Metro Board Wrap, 710 Health Study, Gold Line Extension, Business Investment In HSR, L.A. Bicycle History & More

710 Extension: Residents Attend Final Meeting In South Pasadena -- Residents From South Pasadena And Neighboring Communities Continue To Speak Out Against The Possible Expansion Of The 710 Freeway From Alhambra To Pasadena

South Pasadena Patch

A Brief History Of Bicycles In The Los Angeles Area (Rarely seen archival images and documents dating back to the 1890s from Southern California's libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions illustrate this fascinating story)
L.A. As Subject via KCET SoCal Focus

Broken Railroad Line In Yamada (Illustrates the effect of tsunami on railroad tracks)

New York Times

California Adds Nearly 100,000 Jobs In February: California's Unemployment Rate Fell To 12.2% In February From 12.4% In January

Los Angeles Times

The Case For Business Investment In High-Speed And Intercity Passenger Rail (12p. PDF)
APTA

Gold Line Extension Funds Caught Up In The CRA Deathwatch?

Curbed LA

Inside City Hall: Council Wants Nonpolluting Railyard Project

Long Beach Press-Telegram

Mayor Sees Bright Future Along The Miracle Mile
Park LaBrea News Beverly Press

Metro Board Wrap: Votes For Cleaner Buses, Then Less Buses
StreetsBlog LA

Metro Offers Bus Rides From Union Station To Dodger Stadium

Long Beach Press-Telegram

Metro's Freeway Projects Mean Better Transportation For Everyone

Everything Long Beach

MTA Board OKs Deep Cuts To Service: The Bus Service Cuts, Eliminating Nine Lines And Reducing 11, Are Approved 7 to 6 By The Board Of The Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Critic's Say L.A.'s Low-Income Residents Will Be Hurt The Most

Los Angeles Times

The Nation's Crumbling Infrastructure (audio)

The Diane Rehm Show

New Lanes Open On 118 Freeway

Camarillo Acorn

New Study: Car Ownership Not Essential To Everyday Commute

The City Fix

Latitude Transit Study Results: Part Two

Next American City

Tech For Transit: Designing A Future System (9p. PDF)

Latitude

Opinion: Five Myths About Gas Prices

Washington Post

Reading L.A.: Richard G. Lillard On The Growth Machine And Its Discontents (Next installment in the 2011 architecture and urban planning reading series)

Los Angeles Times

Report: Nevada Needs Better Roads To Grow Economy
Las Vegas Sun

Schools Asked To Support I-710 Freeway Health Study

EGP News

The Secrets To Success For Transit-Oriented Development
StreetsBlog DC
Rails To Real Estate: Development Patterns Along Three New Transit Lines (80p. PDF)
Center For Transit Oriented Development

"Sprawling From Grace: The Consequences Of Suburbanization" (April 20 broadcast)

CNBC

Station Planning Workshops (April-May dates, times and locations scheduled for Claremont, Montclair, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona & Glendora; hosted tours announced)

Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority

A War On Cars? Let There Be Peace!
Planetizen

The Latest Battle In The Nonexistent "War On Cars"

Grist

What To Do About Silverlake's Tunnel Of Trouble (The 1924 pedestrian tunnel under Sunset Boulevard serving Micheltorena Elementary School has fallen on hard times)

Eastsider LA

Why Angelenos Should Start Taking The Bus More Often ("Last December, [Metro] recorded the lowest number of complaints in its history.")
KCET SoCal Focus

Work Zone Operations: Best Practices Guidebook (310p. PDF)
Federal Highway Administration

Gold Line Monrovia Yard, Bergamot Transit Station, L.A.'s 1956 Bus Ads, L.A. Traffic Videos, TransportationCamp West, Jet-Propelled Trains & More

79% Of Travelers Would Use High Speed Rail

California High Speed Rail Blog

The 1,000 MPH Trans-Continental Jet Train That Never Was ("The [1948] idea was to strap five solid-fuel rockets to a train, and basically launch it from New York City to Los Angeles. The trip could be completed in three hours at those speeds, meaning you’d arrive in Los Angeles at the same time you departed New York City. Craziness, right?")

