries ("For more than a decade, the NTSB has unsuccessfully pushed regulators to mandate black boxes in motor vehicles. Congress recently took up the issue as part of a sweeping auto reform bill.")
Part 11: Delayed Technology: Railroads Put Off Fixes To Prevent Train Collisions ("Graniteville, S.C., may never recover from a train wreck that killed nine and shut down the main factory. The accident could have been prevented with technology the NTSB recommended decades before.")
Part 12: No One's In Charge: Local Transit Systems Plagued By Accidents, Weak Oversight ("No single government authority watches over the safety of passengers on light rail and subways, resulting in a patchwork of train systems as the number of accidents grow.")
The entire 20-part series, which also includes aviation and marine transportation, can be found here.

CARRD Charges Two CHSRA Board Members Have A Conflict Of Interest
California High Speed Rail Blog

City Seeking Grant To Study La Cienega Traffic: Culver City Is Among A Group Of Cities That Has Applied For HUD Funding To Study Public Transportation And Improvements For The Boulevard
Culver City Patch

Intercity Bus Travel On The Rise In The U.S. And Abroad
The City Fix

Is High-Speed Rail On Track In The U.S.?
USA Today

Jersey Turnpike Buys System To Predict When You Will Be Sitting In Traffic
Bloomberg

L.A. County Poverty Rate Increases To 16% In 2009
Los Angeles Times

L.A.'s Red Light Enforcement Cameras "Not Necessarily" At Most Dangerous Intersections
LAist

Long Beach Wants Its New Bridge To Be Something Special ("In what's being billed as the largest public works project in Long Beach in 30 years, the city's 42-year-old Gerald Desmond bridge is getting replaced.")
Curbed LA

Measuring Urban Transportation Performance: A Critique Of Mobility Measures And A Synthesis (71p. PDF : "This report offers a new view of urban transportation performance. It explores the key role that land use and variations in travel distances play in determining how long Americans spend in peak hour travel.")
CEOs For Cities
Driven Apart: How Sprawl Is Lengthening Our Commutes And Why Misleading Mobility Measures Are Making Things Worse: Executive Summary (20p. PDF)
CEOs For Cities
Press Release (3p. PDF)

Meeting To Address Subway Extension Proposal
Santa Monica Lookout

Metro Westside Subway Talks Take A Different Turn In Santa Monica
StreetsBlog LA

New AASHTO Report Documents "Transportation Summer Of Recovery": States Continue To Deliver Critical Projects And Paychecks
AASHTO Press Release
Full-Text Report: More Projects And Paychecks: Transportation's Summer Of Recovery (40p. PDF)
AASHTO

New California Legislation Will Enable Metrolink To Advance PTC Implementation
Progressive Railroading

Once A Critic, Now A Supporter, Ohio Rep. Helps Make Complete Streets Bill Bipartisan
Transportation For America

Only Boneheads Oppose The Subway To The Sea (letters in response to recent article)
LA Weekly

Opponents Of Clean Air Having Trouble Gaining Traction For Prop 23
StreetsBlog 23

Pico Rivera Hires Consultant Over High-Speed Rail
Whittier Daily News

Q&A With Allison Mannos: Outreach To Immigrant Bikers In Los Angeles
The City Fix

The Republican Threat To Blow Up High-Speed Rail: New Research Shows Fast Trains Boost GDP Growth, But GOP Victories In November Will Derail Current Progress
Salon
From Periphery To Core: Economic Adjustments To High Speed Rail (65p. PDF)
London School Of Economics

Right-Turn Signal: Privatizing Our Way Out Of Traffic
New York Times

Schedule Set For Port Of L.A. Employee-Driver Plan
The Trucker

Stimulus Studies Suggest Highway Construction Money Lags In Some States
Fox News

The Survival Of U.S. High-Speed Rail All Comes Down To November (includes state-by-state chart)
Infrastructurist

Tickets From L.A.'s Red-Light Cameras Often Go Unpaid: Officials Say Almost Half Of Photo Tickets Are Currently Not Paid, In Part Because The DMV Has Not Been Instructed To Place Holds On Licenses And Registrations For Those With Outstanding Citations
Los Angeles Times

UK Transport Mapped: Every Bus Stop, Train Station, Ferry Port And Taxi Rank In Britain - Welcome To The Ultimate Transport Data
Guardian (U.K.)

