Today's Headlines - more at Metro

4/01/2011

TAP, 710 Court Ruling, America Fast Forward, DesertXpress FEIS, Subway Wi-Fi, Bad Bridges & More


Caltrans Press Release

The City Fix

Beverly Hills Weekly

Planetizen

Pasadena Star-News

AltTransport

Westwood-Century City Patch

DesertXpress: Las Vegas To Victorville (Final Environmental Impact Statement now available)
Federal Railroad Administration

U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

StreetsBlog LA

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

Associated Press

Argonaut

CityWatch

Los Angeles Times

International Business Times

Mayor Villaraigosa And "America Fast Forward" (audio)
KCRW Which Way LA?

The Source

Ventura County Star

Transportation Nation

Los Angeles Times

Pasadena Star-News

Reading L.A.: Robert Fogelson Examines A City "Hooked On Growth" ("Fogelson provides probably the best chapters ever written on the rise and fall of the city’s "interurban," or electric streetcar, networks. Those chapters also turn out to be a study -- since the streetcars were privately owned -- of the relationship in L.A.'s early years between mass transit and speculative real-estate development. Fogelson counts L.A.'s failure to take over those rail networks in the 1920s, as they began to lose money with the rise of the car, as one of the city's most historic missed opportunities.")
Los Angeles Times

Planning Report

Federal Computer Week

South Pasadena Officials Tasked With Closing A Near $700,000 Budget [Shortfall] For Next Year ("Staff was instructed to look into the efficiency of the Gold Link, a shuttle bus that drops people off at South Pasadena's Gold Line station.")
Pasadena Star-News

Next American City

LA Weekly

Daily Breeze

Transit Acceleration Campaign Goes National ("If it were constrained to voter-approved funding streams like Los Angeles's Measure R it could well usher in a new era of these measures, in which most voters could vote up or down on a set of plans knowing that if passed, all of them would be built and running in just ten years, soon enough to affect most voters' lives.")
Human Transit

StreetsBlog DC

What Rodeo Drive Looked Like In 1925 & More Hidden Treasures Of SoCal's Archives ("We asked the members of L.A. as Subject to dig through their collections and select one item that helps Southern Californians understand our region's heritage from diverse points of view." Metro Transportation Library & Archive shares the story of a rare map from the 1920s)
LA As Subject via KCET

PC Magazine

3/31/2011

Westside Subway, Green Line Meetings, America Fast Forward, Wilshire Grand, HSR Noise, State Of Bridges, Sustainable Terminals & More

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Alternative Approaches To Funding Highways (38p. PDF)
Congressional Budget Office

AFL-CIO Now
Angelenos And AngeleƱos In The Age Of The Korean Taco ("With all of the demographic changes that have occurred in Los Angeles since, a discussion of the city’s evolving identity today seemed in order.")
Southern California Public Radio

Breakthrough For Villaraigosa's Transit Funding Proposal ("Now he’s got support from the powerful Republican chair of the House Transportation committee, John Mica of Florida...the heads of the AFL/CIO and of the US Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, said they're also on board.")
Southern California Public Radio

Central Valley Business Times

Congress Looking At High-Tech Solutions To Nation's Infrastructure Woes
StreetsBlog DC

The Fix We're In For: The State Of Our Nation's Bridges (24p. PDF : includes the full battery of data, including the worst 100 counties and the busiest two structurally-deficient bridges in each state)
Transportation For America
National Report And Interactive Map Shows The State Of Our Nation's Bridges
Transportation For America

Forty Transportation Experts, One Message ("The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee just spent two days listening to 40 experts from different aspects of the transportation sector and advocacy community, from engineers to environmentalists to the Tea Party...Their ideas were widely divergent on many points, but on one, they found unity: This should not be a smaller bill than the one that came before it.")
StreetsBlog DC

Gilroy Patch

Progressive Railroading

International Technology Scanning Program; Federal Highway Administration

L.A. City Council OKs Elaborate Digital Light Zone At Wilshire Grand
Los Angeles Times
Wilshire Grand Development Website (includes walk-through, fly-through and lighting video simulations as well as transit-oriented development, public transportation improvements)
Wilshire And Grand Development

Long Beach Post

Measure M: 192 Miles Of Freeway Lanes, Metrolink ("The half-cent sales tax that forced Orange County residents spend a little more over the last 20 years expires Thursday after adding nearly 200 freeway lane miles and bringing Metrolink service in the county. But its offspring – Measure M 2 – immediately kicks in.")
Orange County Register

Supervisor Don Knabe, County Of Los Angeles, Fourth District


NTSB Chief: Technology Could Prevent Bus Accidents ("National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said her five-year-old minivan has more advanced safety technology than many large buses.")
Associated Press

StreetsBlog Network

Obama Issues Veto Threat Over Union Measure In FAA Bill ("The revised rule allows workers at companies covered by the Railway Labor Act to form unions if a majority of them vote to unionize.")
The Hill

Los Angeles Times
Reuters

USA Today
USA Today

Parking Aplenty For Train ("SANBAG held a grand opening on Wednesday of a 113,850-square-foot parking facility meant to service [San Bernardino] Metrolink commuters.")
Long Beach Press-Telegram
Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Strange Bedfellows Unite For Infrastructure Investment, Financing Tools (Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Senator Barbara Boxer find support in unlikely allies)
StreetsBlog DC

3/30/2011

America Fast Forward, Westside Subway, Metro Day Pass, LA's Model Streets, Bergamot Station, Congestion Pricing, Top Websites & More