Gas 2.0

Advertising Los Angeles' Bus Service On Television: 1956 Cartoon Commercials & How They Were Made (Metropolitan Coach Lines' animated foray into transit marketing in the early days of primetime TV)

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Bus Riders Will Soon Be Able To Get Arrival-Time Texts On Their Cell Phones, [New York] MTA Says

New York Daily News

City Council Stalls Development Of Bergamot Transit Village: Design Unsatisfactory To Community, Staff, Council

Santa Monica Daily Press

Contraflow Bike Lanes Deemed Acceptable By The U.S. Federal Highway Administration

The City Fix

Five Keys To Successful Retail In Transit-Oriented Development

New Urban Network

Get Real-Time Transit Schedules When You Check In On Foursquare

Mashable

Group Proposes Transportation Projects For Nevada's Economic Recovery

Las Vegas Review-Journal

How To Prepare For A Tsunami, Including Maps Of LA Tsunami Evacutation Routes

Southern California Public Radio

Infographic Video: Watch The Worst Traffic In The Country: Yay, Los Angeles! ("How bad is the horrible traffic? A new video shows 24 hours of the city's soul-crushing gridlock.")

Fast Company Design

Is Removing A Major Road Really A Good Idea?

Infrastructurist

The Latest Battle In The Nonexistent "War On Cars"

Grist

Metro Exposition Line To Begin Testing The Tracks This April

USC Daily Trojan

Monrovia Delays Public Hearing On $40M Land Deal For Gold Line Yard

Pasadena Star-News

New Bay Area Fund Will Loan Money For Affordable Housing Near Rail And Bus Stops: Metropolitan Transportation Commission Puts Up $10 Million Of $50 Million New Fund

San Jose Mercury News

A New Blueprint For Public Life ("Armed with a $100-million gift from alumni Meyer and Renee Luskin -- the second-largest ever received at UCLA -- the School of Public Affairs is building a powerful new resource for reshaping public life in Los Angeles and the country.")

UCLA Magazine

No Warm Hugs For Bergamot Transit Village From Santa Monica Council

Curbed LA

Opinion: Obama's Way Is Not The Highway

Washington Examiner

Pilot Metrolink Service To Make Faster Trip To Downtown Los Angeles: The San Bernardino Line Will Make One Stop To Los Angeles Union Station From The Covina Station

Glendora Patch

Property Owner Sues Monrovia, Redevelopment Agency Over Planned Gold Line Yard

Pasadena Star-News

Residents Raise Accusations Of "Undue Influence" During Bergamot Transit Village Debate: Citing Campaign-Finance Reports, Concerned Residents Accused Council Members Of Receiving Donations Related To The Controversial Project

Santa Monica Patch

Tech Solutions For Transit Emerge At TransportationCamp West

StreetsBlog SF

Want To Get Fit? Add More Buses

Orange County Register

Wave-And-Pay NFC Credit Cards Are Definitely In-Bound

Fast Company

Westside Subway Extension Inching Closer To Reality

USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

WhereIsMyTransport: The Solution To Public Transport Problems?

MemeBurn

Monrovia & Foothill Extension, Expo Line Photos, California Bridges, TOD & Race, LA Bike Plan, Transit Technology & More

$4 Per Gallon Gas: Are We Ready?
Planetizen

California's Bridges Are Crumbling And San Francisco's Are The Worst

Transportation Nation

The Fix We're In For: The State Of California's Bridges (19p.)