Uphill Battle For Metro In Beverly Hills: At A Hearing Monday, Residents Voice Their Opposition To The Agency's "Constellation North" Subway Extension Option, Which Would Involve Tunneling Under Homes And Schools
Beverly Hills Patch

USDOT Provides Progress Report On National Rail Plan
Progressive Railroading
National Rail Plan: Moving Forward - A Progress Report, September 2010 (27p. PDF)
Federal Railroad Administration

What The Heck Is A National Infrastructure Bank?
Environmental Defense Fund Way2Go Blog
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9/29/2010

Governor Approves Positive Train Control, My Figueroa Project, New & Notable Titles, Private Commuter Buses, 91 Widening, Rail-Volution & More

Amtrak Unveils Ambitious Northeast Corridor Plan, But It Would Take 30 Years To Be Realized
(high-speed rail)
Transport Politic

91 Freeway Widening In Riverside On Track; Project To Bring Thousands Of Jobs
Southwest Riverside News Network

Barbara Boxer Questions Need For Infrastructure Bank
StreetsBlog DC

Bike Science: Making Sense Out Of Traffic Signal Sensors
Bike Portland

Breakdown: Traveling Dangerously In America (Parts 5-8 of a multi-part joint-investigation series)
The Center For Public Integrity & News21 National
Part 5: The Science Of Sleep: Fatigue Standards Lag Behind Research ("U.S. rules governing how much rest airline pilots must get are based on outdated research and lag behind other countries.")
Part 6: Ignoring Problems On The Roads: States Resist Highway Safety Measures ("NTSB recommendations to cut down on accidents have been around for years – seatbelts and booster seats, better drunk driving enforcement and more restrictions on young drivers.")
Part 7: In No Shape To Drive: Medical Cards For Drivers Easy To Get, Easy To Ignore ("Every day, someone gets behind the wheel of a truck or bus who has no business being there. Getting a medical certificate to drive is remarkably easy.")
Part 8: Escaping Oversight: Companies Skirt Safety Rules, Keep Driving ("Thousands of unsafe bus and trucking companies have been ordered out of service, but a number of them find ways to get back on the road.")

Caltrain Installs New Suicide Prevention Signs Along Tracks
KTVU

Caltrans Begins Construction On I-5 Corridor
Glendale News Press

Citizens United Against Metro At Roxbury Park Meeting In Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills Courier

Critics Ask Attorney General To Investigate State Rail Officals Who Also Hold Local Offices
("Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design in Palo Alto asserts that Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and Richard Katz, a board member for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, might be violating a state law that forbids public officials from simultaneously sitting on boards, commissions, committees or any other government body with interests that are likely to clash.The group is armed with an opinion from the Legislature’s legal office, which concluded in April that a court would likely rule that Katz and Pringle, chairman of the high-speed rail board, hold incompatible offices, a finding that could force them to resign from one or more of their positions.")
Los Angeles Times

Dream Team Assembled For LA River Piggyback Yard Project (130 acres on the east side of the LA River in Downtown, roughly bounded by Mission Road, the 5 Freeway, the Brewery Arts Colony, and the River will serve as a public park/flood detention basin. The site is named Piggyback Yard because the Union Pacific Railroad currently uses it for transferring shipping containers)
Curbed LA

From The Downtown Guide, Welcome: Getting To Know Downtown's 16 Unique Districts
Los Angeles Downtown News

Governor Approves Transportation Legislation For 91 Freeway, Positive Train Control
Mobility 21 via BusinessWire

LA's Mass Transit: Let's Talk Delays, Not Defeat
CityWatch

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Lobbies Senate For Federal Transportation Money
Southern California Public Radio

My Figueroa Project Open House This Weekend, Not Shy About Using The Internet
StreetsBlog LA

New & Notable: Strategic Collaboration In Public & Non-Profit, Managing Public Sector Projects, Government Contracting
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

New Lanes Dedicated On I-5 In Orange County
Southern California Public Radio

Obama Admin Will Make Its Transportation Push...During The Next Congress
StreetsBlog DC

