Today's Headlines - more at Metro

4/08/2011

Bienvenido!, National Train Day, Expo Open House, Gold Line Foothill Workshops, 710 & More

16 Jaw Dropping Videos Of Overcrowded Subways
Urlesque

AASHTO Spring Meeting (May 2-6 : Las Vegas)
AASHTO

Amidst Budget Impasse, GOP Tries And Fails To Gut Clean Air Act
StreetsBlog DC

Amtrak Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary On May 7 At Union Station

MMD Newswire
Los Angeles' National Train Day Events
National Train Day

Bienvenido! (Welcome to El Pasajero, Metro's new Spanish language news blog -- the first of its kind at a major public transit agency in the United States -- which launches today)
El Pasajero
More information here in English from Metro's The Source

Caltrain Cuts Postponed
Silicon Valley Mercury News

Cheviot Hills Expo Line Legal Fees
Curbed LA

Cost Of Keeping Vehicles Running On The Rise
Sacramento Business Journal

Denver To Eliminate Diagonal Crossings At Intersections ("A tradition that started 60 years ago in downtown Denver and became commonplace in intersections around the world is about to end in its city of origin.")

Denver Post

Expo Light Rail Line Project Status Update Open House: Downtown & Mid-Corridor (April 28 : 2p. PDF)
Build Expo

Federal Judge Upholds Caltrans Program To Support Minority And Women-Owned Businesses
Caltrans Press Release

Forget The Environment, High-Speed Rail Is Good For Business
Fast Company

Freight Index Reports Shipments Up 6.9 Percent

Journal Of Commerce

Gold Line Foothill Extension Station Planning Workshops Upcoming

StreetsBlog LA

House Votes To Stop EPA From Regulating Greenhouse Gases
Wall Street Journal

How Much High Speed Rail Will $2.4 Billion Buy?
LinkTransportation Nation

How To Play In The Streets At CicLAvia This Sunday

GOOD

L.A. Day / L.A. Night (Essay accompanied by photos from an upcoming book looks at "the heart of the dichotomy between public and private architecture, the pre-eminence of infrastructure, the balance between neighborhood and sprawl.")

Places

Los Angeles Transit Gets A Breath Of Fresh Air ("Why’s a health nonprofit holding a salon series about green transit?")

Southern California Public Radio

Meeting Offers Details On Possible Metro Green Line Extension To Torrance

Daily Breeze

[New York] MTA's Signs Off The Rails ("New screens revealing the wait for an approaching train got high marks when the authority surveyed riders last year. The authority is starting to post some newly designed construction signs that are uniform and provide consistent information.")

MarketWatch

"On The Record" On 710 To 210 Freeway Gap: Residents From El Sereno, Monterey Park And Alhambra Feel Burdened By Traffic And Proposed Solutions

EGP News

Overcoming The Challenges Of Congestion Pricing (webinar series : April 14 & 19)

Federal Highway Administration

Realize The Possibilities Of Improving Transportation Options For All Americans

Partnership For Mobility Management

Residents Voice Freeway Concerns And Provide Alternatives: Residents Of Northeast Los Angeles And The San Gabriel Valley Offered Alternatives To The Proposed 710 Freeway [Extension]

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch

StreetsBlog Challenges Leaders: Ride With Me For Bike To Work Week

StreetsBlog LA

Supervisor Calls Mass Transit Crucial To County's Future: In State Of The County Address, Supervisor Don Knabe Says Transportation Projects Can Mean Jobs And Fu
nds For Southland
Los Angeles Wave

"This Is The Renaissance Of Rail": All Aboard The Mass-Transit Express? Maybe, But Don't Expect A Smooth Ride (an interview with Amtrak CFO D.J. Stadtler)

CFO

TIMS Website Maps Highway Crashes, May Lead To Safer Roads, UC Berkeley Researchers Say

Silicon Valley Mercury News
Transportation Injury Mapping System
UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research And Education Center

Unconventional Wisdom: Integrating Transportation And Energy Policy
The City Fix

USC Research: Freeway Pollutants Cause Brain Damage In Mice

StreetsBlog LA
USC Press Release

Will Mozart Help Prevent Crime? (In Portland, "the regional transit department has approved the playing of classical music in an effort to ward off the kind of crimes that happen when people just hang around. A bill making its way through the Oregon Legislature would expand the program to all light rail stops in Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties deemed high-crime areas by police or residents.")
KATU

Work On I-5 Alters Route For Some Bob Hope Airport Travelers
818 Now

4/07/2011

Wilshire / La Brea Station Plans, Orange Line Bike Path, CicLAvia, 710 Forums, "America Fast Forward," PTC & More

Huffington Post
La Canada Valley Sun
Altadena Patch

La Canada Valley Sun

A Far-Too-Long Rebuttal Of Randall O'Toole On Parking ("
Donald Shoup and Randal O’Toole – they just can’t get enough of each other!")
Market Urbanism

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog
La Canada-Flintridge Patch

Orange Line Extension Bike Path: Suggestion Box Is Open

Los Angeles Times
Green Source

Traffic Calming (video)
StreetsFilms

White House Fears Gas Prices Could Tank Obama
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times

4/06/2011

Mobile Wallets For Transpo, The Palmdale Connection, 7th St. Bike Lanes, BRT, Bus vs. Rail, Intelligent Transpo & More

