Century City Subway, Wearable Transit Cards, Bike Sharing, ExpressPark, Bus Benches & More

Accessorize With London's Fashionable New Oyster Card ("Knowing that your transit card is on your finger or around your wrist, you’ll never fumble to find your card again." Check out the photos!)

The City Fix

After Air War, Lawmakers Hit The Road ("The Republican congressman at the center of the partisan dispute that shut down parts of the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday he was prepared to clash again with Senate Democrats, this time over a major highway bill that must be passed next month to avoid a disruption in federal infrastructure funding.")

Wall Street Journal

Bike Sharing Can Save Lives

KCET

California High Speed Rail Project To Cost More Than Expected

The Atlantic

California HSR: Where Now?

Pedestrian Observations

California Seizure Of $1.7 Billion In Redevelopment Funds Blocked By Court

Bloomberg

Constellation Station On Track With The Facts

CityWatch

Could California Local Speeds Be Lowered?

Land Line

Council Signals Support For Further Study For Railroad Crossing Project (Alameda Corridor-East)

Walnut Patch

Distracted Driving: What Research Shows And What States Can Do (50p. PDF)
Governors Highway Safety Administration

Editorial: Train Price Tag Racing Up At High Speed

Orange County Register

ExpressPark Contract Heads To Council With Questions About Technology

Blog Downtown

Finally Some Movement On A Rail Connection To LAX

Curbed LA

Gardena Bus Route Changes To Take Effect On Sept. 4

Daily Breeze

Group Pushes To Make Alhambra More Bike Friendly

Pasadena Star-News

Infrastructure Stimulus Spending Idea Returns: Building America's Future Proposes $200 Billion Annually

San Diego Union-Tribune

It's Official: Congress' Next Spitting Contest Will Be Over The Gas Tax
StreetsBlog DC

McLean Asks For Rail Dollars To Be Kept In California

Santa Clarita Valley Signal

More Bad News On "Train To Nowhere"

Daily Breeze

Obama: Tell Congress To "Get Past Differences And Send Me" Highway Bill

The Hill

Public Gets First Look At Detailed Concepts For BART's Fleet Of The Future

BART

Rebuilding America (audio : Maureen McAvey, ULI Executive Vice President For The Initiatives Group, appeared on NPR's Diane Rehm Show this week to discuss the need for greater investment in U.S. infrastructure. She explains why these investments must be made to keep America's cities competitive with those in Asia and Europe)

The Diane Rehm Show

Rethinking LA's Future ("Much of the traffic through the Sepulveda Pass moves underground in a series of tubes that accommodate both high-speed rail and 'personal rapid transit modules,' while a monorail operates above.")

Palisadian-Post

Sen. Harry Reid Urges California Not To Abandon High Speed Rail

San Francisco Chronicle

Slideshow: Imagine Your Los Angeles Street Beyond Cars (photo essay fro the A+D Museum exhibit)

GOOD

The Social Subway: Dan Stessel, WMATA's Twitter Guru, Wants To Make Washington Fall Back In Love With The Metro

Washington City Paper

A Star Is Worn (But Help Is On The Way)

Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

State Of The City

Beverly Hills Weekly

Statewide Transit Goal Setting (18p. PDF)
National Cooperative Highway Research Program

[California] Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Redevelopment Case, Issues Stay Of Payments

California Planning & Development Report

This Bus Bench Doesn't Sit Here Anymore: L.A. Officials Say The Company That Provides And Manages Roughly 6,000 Bus Benches Around The City Began Removing Them Last Week Because It Was Not Awarded A New Contract

Los Angeles Times

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

Removing L.A. Sidewalks, LA Bike Plan, LA Bike Share, CAHSR, Gas Tax, Intelligent Transportation Systems & More

Absent A Transportation Bill, DOT Can Innovate All On Its Own
StreetsBlog DC

Activists Applaud City Hall's Bike Plan

Santa Monica Daily Press

Bike Progress: No Way, No How ("Finally, what LA cyclists have been waiting for: The impenetrable maze that is the City of LA’s Bike Plan Impedimentation Flow Chart!")

Bikeside LA

The Contrapuntal Sounds Of Gridlock

New York Times

The Cost Of Doing Nothing Is At Least $100 Billion

California High Speed Rail Blog

Does LA Need A Bike Share Program?

