Street Heat

Marcy Winograd's full statement on 30/10

2010-05-18T07:06:00.001-07:00

As a congressional candidate, I advocate transitioning from a permanent war economy to a new Green economy that fast-tracks mass transit projects like the 30/10 initiative to accelerate construction of 12 key Metro expansion projects. When I campaign, people often tell me that one of their greatest concerns in Los Angeles is the traffic. 'Please,' they beg, 'do something about the gridlock. I can't take it anymore.' When LA County voters approved Measure R, a half-cent sales tax increase to fund critical transportation projects, they, too, said they couldn't take it anymore. Rather than wait 30 years to expand our Metro transit system, we need to speed up this initiative with a federal loan guarantee that will create new jobs and provide much-needed relief.

Certainly, California pays its fair share of taxes, with virtually half of our tax money subsidizing perpetual war policies championed by my opponent, Jane Harman. For every million dollars she voted to invest in the Iraq invasion or the Afghanistan occupation, we could have doubled the number of jobs had we invested the same money in mass transit.

In Congress, I will fight for federal dollars, low-interest bonds, to construct 30/10 transit projects that will help us get where we really need to go - sustainability. We need light rail, affordable buses, and safe bike lanes to get us out of our cars and into a new frame of mind.

Full 30 in 10 answer from Dana Gabbard

2010-04-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

For what it is worth, my worry isn't Metro's competence. I wonder whether there is an ability to marshal the physical forces and materials to do the work. Construction projects of this magnitude can only be undertake by a handful of supersized companies and there are projects in other parts of the world (like the NY 2nd avenue subway extension) that may be gobbling up that capacity. There are structural limitations on massive infrastructure projects that may be a difficult hurdle to do the work in 10 years even if the funding stream to do so is in place. Do we have supplies of aggregate and other materials in this state that we would need for the subway etc., or can transport be arranged?

Full 30 in 10 answer from Jerard Wright

2010-04-06T12:12:00.002-07:00

(responding to Alpern):

No, that battle needs to be figured out or at the very least have a preliminary plan of attack at this early stage or the very least have options on the table to make that possible because one of the pieces that will make a difference in securing an infrastructure bank loan are where's the money to operate the service? This is no different then securing a business loan, they need to know where your revenue is coming from and if you can afford to operate at the levels that are needed.

Full 30 in 10 answer from Ken Alpern

2010-04-06T12:12:00.001-07:00

In the big picture, the Orange Line, the Silver Line, the Expo Line, the Eastside and Foothill Gold Lines have and appear to be moving along nicely. Same with the Crenshaw Line and the Downtown Connector and the Wilshire Subway.

Do I take issue with Metro on key points at times? Of course, but overall I think that David Mieger and Renee Berlin and Jody Litvak and Roderick Diaz and Alan Patashnick and the bunch are doing a great job. I think that the Foothill Gold and Expo Authorities are carrying their own from their end of things, and I think we've replaced one great CEO with another great CEO.

A much greater and real threat is state underfunding of transit operations...but at this time the folks at Metro are doing a pretty good job with the tools they've been given. While I don't believe they can be all finished in ten years, I do think that the planning and consensus will be well-completed and construction more limited by the availability of workers and raw materials than any limitations associated with Metro itself.

Full 30 in 10 answer from Kymberleigh Richards

2010-04-06T12:11:00.001-07:00

Going on your presumption, that money is essentially no object, I'm going to also presume that the unions can deliver on the warm bodies needed for construction (they certainly have made enough noise at Metro Board meetings about that). So I believe the following projects are possible by 2020 (with the rationales):

Crenshaw/LAX: LPA is the target for year's end. That makes EIR/EIS possible by 2012, and Eastside Gold Line took about eight years to build, including underground.
Expo Phase II: Expo Authority is now in shovel-ready mode and there are no underground grade separations to complicate matters. This would probably be the second Measure R project -- Foothill Gold Line being the first -- to go into revenue service.

Eastside Gold Line II: EIR/EIS will be released this summer, but it depends on which of the two final alignments Metro chooses to build first (as you know, Antonovich already had the Board approve a motion that whichever isn't the chosen alignment be put on the list for future LRTPs) as to whether or not this can make the deadline. It all depends on how much grade separation is in the LPA.

Green Line to LAX: While Metro is only in "early planning stages" on this, a lot of work was done when the Green Line was originally built and that created a database that can be drawn on for the engineering. That, plus the relatively short length, means that even if the EIR/EIS doesn't happen until 2015 or 2016 it could be operational by decade's end.

Regional Connector: With the EIR/EIS coming this summer, this could begin construction sometime in 2011. Yes, it's probably all going to be underground, and that means tunnel boring and station box construction, so it'll be a tight squeeze to finish by 2020, but it's within the realm of probability.

I-405 Corridor: I expect a Metro Express bus service between Van Nuys and Westwood shortly after the northbound carpool lanes are finished (in fact, Jerard Wright and I are the catalysts on our respective governance councils for this to happen). I don't expect rail in this decade, though; at best, I expect it to be built concurrently with the last phase of the Purple Line, opening at the same time as Wilshire/Westwood Station. But I'm including it here because you could consider the express bus to be a first step toward that Measure R project, and that's very likely in the next couple of years.

Green Line South Bay Extension: A long shot, since only the preliminary environmental studies are being done, but if it ends up largely at-grade, it might be doable by 2020.

Westside Subway: EIR/EIS is scheduled for this September, and tunneling could begin within a year after that. It took seven years for Union Station to MacArthur Park to be completed, and Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/Fairfax is only slightly longer with fewer complications, so I'll say that segment is conceivable by the end of the decade.

Full 30 in 10 answer from Bart Reed

2010-04-06T12:10:00.001-07:00

But "30/10" is the act to get funding to build current projects such as the Downtown Regional Connector, the Subway towards the Sea, the Crenshaw, Green, Foothill Gold, Eastside Gold and Expo Light Rail Lines that would be spread in building over 30 years and to compact them into just 10.

In reality, all these projects are staggered in delivery. And Expo and Foothill Gold are under construction by different construction authorities. Metro is currently building the Orange Line extension, with the next project in queue being the Crenshaw Line. Crenshaw is very much line the Eastside Gold Line, which Metro built on-time, safely and on-budget.

The big, complex Connector and Subway won't break ground for about 4 years. The same folks that did the Eastside Gold Line can handle these two projects. The other projects such as the Green Line to LAX and to the Southbay will start after that.

As far as contracting and technical experience, there are plenty of teams out there that have built projects in LA and around the country and they have the experience to complete these projects on-time and within budget.

What Stephen forgets is that the problems with projects such as the subway in the 1990's happened because of political mistakes and machinations and lack of corporate construction experience. At this time with projects built under the current two management teams (Snoble and Leahy), it is unlikely to repeat some of those mistakes from the 90's, as most have learned their lessons.

The current management have met targets and budgets and there is no reason to expect anything different.

One last thanks to LA Weekly

2010-01-23T12:38:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday I got a chance to go out and party with many of the best bloggers, twitterers and social media folks in Los Angeles at LA Weekly's "LA Web Awards 2009" party and reception at Bardot.

While I was personally honored to receive "Best Activist Website" on behalf of LA Streetsblog, I was just as happy to have a chance to get out of the house and party sin bebito.

That's right, for the first time in half a year, Marybeth and myself were able to get out of the house and hang out without Samuel. As much as I adore the little one, it was great to get out with my wife and party.

And does LA Weekly ever know how to throw a party. Bardot is excellent. An open bar is a treat (even if I was limited to Shirley Temples). And the other award winners were great folks to meet and chat with. A special shout out to Zach at LAist who introduced us to half the restaurant and "Caroline on Crack" who I believe is the only person to walk off with two awards.

Take a Survey for the Urban Bike Project

2009-11-12T10:19:00.001-08:00

I got this email from my friend Alexis. The survey only takes a couple of minutes, and it will help move the ball forward on sustainability.

I am hoping you wouldn't mind helping me distribute a survey I have created to support my graduate thesis. The survey is to collect data on the experience and knowledge of cyclists in the City of Los Angeles.

The survey will also support a "white paper" that will be released in February on behalf of the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative (www.lasustainability.org). The Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative is a non-profit organization that funds graduate research on environmental issues in an effort to promote sustainable development in Southern California and bridge the gap between local urban issues and local academic research.

The data from the survey will help create and support policy recommendations to improve bicycling in Los Angeles. My goal is understand the barriers that are faced, common issues or experiences, and safety knowledge. Along with the obvious need for better infrastructure I am hoping this survey will help support the need for wide spread education of both cyclists and motorists.

I appreciate your help in getting the survey out to your readers.

Here is the link - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=xkqYXo3tCaEZBkdMSHOWTw_3d_3d

also here's a code version to drop into your website if that's better - Click Here to take survey

Thanks for you help!