Transportation For America

City's Design, Transit System Can Ease Gas Costs
USA Today

Underpass Construction Photo Gallery

Friends 4 Expo

Fuel Prices Expected To Increase Transit Ridership, But School Bus Ridership Is Hurting

School Transportation News

Long Beach Bike Plan Update

StreetsBlog LA

Monrovia To Consider $40 Million Land Deal For Gold Line Foothill Extension

Pasadena Star-News

Northridge South Neighborhood Council Considers Reseda Boulevard Bike Lanes

StreetsBlog LA

Opinion: Art Leahy -- The Changing Dynamic Of Public Transit In LA County

Los Angeles Daily News

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden Wants To Relaunch Popular Build America Bonds Program

Transportation Nation

Privacy Invades Public Space: The Growing Use Of Portable Electronic Technology On Intercity Buses, Trains & Planes Between 2009 & 2010 (22p. PDF)

DePaul University Chaddick Institute For Metropolitan Development

San Bernardino Railroad Days: April 16-17, 2011 (Discusses tours and festivities associated with the 3rd annual event celebrating rail history in San Bernardino County)

Inland Empire

San Bernardino Railroad Days Website

A Scandal In Housing And Cutbacks In LA's Bus Service (audio : "It's been five years since a federal consent decree required Los Angeles' Metro system to reduce fares and provide more buses. Now, Metro's reducing bus service and building trains. We get the latest on LA's ongoing battle over public transit.")

KCRW Which Way LA?

Seismic Retrofit Stalled On Ramps To Queensway Bay Bridge In Long Beach

Los Angeles Times

Senate Dems: GOP Cuts Would Cause Surge In Gas Prices
Huffington Post

Signs Of CSI: Location Leftover (Television crew leaves some New York transit signage in downtown Los Angeles)
View From A Loft

Transit Agencies Rebuffed On Request For More Transit Funds
Wall Street Journal

Transit And Trails (All helps you find Bay Area trips, trailheads, and campgrounds near you as well as the transit options to get there)

Transit-Oriented Development And Communities Of Color: A Field Report

StreetsBlog LA

Transit Team Rents Downtown Digs Near Subway ("The group working on the proposed Westside subway extension and regional connector through downtown Los Angeles has taken 41,628 square feet of office space.")

Los Angeles Times

Two-Wheelin' Ambition In Los Angeles: Bike Plan Reimagines Urban Design For A City Where The Car Is King (includes renderings of plan which could drastically alter the physical environment of Los Angeles and how it is perceived)

Architect's Newspaper

Metro Board Agenda, Expo Line, Redevelopment, Culver City Bikes, Buses & Civil Rights, Research Roundup, Build America First & More

Another Role For Buses In Civil Rights History

New York Times

Australians Have Learned To Drive Less: In Car-Crazy Australia, Soft Measures Are Turning The Tide In The Hard Battle To Reduce The Number Of Basically Empty Cars On The Road
Miller-McCune

Build America Bonds: Back By Popular Demand?

Infrastructurist

Bus Cuts Just One Part Of Packed Metro Board Agenda

StreetsBlog LA

City Livability Rankings, And The Struggle For The Complete City ("Do such rankings have merit? Are the right criteria used? How can they leave out housing affordability? Do they have a bias against larger, denser cities like New York? What is livability anyway, and is it the same as "quality of life"? Does it reflect livability for everyone, or just the well-off? Is it too personal and subjective to be quantifiable or definitive? Should the most livable cities also consider the "best cities" (some media reports seem to use these two terms interchangeably?")

Planetizen

Culver City Backpedals On New Bike/Ped Master Plan, Ballona Creek Bike Path Opens
Biking In LA

Death Watch For Redevelopment
California Planning & Development Report

The End Of The Road: Saying Goodbye To Freeways

NPR

Field Poll: Quality Of Life Plunges In California

San Francisco Chronicle

Finding Ways To Encourage And Increase Private Sector Participation In Passenger Rail Service (6p. PDF)
Hearing Before The U.S. House Committee On Transportation And Infrastructure, Subcommittee On Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

Findings From The Transportation Research Board's 2010 State Partnership Visits Program (11p. PDF)
U.S. Transportation Research Board

Growers Ready To Battle High Speed Rail

KCET SoCal Connected

House Transportation Committee Rejects Obama's 2012 Budget Request

StreetsBlog DC

How Rail Is Evolving And Why Travel Websites Need To Be Ready

Tnooz

Is West L.A. Ready For Its Expo Line?