KCET

Fixing The Transportation Program: What The DOT Can Do Right Now

Natural Resources Defense Council

Federal Actions To Reduce Energy Use In Transportation (12p. PDF)

High Street Consulting Group; Natural Resources Defense Council

Gas-Tax Issue Could Be The Next Political Fight
The Hill

HopStop Offers Carbon Emissions Calculator With Transit Directions

Transportation Nation

L.A. Council Votes To Shift $97 Million In Redevelopment Funds

Los Angeles Times

Movin' On Up To Incomplete Streets: "Ultimate Traffic Relief" Through The 1946 Elevated Sidewalks Proposal For Los Angeles

Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Opinion: Develop Public Transportation, Help Economic Recovery (The Reply) ("In fact, while rebuilding a rapid transit infrastructure in Los Angeles is no easy task, we’ve already begun. 30/10 is an exciting initiative because its focus is accelerating that effort." Response to this opinion piece from Monday)

Los Angeles Times

A Plan To Save U.S. Infrastructure That Might Actually Work

Infrastructurist

Problems Continue For China In Aftermath Of Deadly Rail Crash ("As if the rail sector’s problems weren’t enough, some worry that the safety failures suffered by the high-speed lines might indicate problems with the nuclear sector.")
Infrastructurist

Report Indicates Intelligent Transportation Industry Has Grown To $48 Billion In Spite Of Economy, Projected To Expand Through 2015

Intelligent Transportation Society Of America Press Release

Sizing The U.S. And North American Intelligent Transportation Systems Market: Market Data Analysis Of ITS Revenues And Employment (136p. PDF)

Intelligent Transportation Society Of America

Rethinking LA Means "Moving Beyond Cars" This Thursday

LAist

Rethinking The Streetspace: What's Next? (Two years ago, several cities developed new street standards. Revisiting the same cities today, they discovered significant advances in street planning, and some new challenges as well)

Planetizen

This Pod Drives Itself: The Latest In Personal Transit Comes With No Conductor

GOOD

Transit Secrets: Learning From Hong Kong (Public transit is expensive, and most transit agencies don't make money. But Hong Kong's MTR is different. It is so profitable, "it's listed on the stock exchange, although the government still owns a majority share.")

Citiwire

Transportation Spending Is The Right Stimulus: China And Brazil Are Surpassing Us With State-Of-The-Art Ports And Roads (may require subscription)

Wall Street Journal

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

Alameda Corridor-East, CAHSR Draft EIR/S, 710 Tunnel, Rail/Transit Ballot Initiatives, TOD & MoreFarmers Field,

After City Approval, What's Next For Farmers Field? ("Transportation impacts have been the biggest source of public debate for the stadium, despite AEG's insistance that Sunday traffic around Downtown—the time when most NFL home games would be played—is light and manageable. Downtowners should be interested to see if the EIR might include money for the L.A. Streetcar project as part of its traffic mitigations.")

Blog Downtown

Alex Steffen: We Can't Avert Climate Change Without Dense Cities

StreetsBlog DC

America's Trains Are A Link To The Past, Europe's Connect To The Future

California Voices

Calif. Campus Tries To Grow Non-Vehicle Transportation Usage (UC Irvine)

Metro Magazine

California High-Speed Rail Authority Secures Remaining Recovery Act Funds: Federal Commitment To California's High-Speed Rail Project Captures More Than $100 Million

California High-Speed Rail Authority Press Release

California High-Speed Rail Project Advances Toward Construction: Authority Releases Milestone Draft Environmental Impact Statements/Reports For Central Valley

California High Speed Rail Authority Press Release

Draft Environmental Impact Report / Statement: Merced To Fresno (webpage links to numerous sections, technical appendices and alignment plans)

California High Speed Rail Authority

Draft Environmental Impact Report / Statement: Fresno To Bakersfield ((webpage links to numerous sections, technical appendices and alignment plans)

California High Speed Rail Authority

Council Seeking Public Input On Railroad Grade Separation Project: The Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority Will Give A Presentation Wednesday Night To The City Council On A Propposed Railroad Flyover Project At Fairway Drive And Valley Boulevard

Walnut Patch

Ensuring Economic Prosperity For The Future By Investing In Transportation

Transportation For America

First Fuel-Efficiency And Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Standards For Trucks Announced: President Obama And Truck Makers Reach Agreement On Fuel Economy And Pollution Standards For Big Rigs, Work Trucks And Other Heavy-Duty Vehicles

Los Angeles Times

Gaps In 710 Tunnel Arguments

StreetsBlog LA

How South Pasadena Fought And Won Its Battle To Survive Against Caltrans And Metro

