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4/12/2013

High Speed Rail, Century City/Purple Line, Gold Line, OC Toll Roads, President's Budget for Transportation, Ontario Airport and more...

April 12: This Date In Los Angeles Transportation History (A 1978 call for renewing Los Angeles' extensive rail network because "our supply of gasoline in Los Angeles County will either dry up or be too costly to use, beginning about the year 2001"; The Alameda Corridor Project opens)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

14 Fun/Weird/Wonderful Ideas To Make LA Amazing In 2050
Curbed LA

2012 Urban Congestion Trends - Operations: The Key To Reliable Travel

Bike-Share Program Gets Ready To Roll ("The [San Francisco] program, which will cost about $7 million initially, will bring a fleet of about 700 sturdy 7-speed bikes to the area for anyone to use in 30-minute increments. It mirrors popular programs already in place in cities such as Boston, Washington and Montreal. Bike sharing is coming to New York in May.")
Wall Street Journal

Bugging Out: Tenants Say Caltrans Ignores Vermin Complaints And Imposes Late Fees Meant To "Depopulate" 710 'Corridor
Pasadena Weekly

California 3 Feet For Safety Bill Amended To Address Liability Concerns
Cyclicious

California Gov. Jerry Brown rides Chinese bullet train [Video]
Los Angeles Times

Caltrans Watchdog Bills Pass Senate Committee
Contra Costa Times

Century City Planning All Kinds Of Purple Line Goodies
Curbed LA
Century City Center Subsequent Draft Environmental Impact Report (link to reports)
Los Angeles Department Of City Planning
Appendix C -- Transportation Study (393p. PDF)
Los Angeles Department Of City Planning

Congress, Administration Trade Gimmicky Ideas For Keeping Amtrak Afloat
StreetsBlog DC


The Effect Of Smart Growth Policies On Travel Demands
Strategic Highway Research Program


How President Obama's Budget Proposal Would Affect Cities
The Atlantic: Cities

If Bullet Train Is Built, A Taxpayer Bailout May Be Needed, Study Says
Los Angeles Daily News
California High Speed Rail: An Updated Due Diligence Report (April 2013) (81p. PDF : "This report updates Reason’s 2008 Due Diligence Report by addressing and evaluating numerous changes in California’s plan to build a high speed rail (HSR) system between San Francisco and Los Angeles via the San Joaquin Valley.)`
Reason Foundation


New Chicago Plan: Pedestrians Come First
The Atlantic: Cities

New Look (But Not Start Date) At Expo-Adjacent Legado Crossing
Curbed LA

Obama Wants $50B For Roads, $40B For Rail, MAP-21 Extension In 2014 Budget
The Hill

Obama's 2014 Transpo Budget Calls For Higher Spending, HSR
StreetsBlog DC

OC's Tollroad Agency Loses Federal Lawsuit Against Commerce Department
OC Weekly

Ontario Is Getting Ready To Sue LA For Airport Neglect
Curbed LA

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Celebrates Opening of PHX Sky Train
PR Web


Rep. Shuster: Obama Budget Missing Transportation Funding Source
The Hill

Villaraigosa And The State Of The City: "L.A. Is On The Move"
KPCC

Vote For Your Favorite City-Changing Bike Proposal
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.
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4/11/2013

110 Toll Lanes, Amtrak, Infrastructure, LAX, CRA, CicLAvia and more...

110's New Toll Lanes Speedier But Regular Lanes Are Slower
Curbed LA

Amtrak Ridership Continues to Rise
California High Speed Rail Blog

Buy American? Not For Transit Boardmembers
Long Beach Business Journal

City Tries To Fill Void Left By Demise Of CRA
Los Angeles Downtown News

City West Residents Need A Ped-Friendly Route To Downtown
Curbed LA

The Commute: 110's Lanes Are Speedier but Regular Lanes Are Slower
CurbedLA

Draft National Climate Assessment Predicts More Global Warming Woes For California
KPCC Southern California Public Radio

Exploring A Section Of The Old Glendale And Edendale Red Car Lines ("Construction began on a local train line in 1903 by L.C. Brand's Los Angeles & Glendale Electric Railway. However, in 1904 Brand sold his company to Henry E. Huntington's Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway (LAIU), also known as the Green Cars for their color scheme. LAIU was later leased to Pacific Electric Railway, also owned by Huntington, but known as the Red Cars. In 1908 the local line, heretofore known as "The Glendale Line," was extended to Burbank and thus became "The Glendale-Burbank Line." Its other terminus was located in Downtown Los Angeles.")
KCET

