Metrolink, Transpo Bill, High Speed Rail, Century City Station, Bike Passing, American Driving & More

Are Americans Driving Less Because They're Working Less?
StreetsBlog DC

Bike Passing Safety Bill Likely To Pass ("A bill by state Sen. Al Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, passed unanimously in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee in April and looks likely to coast to approval.")
Berkeley Patch

Bill Shuster Appears Ready In Possible Chairman Shuffle
Politico

Century City Subway Station $38.7 Million Payoff To JMB
Beverly Hills Courier

A Decision-Support Framework For Using Value Capture To Fund Public Transit: Lessons From Project-Specific Analyses (216p. PDF)
Mineta Transportation Institute

From Plaza Abaja To Pershing Square: L.A.'s Oldest Park Through The Decades
LA as Subject via KCET

Huntington Park Backs Light Rail Plan With Two Local Stations
Los Angeles Wave

L.A. City Council Requests High Speed Rail
Brentwood Patch

LACMTA Proposes 8% Budget Increase For FY2013
Progressive Railroading

Metrolink May Raise Fares Up To 9%
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Metrolink Plans To Raise Fares Up To 9% ("The commuter rail service faces a $13-million deficit that it attributes to a 78% increase in fuel prices, a labor agreement that increased costs for the railroad's contractors and other factors.")
Los Angeles Times

Mica: Highway Bill Negotiations "Moving Along"; Will Meet With Boxer Next Week
The Hill

New Vermont Avenue Bike Lane In South L.A.
B.I.K.A.S.

Norwalk Hikes Parking Fees For Metrolink Lot
Los Angeles Wave

Obama Administration Tells California It's Time To Vote On High-Speed Rail ("U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned the California Legislature today that the Obama administration will not wait until fall for a vote on high-speed rail, urging its approval in a budget vote next month.")
Sacramento Bee

Pricing For Traffic Safety: How Efficient Transport Pricing Can Reduce Roadway Crash Risks (23p. PDF)
Victoria Transport Policy Institute

True Oil Independence Is An Unrealistic Dream
Washington Post

What To Know About The New Plan Proposed For Hollywood
Curbed LA

Why Do We Tax Car-Sharing Like It's Liquor Or Cigarettes?
The Atlantic: Cities


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.

We invite you to visit Metro's The Source, your window to what's happening with agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles.

710, National Train Day, Metrolink, Transpo Bill, Carpooling, BRT & More

May 10: This Date In Los Angeles Transportation History (Metro completes a solar installation project for sustainability and long-term savings)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Advocacy Group Says Public Supports Federal Funding For Bikes, Pedestrians
Washington Post

Boxer, Mica Call On Conference Committee To Forge Agreement On Transportation Bill
Progressive Railroading

Council Rejects Metro's 710 Freeway Board Proposal
La Cañada Valley Sun

Engineering Economic Analysis Practices For Highway Investment (127p. PDF)
National Cooperative Highway Research Program

Five Things That The House/Senate Transportation Bill Should Do
Transportation For America

For Public Transit, The Recession's Still Not Over
Washington Post

Google, MBTA Debut Innovative Station Indoor Maps ("MBTA is excited to announce that the T is the first U.S transit agency to have indoor maps of its stations in Google Maps for Android.")
Commonwealth Conversations

How High-Tech Carpooling Saves Gas, Money And Time ("Not surprising, the service is most popular in Los Angeles, a city known for its traffic congestion and eagerness to use the carpool lane.")
Mashable

LA/2B Challenge: Create An Itinerary For Your Ideal Car-Free Day In LA ("Submit a fun and creative itinerary for a day in Los Angeles without a car. The top-voted submission will receive $500 from LA/2B and GOOD to implement their idea.")
GOOD

Learning And Growing: What Are You Doing To Stay Fresh And Current?
Talking Transportation

Metrolink Has Heavy Burden This Summer: Metrolink Officials Considering Fare Hikes As They Also Replace CEO John Fenton
Riverside Press-Enterprise

More Reasons Not To Expect A New Transportation Bill Until 2013
California High Speed Rail Blog

National Train Day Brings Dora The Explorer To L.A. Union Station
Los Angeles Times

National Train Day: Los Angeles (May 12 : Union Station)
National Train Day
Program Guide (8p. PDF : "The fifth annual National Train Day is here! It’s time to celebrate the experiences only a train can offer. Enjoy live entertainment from The All-American Boys Chorus, high-energy children’s musician Aaron Nigel Smith and the Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus Clowns. Tour Amtrak equipment and notable private railroad cars or marvel at model train displays.")