Sincerely,
Alexis Lantz

In L.A. Dogs Wouldn't Ride the Metro...

2009-08-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

So my brother sent a note to his friends about my article about dogs using the Metro in Moscow with the tagline that in L.A. they would have to learn to ride the 405. The response is above.

Stephen Colbert's News of the Week: LA Streetsblog

2009-08-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

I knew getting archived in the news.google feed was going to be worth something.

Anyone that reads Colbert Nation for the "State of the Nation" (i.e. to what Stephen is reading about himself) will see that the top news item from last week is an LA Streetsblog story: "Stephen Colbert's Tips for Drivers and Cyclists." Since I know Stephen appreciates a shout-back as much as a shout-out; thanks for reading Colbert Report staff!

If you're ever in L.A., I'll treat for lunch at Buddha's Belly.

All hail the Flying Pigeon, the Orange 20 of the Eastside

2009-08-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my wife and I headed over to the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop an 3174 North Figueroa Street (two doors down from the Bike Oven) to picket out the cargo bike that will be the primary form of transportation for me and Samuel in a couple of months. The shop's owner, Josef Bray-Ali is no stranger to anyone that knows me well whether it be as the guy with the baby in the bike co-op Streetfilm or as the firebrand poster ubrayj02 at Streetsblog. What we discovered in the past two days is that he's also a heck of a bike shop owner.

When we arrived, I had already decided I wanted the Flying Pigeon's bucket bike, aka the Bakfiet Light as we were referring to it, but Josef insisted on walking me through all the steps. His "sales pitch" included offering me a ride on his bigger, sturdier, and heavier Dutch Bakfiet, a bike that he doesn't sell, and walking us through a series of Extra-Cycles. However, despite his best efforts to get us to buy from someone else, we held firm and got ourselves our Flying Pigeon Bucketbike (which Marybeth and I have already named Bessie).

Un-happy with the state of the bikes in the shop, Josef decided that before he would let me pedal away he had to give us new tires, a tuneup, straighten the rims, and do all sorts of little adjustments. I should also note that in the time we were in the shop yesterday and today Josef was fixing rims, selling tires and even the I Bike LA shirts.

After the bike was ready to go today, he put me in touch with a stenciler and had me out on the street. Let me tell you, riding a bucket bike brings to unique experiences versus riding on Gunpowder. First, people stop and stare at you. I had a couple of kids that recognized the Charlie Brown shirts from a group ride and rode next to me asking questions for awhile and one of the "purple shirts" downtown chatted me up.

Second, it's a lot like riding a tank. The route I took from Flying Pigeon to my house was 11.2 miles, but I felt like I had finnished one of the longer loops on the River Ride. I've got a lot of riding to do in the next couple months to build up my leg muscles to get ready for the kiddie taxi routine I'm planning in 2010...

How I'm voting for Transportation on May 19

2009-05-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

5th District Council Race: David Vahedi

I've got nothing against Paul Koretz. In fact, there's only three of thirteen current Council Members I'd vote for ahead of him (Rosendahl, Garcetti and Reyes). He has a solid environmental record and has experience as a road cyclist himself. He's for Expo, against Pico-Olympic. All-in-all, he's a solid candidate for transportation.

That being said, I'm voting for Vahedi.

David Vahedi has a record of bike advocacy second to few in this city period. As a lawyer in Prokop vs. City of Los Angeles, he knows how maddeningly inconsistent the city's bike policies can be and has experience fighting for us. He's also good on transit and Pico-Olympic so there's little not to like. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll take Greuel's spot on the T Committee if he wins.

If not, Koretz will be solid. He's not the transformational choice, so Vahedi gets my vote but either way we'll be in better hands on 7/1 than we are now.

City Attorney: Carmen Trutanich

While Weiss was impressive in his Streetsblog questionnaire, he's been sufficiently unimpressive as a Councilman on transportation issues that I'll vote Tru for this one. I honestly don't know much about Trutanich that I haven't heard on television commercials. However, this is a case where I'm going with the Devil I Don't Know.

State Ballot Propositions: No

If these props would help save the stolen transit subsidy, I would vote for them. If Schwarzenegger wouldn't have announced a further transit raid this week, I might have voted for them. However, the state has screwed up my top issue so much I ain't voting for them to get squat until they find a way to fix it. Sorry public employees, but they didn't leave me any choice.

I'm even voting "no" on the pay hike hold, because it's such a pandering of a move that, well, screw them.

Damien and Joe's Internet Class

2009-03-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

As just about everyone that still reads this blog knows, I teach a class occasionally with Joe Linton teaching people how to use free Internet tools to better promote their business and organize large and small groups of people towards a common purpose. I just wanted to take a chance to thank this week's batch of students:

Anita Bizzell
Brian Frobrisher
Joe Wes
Babz Rowe
Julia Stein
Eleanor Osgood.

See you all next Tuesday!

How I'm Voting for Transportation on March 3

2009-02-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

Mayor: Craig X Rubin

Ok, everyone get your laughs that I'm going for the legalizing medical marijuana guy. Ok, are you done? Let's move on.

When it comes to a transportation platform, Rubin has the best one and for that reason he gets my vote. First, half the candidates fail the simple test of supporting the Subway to the Sea leaving us with just a handfull left: Villaraigosa, Craig X Rubin, Phil Jennerjahn, and Carlos Alvarez.

I couldn't find Alvarez's website. So we can cross him off the list. Villaraigosa has a poor record when it comes to cyclists both as Metro Board Chair and Mayor so we can cross him as well.

That leaves me with Jennerjahn and Rubin. A quick look at their plans reveals a superior one for Rubin who actually has a transportation plan. I think some of it won't pass muster, but because he mentions bike lanes he gets my vote. That's right, the transportation platforms of the candidates are so bad, that just mentioning building bike lanes gets a nod from me.

Comptroller: Wendy Greuel

I've had a couple conversations with Greuel over the past year about several transportation issues and always found her to be knowledgable and interested. Personally, I think she's a little to into speeding up traffic and increasing car capacity; but she's also shown a good grasp of bike issues and transit issues. Heck, she even has a whole page devoted to transit issues on her campaign website.

Where I am most hopeful is that she would build on her record of supporting car-sharing and Current Comptroller Laura Chick's reporting on the city's take-home car program to bring us a new way of provifing vehicles to city staff. At Streetsblog I've talked a lot about the "Philadelphia model" of car-sharing where the government drastically cuts its take-home vehicle program and replaces it by supporting a car sharing program.

If we want real car-share back in L.A., this is probably the only way we're going to see it.

City Council 5th District: Robert Schwartz

I like some of Schwartz's more creative ideas and some of the breath of knowledge he's shown on particular issues. For example, take this from his issues page:

Recent news that school districts are cutting back on bus service for students creates a host of new problems but also presents opportunities. Too many of our local schools can only be safely reached by school bus or car. We need to change this by improving intersections, bike routes, and sidewalks so that students do not need a motorized vehicle to get to class.

I think I would vote for any candidate that is willing to publicly state you don't need an engine to get to school.

Internet Skills Class - taught by Joe Linton and Damien Newton

2009-02-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

Extra, Extra...

Upcoming Classes - All classes 7pm to 9pm:
Wednesdays February 18th and 25th 2009
Tuedays March 17th and 24th 2009
Additional Classes TBA

Classes take place at the Bresee Foundation: 184 Bimini Place, LA CA 90004 (one block east of Vermont Avenue at 2nd Street.)

$35 for early bird payment (up to one week before the class), and $40 late registration (space permitting.) We’re planning to set up a place where you can charge this on your credit card, but it’s not set up yet. For now, email us (linton.joe [at] gmail [dot] com) to check class status and arrange for payment.

THE BASICS:

Are you looking to promote and grow your cause, non-profit or business? Do you know there’s a lot more to the internet, but don’t know how to get started? If so, then we can help.

The course will cover easy-to-use internet tools that are free and can help your organization. The course will cover easy-to-use internet tools that are free to use and can help your organization. The only thing you need is an internet connection; no computer programming, special programs nor special hardware required. Tools help you reach constituents, promote events, and get your message out. Improve your web presence without breaking your bank. Subjects covered include: bookmarking, social networking, blogging and blog readers, email lists, alerts, photo/video/document sharing and wikis. Each subject will be explained and demonstrated, then attendees will engage in hands-on activities.

PREREQUISITES:

Prerequisites for the class include proficiency with:

 - email (any web-browser-accessible)
- web browser (firefox or explorer,) and
- basic internet searching (Google, Yahoo, etc.)Prior to the class, we will survey students to understand which subjects to emphasize. Course materials include handouts with listing of websites and basic instructions and recommendations.

WHO YOUR INSTRUCTORS ARE:

Joe Linton is an artist and activist, living at Los Angeles Eco-Village in Koreatown, Los Angeles. He wrote and illustrated Down by the Los Angeles River: Friends of the Los Angeles River’s Official Guide, published by Wilderness Press in 2005. He blogs at www.lacreekfreak.wordpress.com

Damien Newton is the writer/editor of Los Angeles Streetsblog, la.streetsblog.org, and lives in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District. He’s an experienced activist, fighting to defend fish and crosswalks. He holds degrees in political science from Johns Hopkins and communications from American University.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What topics does the course cover?
Here’s a list of what we cover. We’ll survey folks signed up for the class to understand what to emphasize and what not to. We’ll cover where to find these, how to use them, and how they can serve your organization.

 - Cloud Computing
- Social Bookmarking: examples - Delicious, Google Bookmarks
- Social Networking: examples - Facebook, Myspace, Linked-In, Twitter
- Meeting Scheduling: examples - Meeting Wizard
- Blogging: examples - Wordpress, Blogger/Blogspot, Typepad
- Blog RSS Readers: examples - Google Reader, Bloglines
- Alerts: examples - Google Alerts
- Message boards: examples - Proboards
- Email listserves: examples - Googlegroups, Yahoogroups
- Photo Sharing: examples - Flickr, Google, Photobucket, Picasa
- Video Sharing: examples - YouTube, Vimeo
- Document Sharing: examples - GoogleDocs
- Calendaring: examples - Google Calendar
- Wikis: examples - Wet Paint
- Task Lists: examples - Remember the Milk, Tiddlywikis

Who should attend the class?
Anyone interested in increasing their web presence by using easy free tools. Materials are appropriate for activists, environmentalists, non-profits, arts organizations, small businesses, churches, and others. The course is especially good for folks who would be potentially interested in blogging, but need some guidance on getting going.

Do I need high-tech hardware or expensive software for this?
No - all the material covered is available using a web browser (explorer, firefox.) No special hardware or software needed.

Questions about the class? - email linton.joe [at] gmail [dot] com

Success!

2009-01-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Ok folks, I've trained my cat to ride in a bike basket. Today was our first trip that had a destination (i.e. wasn't just biking up and down the street) and it went well. Even ran into a dog or to and it didn't spook good' old Bear. I wasn't able to get a good picture of him in the bike, but here he is earlier today helping me write a Streetsblog story on sidewalk conditions.

Bear in a Box,: Day 1

2008-12-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

Since Street Heat didn't make the cut to be a Streetsblog.net blog, I thought I would take a couple of days to chronicle my efforts to make my cat bike friendly. For my birthday, my in-laws got me a beautiful "Buddy Carrier" to be attached to the front of a bike for purposes of transporting a small pet. After careful consultation with my sister-in-law and the Internet, today began bear's bike riding training.

After building the carrier, wrestling Bear into his harness, and attaching the harness to the carrier, I let him chill out for a little bit to get used to it. It's a little smaller than I thought, but he fits just fine. Because he adjusted so well, I decided we should go for a walk.

Here's what I found out:

1) His natural curiosity outweighed his dislike for the harness and being in a box
2) He's scared of cars while they're driving.

Tomorrow we'll try walking closer to Beverly and maybe even on Beverly to see if he can adjust to the car noises. Maybe by early next week we'll be able to take him for walks attached to the bicycle...

O for Week 1

2008-11-13T13:43:00.001-08:00

I get that change is in the air and I'm supposed to be excited and all, but with the news that Obama isn't looking at changing Bush's executive orders in relation to spying/Keeping Us Safe from Terrorists, but is looking to bailout the car industry; well I'm feeling a little bit like everything old is new again.

Streetsblog has some stories on Obama as urbanist that inspire some hope, but right now I'm not feeling that "Yes We Can" Spirit.

How I'm Voting for Transportation on November 4th

2008-10-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

President: Barack Obama

He's not just a bike rider, he also understands the needs of urban areas and is a believer in transit. There's no comparison between Obama and "Drill, Baby, Drill."

Congress: Henry Waxman

Thanks for helping lift the ban on the "Subway to the Sea" tunneling, but that's not enough to get a picture.

Measure R: Yes

OK, here's the deal. I don't like Measure R. There's a ton of problems with the Measure, and that the "pro" Measure R people have decided to promote it as a congestion relieving road tax completely galls me. And, it completely sucks that the Metro Board fumbled on putting money aside for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Add to that the best argument in favor of this proposal that the Pro folks can put forward is that there will be no new transit projects for 30 years if it fails; well that's the worst kind of fear politics. Either give us what you want or you're fucked. Thanks for the awesome discourse, Your Honor.

We really need this legislation. Our transit system isn't what it could/should be. I know that if this fails they'll come forward with a new funding plan of some sort but here's the thing....the next plan is going to suck more than this one. Over the course of two months, the deal makers on the Metro Board managed to slash the Local Return funds, the only chance of seeing any small part of this sales tax get spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects, so they could build a tunnel to double capacity on the 710. Awesome.

Imagine what they would do if they had years instead of months to vote for the proposal.

My advice? There's a lot of good things funded by Measure R. It's not perfect, heck it's not even great. But it is better than what we got, and if you want to wait for a great proposal it isn't going to happen.

Prop 1A: Yes

A no-brainer. Yes on high speed rail.

Streets Quiz

2008-10-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Last night I biked to a Measure R rally, then continued my ride to Santa Monica to get drinks with the family. I saw a lot of weird things on the road, but only three of the following...anyone want to take a guess which of the following were not witnessed on the road?

1) A Caltrans truck waiting for a green light completely in the crosswalk in the left lane at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica forcing literally dozens of pedestrians out of the crosswalk.

2) Two buses at the Measure R rally nearly colliding while trying to honk their approval at the sign waivers.

3) Two Metro Rapid buses running the same route between 10 feet and 100 yards away literally passing each other so that one didn't fill up more than the other. At rush hour.

4) A member of Santa Monica's finest merrily texting away at a red light. Missing the signal turning green, he has to hustle but gets caught at the next red light anyway. Never stops holding his phone at eye level.

Happy Birthday Street Heat!

2008-10-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

Some Guest Posts Over at Streetsblog

2008-10-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

I've gotten some great guest posts over the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to highlight them for folks who read this blog but (for whatever reason) not Streetsblog.

Ingrid Peterson: LA's Sunday Streets: A Simple Switch

Dana Gabbard: More Reasons to Vote for Measure R

Erin Steva: CALPIRG Wants Your Help to Pass High Speed Rail

They're all great. Enjoy.

Pasadena Likes Bikes! LAPD? Not So Much.

2008-09-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

First the good news. The City of Pasadena likes bikes. In fact, they like them so much that they actually closed the inner loop around the Rose Bowl to traffic last Thursday so that cyclists and pedestrians could use the road in peace. I was there, and it sort of rocked. One of the people taking advantage of this cool pilot program is seen above. And to the City of Pasadena, I have two words: More, please.

Meanwhile the City of Los Angeles continued it's war on common sense as it continues to enforce an obscure law requiring that bicycles are registered. In response, a group of Midnight Ridazz went down to the Central District to sign their bikes up. Sadly, they didn't trust Josef's cake which had a rough trip.

So, here's the problems with the law:

Most cyclists don't know it exists.
LAPD is enforcing a $50 fine, even though state law caps the fins at $10.
Only two police stations hand out licenses, and one of them only two days a week.
Not every station is enforcing the law, leading to charges that the LAPD is targetting poorer riders and Midnight Ridazz.

In short, this seems like one of those nuisance laws that police come up with because they can't do what they really want to. Let's hope someone from up above takes care of this one.

I'm listening the Metro Board meeting on my phone

2008-09-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

And I can't help but fantasize that they can hear me on the other end. Like the voice of God is eating cereal and coughing into a microphone. Weird, I know.

Obama=McCain=Schwarzenegger

2008-09-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick thought on what's going on with this ridiculous debate about debates that's going on in Washington, D.C.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5haebZAhk0htf8DGXVp1pXbAMS0wg

"And you know, obviously if it turns out that we need to be in Washington, we've both got big planes. We've painted our slogans on the sides of them. They can get us from Washington DC to Mississippi fairly quickly."

--Dude, if you're both going from D.C. to MS then back to D.C. Maybe, just maybe, you could jet pool.

Ports, trucks, and pollution

2008-09-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

Until recently I hadn't spent a lot of time on port-related issues at Streetsblog, but I'm glad I've spent some time there the last couple of weeks. What goes on at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have a big impact on our air quality.

Recently, my old friends the American Trucking Association sued to keep the Ports of LA and Long Beach from enacting their clean ports policies. The good news? The ATA lost.

