Today's Headlines - more at Metro

11/29/2012

Carmageddon Award, Blue/Expo Line Junction, Megabus, MAP-21, OCTA, Leimert Park/Crenshaw, ExpressLanes & More

12,297 Tickets Already For Improper Use Of The 110 Toll Lanes
Curbed LA

America's Transportation Awards Give State DOTs Their Due ("The Judges' Grand Prize was awarded to the California DOT (Caltrans) for the Mulholland Drive Bridge demolition, part of the I-405/Sepulveda Pass project. The demolition was also a winner in the Ahead of Schedule Small Project competition. Southern Californians and transportation fans will remember this project as "Carmageddon," a planned weekend shutdown of a heavily traveled portion of I-405 near Los Angeles.Caltrans used a thorough communication campaign to help drivers anticipate--and survive--the scheduled closure. News conferences, frequent media interviews, PSAs, an online countdown, and a nearly constant stream of social media updates all led to significantly reduced traffic, which made rerouting the remaining traffic much easier. Caltrans was able to reopen the freeway a full 17 hours ahead of the 53-hour schedule. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Janet Kavinoky said, "By embracing communications as a key strategy in transportation project management, Caltrans set the standard for public outreach.")
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Amtrak Defends Plan To Get Back On Track
USA Today

Blue, Expo Line Delays Reflect Ongoing Problems At Rail Junction
Los Angeles Times

EPA Honors Seven Outstanding Community Sustainability Projects
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog

The Heart Of The Civic Matter ("For his thesis, Krueger took a new approach to identifying a city’s center. Where many similar types of studies focus on employment centers or commuting patterns, he focused on the location of urban amenities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. These urban amenities fell into five categories: entertainment, full-service restaurants, hotels and motels, trendy hangouts, and high culture... Indeed, a strong core center runs from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles. The path, which he dubbed The Wilshire/Santa Monica Corridor, is named for the two main arteries along which the city’s center is concentrated.")
USC News
Delimiting The Postmodern Urban Center: An Analysis Of Urban Amenity Clusters In Los Angeles

How States Are Adapting To MAP-21's Changes To Bike/Ped Funding
StreetsBlog DC

It's Official: Bill Shuster Named Transportation Committee Chair
StreetsBlog DC

Megabus.com Relaunches Bus Service To/From Los Angeles
USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

Misconceptions Fuel Non-Profit Opposition To Crucial Muni Funding Reform
StreetsBlog SF

New Bike Lanes On Santa Monica Boulevard In East Hollywood
BIKAS

Not So Fast On CD 12's Parking Perk ("Regarding those signs at the Chatsworth Metrolink station marking off a couple of primo parking spots for the local council district staff, spotted last weekend. They are outdated.")
LA Observed

OCTA Names New Chief, Despite Questions
Orange County Register

Opening Date Set For First Part Of Glendale Narrows Riverwalk
Glendale News Press

The Opportunities And Dangers Of Incomplete Bus Rapid Transit
Human Transit

Public Transit Etiquette For Citizens Of Los Angeles
Thought Catalog

Rail Plan Stirs Distrust Among Black Angelenos ("The Leimert Park neighborhood, the heart of black culture here, may be left without a stop on the rail line, a victim of limited money. And the train will run at street level through part of the area, which business owners fear will cut them off from their customers during years of construction.")
New York Times

Self-Grading: Mayor's Office Gives Itself Mostly High Marks On Transportation
StreetsBlog LA

Shuster Won't Rule Out Raising Gasoline Tax For Roads
Business Week

Six Transportation Policy Questions As 2013 Approaches
Governing

Thousands Hit With Toll Lane Citations
Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

A Transit Map For All of California! (Must-see map of how the state's rail systems link together)
via CaliforniaRailMap.com

Transit Tax Measure Falling Short Of Required Vote ("Measure J, now has 65.88% approval...There are approximately 70,000 to 75,000 ballots that remain to be counted. About 96% percent of those ballots would have to approve Measure J for it to pass, a rate radically higher than that seen to date.")
Los Angeles Times

U.S. Motorists On Pace To Spend A Record Sum On Gasoline In 2012
Los Angeles Times

VTA Light Rail Extension To Los Gatos: $175 Million For 200 New Riders
Silicon Valley Mercury News

What The Red Line Station Could Have Looked Like ("Earlier this week, the Metro Library and Archive uploaded a 1983 rendering to its [Tumblr site] that depicts the station's entrance as a set of doors on the side of an office building...")
North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch

Why New York's Transit System Fared So Well During Sandy
The Atlantic: Cities

Transportation During And After Hurricane Sandy (36p. PDF : "Hurricane Sandy demonstrated the strengths and limits of the transportation infrastructure in New York City and the surrounding region. As a result of the timely and thorough preparations by New York City and the MTA, along with the actions of city residents and emergency workers to evacuate and adapt, the storm wrought far fewer casualties than might have occurred otherwise.")
NYU Rudin Center For Transportation

Without Bypassing Checkpoints, BRT Risks Becoming "Symbolic Transit"
StreetsBlog Network


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