Curbed LA

Progressive Railroading

New York Times

Grist

A Call To Plan Cities For Tomorrow, While Bracing For Transit Cuts Today
StreetsBlog DC

California Streets

Cell Carriers To Roll Out "Mobile Wallets" In Utah ("A joint venture between three of the nation's four largest cell phone carriers will soon offer the United States' first commercially available mobile fare payment program to a public transportation system.")
Associated Press

The Atlantic
Congress For The New Urbanism

History Repeats Itself In Bus vs. Rail Protests ("History appears to be repeating itself in Los Angeles.")
KCET

Curbed LA

How Far Should Bike And Transit Advocates Take Their Alliance?
StreetsBlog Network

Infrastructure Investment And U.S. Competitiveness ("Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri) have introduced landmark legislation authorizing Uncle Sam to choose six cities to test “intelligent transportation systems.”)
Council On Foreign Relations

Wired

Southern California Public Radio

The Hill

More Than Red Cars

USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

An NFL Stadium In Downtown? 10 Planning Recommendations For AEG, LA (includes several transportation recommendations, including free day passes on Metro and transforming Pico/Flower station into a transit hub)
Curbed LA

California Progress Report

California High Speed Rail Blog

The City Fix

CityWatch

4/05/2011

Expo Line Tests, 710 Conversations, BRT Survey, LA Parking Revenue, LB Transit Mall, The End Of Oil & More


Another Green Piece In South L.A.: First Phase Of Wetlands Open ("The ribbon cutting of the first acre of the South LA wetlands, located in a former MTA rail yard at Avalon and 54th streets.")
KCET SoCal Focus

StreetsBlog SF

A Chat With Joe Linton, Let's Get Excited For CicLAvia (CicLAvia returns this Sunday, April 10)
StreetsBlog LA

City Looking At Other Ways To Bring In Money From Parking Garages ("Los Angeles city officials on Monday began looking at other ways to bring in more money from parking spaces.")
Contra Costa Times

Los Angeles Daily News

USA Today

Treehugger

Dear Urban Cyclists, Go Play In Traffic: From Dublin To Bogota, Bicycles Are Taking Over City Streets. What's Next, Lanes For Hopscotch And Pogo Sticks? (P.J. O'Rourke's take on bicycling: "The reason it took mankind 5,000 years to get the idea for the bicycle is that it was a bad idea. The bicycle is the only method of conveyance worse than feet. You can walk up three flights of stairs carrying one end of a sofa. Try that on a bicycle.")
Wall Street Journal

Long Beach Press-Telegram

Los Angeles Downtown News

New Republic

USC Annenberg South Los Angeles Report

MTA To Finalize Acquisition Of Union Station: Agency To Create Oversight Committee, Master Plan
Los Angeles Business Journal

Oil Will Be Gone In 50 Years: HSBC ("There could be less than 49 years of oil supplies left, even if demand were to remain flat according to HSBC’s senior global economist.")
CNBC

Plans For Mobile Network On London Underground Shelved: Boris Johnson Proposal To Have System In Place For 2012 Olympics Ditched Because Of Funding Issues And Technical Complexity
Guardian (U.K.)

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch

SF Fast Pass Expires As Muni Switches To Clipper (the paper transit pass debuted in 1974 for $11 per month)
San Francisco Chronicle

Station Design And Virtuous Society
Human Transit

Infrastructurist

Santa Monica Dispatch


Victoria Transport Policy Institute

4/04/2011

Expo Testing, DesertXpress, Business Investment in HSR, High-Speed Sports Fans & More

Los Angeles Downtown News

NBC Los Angeles

StreetsBlog LA

Beverly Hills Patch

Niners Nation

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

USA Today

A Commute Too Far (Profiles L.A. Metro employee Brian Boudreau, who travels 174 miles roundtrip every day, "one of 3.4 million Americans who have "extreme" commutes.")
Wall Street Journal

Desert High-Speed Train Draws Detractors ("Opponents of the project worry it will take money from High Desert cities and potentially destroy pristine landscapes and sensitive wildlife.")
Riverside Press-Enterprise

DesertXpress Feels Like Monorail Redux ("Are the high-speed train's representatives truly going to believe that Las Vegans will spend $50 each way to Victorville, then rent a car and drive to Los Angeles?")
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Ventura County Star

New Geography

Build Expo

Los Angeles Times

Curbed LA

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Infrastructure: What's It Going To Take? ("Who needs to make the first move, Congress or the White House? Is it possible to have a conversation about the details of highway, rail, or transit plans when the top-level debate is dominated by spending concerns? What can industry groups do to convince policymakers that they need to do more than just talk?")
National Journal Transportation Blog

San Francisco Examiner

Beverly Hills Courier

Santa Monica Mirror

Beverly Hills Courier

StreetsBlog LA

San Diego Union-Tribune

La Canada Valley Sun

UCLA Daily Bruin

San Francisco Chronicle

Smart Communities Can Strengthen America's Economy ("We have introduced the SMART Technologies for Communities Act. This bipartisan legislation provides communities with the resources necessary to implement intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that will help to reduce congestion, improve safety and improve the air we breathe by reducing air pollution.")
The Hill

South Pasadena Patch

Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Los Angeles Wave

UC Irvine Today

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times