Obama: Yes To 2011 Climate Bill Push
Politico

Private Commuter Buses: Rogue Operation Or New Model?
ITS Berkeley Transportation Letter

Rail-Volution Conference Program Details (October 18-21 : Portland, OR)
Rail-Volution

Restrictions On Railroad Operating Employees' Use Of Cellular Telephones And Other Electronic Devices (Full-text of new federal rules published September 27, 2010 : "FRA is amending its railroad communications regulations by restricting use of mobile telephones and other distracting electronic devices by railroad operating employees")
Federal Register

Scared Of The Subway: Beverly Hills Slams Proposal To Put Subway Under The City
StreetsBlog LA

Sunday's Triathlon To Close Off Downtown Streets For Cyclists And Runners
Blog Downtown

Touchy MTA Defends Antonio Villaraigosa's $9-Billion Subway To The Sea Rip-Off, Slams L.A. Weekly For Alerting Public
LA Weekly

Villaraigosa Addresses U.S. Senate Committee To Gain Support For Local Transportation Projects
Los Angeles Times

A Vision Of A Park On A Restored Los Angeles River
New York Times
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9/28/2010

More Westside Subway Meetings, WeHo Pink Line Dreams, Orange Empire Railway Museum, L.A. Bike Plan, DesertXpress Delay, Pedal-Powered Monorail & More

Los Angeles Downtown News

Breakdown: Traveling Dangerously In America (Parts 1-4 of a 20-part joint-investigation series)
The Center For Public Integrity & News21 National
Part 1: A Faulty Safety System: Travel Safety Recommendations Ignored For Years ("Over the past 43 years, the National Transportation Safety Board has issued more than 13,000 recommendations to make travel safer. These recommendations are often delayed or ignored as accidents continue to happen and people continue to die.")
Part 2: The Bush Years: Safety Board Less Aggressive In Last Decade ("The NTSB issued far fewer recommendations during the administration of George W. Bush than at any other time in its history, a News21 analysis shows.")
Part 3: The Most Wanted List ("The NTSB’s “Most Wanted” list is the main way it pushes regulatory agencies, states and industries to adopt safety measures. Most of the time, it works.")
Part 4: Deathly Tired: Agencies, Industry Slow To Recognize Fatigue Problems ("Pilots and drivers who are too tired to do their jobs frequently commit errors that contribute to accidents. The NTSB has issued 320 fatigue-related recommendations since 1967. More than half have never been implemented.")

California Air Board Votes To Cut Traffic And Clean The Air
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Caltrans Calls Hearings For Truck-Only Toll Road ("Caltrans calls it the High Desert Corridor, and the locals call it the new State Route 138.”)
Land Line

StreetsBlog LA
GOOD
First Field Operations Concepts Out For Santa Monica Parks (Includes renderings and potential extension over the proposed freeway cap)
Curbed LA
Orange Empire Railway Museum ("As Southern California reconnects with its rail transit roots, institutions like the L.A. as Subject member Orange Empire Railway Museum are more important than ever.")
L.A. As Subject
"Potholes For Poverty" Wants To Fix Streets, Fill Charity Coffers: Tigard Company Hopes To Ease Neighborhood Frustrations With A Donation ("With a promise to fill potholes in neighborhoods across the region for a donation to any local, regional or national charities.")
Portland Tribune

Record Heat Brings Power Outages, Fire And Light-Rail Delays
Los Angeles Times

Rolling Back Civil Rights: Major MTA Bus Service Cuts Hit Hard In South And Southeast LA
The Strategy Center

Swedes Love Congestion Pricing, Why Don't We?
AltTransport

Tea Party Republicans Want To Snuff Obama's High Speed Rail, Big Rail Might Beat Them To The Kill
AltTransport

USDOT Provides $9.2 Million For Transportation Research (Seven university transportation centers receive grants to study new technologies and develop new approaches to improve transportation systems nationwide)
Progressive Railroading

Video Ads On Public Trains Could Be Sign Of Financial Times
Government Technology

WeHo Commits $64,000 To Lobbying For Subway, Density Is Not Destiny
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9/27/2010

Subway Critics' Faulty Logic, Expo II 2015, Recession & Transit, New LA County Carpool Lanes, CAHSR TOD Conference, Downtown Civic Park & More