Beverly Hills Courier

Inland Car Pool And Rail Projects Could Proceed

Riverside Press-Enterprise

Lawmakers Question Jump In High-Speed Rail Costs

Silicon Valley Mercury News

Legal LA River Kayaking Has Begun In The Valley

Curbed LA

Leiweke Hopes To Break Ground On Stadium By June: With Council Approval, Football Project Moves To Designs And Sacramento Deal-Making

Los Angeles Downtown News

Mineta Transportation Institute Report: Success Of Ballot Initiatives With Substantial Rail Transit Component

Sacramento Bee

Revisiting Factors Associated With The Success Of Ballot Initiatives With A Substantial Rail Transit Component (134p. PDF)

Mineta Transportation Institute

My Garden: Pasadena Transformed ("Originally purchased by Caltrans for building a freeway, the property had become a weed-covered abandonned lot. In 2003, the City of Pasadena and Caltrans began to think about a new way develop the lot. Betty McKenney suggested a garden and eventually, the city and Caltrans agreed.")

Garden Design

Pedestrian Infrastructure Essential To Safer Roads Worldwide

The City Fix

Planning For TOD At The Regional Scale (28p. PDF : "Building successful TOD requires thinking beyond the individual station and understanding the role each neighborhood and station area plays in the regional network of transit-oriented places. It also requires an understanding of the real estate market,major employment centers, and travel patterns in the region. Regional planning for successful TOD projects is really about the coordination of existing plans for growth, transit, housing and jobs, as well as programs and policies at all levels of government.")

Reconnecting America

Reports Detail High-Speed Rail's [San Joaquin] Valley Impact

Fresno Bee

Who Else Wants To See A Terrifying Map Of Pedestrian Deaths In Los Angeles?

LAist

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

Metro Passes, Wilshire 405 "Rampture", LA Bike Share, CAHSR, Culver City Expo, Infrastructure Falling Apart,

The Best Of #ThingsNotToDoOnPublicTransportation (What happens when public transit advice starts trending on Twitter?)
Transportation Nation

A Breath Of Life For Metropolis: Re-Imagined South Park Mega-Project Gains Momentum From Big Downtown Deals
Los Angeles Downtown News

Culver City And Expo Authority Reach Agreement, Station Plan Moves Forward
StreetsBlog LA

Culver City Expo Stop Will Get Improvements, Already Has Street Art
Curbed LA

Examining Pedestrian Safety In Highland Park: How Safe Are Highland Park's Streets For Pedestrians? A Recent Data Map By A National Advocacy Group Provides Some Answers

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch

The Heart Of U.S. Economic Decline: Our Inability To Raise The Gas Tax
Infrastructurist

How Local Politics Shape Federal Policy: Business, Power, And The Environment In Twentieth-Century Los Angeles
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Infrastructure Spending Can Pay For Itself

National Review

Jerry Brown Has A Way Out Of High-Speed Rail Mess
Sacramento Bee

Low-Emissions Program At Port Of Long Beach Could Be A Model

Long Beach Press-Telegram

Meet The Rampture: 3 Month Closures For Wilshire Blvd. 405 Ramps
Curbed LA

Metro Introduces More User-Friendly Day, Week And Monthly Passes

Southern California Public Radio

Opinion: More Freeways Won't End L.A.'s Traffic Woes: Use Transportation Money To Promote Alternatives To More Highways
Los Angeles Times

"Rampture" Looms: Three-Month Closure Of Wilshire Ramps to 405 Freeway Will Mean "Carmageddon" For L.A. (Really This Time)
LA Weekly

A Really Long Goodbye To Wilshire Ramps
Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

Report: Get Out Of The Highway-Obsessed Eisenhower Era

StreetsBlog DC

Falling Apart And Falling Behind: Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011 (48p. PDF)

Building America's Future

Executive Summary (4p. PDF)

Press Release (2p. PDF)

Fact Sheet (3p. PDF)

The Role Of Labor In Transportation ("What are other examples of how labor impacts transportation and infrastructure? How effective are labor unions in influencing the transportation debate? Are there anti-union forces that also impact the conversation? What can be done to avoid controversial labor issues stalling otherwise bipartisan transportation legislation?")

National Journal Transportation Experts Blog

Three Years Later: Is L.A. Ready For Bike Share?
StreetsBlog LA

Transit Enterprise Architecture And Planning Framework (150 p. PDF : "The declining costs of communications, data storage, and data retrieval are accelerating the opportunities spawned by the Internet and other information and communications technologies. Choosing and sequencing investments in technologies, processes, and people to reduce costs and increase productivity present challenges to the transit manager, who must weigh the costs, benefits, and risks of changing the ways services are delivered.")
U.S. Transit Cooperative Research Program

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.