In other news, legislation requiring a "clean air" fee to be placed on containers going through the ports is sitting on the desk of Governor Schwarzenegger. We'll have to wait until the budget mess is cleared before we see if he is willing to sign it. In the meantime, get some odd news that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is lobbying Schwarzenegger to veto the legislation.

The Week in Streetsblog: Cyclist Attacked, Metro Retreats

2008-08-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last week featured a couple big stories, on everything from why the city is raising speed limits to CNN taking a look at Mandeville Canyon...and that was just last Monday!

But the big story of the week was the sad story of a cyclist being attacked by a gangbanger while riding the Ballona Creek Trail. The rider received confused sympathy from the police, and outrage from the blogosphere. The story was picked up by bike blogs, Met Blogs, and LAist.

However, the biggest story of the week was the Streetsblog exclusive report that HOT Lanes in LA are going to be so watered down that they want remove any cars from the HOV Lanes and probably won't do very much for congestion. Bummer.

If you can't bring the politicians to bikes...

2008-08-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

...bring the bikes to the politicians.

One of the big debates in Streetsblog this week was bike sharing. Last Friday I wrote about some of the problems that excessive security can have on bike access to the DNC. Over the weekend, I thought it over and decided that I put the wrong emphasis in the story. I should have focused on the outstanding bike sharing program that Bikes Belong put together. 1,000 free rental bikes. Nice.

Of course, national conventions aren't the only place that politicians hang out...thus, viola! It's bike sharing in DC.

The week in Streetsblog

2008-08-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

So, we're going back to Friday's for the "Week in Review" posts for Streetsblog. Trying to do them in the middle of the week just wasn't working.

The story that attracted the most hits was on the Santa Monica Critical Mass ride last Friday. Yes, I really did bring my Pastor with me. He's pictured above. My spiritual leader. Really.

So the SMPD handed out about a dozen tickets for minor or imaginary infractions and basically acted like complete fools while endangering cyclists. I nearly got biked by one and I'll tell ya, I didn't break any laws the entire ride. Most liberal city in the County? Hardly.

But the big news this week was the struggle over Metro's sales tax proposal. Last Thursday the Bus Rider's Union posted an editorial at the Times' website explaining their position opposed. A debate ensued that was so strong that I actually posted a piece by a supporter of the proposal for balance's sake.

This week, we expected the proposal to be passed by the Board of Supervisors and the State Senate. In short, it wasn't. And in the case of the Supes, it was really weird. One supervisor twice spoke about why the proposal should be on the ballot as it was to save taxpayers money than voted against it. Later. He sent out a press release saying he would vote for it when he brings it back up again next week. The whole thing is just weird.

The Senate hasn't moved it out of committee because two Senators decided to hold it up to try and get more money for a good (Green Line Extension to LAX) and incredibly stupid (tunnel to add capacity to freeway by Pasadena).

Next week should be interesting, as the sales tax proposal might get voted down before the election even happens.

Last Week in Streetsblog

2008-07-29T16:52:00.001-07:00

So, last week was the Big Metro Board meeting on their sales tax proposal. Dissapointingly, they did squat for bike/ped. As a result, a lot of bike/ped advocates are resorting to a "see you in November" mind frame irritating the transit advocates.

Also last week was the interview with Tom LaBonge, Los Angeles City Councilman, about bikes and his trip to Europe. Turned out to be a more controversial story than I thought. But with no incoming links it had over 200 unique full page hits which is pretty good.

This week looks to be a slow week, but tomorrow should be a fun day. Look for a story of one of Streetsblogs' victories on the street.

The Past Two Weeks in Streetsblog

2008-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry I missed doing this post last week, it's been a hectic couple of weeks. On the strength of reader curiosity about the Mandeville Canyon incident, and a story picked up by Planetizen about how roads don't pay for themselves; LA Streetsblog just finished it's two strongest weeks ever,

For any readers not from this area, the transportation press has been dominated by discussion of the Mandeville Canyon Road Rage Crash. Basically, on 7/4 a couple of cyclists were cut off by a driver in an act of road rage (you see the cyclists were going slower than the driver wanted) and you can see the non-graphic result above. For more graphic shots, go to our second most read story ever. Given what the story did for Streetsblog's traffic, I can only imagine what it did for LAist who broke and was the lead on the story as it developed.

The story doesn't end there. The local Councilman, StreetHeat favorite Bill Rosendahl, calls a town hall meeting between cyclists and Mandeville residents to respond to the accident. However, two days before the meeting, Rosendahl cancels the meeting and instead forms a "task force" to discuss the issue. The task force meets at the same time/place as the meeting was supposed to be causing some cyclists to scream bloody murder that all that really happened was that they were disinvited to a meeting. Kent Strumpell, Rosendahl's rep to the city's Bike Advisory Committee, was there and he sent a report to Streetsblog which can be read here.

This wasn't the only bike-ped news though. Ironically, the City Council Transportation Committee held an all afternoon meeting on bike issues. There was good news: the city is adopting a Sharrows program and the City Council expressed interest in pursuing a better Bike Master Plan. And there was bad news; the Council is moving ahead with its plan to close one of the entrances to the Ballona Creek Bike Trail.

Remember the Pico/Olympic Plan I covered here (pre-Streetsblog) so obsessively this fall? Well, despite its unpopularity and a judgement against it, it's going forward. The City Council is meeting a judge's request that it receive a full environmental review before the city can take the plan any further.

Write Metro to Support Bike/Ped Projects

2008-07-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

So far, the response to my plea that folks send an email to metroletter@live.com has been underwhelming. Two days into the campaign and we're not yet at 50 signatures. If you're reading this post and you want to ask Metro to put some money aside from their sales tax windfall (if the voter's approve it) go to this post to get the detains or just email metroletter@live.com .

Editor's note: Sorry I forgot The Week in Streetsblog last week. It will be back on Friday.

Why split the story?

2008-07-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sure at least someone is wondering why I broke yesterday's Transportation Committee meeting into two different stories on Streetsblog, one on the Ballona Creek Issue and one on the rest of the meeting.

Well, here's the deal. Yesterday was a great day for bike advocacy in the city. A group of City Councilpeople were near unanimous (again, it's hard to tell how Parks felt because he wasn't engaged until the very end when he spoke forcefully for better amenities around USC) that the city needs to do better for bikes. Sharrows, a better BMP, better bus access...all of these are good issues that the Council addressed, and a lot of people worked very hard to make yesterday happen. They deserve a moment in the sun and Councilmember Bill Rosendahl deserves a measure of praise despite his support of closing that Ballona Creek gate.

Nevertheless, the committee's decision to embrace the LAPD's request to close the gate deserves coverage on it's own. Sounding like a helmut-wearing velo-advocate Richard Alarcon rose to defend free access to a public space and for that he deserves kudos.

So kudos to the Council for embracing bikes yesterday, but all that being said we have a lot of work to do. I think the two stories each make that point in their own way.

The Week in Streetsblog: Metro vs Cyclists

2008-07-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

The monster story for this abbreviated week was when Streetsblog broke the story of how Metro is going to spend that $40 billion windfall if their proposed half cent sales tax increase makes it to the fall ballot. The revelation that absolutely none of those dollars would be earmarked for bicycle and pedestrian projects caused a stir in the comments section as cyclists wondered why the hell they should vote for this measure.

Of course, Metro seems bound and determined to tick off this user group at the moment. Word leaked out of Metro HQ that the agency is considering enforcing it's rush hour ban against bikes on trains. While this rule has been on the books for years, much like bans against wearing a hat sideways in some podunk midwestern town, it hasn't been enforced. Metro couldn't pick a worse time to pick a fight with what could be a crucial user group...especially after blowing them off at the last board meeting.

Also, I rode Venice Critical Mass last Friday. It was cool. We played Soccer.

The Week in Streetsblog

2008-06-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

The highlight of this week's blogging was yesterday's marathon, Metro Board meeting. Steve at Bottleneck Blog did a great write up, but in my completely biased opinion, so did I. Five hours and the Board decides to talk about it all later before making a decision. Glad I left my yellow shirt at home.

But that wasn't the only big story. Free bus rides to Dodger Stadium and a Street Film (thanks Planetizen!) posted at the end of last week got the week off to a bang with bug readership days at the start of the week. I allowed the Times to scoop me by not posting the Dodger Stadium story last Friday when I had the story in hand and I sort of blew it. At least I broke the news that the rides are going to be free...

There was some news we did break. We were the first to unveil CALTRANS' new proposed bike signs and the first to post the results of Metro's press release showing 73% support for its sales tax proposal.

Pardon the Interruption

2008-06-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

But I have to thank someone for some tea.

As a "thank you" for writing on Emerald City, Green LA Girl sent me some tea. Those of you that know me know that I love brewing hot tea and using my clear plastic solar-powered brewer (pictured) to make iced tea in the back yard.

