Today's Headlines - more at Metro

4/15/2011

Union Station, Last Train To Long Beach, Downtown Circulators, Gas Prices, CA State Railroad Museum & More

The 13 Best U.S. Cities For Public Transit
Shareable

50 Years Ago This Week: The Story And Photos From The Last Day Of Red Car Service & First Day Of Bus Service To Long Beach
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

2011 Marks Pair Of Anniversaries For CA State Railroad Museum (Sacramento's "three-story, 100,000-square-foot, brick museum...receives more than 500,000 visitors per year.")

Valley Community Newspapers

Agreement Moves Metro Gold Line Project Forward
Pasadena Star-News

America Needs A Six-Year Transportation Blueprint

U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Approvals For L.A.'s Downtown Football Stadium Could Take A Year, Report Says

Los Angeles Times

Bone Bungling At Old Cemetery: Native Americans Get Short Shrift As LA Plaza Downtown Opens Under A Cloud

LA Weekly

California Aims To Improve Predictions For Traffic Jams

Government Technology

Car Sharing Start-Ups Bask In Zipcar's I.P.O. Glow
New York Times

Come Out And Play: Let's Help CicLAvia Become More Friendly To Kids And Walkers

StreetsBlog LA

Gas Prices Could Soon Break July 2008 Record
USA Today

Gov. Brown Signs Law Requiring 33% Of Energy Be Renewable By 2020: The California Law Increases A Previous Mandate Of 20% Renewable Energy. U.S. Energy Secretary Calls The Law A Model For Other States, and An Industry Group Says It Could Create 100,000 Jobs

Los Angeles Times

Highway Funding Is At Risk

Wall Street Journal

L.A. On Bicycles -- "Life Is Good!": Montebello And East Los Angeles Bicyclists Take part In Second CicLAvia

EGP News

Long-Term Strategies Emerge For Caltrain

San Mateo Daily Journal

[D.C.] Metro Hikes Not Keeping People From Riding During Peak Hours ("A new report from Metro shows that ridership hasn't really been affected by the fares implemented last year and that only 3 percent of trips have moved from the busiest times, in the morning and evening.")

WAMU

Metro Takes Ownership Of Union Station ("Coming on board to head up the planning process will be Cal Hollis, who Metro is hiring away from the sinking ship of the Community Redevelopment Agency.")

Blog Downtown

Metrolink Proposes Additional Service In Southern California

Ventura County Star

Moving Beyond The Automobile: Road Diet (video)

StreetFilms

NAACP Calls For Probe Of Highway Stimulus Inequities: Judge Upholds Caltrans Program To Help Minority And Women-Owned Businesses ("The Riverside Branch of the NAACP is asking for
an investigation into what it calls a “systemic pattern of excluding” minority and women-owned businesses from federal highway stimulus projects.")
Black Voice News

New Survey: Americans (Mostly) Prefer Smart Growth To Sprawl
Infrastructurist

Practices In The Development And Deployment Of Downtown Circulators
(123p. PDF)
Transit Cooperative Research Program

Should Inaccessible Employers Subsidize Transit?

Human Transit

University Transportation Centers: Solving Today's Problems, Developing Tomorrow's Transportation Professionals (
"Another terrific benefit of DOT's partnership with universities across America is that while we're helping academic experts deliver real-world solutions to market, we're also developing the next generation of transportation professionals among students. I can't tell you how important that is to the safety and economic competitiveness of future generations of Americans.")
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Westlake Village Marks Start Of $1.6 Million Interchange Project

Ventura County Star

Where Now For HSR Funding?

California High Speed Rail Blog

4/14/2011

Subway Meetings, Budget Cuts & Transpo, Wind & Solar Traffic Lights, White House & Streetcars, Traffic Apps & More

Budget Deal Cuts Into Unused Transport Money: 2011 Intercity Rail Grants Wiped Out; Some Highway Spending Authority Rescinded
Journal Of Commerce

Budget Deal Zeroes Out High-Speed Rail, But Preserves TIGER And Sustainable Communities Funding

Transportation For America

Can Wind And Solar Energy Power Traffic Lights?