10 Freeway Projects Cause Delays For San Gabriel Valley Commuters
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

BART Board To Debate Increasing Revenue With Video Monitors, Train Ads
StreetsBlog SF

Calif. Wants Third Of Its Power Renewable By 2020
Associated Press

Carpool Lanes To Link L.A. And Antelope And Santa Clarita Valleys
Los Angeles Daily News

A Central Park West (Los Angeles' Downtown Civic Park Project. "As a design gesture, the new paths turn ideas about Los Angeles and its role as a global city into an organizing principle, at least abstractly, for the park and how visitors will move through it")
Design Under Sky

Cities For People: A Q&A With Architect Jan Gehl
Fast Company

Disappointed LADOT GM Leaves City For County
CityWatch

Editorial: Slow Start: In L.A., "Shovel-Ready" Projects Have Taken Much Too Long To Implement
Los Angeles Daily News

"Forgiving" Distracted Driving Won't Keep Our Streets Safe
StreetsBlog

Galgiani Named Chair Of High-Speed Rail Committee ("John A. Pérez, speaker of the California State Assembly, announced the formation of a Select Committee on High Speed Rail and named Assemblymember Cathleen Galgiani (D-Livingston) as its chair.")
Merced Sun-Star

High-Speed Rail Conference: Station Motivation (Review of the Urban Land Institute's inaugural California High Speed Rail TOD conference)
StreetsBlog LA

If Transportation Is Such A Smart Investment, Where's The Money? ("Answers fall along two lines: a communication failure and a leadership failure. As Professor Jose Holguin-Veras of Rennsselear Polytechnic Institute puts it, 'transportation is the economy in motion.' Does the public see it that way though?")
Transportation Nation

It's World Car-Free Day, And That Makes Some People Nervous
Grist

L.A. And Hollywood: Turning The Carfree Into Drivers
StreetsBlog LA

LA, Beijing To Exchange Ideas On Solving Traffic
Associated Press

Los Angeles Politicians Who Never Use Buses Wipe Out Eight Metro Bus Lines: "On Backs Of Poor" Say Furious Riders
LA Weekly

More Delays Plague Expo Line: The First Rail System To The Westside In Decades Will Open Later Than Planned And Cover A Shorter - And Still Undetermined - Route
Los Angeles Times

My Car, My Crutch (The car stifles access to inspiration and creativity. "In this sense, the vehicle is not just a prosthetic for a conceptually impaired body, but a reason for its development.")
Planning Pool

Pedestrian-Oriented Broadway Increasingly Shunned By Drivers
New Urban Network

The Perils Of Average Density ("Cities of any density can make better or worse transit choices and achieve significantly different outcomes as a result. But density is still an overwhelming force in determining the possibilities and outcomes of transit, and we can’t begin to make good transit decisions until we understand it.")
Human Transit

Phila. Rail Expert Named To Head Amtrak's High-Speed Unit
Philly.com

Regional Connector Hearings [This] Week
Blog Downtown

Report: Expo Phase II Will Open In 2015
StreetsBlog LA

Safety Is Paramount At DOT ("Already in 2010, we have completed more NTSB safety recommendations than in any of the last five years.")
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog
Analysis: Americans Left At Risk As Transportation Safety Fixes Are Delayed
Washington Post

Skill Up, Party Down: Transition Towns Plan A Gentle Descent From Oil Dependence -- And Have A Blast In The Process ("The Transition Town movement is geared towards building community resilience in the face of a future depleted of fossil fuels. The movement has found a particularly enthusiastic reception in the UK, where Bristol has become the largest city to join the network.")
Yes Magazine

Subway Critics Attacks Based On Faulty Logic
StreetsBlog LA

Two Billion Cars And The Hope Of Zero-Emission Vehicles: Work Progresses On Vehicles And Fuels, But How Do We Change Driving Behavior And Lower Vehicle Miles?
GreenTechMedia

USDOT Notes "Overwhelming" Response To Call For TIGER II Grant Applications
Progressive Railroading

When The Recession Strikes, Little Maneuvering Room For Better Transit
Transport Politic

Where's My Bike Lane? Urban Repair Squad Strikes Again
GOOD
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