Expo Line EIR Reviews For Stops Between Culver City And Santa Monica
Culver City Patch

Federal Money For The Trains ("The president's new budget contains $130 million in New Starts funding for the Purple Line subway extensionand the Regional Connector tunnel in DTLA.")
Curbed LA

Figueroa Corridor Project Pushes Forward With 2014 Deadline Looming
Blog Downtown

Filling The Financial Gap For Equitable Transit-Oriented Development: Lessons From Atlanta, Denver, The San Francisco Bay Area And The Twin Cities (62p. PDF)
Enterprise Community Partners

Fixing Obama's "Fix It First" Infrastructure Plan
Salon

How Google (Or You) Could Change The Game
Human Transit

Huge LAX Modernization Plan Moves Ahead But Will Take Time
Curbed LA

Los Angeles City Council To Address Los Angeles International Airport Runway Plan In Spring
Daily Breeze

The Myth Of The Falling Bridge ("Are American bridges actually falling, though? Is the U.S. underinvested in infrastructure?")
Bloomberg

New Economic Development Department Created By L.A. City Council
Los Angeles Daily News

New Study Calls On O.C. Tollway Agency To Shelve Project
Los Angeles Times
Orange County Toll Roads: Serious Concerns Should Lead To Significant Review By State And Local Officials (29p. PDF : "Based on our review, the operations of these toll roads presently appear to be unsustainable and likely have been unworkable from their inception. The original financial plans for the 241 and 73 toll roads were based on overly optimistic growth assumptions and did not leave a financial cushion for TCA to operate under reduced utilization or economic downturns. Subsequent decisions by TCA board members and managers have made matters worse.")
Pacific Research Institute

NY MTA wraps Grand Central Terminal Blasting
Metro Magazine

Obama's Infrastructure Budget Is Ambitious But Vague On Funding
Governing

Obama unveils $3.78-trillion budget proposal - The plan includes social safety net changes aimed at drawing Republicans back to the table. It would also provide $130 million sought by Los Angeles to help extend the subway to the Westside.
Los Angeles Times
Opinion: All Aboard California's High-Speed Train To Nowhere
Daily Caller

Opinion: Metro's Free Ride May Soon Be Over ("A sign of things to come: The entrance turnstiles to the Red and Purple Metro lines at Union Station were locked ("latched," in Metro-speak) Tuesday morning, forcing would-be riders to actually buy a ticket to get on the train.")
Los Angeles Times

Packed Auditorium Cheers and Questions MyFigueroa! Project
StreetsblogLA

Plan for Successor to LA's Shuttered Redevelopment Agency Takes Shape
Planetizen

Santa Monica OKs Regulations On Pedicabs
Santa Monica Patch

SEPTA copes with rise in rail deaths
Mass Transit Magazine

USC In "West Los Angeles" During The Roaring Twenties
Los Angeles Magazine

Where to find food trucks, rent bicycles for CicLAvia
LAist

World's Most Scenic Train Trips
Huffington Post

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.
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4/10/2013

LA Subway Primer, Mayor Race & Transit, Gold Line Foothill, DTLA Development, Amtrak, Classical & Crime, 110 Overpass & More

Amtrak Ridership Hits Record Levels
USA Today
Amtrak Ridership Growth Continues In FY 2013 (2p. PDF : "March sets record as single best month in history of railroad." Includes statistics)
Amtrak News Release

Amtrak's New Cost Accounting System Is A Significant Improvement But Concerns Over Precision And Long Term Viability Remain (21p. PDF)
U.S. DOT Office Of Inspector General

Blog Downtown Launches New Online Map Of DTLA Developments
Blog Downtown

Digital Urban Planning Starts With Common Tools
Government Technology

Does Classical Music At Train Stations Really Deter Crime?
WQXR

From The Ground Up ("And in addition to ground-level changes, underground changes have affected the changing demographics of the city. Extensions to the Metro system have made it easier to travel throughout a city that is often cast as extremely stratified.")
USC Daily Trojan

Gold Line Foothill Extension Work Still Causes Lane Closures, Traffic Detours
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Gold Line Update: Grade Crossing Construction Continues In Monrovia
Monrovia Patch

Ideas For Downtown LA: Minor Tweaks To 110 Overpasses Will Encourage Pedestrian Activity
DTLA Rising