New Survey Shows Overwhelming Support For Federal Investment In Bike-Ped
StreetsBlog DC

No Re-Feeding At Samo's New Pay-By-Phone Parking Meters
Curbed LA

Peer-To-Peer Information Exchange On Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) And Bus Priority Best Practices (109p. PDF)
Federal Transit Administration

President Returns Thursday, Westside Traffic Expected
Beverly Hills Patch

Rocky Start To Congressional Meeting On Transportation Bill
Southern California Public Radio

SR-710 Study Open House (information regarding six upcoming meetings)
via Facebook

"That Boy Can Drive": Behind The Wheel At The 2012 International Bus Roadeo ("The bus olympics are, in many ways, similar to the real Olympics. For a causal observer, the two events share competitors and competitions that are both relatively obscure, and passions that can be hard to understand. But to those involved – the bus drivers who rack up millions of miles of safe driving to qualify for the event, or the bus mechanic who can read a stalled Cummins/Voith power train like a bedtime story – the Bus Roadeo is the ultimate test of skills and chance for honor.")
The Atlantic: Cities

What Is The World's Most Economically Powerful City?
The Atlantic

With Or Without Tougher CAFE Rules, Today's Gas Tax Is Unsustainable
StreetsBlog DC

You're Not The Public, Says WMATA
 Greater Greater Washington


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.

We invite you to visit Metro's The Source, your window to what's happening with agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles.

Orange Line Extension, Green Line To LAX, Crenshaw Line, Gold Line Foothill Parking, Expo Line, Bike Week LA, Metrolink & More

The Agony Of American Infrastructure Deployment ("The steady transformation of Los Angeles into a much more transit-oriented city has been an interesting story over the past ten years and in many ways I expect it to accelerate over the next ten years. But like so much related to American infrastructure, it's at times an agonizingly painful saga.")
Slate

Amtrak Enlists iPhones As A Service Tool ("Amtrak, the government-owned corporation that oversees the nation’s railroad train services, has been training conductors since November to use the Apple handset as an electronic ticket scanner on a few routes...By late summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the devices on Amtrak trains across the country.")
New York Times

A Better Idea For Branding Public Transit
Huffington Post

The Bottom Line: The Tube Goes Commercial ("For the first time since its creation by Harry Beck, an engineer, in 1931, the London Underground map shows a station that carries the name of a corporate sponsor. Two stations, in fact.")
The Economist

Bring Bike Or Helmet On Metro, Get Free Ride On May 17 ("Metro is sponsoring "Bike Week LA" activities May 14-18 to encourage Angelenos to ride bicycles to work, school and other destinations throughout L.A. County to reduce traffic and air pollution.")
Hollywood Patch

Calling For A Transit-Only Lane On Santa Monica Blvd.-Sunset Blvd. Between Santa Monica And Union Station
The Pink Line

Commentary: Transit-Focused Community Plan On Track To Failure
Hollywood Patch

Expo Line's Power Outage, Collisions Raise Concerns Among Critics
Southern California Public Radio

Farmers Field To Create The "Largest Urban Tailgate In America" In Downtown LA
Blog Downtown

A First Look At The Orange Line Extension From Canoga to Chatsworth
StreetsBlog LA

Fly Through The Planned Downtown NFL Stadium On Game Day
Curbed LA

Gold Line Parking Plans Evoke Concern By Arcadia Officials
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Grimy Centinela/Pico Corner Getting Expo-Adjacent Apartments
Curbed LA

Highway Conference Gets Off To Slow Start
The Hill

How Your Commute Is Killing You (extensive infographic)
Mother Nature Network

LA County Supervisors Lobby To Get Green Line To LAX
Southern California Public Radio

LA Sketchbook: Long-Term Transit Taxes
LA Observed

Leimert Stop Back On The Drawing Board For Crenshaw/LAX Line; Open House This Thursday
Leimert Park Beat

Long Commute? Your Heart And Waistline May Suffer For It
TIME

Los Angeles & The Straphanger: Surviving The End Of The Automobile Age
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Metrolink CEO John Fenton Resigns After Two Years Leading The Rail Agency
Blog Downtown