CityWatch

LA Metro Holds More Meetings On Proposed Westside Subway Extension

Southern California Public Radio

Leahy Or The Freeway, Two Unique Events Tonight

StreetsBlog LA

Northeast Rail, Amtrak Enthusiasts Unite ("Does it make sense to designate the Northeast Corridor as a high-speed rail corridor? How does the label change the merits for a high-speed rail competition? Is this just another iteration of an age-old fight over Amtrak? If Amtrak is able to get federal money, does that change the general understanding of the definition of high-speed rail?")
National Journal Transportation Blog

The NYC-Bike Lane Battle: A Metaphor For U.S. Transportation?

Infrastructurist

Plans For Phoenix-Tucson Rail Service Move Ahead

KTAR

Research Roundup: ARRA Meets Passenger Rail, Overlooked Density & The Use Of Advance Construction

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Tracking Economic Recession And Recovery In America's 100 Largest Metrpolitan Areas

Brookings

Full-Text Report (7p. PDF)

Transit Agencies Seeking Operating Support Meet Politics As Usual
StreetsBlog Network

TransportationCamp: Can Peer-To-Peer Car-Sharing Promote Balanced Mode Choices?

California Streets

Travel From Los Angeles To San Francisco Using Only Local Public Transit (It can be done!)

California Streets

TriMet's Talking Buses: A Review And A Little Drama

Oregonian

Van Nuys Blvd. Busway Eyed
Los Angeles Daily News

A Weekend At Transportation Camp
StreetsBlog LA

Westside Subway Extension Update Expected At Community Meetings

USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

What Can CicLAvia Learn From Sunday Streets
StreetsBlog LA

What Does $1.4 Billion Buy These Days? 18 New Highway Projects

LAist

Metro's FTA Compliance Review, Expo Line Phase 2, HSR & TOD, CicLAvia & More

After 26 Years, Downtown's Belasco Theater Re-Opening (must-see photos)

Curbed LA

America's Cup Could Aid F-Line Streetcars

San Francisco Chronicle

Bus Riders Union Touts FTA "Compliance Review" Of Metro

StreetsBlog LA

CA Bullet Train Agency Hears From 1,100 Companies

Business Week

Can Transit Expansion Produce Sprawl Like Highways Do?

StreetsBlog DC

CicLAvia Returns ("It's an amazing feeling to bike over the 4th Street bridge and to experience the beauty of downtown as it appears magically over the horizon from Boyle Heights. The majesty of the bridge and the enormity of the river finally gives dignity to the crime the Army Corps of Engineers inflicted upon Los Angeles when they concretized this magnificent river and turned it into a flood control channel.")

Huffington Post

CRA Approves Cleantech Site Sale: Local Firm To Buy, Develop 20-Acre Plot

Los Angeles Downtown News

Designing The High-Speed Future ("As California continues to progress with its own high-speed rail plans, one question that we need to address is this: what should transit-oriented development (TOD) around high-speed rail train stations look like in the United States?" Thought-provoking renderings of potential high-speed rail stations)

Next American City

Downtown's Big Fault: While Experts Say A 9.0 Earthquake Is Not Possible, A Smaller, Central Shaker Could Be Devastating

Los Angeles Downtown News

Editorial: A Chance To Build Again (infrastructure bank)

New York Times

Envision Silverlake Design Competition

Sunset Junction Streetscape Design Competition

Expo Line Phase 2 Moves Forward: An Expo Board Approved A Funding Agreement And Design Contract For The Project On Friday Afternoon

Culver City Patch

Expo Line Will Have A Bridge Over Sepulveda Blvd., Union Labor

LA Weekly

Feds Investigate Cuts To MTA Bus Service

KABC-7

Finalists Chosen For NYC's Bike-Share Pilot: City Said To ID Leading Applicants For Experiment That Would Create A New Public Transit Option Here -- Free Access To 10,000 Bikes Parked At 600 Cycle Stations Throughout Manhattan

Crain's New York Business

GOP's Mica: Transit Funding To "Stay About The Same" In Next Federal Bill

Mobilizing The Region

Have A Question For Art Leahy But Can't Make Tuesday's Transit Coalition Meeting? Leave Your Question Here

StreetsBlog LA

High Speed Rail Authority Official Looks At Conventional Right-Of-Way To Get To Los Angeles From Palmdale

California High Speed Rail Blog

I-5 Project To Roil Traffic Through City: Bridge Over Burbank Boulevard Will Be Closed For More Than A Year ($700 million widening project to tie up traffic in Burbank)

Burbank Leader

It's Official: Expo Construction Contract, Aerial Station, And No Westwood Parking Approved By Expo Board

StreetsBlog LA

LADOT Says Homeowners Association Had Right To Take Down Signs

Curbed LA

LAX Connector Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be

KCET SoCal Focus

Light Rail Track Testing ("The Expo Line light rail won’t begin service until the fall, but the track likely will be sporting some vehicles by the end of March. So the message is safety first.")

USC Daily Trojan

Los Angeles' Subway To The Sea In Its Final Planning Miles

TreeHugger

Metro Plans To Cut L.A. Bus Service As Rail Capacity Expands: Changes To Metro's Bus System Come Five Years After A Federal Consent Decree Was Lifted. The Consent Decree Arose From A Settlement Of A Suit Alleging The Transit Agency Violated Civil Rights By Favoring Rail Over Buses

Los Angeles Times

Metro Proposal Would Cut Bus Services, Expand Rail: The Decree, Which Would Take Effect In June, Would Also Reduce Fares

KTLA

MTA #266: From Pasadena To Lakewood

More Than Red Cars

The Next Step In Transportation: Buses As Clean, Green Machines ("At the next [LAC]MTA meeting, we will be voting to ratify a new pilot program to use 30 electric buses on a trial basis.")

Huffington Post

NIMBYism Strikes Buses In Culver City, San Pedro

StreetsBlog LA

Open Source Software Helps An Oregon Transportation Department For GIS, Website Development

Government Technology

Opinion: With Electric Vehicles For Mass Transit, LA Can Step Into The Forefront

Los Angeles Daily News

Orange Cones No More: New Lanes Open On 118

Simi Valley Acorn

Statement On Positive Train Control By William Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association

APTA

Study: Transit Outperforms Green Buildings (It's official, says the EPA. Living in a TOD reduces greenhouse gas emissions more than living in a green, single-family home and driving a Prius)

New Urban Network

Location Efficiency And Housing Type: Boiling It Down To BTUs (17p. PDF)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Survey Of Metropolitan Transportation Infrastructure Needs ("I am seeking your participation in an important survey we are conducting to determine metropolitan transportation infrastructure needs and where Congress and the Obama Administration should prioritize investments in the pending authorization of the federal surface transportation law (SAFETEA-LU).")

United States Conference Of Mayors

Teaching Urban Design ("This year, Parsons The New School for Design is launching the nation’s first undergraduate degree in urban design, which prompted us to ask the program’s director, Victoria Marshall, what exactly is being taught and what exactly it means for the training of a new generation of urbanists with a different relationship to the urban realm than the designers that came before.")
Urban Omnibus

Tubby Americans Throwing Off Safety Of City Buses

USA Today

Westwood Hills Residents Want Sound Wall Next To Los Angeles National Cemetery: Residents Have Submitted A Petition For A Sound Wall To Block Noise From The 405 Freeway Just Feet From Sepulveda Boulevard, Which Runs Along The Cemetery's West Side. A State Transportation Official Says Such A Barrier Is Unlikely

Los Angeles Times

What Affect Does Smog Really Have On Your Children?

Pasadena Star-News