Living Near Traffic Linked To Increased Cancer Risk In Children
Los Angeles Times

A Los Angeles Primer: The Subway ("Los Angeles has a subway. This surprises almost as many visitors as it does natives...Despite taking four or five journeys underground every week, I understand, without the sneer of the least agreeable sort of public transit booster, why many Angelenos have never boarded so much as a station escalator. The Red and Purple subway lines serve this city of 500 square miles with less than eighteen miles of track, combined.")
KCET

Mayoral Candidates Miss The Train ("Of the many items that haven’t made it to the mayoral campaign agenda, one of the most important is how the growing number of rail transit lines will reshape Los Angeles.")
LA Observed

New Economic Development Department Created By L.A. City Council
Los Angeles Daily News

Oxy Professor Hopes To Win $100,000 To "Make L.A. More Connected, Equitable And Sustainable"
Eagle Rock Patch

Torrance Eyes Controversial Car-Sharing Program
CBS Los Angeles

Traffic Zips In Toll Lanes, But Slows In Free Lanes ("Preliminary data on the 110 Freeway experiment are released. Officials hope that eventually the toll lanes will relieve congestion on the entire freeway.")
Los Angeles Times
Average Speed In Non-Toll Lanes (infographic)

Understanding The Contribution Of Highway Investment To National Economic Growth
Transportationist
Understanding The Contribution Of Highway Investment To National Economic Growth: Comments On Mamuneas's Study (38p. PDF)
Upjohn Institute For Employment Research

Villaraigosa, In City Address, Notes Gains, Chides Garcetti And Gruel ("In his final State of the City speech, L.A. mayor takes stock of the progress made during his two terms and scolds his would-be successors for not revealing detailed plans on schools.")
Los Angeles Times
Villaraigosa's Last State Of The City Moment (includes full text of prepared remarks)
LA Observed

With Help From Nature, A Town Aims To Be A Solar Capital ("We want to be the first city that produces more electricity from solar energy than we consume on a daily basis,” he said. This means Lancaster’s rooftops, alfalfa fields and parking lots must be covered with solar panels to generate a total of 126 megawatts of solar power above the 39 megawatts already being generated and the 50 megawatts under construction.")
New York 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.

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.
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4/09/2013

LA Carshare, Gold Line Foothill, HopStop, SCIG Rail Yard, CEQA Reform, Ventura County Transit & More

16 Projects Unveiled For Greening Rio Hondo, San Gabriel Rivers
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Bill To Create Transit District In Ventura County Advances
Ventura County Star

Editorial: Clear The Tracks For New Port Rail Yard ("Benefits of the Gateway project are obvious, but so is the neeed to limit the effects on its neighbors.")
Los Angeles Times

Editorial: Return Streetcars To Riverside? Forget It ("Riverside does not need to duplicate existing transit services at great public cost. The city has better uses for transportation money, or any other kind of funding, than spending millions of tax dollars recreating a long-vanished streetcar system in town. The city should focus instead on street, intersection and other upgrades that would actually improve traffic flow.")
Riverside Press-Enterprise

Editorial: Unions Pose Key Obstacle To CEQA Reform

Daily Breeze

Here Come The Streetcars ("Light rail transit re-established itself in North America as a serious transportation mode 35 years ago, and LRT’s growth continues apace today. It’s now being complemented by a surge in streetcar development, often in tandem with LRT, and often with rail equipment suppliers standing ready to provide both.")
Railway Age

HopStop Live Brings Real-Time Crowdsourced Transit Information To The iPhone
The Verge

How To Write A Complete Streets Policy
StreetsBlog DC

Jerry Brown Seeks Chinese Funding For California High-Speed Rail
Washington Examiner

L.A. MTA, Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center Join Efforts To Combat Pedestrian Fatalities On Metro Blue Line
Progressive Railroading

LADOT Lays The Groundwork For Functional Car Share With Hertz. Goodbye ZipCar?
StreetsBlog LA

Long Beach Transit Sides With BYD Motors For Future Buses
Long Beach Business Journal

Only CEQA Can Make A Plan For More Bike Paths Sound Unwanted
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Opinion: L.A. Residents Should Sound Off On $3 Billion Street Repair Plan
Los Angeles Daily News

Quaint Downtown L.A. Alley Cleared Of Outdoor Dining
Los Angeles Times

RiverLink: The Best (Over A Decade-Old) Idea Yet To Be Realized For West Long Beach
StreetsBlog LA