Metrolink's Fenton Resigns; He Led Agency In Wake Of Chatsworth Train Wreck
Northridge-Chatsworth Patch

Peapod Unveils Virtual Grocery Story Aisle At CTA State/Lake Tunnel
Chicago Tribune

Port Of LA Becomes First US Port To Reward "Greener" Ships
Port Technology International

San Pedro Red Car Line To Close For 6 Weeks Due To Construction
Daily Breeze

Simi Valley Council Rejects New Bike Lanes
Ventura County Star

Tight Timeline, Big Vision On NFL Dream
Los Angeles Downtown News

Transportation Bill, Not Yet Passed, Already Blasted By Critics ("House and Senate negotiators are considering how to mesh two very different transportation bills, but experts and lobbyists say neither bill addresses the fundamental problems.")
Christian Science Monitor


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.

We invite you to visit Metro's The Source, your window to what's happening with agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles

BH Subway Video, Metrolink, Expo Line, Highway Bill, Transit Open Data, Buy America & More

May 8: This Date In Los Angeles Transportation History (A watershed traffic plan nearly 90 years ago defined the street system that determined the future of Los Angeles)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Additional Improvements At Expo/Grammercy Crossing
LADOT Bike Blog

"Awesome Driver!": The Power Of Positive Feedback (DC's WMATA regional transit agency gets a twitter feed to promote positive feedback for bus operators : "Positive feedback can guide an agency at least as well as the negative can. Probably better.")
Human Transit

Beverly Hills Says: "Not Under My Back Yard!"
CityWatch

Buy America's Shocking Pricetag
StreetsBlog Network

Charles Dickens And The Rail Of Two Cities
Los Angeles Times

Citigroup To Sponsor NYC Bike-Share At $41 Million Over Five Years
StreetsBlog

Commentary: Plowed Under By Subway: Metro Continues To Ignore Data With Its Tunnel Vision For A Line Under Beverly Hills High School (p.49)
Los Angeles Business Journal 

The Economic Crisis Rolls On In Cities Like Pittsburgh ("The U.S. economy may be improving in some ways, but transit services across the country continue to reel, thanks to lower-than-expected tax revenues.")
The Transport Politic

Explosive Video Added To Subway Dispute (video broadcast segment)
NBC Los Angeles

Expo Line To A Changing L.A. (Extensive article on the art, architecture and design of Los Angeles' Expo Line amidst a changing Los Angeles)
KCET

The Expo Line: Three Things It Is, Three Things It Is Not
CityWatch

Expo Rail Phase 1 Operational, Santa Monica Phase Next Stop
Santa Monica Mirror

Fare Hike Proposed For Metrolink
Walnut Patch

Fearmongering Beverly Hills HS NIMBYs Release "Explosive" Anti-Subway Tunneling Video
LAist

Fireball FX At Beverly Hills High: Subway Dramatization Released By Parent-Teacher Council
Southern California Public Radio

Getting Started With Open Data: A Guide For Transportation Agencies
(13p. PDF)
NYU Rudin Center For Transportation Policy And Management

How The CBO Got It Wrong On Fuel Consumption And The Highway Trust Fund
Energy Collective

Impressive Denver Study On Equity & Transit Should Become National Model
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard Blog
Denver Regional Equity Atlas (105p. PDF)
Mile High Connects via Reconnecting America
Executive Summary (37p. PDF)

Insiders Pessimistic About Highway Bill Talks
The Hill

Keystone Plus Two-Year Highway Bill Equals Deal ("Does Keystone plus Senate bill equal reauthorization?")
National Journal Transportation Experts Blog

Kids Who Get Driven Everywhere Don't Know Where They're Going
The Atlantic: Cities

L.A. Times Calls Beverly Hills PTA Subway Video "Dramatic"
Westwood-Century City Patch

Local Group Calls On Warren Buffett To Halt BNSF Rail Yard Plans
Long Beach Business Journal

Longer Commute, Bigger Waistline
The Atlantic: Cities

Metro: Anti-Subway Tunneling Video With Fireballs, Explosions "Unfortunate"
CBS Los Angeles

Metrolink CEO John Fenton Of Past 2 Years Announces Resignation
Southern California Public Radio

Metrolink Chief Executive Will Leave To Take Florida Job
Los Angeles Times

Opinion: In The 90210, The Newest Horror Flick Is "Subway"
Los Angeles Times

Parents Produce Dramatic Video Protesting Subway Route Plans (video broadcast segment)
KTLA

Resignation Of Metrolink Chief A Major Loss, Antonovich Says
Santa Clarita Valley News

Simi Council To Consider Completing East/West Bike Route
Ventura County Star

Transportation Conferees Begin Talks
Politico

Walking Downtown Los Angeles With L.A. Walks And California's Top Pedestrian Advocates
StreetsBlog LA

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.