GLG didn't send green tea, but a white coconut creme tea (it looks darker in the picture than it does in real life, I didn't "burn" it) that is honestly unlike anything I've ever drank before. It took me a glass or two to get used to it. It smelled like a pina colada but tasted like, well a white tea with a hint of coconut and creme.

I've had it both hot and iced, and have to say it worked as both. If I've piqued your interest, you can read more about the Art of Tea, from whence it came, here.

The Week in Streetsblog

2008-06-20T15:24:00.001-07:00

No, That's Neither Red Nor Big Red

The week started out pretty slow, but it picked up as the week went on, Ben Fried (out of the NY office) wrote two popular stories on Obama's plans to reform transit and bike funding.

Ben was left Home Alone while a lot of the NY staff went to Portland for the nation's Carfree Conference. While up there they shot a Street Film about depaving a parking lot and putting in a park. Planetizen picked up the film off LA Streetsblog site leading to a burst of hits at the end of the week.

Lastly, outgoing Metro Board Chair Pam O'Connor held what may be the last of her online chats. In it, she talked about the need to change the way we decide whether a road is a success. Currently in LA County, we count cars. O'Connor is suggesting we start counting the number of people that use the road, whether it be in a car, on a bus, on a bike, on foot, etc.... LAist liked the quote so much, they did a whole article on the Streetsblog article.

But the biggest news of all, Streetsblog helped saved a crosswalk that LADOT was planning on removing while repaving the road!

Check in at Streetsblog Monday, we're going to be announcing some big news involving an old favorite of a story...

Bikes and Bear

2008-06-17T16:33:00.001-07:00

Well, we're pretty much a month removed from Take Your Bike to Work Week and I have yet to introduce you to the two newest members of our family, the Schwinn Beach Cruisers we bought at our yard sale: Red and Big Red.

Of course, Big Red has the bike decoration that is more important than any ride card.

And for those of you who I haven't seen in awhile, check out my writing partner who's been with us since January 29th Bear, the Streets Cat. As you can see, Bear enjoys collaborating on a lot of writing projects by sleeping on the printer.

The Week in Streetsblog

2008-06-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't have any posts with mega hits this week, but that's because I lost my stat tracker for about 36 hours in the middle of the week. Even with that, we had two new posts enter the top 15.

The first actually happened last weekend. LABAC's comments to the city's new Bike Master Plan got picked up by a couple of blogs, including LA Curbed and has moved up to 7th on the all time hits list.

A post from Monday about another bike having another incident with another cyclist also cracked the top 15, pulling in at, well, 15th.

Last, a post from Wednesday (pictured above) didn't make the list just yet, but probably would have if not for the 36 missing hours. The post, on the downtown model made by James Rojas etal, will probably slip into the list later this weekend...

Streetsblog Redesigned

2008-06-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello:
Goodbye:

Google Recognizes LA Streetsblog As a News Source

2008-06-10T18:06:00.001-07:00

It may be old hat for my colleagues in New York, but today google finally began posting LA Streetsblog stories in their news section instead of just their blog section.

A Rider's thoughts on the River Ride

2008-06-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's 27 hours after I finished my 50 mile jaunt next to the Los Angeles River and I still feel like crap. My legs feel like they're about to fall off and no matter how much water I drink I feel like every sip is the first one I've ever taken.

All that being said, I'm psyched I actually finished the ride. My fears at around the 35 mile marker that nobody would ever find my body seem a little dramatic now. I'm sure Marybeth would have come looking for me...what would she do with all her freetime without grammar checking Streetsblog for me?

That being said, I noticed a definite difference between this ride and other's I've been on, and I think the difference was in the kind of riders attracted to the River Ride versus the Ridazz attracted to a Critical Mass. First off, people stopped for all the lights, even if there were no cars. If a light turned green and red fast enough that the whole group didn't get through, people stopped and waited for the next light.

Now that may sound like a good thing, and it is, but the overall mood was a lot different. There was no hooting and hollering around bridges. If I saw a cyclist pulled over and asked if they were ok, they seemed surprised that anyone gave a damm. When I pulled over in an attempt to rehydrate, about thirty cyclists passed me by and only one asked if I was ok.

Worst of all, the army of spandex warriors (I don't think I've seen that much spandex since my Dad took me to a WWF event when I was 10. Randy "Macho Man" Savage FTW!) seemed more concerned with their times and getting through the race as quickly as possible rather than just enjoying the ride and the camaraderie they should have felt with their fellow cyclists.

Now there were plenty of weekend bike riders that were good people and considerate bikers. There was one lady who I rode within 300 meters for about the last 20 miles who was a very nice rider and I enjoyed chatting with her immensely, but every time I heard someone make a bad comment about the city or another rider it was always a white person wearing a lot of spandex.

Worst of all, was the attitude shown by a very, very small group that refused to slow down around the pit stops (would that ruin their time or something?) I saw one person just barrel through a pit stop ringing his bell and shouting at everyone. Another person almost slammed into me after swerving around another person crossing the trail while I crossed the bike path back to my bike at the 25 mile marker. Silly me for assuming he would slow down for the pedestrian right in front of him instead of swerving around him and trying to hit me instead of just slowing down. I bet he acts the same way behind the wheel of his SUV/Sports car.

Give me the Ridazz anyday.

In closing, the River Ride was great. It was well planned, well executed and was a day of triumph for me personally. Assuming I'm not permanently crippled, I look forward to doing it again next year. However, it also showed me what a long way we have to go as a bike community before we'll see the kinds of change in the world for which we're all working. If we can't even be polite to each other at a fundraiser for LA's premier advocacy group, what hope do we have of ever unifying behind a single message?

Streetsblog Wrap Up

2008-06-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Partially because I noticed that writing for Street Heat posts actually increases Streetsblog readership (apparently there are still some website that are set to pick up Street Heat content but not Streetsblog content), I've decided to at least do weekly write-ups of the good and bad from the week in Streetsblog.

Thanks to the GeoMint site they set up for me in NY, I can track readership and see what people are reading even if they're not commenting. Three posts that I wrote this week cracked my "top 15 posts of all time," and none of them were the interview with Erik which I expect will shoot up next week once the Planetizen article posts (for some reason it seems to take a week for that to happen for me.).

This week's "biggest winner" was the article on the horrible photo of the bike crash in Mexico. Never doubt your ability to do some real damage while driving drunk. Once LAist linked to the story it was picked up by bike blogs across the Internet is currently my second most read post of all time. That's kind of neat.

Cracking the list at 11th was the piece attacking the Governor for cutting transit funding even as auto VMT is falling and transit ridership is up. Way to go Gov.! I guess the number of cars looks the same from that high up in the air.

The article had a lot of incoming links from websites such as Metro Rider, Free Public Transit for All, Transit Insider, City Transit, RT Rider, and TrolleyCar.org

Rounding out my top 15, with almost no incoming links, was the article on last week's Critical Mass in Los Angeles. I guess a lot of people that come to Streetsblog to scan the headlines thought that it was worth reading, that or the cut and paste link I left at the Ridazz site led to more hits.

I should note that all of these stories, and pretty much everything I write is linked to at the news repository The Metro Library which should be a part of everyone's daily reading that cares about transit in LA.

Check out Damien's Interviews with Erik Knutzen

2008-06-04T13:47:00.000-07:00

Wow. So I do a post on SteetHeat and according to Mint and my comments section, there's a small flurry of activity. Maybe I should post here more often again. I didn't know you all still cared.

To make sure people see it, I did an interview with Erik Knutsen last week about the new book he wrote with his wife, Kelly Coyne, The Urban Homestead. The interview was mostly about bicycling, politics and of course how to do urban farming and take advantage of solar power. You can check out the two parts of the interview at Streetsblog and Emerald City.

If you're interested in buying his book do it at his blog, Homegrown Evolution.

My family's commutes

2008-06-02T20:26:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been forever since I wrote anything here. I'm backlogged on some ideas for this blog, but I wanted to take a quick piece of cyberspace to congratulate my family members for ditching their cars when it comes to commuting.

My brother, an Internet executive gave me the news at dinner last Thursday night. As we speak his Facebook page proudly declares that he's returning to being a bike commuter...take that terrorists!

Two of my cousins, Ben Brisson and Edison Parzanese are living together in Boston this summer but are leaving the car back with their mother. Ben is a jet pilot and will be taking transit to the airport. Edison, a star lacrosse player at Holy Cross, is interning with a financial firm.

So take that car culture, my family is doing it's best to walk the walk.

First LA StreetFilm

2008-04-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Via Streetsblog, I'm happy to report that we've finnished the first LA StreetsFilm. Look for more in the future, but for now enjoy this quick story on BRT in LA.

Plentiful Bike Parking at 3rd Street Farmer's Market

2008-04-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

As long as I've been biking to the Farmer's Market a couple of times a week I've complained that there's only one crappy bike rack. Ok, so it turns out there are three different bike parking areas and about 8 different racks. My bad....but in my defense there were at least three times I complained to Farmer's Market/Grove staff about bike parking and nobody ever told me there were multiple racks...

Dodgers...Yay! Public Process...Boo!(Updated)

2008-03-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

I went to the City Council hearing earlier today hoping to change some minds about the resolution to extend free parking for hybrids that happened to get a sticker from the state. I was armed with arguments ranging from the high cost of free parking, after all, the city could raise another $116,000 by moving this proposal and remove roughly 75,000 miles of VMT from city streets and basic economics, if the state isn't giving out hybrid stickers any more this program isn't going to encourage anyone to buy a hybrid.

Since the parking-hybrid resolution was first on the agenda after some ceremonial stuff, I made sure to be there promptly, even if it meant skipping breakfast. You may note, Streetsblog had three stories put up today...my writing didn't suffer from my advocacy.

I filled out my speaker's card just before the scheduled start time at 10:00 and stood in the back, all of the seating was reserved for people being honored and city employees.

After an hour and a half, including a moving 45 minute ceremony honoring the outgoing city clerk (no complaints from me for that) and a 45 minute commercial for the LA Dodgers the council approved 12 of the 13 items on the agenda by consent. No debate. No public comment. I realize that "public hearings for these items had been held," but I wasn't aware that mugging for pictures with Dodgers executives was more important than hearing from the public before passing 12 binding resolutions. Heck, I missed the big overhead clock that Metro uses to cut speakers off.

The worst part of the story, Councilman Rosendahl, the only councilmember to speak against this proposal in committee after four speakers rose to question it, was busy getting his picture taken when the vote was actually tallied. I tried, but couldn't get a picture of it because security told me I couldn't stand in the center aisle and take a picture.

But hey, at least Tom LaBonge got a baseball autographed by Don Newsom to replace the one he lost as a kid.

UPDATE: Thanks to Councilmember Rosendahl for forcing the council to revisit the issue last week. Hopefully we'll be able to get enough comments in to kill this program once and for all.

My testimony on Metro's Long Range Plan

2008-03-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

I didn't have time to make it perfect, but this is the draft of what I testified last night at the West Hollywood Metro Long Range Plan meeting:

Good evening, my name is Damien Newton and I am a resident of Los Angeles.

Tonight I’m here not to testify in favor of a favorite project, but to present Metro with what I imagine when I think of the future of transportation.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the "ribbon cutting" for the shared street project at Bimini Place. The community has taken control of their local streets and put in permeable sidewalks, macadamia nut trees, traffic calming devices, street art and decorated benches along widened sidewalks. What does this have to do with Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan? The Shared Street Project was funded in large part by a grant from Metro.

Bimini Street is my vision for Los Angeles. A place where all users of the transportation system have access to the street, not just cars and trucks.

To realize this vision, Metro needs to allocate more funds for bicycle and pedestrian projects. Currently, the long range plan calls for spending less than 1% of funds on bike/ped projects while roads and highways receive 25% of the budget for expansion projects. For comparison purposes, the great state of New Jersey spends about 1% of its transportation budget for highway expansion reserving the rest for transit, fix-it projects and retrofitting streets to make them more accessible to the community.

First and foremost, an increase in funds could be used to finally make LA County roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Every time a transportation agency makes a new long term plan, they call for a decrease in cyclist/pedestrian deaths. If you go to LA Streetsblog and run a search for "SCAG" you can see how we’ve been doing in reducing pedestrian crashes and deaths. In short, since 2000, the number of deaths and crashes has basically remained static in LA County.

There’s a lot of ways to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. The most obvious way is to slow down traffic, but that would require the political will and guts to tell the residents of the Car Culture Capital that their lifestyle is not sustainable. Look, with oil prices hitting the roof and the amount of space to build more highways coming to an end someone’s going to have to break the news to the populace eventually. The more money we waste on highway projects the harder it’s going to be to break the death grip car culture has had on our way of life.

LA County also needs to complete our bike network. On my way home from Bimini, I stumbled upon a bike path at second street that was two blocks long. A couple of blocks later I stumbled on the bike path at Beverly which I road west for two blocks until the shoulder and sidewalk completely vanished next to the Wilshire Country Club. This is just one example of a dysfunctional bike network, and if we want LA County to have a world-class transportation network, we’re going to need to fix the bike network.

Metro’s policies on bike/ped projects seems a little skewed. When Metro puts out a call for projects, it always includes this line, "Construction of a bikeway and/or pedestrian path is prohibited unless the bikeway or pedestrian path is designed so that the sponsor can demonstrate that it will not have to be relocated or removed to allow for construction or operation of a future transportation project." Metro needs to change this language and realize that a street that moves hundreds of pedestrians is actually more efficient than one that moves hundreds of car passengers (or transit passengers for that matter).

In conclusion, if Metro shares my vision of a future with less cars and more people on the street then it needs to allocate the money now to fix our streets. I guarantee you we can find ways to spend it and make our communities more livable and less polluted.

Hats off to the BRU

2008-03-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

I know just typing the letters "BRU" will drive up blog hits, but I wanted to take a second to give my personal opinion on something cool that happened yesterday at the City Council Transportation Committee Hearing.

The BRU brought a handful of high school students with them to testify on behalf of the bus-only lane on Wilshire. Each student had hand-written notes or testimony and spoke about the benefit a succesful bus-only project would have for the west side and as a model for the rest of Los Angeles.

I think it's great to get high schoolers involved in the public process, and I wasn't the only one. Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, who had a long meeting, beamed at the students the entire time and couldn't help give the occasional "thumbs up." I wish I had my camera out a little faster.

Anyway, hats off to the BRU for helping to get some future activists involved in the public process and for letting them get their feet wet on a less-than-controversial issue.

A weekend behind the camera

2008-03-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

What are Joe and Nick Talking About?

Well, our weekend of shooting Street Films is over, and we've got enough footage to keep LA Streetsblog rolling in footage for weeks. Thanks to Nick Whitaker and Street Films as well as all those who took the time to chat with us. We have enough footage, b-roll and interviews to keep us flush with Street Films for a couple of months...if feedback and reaction is good enough, we'll have Nick back out soon to shoot more films.

Check back at LA.STREETSBLOG.org soon for more information and for the first LA.streetsfilms.

Congratulations Fred "Metro Rider" Camino!

2008-03-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

You are the winner of the pick the tagline contest for Streetsblog! Your award? One The Open Planning Project T-shirt. I'll have it for you later in the week and we'll figure out how to get it to you.

Anyone who is reading this post and wondering, "where the heck is the transportation policy?" should head on over to LA.STREETSBLOG.ORG

LA Streetsblog

2008-02-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

Most of the action will be happening here now: la.streetsblog.org

As We Creep Closer to the Launch of LA Streetsblog

2008-02-27T12:08:00.001-08:00

I've written a post over at Streetsblog analyzing the just announced transportation plan by Barack Obama entitled "Strengthening America's Transportation Infrastructure" (download it).

Feel free to head on over and join the conversation.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-27T08:19:00.000-08:00

New NBC Studio Provides Barrier to Bike Path (Times)

Report: Congestion Pricing For LAX When Hell Freezes Over (Curbed LA)

Sherman Oaks Residents Ticked About 405 Widening (Fox LA)

Downtowners Want Metro Connector Underground (Blog Downtown)

Meetings This Week for Gold Line Extension (San Bernadino Sun)

Cities Try Other Crosswalk Safety Plans

2008-02-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

A Pedestrian Decoy in a Portland Intersection

USA Today reports on what other cities are doing to try and improve pedestrian safety, particularly in crosswalks. Below is the list of some of the innovative plans that are being tried throughout the country. Can you guess which one wasn't mentioned as part of the article?

In Portland, Ore., where 49% of pedestrian injuries occur in crosswalks, police conduct monthly crackdowns similar to drunken-driving stings. Police identify an intersection where pedestrians have complained about motorists. They post signs warning drivers of "crosswalk enforcement ahead" and have pedestrian decoys try to cross the street. "If the drivers don't stop, a line of police on motorcycles will pull them over," says April Bertelsen, the city's pedestrian coordinator. Portland also has an "I Brake for People" campaign to educate drivers.
St. Petersburg, Fla., partly attributes major reductions in pedestrian accidents to rapid-flashing signals that have raised the rate at which drivers yield to people in crosswalks to above 80% from about 8% at 18 marked intersections. The devices, which flash in an irregular pattern to alert drivers to pedestrians, will be field-tested next in Cambridge, Mass., Las Cruces, N.M., and Mundelein, Ill.
Los Angeles, CA., The LAPD is targeting pedestrians who break laws and cross against a flashing signal. Even when they can make it across the street before the light turns to "hard orange," tickets are given to pedestrians who violate the law.
Washington, where two women crossing Pennsylvania Avenue on a green light were killed last year by a city bus in a crosswalk, plans to add innovative signals developed by the city of Tucson at about 30 locations, says George Branyan, the city's pedestrian program coordinator.
Phoenix is replacing 1,000 traditional traffic lights with countdown-timer signals that tell people how many seconds they have to cross. The signals could cut pedestrian accidents by up to 25%, traffic engineering supervisor Michael Cynecki says. "The countdown is so self-explanatory even a third-grader can understand it," he says.
Denver, Knoxville, Tenn., and several other cities, have implemented a method in which all traffic at an intersection is stopped for about 30 seconds and pedestrians can cross in any direction.

So, which one of these is not like the others?

Re-defining a 180

2008-02-26T11:19:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's Times, Steve Hymon discusses the changing attitude at LADOT about how best to move people throughout the city. The headline, "L.A. officials do a 180 in traffic planning" suggests that we were about to read some radical stuff. Maybe he was going to discuss Gordon Price's argument that LA needs to be more like Vancouver and plan on how to design the roads to best move people, not cars . Maybe he was going to discuss charging people to use our highways through a toll or HOT Lane system and redirect that money towards transit. Instead, this is what we was meant by a "180 in traffic planning":

By the 1950s, the politicians and planners of Southern California had made their bet: Freeways would solve the awful traffic gripping city streets.

Now, Los Angeles officials are taking a different tack. With the Santa Monica Freeway congested, they're looking at increasing the capacity of Olympic and Pico boulevards to ease traffic on the Westside.

Life has a way of coming full circle, eh?

Oh. So the "180" is adding capacity arterial streets instead of adding capacity to the highways.
How radical.

Later in the article, Gail Goldberg, head of City Planning proposes something that would be truly radical for Los Angeles, but then dismisses the idea out of hand.

"One way you can move toward less congestion is if you provide people better accessibility and walkability and more pleasant streets," said Gail Goldberg, the city's chief planner, who is not wild about the Olympic-Pico plan. "But as a city we're not ready for that conversation yet."

I'm sorry, but who says that this city isn't ready for that conversation?

Cyberspace is filled with blogs dedicated to bike, bus and train advocacy. And organizations, from the BRU to the Transit Coalition to SO.CA.TA. to the LACBC to C.I.C.L.E. all exist because people are tired of car-culture warriors making all of the major transportation decisions for Los Angeles.

In just the past couple of weeks, public meetings for the city's Bike Master Plan were overflowing with cyclists demanding better facilities.

Pedestrian advocates, tired of waiting for the city/county to do something about our unsafe and unpleasant roads for pedestrians are taking matters into their own hands. It seems that every month there is a new walkabout planned for somewhere in LA County. A walkabout is an event where the community patrols its own streets to discover how to change them into pleasant pedestrian environments. In February, one was held by the neighborhood council in Woodland Hills. This Saturday, there is another one in downtown Pasadena.

And for transit users, their reactions to plans to reduce service are also telling. Hundreds of people took time off from their evenings and weekends to beg the city not to cut service.

In short, the people of Los Angeles are ready for a real 180 in transportation planning. We're ready for streets that are safe to walk and bike on. We're ready for a world class transit system. Angelenos are ready, but is there a public official willing to lead us there?

Today's Headlines

2008-02-26T07:59:00.001-08:00

New Downtown Delayed (Times)

Feuer Introduces Transportation Funding Bills (California Chronicle)

Downtown L.A. Rail Battle a Street Fight (Mass Transit Magazine)

LACBC Announces This Year's River Ride (LACBC Blog)

Obama Announces Transportation Plan (barackobama.com)

Coming Soon: Buses to Chavez Ravine?

2008-02-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

Some baseball teams have full transit plans...the Dodgers don't even have buses

Councilmembers Ed Reyes and Eric Garcetti have been earning high marks from cyclists recently, and soon they might be earning high marks from baseball fans as well.

The councilmembers are backing a motion that will be heard at tomorrow's Transportation Committee Hearing which would bring back public buses as an alternative to get to Dodger Stadium. The resolution calls on the MTA and Dodgers to work on re-routing existing bus routes by the start of the 2008 season (better hurry...). The new routes should also include a stop at Elysian Park, the newly opened Los Angeles State Historic Park.

The resolution also notes that the Dodgers have benefitted in the past from a coordinated effort to manage traffic in past baseball seasons.

The road to having transit serve Dodgers fans is going to be more difficult than just passing a resolution. Previous attempts to serve the Stadium failed do to lack of passengers and were canceled. Also, it should be noted that the Council isn't proposing altering DASH routes, something that is within their power, but asking Metro to altar some of their existing routes.

Image from AMNY

LA Streetsblog: Help Pick the Tagline

2008-02-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

The tech work being done to move Street Heat to Streetsblog is almost complete and LA Streetsblog ought to be here soon. Before the final touches are made and the move is complete, I need a little help from all of you, especially you Angelenos.

I need help coming up with a tag line. The New York Times has "All the News That's Fit to Print," and Streetsblog has "Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance" so what should the tagline be for LA Streetsblog? Post suggestions in the comments section, and we'll announce a winner with LA Streetsblog launches soon.

(Editor's note: I don't know what kind of bug is going around right now, but I know that I have it. This may end up being my only post for the day, but fear not, we should be back at full strength tomorrow.)

Today's Headlines

2008-02-25T09:29:00.000-08:00

Crenshaw Alternative Slammed (Times, LAist)

Ed Reyes, Bike Advocate (Brayj Against the Machine)

Greenhouse Gas Used as Car Fuel (Carectomy via NYT)

Fact Sheet for Sepulveda Boulevard Reversible Lane Project (Bel Air Online)

Ventura Also Considering Toll Roads (Ventura County Star)

Speak Out on Regional Connector Meetings (LA Downtown News, Times)

Amgen Coverage (Star News)

Metro Busy with Expanion Plans

2008-02-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Just because I've been writing about bikes and development, doesn't mean that Metro hasn't been busy with a myriad of different rail and light rail expansion projects. In addition to the Subway to the Sea and the Expo Line, both of which have been talked about extensively on this and other blogs, Expo is also looking to add light rail along the Crenshaw Corridor and to connect the Gold, Blue and Expo lines in LA's downtown.

This week, Metro began holding hearings to update the public on the agency’s Crenshaw-Prairie Transit Corridor Study. The Santa Monica Daily Breeze reports that Metro has picked a preferred alternative for the project. The new light rail would connect the Expo Line to the Green Line, and pass within a mile of Los Angeles International Airport. The line will run along existing track through an industrial area of Inglewood and not through the heart of the downtown. Unlike Phase II of Expo or the Subway to the Sea, there are already some funds set aside for the project.

Next week, Metro will be holding similar meetings for the Regional Connector plan as it had for the Crenshaw-Prarie Plan. According to the press release, Metro has identified some potential alignments and station locations for a more detailed technical analysis. People interested in seeing and commenting on these alignments will have their chance at two public hearings:

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. 1st Street, Los Angeles

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008: Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Central Library, 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles

Image from Light Rail Now

Making Pasadena a Pedestrian Haven

2008-02-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

The Downtown Pasadena Walkabout, originally scheduled for the end of January, is back on next weekend (Saturday, March 1.) For residents/regular visitors to Pasadena, the walkabout represents a chance to take control of the streets and help make them a better and safer place for people to, well, walk about town. For those less familiar with Pasadena, it provides a chance to see what kind of changes are possible when a community demands streets that are safe for all users, not just cars.

Those wishing to take part in the walkabout should call the Pasadena Playhouse District at 626-744-0340. The walkabout starts at 8:30 A.M. and ends at 2 P.M. Breakfast and lunch are included.

For many Angelenos, Pasadena probably seems like a strange place to do a "walkabout," a community walk designed to document where pedestrian improvements are needed. After all, given the urban jungle that is Los Angeles, Pasadena is a virtual Garden of Eden for pedestrians.

I doubt the Pasadena PD have even thought of harassing pedestrians who cross the street to slowly.

Yet, there are few places that are truly paradise. A presentation by Deborah Murphy, known pedestrian advocate and urban planner, to team leaders before the walkabout's original date showed that Downtown Pasadena has its problems just like everywhere else. Cracked sidewalks, poor signage to transit locations, uneven enforcement of traffic laws are less present here than elsewhere in Southern California, but are still a problem.

And that's exactly what the walkabout seeks to document, where are the problems and what should be done about them. If you're interested in taking part in a street renaissance in Pasadena, give the Playhouse District a call...