Government Technology
Energy Plus Roadways
University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

City Awards Construction Bids, Sponsors Festival ("The council established an agreement between itself and its corresponding redevelopment agency to utilize $59,750 to establish a business improvement district that would finance a shuttle service connecting the Hayden Tract, the Culver City Light Rail Station and downtown.")
Culver City Patch

City Considering New Rules Allowing Communities More Control Over Car Parking Requirements

StreetsBlog LA

Competitive Grant Programs Could Benefit From Increased Performance Focus And Better Documentation Of Key Decisions (60p. PDF)

U.S. Government Accountability Office

Editorial: Don't Extend The 710; Shrink It And Expand Alternatives

StreetsBlog LA

Editorial: L.A.'s Mass Transit Systems Getting More Appealing As Gas Prices Climb

Los Angeles Downtown News

IBM Wants To Improve Your Commute With Traffic Prediction

Time
IBM App Predicts How Your Commute Will Go
Wired

Intercity Passenger Rail: Recording Clearer Reasons For Awards Would Improve Otherwise Good Grantmaking Practices (58p. PDF)

U.S. Government Accountability Office

Los Angeles: The MTA's Bus Stop Strategy ("Given Metro's less than stellar record of bringing in capital projects on budget, and considering its failure to provide for the very large capital renewal and replacement costs of the current rail lines as they age, exactly how does it expect to pay the operating costs of the expanded system it is rushing to construct?")

New Geography

Metro Sets More Subway Advisory Group Meetings

Westwood-Century City Patch

Park, Parking Structure May Have To Co-Exist To Make Way For Gold Line

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Rail Safety Program Dropped In Deal
Congress.org

Rising Gas Prices Force Consumers To Make Choices (the graphs tell the story)
NPR

Traffic Sensors Expected To Help Forecast Backups ("IBM, Caltrans and a UC Berkeley transportation research center [have announced] the collaborative project to help commuters steer around congestion by warning them of anticipated troubles on the road and predicting trip times.")
San Francisco Chronicle

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Taking Public Transit For The First Time? The Community Answers

GOOD

White House Comes Out For Streetcars

Forbes
United Streetcar Putting Americans To Work, Putting America In Position To Win The Future
The White House

4/13/2011

Expo Line, Gold Line, HSR Budget Cuts, Culture Of Public Transit, Bicycling Demographics & More

StreetsBlog LA


Bullet Train Officials Hold Forum For Potential Contractors And Subcontractors: About 1,000 Companies Looking To Take Part In The Massive High-Speed Rail Project Meet At The L.A. Convention Center. Officials Urge Them To Contract Legislators And Tout The Project's Economic Benefits
Los Angeles Times

CicLAvia Brings Safe, Enjoyable Streets To The Masses
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Elimination Of U.S. High-Speed Rail Funds Endangers California's Project ("
In another swift blow to California's $43 billion high-speed rail plan, federal officials Tuesday stripped all proposed funds for the mega-project this year -- casting more doubt on the bullet train line's extension into the Bay Area and Southern California.")
Silicon Valley Mercury News
CityWatch
StreetsBlog DC

House Transportation Committee Members Criticize Obama's Stimulus Grant Selection Process

Progressive Railroading

How To Create A Culture Of Public Transit: The "Marci Option"

The Atlantic

In California, Strategy As Tough As Traffic
("Even when gasoline is not near its peak, California almost always has the highest average gas prices in the continental United States, owing to a combination of high state and local taxes and stringent state fuel regulations. This forces Californians to be more calculating than drivers in other states about where to buy, how to track down cheaper options and whether to spread the word about a particularly cheap station.")

New York Times


IDEA: Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis Programs (24p. PDF : Program Announcement 2011)
U.S. Transportation Research Board

Infrastructure Improvements "Key To Recovery," Report Says
Huffington Post
Building Competitiveness: American Jobs, American Infrastructure, American Global Competitiveness (20p. PDF)
Dartmouth College Tuck School Of Business


Making The Most Of Transit: Density, Employment Growth, And Ridership Around New Stations (41p. PDF)
Public Policy Institute Of California

Santa Monica Daily Mirror
Los Angeles Daily News

Spending Deal Spreads Pain Across Transpo Projects, HSR Gutted ("Obama Administration officials point out that the Department of Transportation still has $2 billion on hand for high-speed rail projects. That means the program isn’t dead, just unfunded for th
is year.")
Transportation Nation