We invite you to visit Metro's The Source, your window to what's happening with agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles.

Expo Line, LA Bike Lanes, BH Subway, Metro App, 30/10, CAHSR Funds, Auto Usage & More

30/10 Faces Funding Problems After Expo Line Opens
USC Annenberg Neon Tommy

$1 Billion Private Investment Proposed For HSR Maintenance
California High Speed Rail Blog

Are People Riding The Expo Line? Yes, But Not Enough Yet
Curbed LA

As We Redraft Santa Monica Zoning, Let's Drop The Parking Minimums
StreetsBlog LA

City Hall's Worsening Traffic Nightmare
Santa Monica Daily Press

Do Passing Distance Laws Really Protect Cyclists?
The Atlantic: Cities

Information On The Go: Metro Library Figures Prominently In "Go Metro Los Angeles" Free Mobile App
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

International Bus Roadeo Competition To Be Held And Bus & Paratransit Conference Will Begin On Sunday, May 6, 2012 (Long Beach Convention Center)
APTA

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs And Green, Too: Can Transportation Drive The Future?
Huffington Post

L.A. Tries Bringing Subway To Land Of Maseratis
Next American City

LaHood Calls For Increased Federal Oversight On Transportation
WAMU

Metro Diary: It's 9:30 P.M....Do You Know Who's Riding Metro? 
StreetsBlog LA

Missing The Bus: History Points To Trouble Ahead For LA's Increasingly Separate And Unequal Mass Transit System (Part 2 of 2)
Pasadena Weekly

New Lanes Take L.A.'s Total Bike Lane Mileage Over 200
LADOT Bike Lane

New Light Rail Ridership Falls Short By More Than Half: L.A. Expo Line Running Almost Empty With "Brief" 30-Minute Delays ("Los Angeles’ brand new $930 million Exposition light rail line is carrying so few riders and bringing in so little revenue that it will, at best, take 65 years for the train to earn back its capital investment (not including ongoing operating costs). If the project completes its next phase and establishes an at-grade train that runs through heavy street traffic from Downtown L.A. to the city of Santa Monica, it will not pay for its construction for 170 years.")
Reason
The Reason Foundation's Comically Flawed Research On LA Rail ("We know what this oil industry-backed think tank is going to say before they've said it: Ridership will be lower than expected; costs will be higher. What's more interesting than the conclusions, to us anyway, is the methodological contortion needed to draw them.")
StreetsBlog Network
Reason Foundation Makes A Hilarious Claim About The Expo Line
Stop And Move

On The Vaunted City Subway Map, Mistakes And Phantom Blocks
New York Times

Opinion: L.A. Gets Railroaded At Last ("Metro bus and rail ridership has jumped during the first two months of this year, thanks in part to soaring gas prices. The Metro Gold Line from downtown to Pasadena saw the biggest spike: up nearly 22 percent over boardings from a year earlier. Orange Line commuter traffic also carried significantly more passengers than a year ago, up by 18 percent, and the Blue and Green lines also drew more commuters. From which we can extrapolate that a new generation of commuters are beginning to shun Sig Alerts and budget-busting gas prices in favor of clean, sophisticated public transit.")
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Opinion: MTA Vote: Is Our City Stuck On Stupid?
USC Annenberg Intersections South LA

Political Jockeying Over Gas Prices Is Divorced From Reality
StreetsBlog DC

This Collapse In Automobile Usage Is Completely Unprecedented In The American Economy
Business Insider

The True Cost Of Driving And Travel Behavior
Planetizen

Video Paints Doomsday Scenario For Planned Westside Subway Extension
Los Angeles Times

Writers, Riots & The Expo Line
KCET


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.

We invite you to visit Metro's The Source, your window to what's happening with agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles.