Today's Headlines - more at Metro

3/13/2012

Sunday Marathon Street Closures, America Fast Forward, Gas Prices, Transit Use Soars, Bergamot Station, WeHo Bike Lanes & More

10.4 Billion Trips Taken On U.S. Public Transportation In 2011: Second Highest Annual Ridership Since 1957
APTA Press Release

Chaos Reigns As Cities Try To Cope With Demise Of Redevelopment
Whittier Daily News

The Death Row Of Urban Highways, Part 3
The Atlantic: Cities

Don't Count Out HR 7 Yet: House GOP Could Revive Their Bill This Week
StreetsBlog DC

Feds Hand Out $25 Million For Transit Planning
Transportation Nation

Fixing It: Infrastructure And The Economy (21p. PDF)
National Association Of Counties

Gasoline And Diesel Prices Continue Rising ("In the last week, the average price of a gallon of regular gas increases 1.8 cents in California and 3.6 cents nationwide. The average for diesel is up 2.9 cents in the state and nationwide.")
Los Angeles Times

Here Are The Scheduled Closures For The 405 Freeway This Week
LAist

Here's Mayoral Candidate Wendy Greuel On Planning In LA
Curbed LA

How To Get A Film Permit To Shut Down Bike Lanes
Curbed LA

Is There A Smart Way For Cities To Privatize Parking?
The Atlantic: Cities

LaHood: House In "Disarray" On Transportation Bill
The Hill

LaHood To House: "Get On The Bus" With A Bipartisan Transportation Bill
StreetsBlog DC

The Life And Death Of Urban Highways (44p. PDF : "This report chronicles the stories of five very different cities that became stronger after freeways were removed or reconsidered. They demonstrate that fixing cities harmed by freeways, and improving public transport, involves
a range of context-specific and context-sensitive solutions. This perspective contrasts with the one-size-fits-all approach that was used in the 1950s and 1960s to push freeways through urban neighborhoods. The belief then was that freeways would reduce congestion and improve safety in cities. Remarkably, these two reasons are still commonly used to rationalize spending large sums of public money on expanding existing or building new freeways.")
Institute For Transportation & Development Policy / EMBARQ

Mass Transit Use Rises As Gas Prices Soar
CNN Money

MTA Ridership Soars As Gas Prices Expected To Test Record High ("Ridership on the Orange and Silver lines is up by double-digits in recent weeks, a trend that MTA CEO Art Leahy said shows commuters are doing their homework.")
CBS Los Angeles

New Study Says Diesel Emissions Can Increase Risk Of Cancer Three-Fold
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Next Target: Extending BART Under Downtown San Jose
Silicon Valley Mercury News

Portland Struggles To Remain A Leader In Public Transit ("Reduced revenue and federal funding, combined with unsustainable employee costs, are making it difficult for the Oregon city to stay on top.")
Governing

Residents Want A Reduced Bergamot Transit Village
Santa Monica Daily Press

Security, Emergency Management, And Infrastructure Protection Research Status Report (13p. PDF)
Transportation Research Board

Senate Ready To Overhaul Highway, Transit Programs; Dems Say Bill Will Create Nearly 3M Jobs
Washington Post

Senate Transportation Bill Far From Transformative, Despite Soaring Gas Prices And Rising Transit Ridership
Huffington Post

The Sorry State Of American Transport ("In short, though the facilities can somewhat be excused as resulting from insufficient capital funding and bad decisions decades ago, there’s so much that could be done right now to upgrade the passenger experience it’s not even funny.")
Urbanophile

Street Closures And Metro Bus Detours For Sunday's Honda LA Marathon
LAist

Technology Contributes To Ridership Growth
The Transit Wire

Time To Hit The Gas ("Villaraigosa is championing a specific provision in the Senate bill that would give the Transportation Department expanded abilities to extend credit to local municipalities for "mega public transportation projects...Is Villaraigosa right that simple financing fixes could speed up so many transit projects? Would the credit extensions in the Senate bill help other localities besides Los Angeles, including rural ones? Is it appropriate to focus so much attention on public transportation? What is holding up most transportation projects?")
National Journal Transportation Experts Blog

Transit Agencies Have A Powerful Story To Tell Legislators
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Transportation And Warehousing Industry Nears 4 Million Jobs
Business Journals

WeHo Replacing San Vicente Parking With Bike Lanes
Curbed LA

What Do Women (Transit Users) Want? ("For some women riders, transit dependency may be a frightening, unwanted outcome of higher prices at the pump.")
KCET

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