San Bernardino County Agrees To End 9-Year Lawsuit
San Bernardino Sun

Subway Kiosks Will Guide Riders (In Between Ads) ("Dozens of 6-foot-4-inch stainless-steel kiosks are to be installed in 19 subway stations in the next few months in what the Metropolitan Transportation Authority calls its “On the Go! Travel Station” program. They will replace some of the poster-size paper maps on platforms, mezzanines and turnstile areas, and also cut down on notices that sometimes proliferate to the point that they look like wallpaper.")
New York Times

TfL Technology Innovation Portal (Transport for London (UK) launched a Technology Innovation Portal to encourage staff, suppliers, industry experts, and academicians to share creative solutions for TfL’s challenges)
Transport for London

This Week In Transportation: Big Agenda Gets Rolling
The Hill

Train Runs From Riverside To Angel Games
Riverside Press-Enterprise

WeHo To Get Free Party Buses This Summer
Curbed LA

What Drives Us? Car Sharing Reflects Cultural Shift
KQED

Why Google Transit Will Never Be Enough For Small To Medium-Sized Systems
Human Transit


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.
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4/08/2013

Expo Line Art, Dodger Shuttle & Transpo Options, Riverside Streetcars, LADOT TAP, Venice Canals & More

April 8: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History (The last Pacific Electric interurban streetcar runs between Los Angeles and Long Beach after more than half a century of continuous service. Also, groundbreaking for the Metro Gold Line to Pasadena 19 years ago today)
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

Big Numbers For Dodger Stadium Shuttle
Los Angeles Downtown News

BYD To Build Electric Bus Assembly Plant ("The Shenzhen-based producer of electric vehicles will break ground on May 1 for an assembly plant in Lancaster, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, to make electric buses for US and Latin American public-transportation markets. The facility will be one of only a few making electric buses in the US. Most buses in the country use diesel fuel or compressed natural gas.")
China Daily

City Exploring Plan To Bring Back Streetcars ("[Riverside] has applied for a $300,000 grant from the Southern California Association of Governments to fund the study. The initial route is projected to serve more than 200,000 people who live, work or attend school in the city.")
Riverside Press-Enterprise

Connector Work To Hit Little Tokyo
Los Angeles Downtown News

Expo Line Artists Chosen As Supreme Court Hearing Scheduled
Curbed LA

From Rooftops To Subways, Dancing Makes Los Angeles The Stage
Los Angeles Times

High Speed Rail Versus Austerity
Harvard Business Review

Hot New LADOT TAP Cards Available For Pre-Order Now
StreetsBlog LA

Houston Rising: Why The Next Great American Cities Aren't What You Think
Daily Beast

LAX Will Probably Get A People Mover No Matter What
Curbed LA

The Lost Canals Of Venice Of America (Historic images highlight the story of how "cigarette baron Abbot Kinney incorporated several references to the community's Mediterranean namesake, from the Italianate architecture to his fanciful notion of launching a cultural renaissance there.")
LA as Subject via KCET

Lost Treasure Of The Day: Edmonton's Streetcar Bookmobile
The Atlantic: Cities

Moscow Traffic Rated Worst In World
RT

Officials Break Ground On $110.5 Million Nogales Underpass Project ("The Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority is overseeing the project, which officials say is among the most hazardous crossings in Los Angeles County.")
Claremont-LaVerne Patch

Opinion: Why Conservatives Should Welcome State Gas Tax Hikes
Washington Examiner

Parking Ordinance Timeline Not Deferred, & Thoughts On Future Of Parking
StreetsBlog LA

Port Of Los Angeles Lauds Finished Dredging Project
Daily Breeze

San Diego's Railroad Deja Vu ("It is curious that San Diego’s elected leaders have remained relatively passive about the region’s omission from the first and very possibly only (at least in our lifetimes) phase of the California High Speed Rail project.")
UrbDeZine San Diego

Someone At LADOT Wants A Monorail To Dodger Stadium
Curbed LA
Trying To Beat Dodger Traffic Blues
Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Third District

Southern California Architecture: The Missing Early Years From PSTP ("In stitching the connections among architecture, urban planning and politics, the prewar story would have to confront the missed civic opportunities of those decades: how Los Angeles failed to take public control of the private red-car trolley network as it began to fall out of favor and how ambitious private plans for new parks and open space were scuttled.")
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.

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.
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