Aligning Historic Preservation And Sustainable Design

Politico

Bergamot Station Village Has Deep History ("As the Metro Transit Authority pushes forward its plans to bring the new Exposition Line into the city and identified the Bergamot Station area as the first stop for inbound passengers, it seemed as if the perfect storm arrived to finally make use of the former Paper Mate site to be redeveloped.")
Santa Monica Mirror

Orange County Register

Transportation Nation
Roadify ("Bringing Community To Commuting")

Huffington Post

Odd Couple Talk Infrastructure, Round Two ("Mayor Villaraigosa, Congressional leaders and stakeholders to discuss expanding innovative transportation financing tools in the next transportation bill. America Fast Forward Initiative calls for TIFIA Expansion to create nearly one million jobs nationwide.")
Time

Los Angeles Times

Ventura County Star

Los Angeles Daily News

Torrance Transit Now On Google Maps
Daily Breeze

Transport 2050: The European Commission Transforms Transportation
The City Fix
White Paper: Roadmap To A Single European Transport Area -- Towards A Competitive And Resource Efficient Transport System (31p. PDF)
European Union
Summary Of The Impact Statement (9p. PDF)
Roadmap To A Single European Transport Area: Facts And Figures

Top 10 Websites: 2011 ("Our annual list of the 10 best planning, design, and development websites represents some of the top online resources for news, information and research on the built environment.")
Planetizen

Transportation Development Foundation

American Road & Transportation Builders Association

3/29/2011

710, Union Station As Destination, Our Past Revealed, Sustainability In Transportation, DesertXpress, Buses vs. Rail, Gas Prices, Canadian Oil & More

Los Angeles Daily News

Area Transit Agencies Are Going The Wrong Way On A One-Way Track
San Francisco Examiner

As Canadian Oil Moves South, Americans Push Back (Proposed trucking corridors and pipelines)
NPR

BMW Launches "DriveNow" Car-Sharing System In Munich ("The fact that every account is linked to a driver's license will presumably deter theft and vandalism.")
GOOD

U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog
The Hill

U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

NBC Los Angeles

Los Angeles Daily News

Culver City News

PR Log
USC Construction Management Symposium 17th Annual Sustainability In Transportation (April 21 : JW Marriott at LA Live : "As head of one of the largest transportation systems in the world, CEO Art Leahy of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority...is being honored for his dedication to the development of public transportation, as well as his commitment to the exploration of new and innovative transportation solutions.")

Ideas For Downtown L.A.: Make Union Station A Destination (Not Just A Transfer Point)
Brigham Yen

Progressive Railroading

Mapping Bicycle Mode Share Where You Live
StreetsBlog DC

Metrolink Service To Angels Games ("The train takes you to the stadium's parking lot so you're just a short walk away.")
Metrolink

Michigan State University News

Transportation For America

New Viaduct For Red Car Line (image and story of Pacific Electric Red Car crossing Pico Boulevard viaduct in 1927)
Los Angeles Times

Our Past Revealed: Southern California Transportation History Comes Alive Through Images And Stories Found In Local Archives, Libraries & Museums
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Washington Post

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Los Angeles Business Journal

Alhambra Source

Street Signs (A new aesthetic is arriving on LA street corners. Bright, perky blue -- like you might see in a small town in Middle America.")
LA Observed via KCRW

Why Doesn't Hope Go Through? LA's State Normal School And Its Impact On Today's Streets (How downtown orange groves and UCLA's predecessor played a role in our downtown grid)
Blog Downtown

3/28/2011

L.A. Model Streets Manual, Foothill Extension RFP, DesertXpress, Freeways, Figueroa Lights, TOD, "ObamaRail," & More

Green LA Girl

Asian Journal

Arcadia Patch

AltTransport

California AG Condemns Environmental Plan ("Kamala D. Harris issued a statement critical of the Santa Clarita Valley Area Environmental Impact Report. The report is needed to assess the potential effects of proposed population growth in the valley.")
Epoch Times

StreetsBlog DC

Human Transit

The Hill

Sacramento Bee

KCET

California High Speed Rail Blog

Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

Toll Roads News

Google Sets Role In Mobile Payment ("potentially eliminating the need to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards and transit passes.")
Wall Street Journal

Riverside Press-Enterprise

Fresno Bee

Grist

L.A. Bus Commercials (1956) (Article and comments provide additional information regarding those involved in ERA Productions' animated advertisements for Los Angeles' Metropolitan Coach Lines)
Cartoon Brew

Reason

Los Angeles Downtown News

Miller-McCune

Mission Local

KCET

A New Model Streets Manual To Rewrite Los Angeles' "DNA" ("Guidelines to support improved safety, livability and active transportation options...cities can use it, adopt it, steal it, and plagiarize it.")
Project For Public Spaces
Model Streets Manual On Its Way: Move Over Old Traffic Handbook (Describes the 12 chapters covering street design elements)
StreetsBlog LA

StreetsBlog Network

Pricing And "The Poor" ("Is congestion pricing -- charging more to use a facility when it's in high demand, in order to decongest that facility -- an unacceptable burden on the poor?")
Human Transit

Long Beach Post

StreetsBlog LA

Victoria Transport Policy Institute

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

(Street) Signs Of The Times ("Have you noticed the new Los Angeles City street signs lately?" They are evolving once again)
Militant Angeleno

A Transportation History Lesson ("Two articles this week highlighted some of our transportation roots, both locally and nationally.")
StreetsBlog LA

Unsprawl Case Study (How did this Town Square, a mixed-use transit-oriented development built during the 2007 housing and financial crisis, become a raging success?)
Terrain

Daily Markets

StreetsBlog DC