Traffic Efficiency To Be Tackled At City Council Meeting: Dialogue Will Center Around Compliance With The LUCE, And An Expected Increase In Pedestrian And Bicycle Traffic

Santa Monica Patch


StreetsBlog LA

4/12/2011

Metro Day Pass, HSR Budget Battle, High Desert Corridor, CicLAvia, Amtrak Ridership, Gas Prices & More

The 2nd Time Around, CicLAvia Event Is An Even Bigger Draw: Organizers Estimate More People Participated In The Cycling Event Sunday, Which Closed More Than 7 Miles Of Streets Between East Hollywood And Boyle Heights, Than The Estimated 100,000 Who Attended The Same Event In October
Los Angeles Times

Amtrak Says It's On Track For Record Ridership
The Hill


Another Big Jump In L.A. Gas Prices
LA Observed

Bike Bike Revolution! Photos From CicLAvia
LAist

Bill To De-Fund California's High Speed Rail Dies In Committee
Southern California Public Radio

Blight Cures Drain City Coffers (California's redevelopment agencies have almost as much if not more debt than what they pull in from tax revenues, according to this investigation)
Wall Street Journal

Budget Deals $1.5 Billion High-Speed Rail Cut Won't Hurt Current Projects
Bloomberg

California High-Speed Rail's PR Mess

USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

CicLAvia: When It's OK To Play In The Street
(by Antonio Villaraigosa)

StreetsBlog LA


DOT Obligates $300 Million In State Rail Grants
Journal Of Commerce

"Drill Baby Drill" Won't Solve America's Energy Problems

StreetsBlog DC

Food Fight, Anyone? ("What is at risk if the transportation community is seen by Congress as being at war with itself during the creation of a surface transportation bill? How can infrastructure advocates keep the sibling rivalry among transportation modes at bay? Would it be better for the various modes of transportation to accept half a loaf that is evenly divided than to risk getting no loaf at all?")

National Journal Transportation Blog

Gas Price Average Of $3.79 A Gallon Prompts Commuters To Ditch Cars: Have Drivers Finally Thrown In Their Keys? Mass Transit Sees Uptick In Ridership
ABC News

Grabbing A Thin Reed, Republicans Attack DOT Over Stimulus Grant Process

StreetsBlog DC

High-Speed Rail Authority Meeting With 2,000 Business Reps ("About 2,000 representatives of private firms will be gathering Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center to learn about how they can participate in the development and construction of the $42 billion bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles.")

San Diego Union-Tribune

High-Tech Parking Meters Debut As Part Of Pilot Program Downtown

Long Beach Post

Innovative Look At Effects Of Bottlenecks Wins Transportation Research Forum Award
Oregon Transportation Research And Education Consortium

July Charrette To Tackle Future Of Street Design In America
(UC Berkeley charrette will focus on mobility, green infrastructure, urban agriculture, commerce and social gathering)

World Architecture News
Re: Streets

Learning More About Obama's HSR Cuts
California High Speed Rail Blog

Maintenance Of Way: Managing Track-Time

Progressive Railroading

Metro Board To Consider Lowering Cost Of Day Pass

Pasadena Star-News

Mineta Transportation Institute Wins DHS Science & Technology Impact Award (for "taking its academic research to the front lines of the fight against terrorism. DHS recognized MTI for developing and then using its unique database of terrorist and serious criminal attacks against public surface transportation targets since 1970.")
PR Newswire

New Freeway To Link Victorville, Palmdale

ABC Los Angeles
SR-138 High Desert Corridor Project
Caltrans

Obama's High-Speed Rail Project Gets $1.5 Billion Slashed in Budget Deal

Huffington Post

Rising Gas Prices Again Filling Seats On Public Transit

San Diego Union-Tribune

What The Heck Do We Mean By "Resilient Design" Anyway?
New Urban Network

What To Call The Gas Tax: Not Just Semantics ("Calling the gas tax a "user fee" is logically and factually wrong.")