710 Shutdown, Union Station, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Sunset Boulevard, HSR & More

710 Freeway From Bell To Downey To Shut For 10 Weekends

KABC-7

Bus Rapid Transit: Two Kinds Of Flexibility

Human Transit

City Of Beverly Hills Ignores School District Defense, Wants BHUSD Tunnel Information

Beverly Hills Courier

Culver City Walks, Not Runs, Towards Transportation Sustainability

StreetsBlog LA

Debt Downgrade Doesn't Change Overall HSR Funding Situation

California High Speed Rail Blog

"Deplorable" Comments From Bullet Train Official Enrage Farmers ("The County of Kings Board of Supervisors sent a tough 21-page letter to the Federal Railroad Administration. The supervisors accused the state rail authority of ignoring local concerns – and violating environmental laws – in plotting the bullet train’s route.")

California Watch

The Designerati Picture LA's Future At The A+D Museum

Curbed LA

Does Car Sharing Really Reduce Vehicle Ownership?

Shareable

The Impact Of Carsharing On Household Vehicle Ownership (6p. PDF)

Access: University Of California Transportation Center

Have We Seen The Last Of The Federal Gas Tax?

Infrastructurist

Legal Aspects Relevant To Outsourcing Transit Functions Not Traditionally Outsourced (27p. PDF)

FTA Transit Cooperative Research Program

Little Freeway Network "Metropolis II" On Its Way Into BCAM

Curbed LA

Metro OKs Palmdale Stop For Rail Route

Los Angeles Daily News

Metro Wants Fast Train To Go Through Antelope Valley, Hit Palmdale

Curbed LA

A Monorail On The Sunset Strip And Other Visions Of LA's Future ("Rethink/LA: Perspectives on a Future City exhibit at the A+D Museum. The exhibit most prominently features 20 photographs of present day Los Angeles, juxtaposed with 20 collages of a future LA. Collages showcased the icons, infrastructure, boulevards, freeways, urban environments, and suburban environments of Southern California.")

Curbed LA

Norwalk And Whittier Clash Over Bus Route Cutbacks

Los Cerritos News

Opinion: On The Right Track: Beverly Hills Merchants Should Know Other Cities' High-End Retail Centers Have Benefitted From Subway Access

Los Angeles Business Journal

Opinion: Opportunity At Union Station

Los Angeles Downtown News

Opinion: The Dutch Way: Bicycles And Fresh Bread (Linking American individualism to transportation planning, author Russell Shorto claims that "the willingness of Europeans to follow top-down social planning" makes public transit and bicycling more feasible in European cities than they are in the States where people don't always agree with technocrats)

New York Times

Opinion: Transit Will Keep LA Competitive (Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa)

Los Angeles Daily News

SanBAG Names Interim Executive Director, McCallon Takes On Duties As Board President

Redlands Daily Facts

Santa Clarita Reacts To Palmdale High-Speed Rail Push

KHTS

Steering A New Course, Metrolink Chief Gets The Railroad Back On Track: When John E. Fenton Took Over Metrolink In April 2010, Millions Of Dollars In Inventory Was Unaccounted For, Ridership Was Dropping And Morale Was Low. The Turnaround Has Been Dramatic

Los Angeles Times

Swap Street Parking For Bike Lanes, Comittee Says: The City's Bicycle Task Force Issued Initial Proposals Last Week To Make West Hollywood More Bike-Friendly. Removal Of Street Parking Along Much Of Santa Monica Boulevard Is Likely To Be The Most Controversial

West Hollywood Patch

Transit And A Shrinking U.S. Government

Human Transit

Turning Transportation Infrastructure Into A Publicly Traded Asset

CityBiz Real Estate

Two Light Rail Extensions For Salt Lake, With More On The Way

Transport Politic

The Value Of Value Pricing: Less Traffic, Less Pollution, More Fuel And Time Saved

Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

Warsaw -- My Next Stop On The Wilshire Subway Extension ("My hoped for subway construction and more will happen in LA eventually. But if we want the projects to benefit us all before the economy, air, and public take another hit, the time to build is now.")

Urban Times

Well, Duh: Census Analysis Reveals The Majority Of L.A. Commuters Are Drivers

LAist

What are transportation community leaders around the nation tweeting about today? Check out the Metro Library Twitter Daily, our online digest in newspaper format updated every day.