Governing

Why You Should Take The Bus On Your Next Trip: They Have A Reputation Of Being Slow, Unclean, Uncomfortable...But Are They?
MSNBC

Will It Take A Freeway To Bring DesertXpress To LA?
California High Speed Rail Blog

You Can Open Your Eyes Now: Budget Deal Spares Transpo The Worst

StreetsBlog DC

4/11/2011

CicLAvia Recap, Expo Gets Rollin', High Desert Freeway, El Pasajero, Government Budget Shutdown/Compromise, National Library Week & More


All Aboard For A Trip Back In Time (Next weekend's Railroad Days, April 16-17, in San Bernardino)
San Bernardino Sun

Appeals Court Rules Against South Pasadena On 710 Freeway Funding, Further Legal Action Unlikely
Pasadena Star-News

Back To The Future: Metro To Drop Day Pass Prices Back To $5 In July
Southern California Public Radio

Buses Replace Red Cars To Long Beach, April 8, 1961
Los Angeles Times

CicLAvia: Thousands In L.A. Ditch Cars For Bicycles For The Day
Los Angeles Times

CicLAvia II: Bigger And Cooler Than Last Time
StreetsBlog LA

"Creating Our Own Story": How Metro Transportation Library & Archive Has Shared Collections And Information Since 1937

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Expo Line Construction Will Disrupt Blue Line Service ("Service will be cut intermittently between the Washington and Seventh Street/Metro Center stations in downtown
Los Angeles from 8:30p.m. Friday through all Saturday until as late as mid-June.")
Long Beach Press-Telegram

Expo Line Trains Now Moving All By Themselves
Curbed LA

A Federal Funding Primer From Transportation For America
StreetsBlog LA

Gold Line Extension To Montclair And Beyond: Planning Workshops For Stations
Examiner

Government Shutdown Averted In Last-Minute Budget Deal, With Some Cuts To Transportation
Transportation For America

Government Shutdown Would Be A Punch In The Gut To Transit Agencies

StreetsBlog DC

High Desert Freeway May Finally Get Built Between Palmdale And Victorville

Beverly Hills Courier

How A Government Shutdown Would Affect Los Angeles (Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti explains)

KCET

How Smartphones Can Improve Public Transit

Wired

L.A. County Garbage Will Be Riding The Rails, But How Many Haulers Will Buy A Ticket?
Whittier Daily News

L.A.'s Transit Funding Remains Imperiled
USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

Life After The CRA: City Tries To Save $930 Million In Targeted Funds, And Prepares For A Future Without The Agency
Los Angeles Downtown News

Metro Launches Spanish Language Blog, El Pasajero

KCET

Midwest Competing With California For High-Speed Rail Funds
Los Angeles Times

MTA Tries To Reach Latino Riders With Spanish-Language Blog
Los Angeles Times

The New Congress Makes Its Claim On The Budget

Transport Politic

Opinion: HOT Lanes Are Not A Solution To Traffic Woes
USC Daily Trojan

Pico Rivera Backs Bills Seeking Changes To High Speed Rail Authority
Whittier Daily News

Proposed Downtown Stadium Could Require County As Well As City Approval: In A Political Twist Few Officials Appear To Have Anticipated, The Proposed Downtown National Football League Stadium Could Require An Approval From The Los Angeles County Board Of Supervisors, Not Just Officials At City Hall
Los Angeles Times

Recent Study Finds Alarming Asthma Rates Near Southern California Ports
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Shutdown Plans: Department Of Transportation Operations During A Lapse In Annual Appropriations Plans By Operating Administration

(How would the DOT function during a government shutdown? This 33p. document explains)

Washington Post

Silence Pleases As Quiet Cars Prove A Success On T Trains
Boston Globe

Sustainable Transport Symposium: European Cities Take The Spotlight

The City Fix

Tell Us your 4.10.2011 CicLAvia Stories!
CicLAvia

Topanga Man Charged In $7M Ponzi Scheme Targeting Retired Transit Employees ("which targeted retirees, many of whom had been employed as transit operators by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.")
Los Angeles Daily News

Transit And Rail Likely To Take A Hit In Budget Compromise
StreetsBlog Network

Using Ciclovia To Plan Your Streets

Project For Public Spaces


Video: Expo Line Is Powered On!
LAist

Whittier Reaffirms Support For Gold Line Extension
Los Angeles Wave

Wilshire Blvd. Near I-405 To Be Reduced By One Lane In Each Direction For One Year

UCLA Be A Green Commuter!