Image from Localphotours

Today's Headlines

2008-02-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

Preferred Route Selected for Crenshaw Light Rail (Daily Breeze)

Times' Art Critic Gets Liveable Streets (Times)

Here Come the Smart Cars (Daily News)

Apparently Some People Don't Like the Pico/Olympic Plan (City Watch)

City's Plan for Sidewalks: Charge Homesellers for Fixes (Times)

LACBC Offers Bike Valet at AMGEN Event (KHTS)

Coming Next Week: Regional Connector Meetings (Blogdowntown, Metro)

Biofuels Hot in U.S., Not in Europe (Grist)

So I Went to a Bike Master Plan Meeting...

2008-02-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

To Voice Your Opinions Go Here

...and a Pico/Olympic meeting broke out .

Frustrated with the limited public process, cyclists showed up by the dozens last night to discuss what should be in the next Bike Master Plan (BMP) for the city and vent about current conditions and the attitudes of city staff toward cyclists.

Many cyclists in the room fretted that the BMP was just going to be another document that gathers dust, and the city's outreach was more about being able to check a box on a to-do list than to gather public input. That there were only four meetings scheduled before the plan is drafted (with two more on mountain biking, and four after the plan is drafted) was a major catching point with the audience, nearly all of whom "voted" to ask for more meetings at the end of the session.

The deplorable current state of affairs for cyclists was highlighted that last night's meeting (and according to Stephen Box, none of the four meetings), held on a city-owned building, had bike parking. Some makeshift indoor parking was available behind a booth set up by the LACBC, but the building itself was rack and locker free. Oh, and there was no sound system, despite nearly 80 (I hand-counted 73 at one point) people in attendance.

One thing the city is definitely doing right is bringing in a consultant who has experience creating BMP's that work. Mia Burke, from Alta Planning and Design, worked on BMP's for Portland and other bike-friendly cities and seemed to know her stuff about what engineering options should be on the table. Burke's can-do attitude was needed for a meeting like this as she had to deflect or answer questions all night from a hostile audience.

The meeting started off with a lot of questions and complaints on the first sets of data presented by the consultants. Of chief concern is how the city currently accounts for "bike routes." There are more than 7,350 miles of highway miles in Los Angeles, compared to about 300 miles of bike ways. However, those 300 miles include recreational trails, partial routes (for example, where a bike path or lane exists for one block) and "death traps" such as Sepulveda Boulevard where the words "bike route" don't actually mean anything. Later in the meeting, Burke herself referred to the 150 miles of bike routes as "so-called bike routes."

One of the problems, Burke explained, is that bike planning in the city is so old. Much of the routing was done in the 1980's and the last full update was done in 1996 (the 2002 BMP relied heavily on the one from the 1990's).

So what can be done? The presentation listed several options for improving conditions on the street, from connecting and increasing the city's "broken skeleton" of bike lanes, to creating bike boulevards (streets designed to make it easy for bikes and harder for cars) to better ways of marking and designating "bike routes."

But each of these engineering methods had detractors as well. Numerous speakers spoke against bike lanes as places made more dangerous by opening car doors. Because bike boulevards are usually side streets, many cyclists will avoid them in the evening when they're poorly lit. As for bike routes, few in the room believe that they are anything more than signs and have no real meaning. Despite these complaints, everyone agreed that something needs to be done, and more speakers than not expressed enthusiasm for seeing some of these engineering options tried throughout the city.

For example, 4th Street (currently a bike route from La Brea Ave. to just north of the downtown) seems a logical candidate to be redesignated and redesigned as a bike boulevard. All that would be needed was some traffic calming, new signage, some paint, and changing the stop signs to always favor east-west traffic along the route. The speed humps and other traffic calming would keep cars (except for local trips) off the road and the signage would make it easy for bikes to have a continuous ride.

One engineering option that everyone liked was the "road diet" made popular in the Northwest and Europe. A road diet consists of taking a lane designated for car traffic and using the asphalt to create bike lanes. While popular in the room, Burke was joined by representatives from LADOT and the Planning Department as skeptics that there is the political will to try these types of projects city wide. DOT bike coordinator Michelle Mowery did note that the city has done some road diets in the past.

There was also discussion from the audience about non-engineering issues such as how to encourage more people to take up biking, how to get better enforcement of bike laws, and how to make those laws more equitable for cyclists. All of these issues will be addressed in some form in the final plan, although Burke stressed it was outside of their power to force better police education or to change the law.

There's two bike hearings left. If you can't make one, feel free to post your comments at the plan's official website.

Canadians Keen on Carbon Tax

2008-02-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

Those crazy Cannucks and their silly environmental taxes...

British Columbia joins Quebec as the second Canadian province to implement a carbon tax designed to reduce emissions by 3 million tons within five years. Grist has the full story:

The tax is expected to bring in as much as $1.8 billion over the next three years by increasing the price of almost all fossil fuels in the province, though it's designed to be revenue neutral and won't raise funds for clean energy like Quebec's carbon tax. Instead, to enhance its appeal to consumers, B.C.'s carbon tax is being paired with a $100 rebate as well as a range of tax cuts. Officials hope to change consumers' habits for the better.

Meanwhile, we continue to debate the value of congestion pricing in any form...

For more information on the B.C.'s plan, check out articles in The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail.

Image from ViewImages.com

Today's Headlines

2008-02-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

EcoVillage Needs Your Help (Bike Commuters)

California's budget deficit grows to $16 billion (Press-Enterprise)

Nothing is Completely Safe...(Metro Rider)

Fare Gate Reasoning Deconstructed (Metro Rider)

Hearings Coming for Crenshaw-Prarie Transit Corridor (LAist, Wave)

Missing: Urban Policy In Presidential Campaign (NYT via Streetsblog)

It's Official: Council Takes on Santa Clarita Project

2008-02-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

The Santa Clarita Signal reports today that the LA City Council is taking a stand on the Newhall Ranch project in the San Fernando Valley. The Signal Notes:

The unanimous vote by 14 Los Angeles council members came on a motion by District 7 Councilman Richard Alarcon; it pits Los Angeles against the planned Newhall Land and Farming Co. development in the Santa Clarita Valley northwest of Stevenson Ranch, and against the first phase of that plan - the development of Landmark Village.

For their part, the developer's claim that this plan has been in the works for a long time, and opposition now is too late to the game.

"The Newhall Ranch Specific Plan was approved nearly five years ago by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, culminating more than a decade of community outreach, public hearings, governmental reviews and court reviews."

As noted last week in Street Heat, the largest concern is over the traffic the project will create 100,000 residents who won't be able to find jobs in the Valley.

County officials are expected to vote on the plan next Thursday.

Cyclists Unhappy with LADOT's Public Process

2008-02-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

Image from Portland DOT's "Bike Master Plan Monthly Rides" Website

A growing chorus is building in the cycling/activist community that the LADOT's public outreach for its Bike Master Plan is insufficient, and perhaps the harbringer of a bad plan. Stephen Box, of the Bike Writer's Collective, Illuminate LA, and Soapbox LA wrote an article today for LAist comparing LADOT's shoddy outreach with those in Portland and Long Beach:

Using Portland and Long Beach as a guideline, LA cyclists expect a comprehensive BMP public input process that reaches each of the neighborhoods in the 465 square miles of Los Angeles and that really reaches out to the 3.8 million people who share the 6500 miles of LA public roadway.

But instead, LADOT Bikeways and Planning gave the public three weeks notice, notification so insufficient that the Bicycle Coalition and the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee were both unable to get the BMP on their agendas prior to the workshops. The City’s own partners were caught off-guard in this process. This is hardly a demonstration of a commitment to an open and transparent and inclusive endeavor.

In a post last week at West Side Bike Side, Alex Thompson noted the meetings' locations also don't make a lot of sense.

Where are these meetings located? One is located at the absolute end of the universe, a few miles from the water in San Pedro. San Pedro deserves it's chance for input, but it's not exactly the center of the LA biking scene, and certainly not in the top four of regions that need to offer input. Further, there's not one meeting in the Los Feliz/Silverlake/Hollywood/Bicycle District area. If you live near the original Midnight Ridazz meeting point, the center of LA's urban bike scene, you'll have a long ride to attend one of these meetings.

Militant Angeleno also noted the odd meeting locations in his review of this weekend's confab. When listing the future outreach locations, the Militant noted:

The Eastside: Sorry, guess that means that they just don't care about you.

As we noted here last week, for a BMP to have real impact, it needs to have the enthusiastic support of the city and of riders (in all five cities we reviewed, the Mayor was a leader in getting the plan off of its feet) So far, the outreach process seems to be a turnoff to the bike activists in the community. If the city is simlarly unenthused, we probably won't be too happy with the final work product of the consultants when we see the draft plan this November.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-20T06:32:00.000-08:00

LAist Slams Bike Master Plan Workshops (LAist)

USC Needs Better Transit Service (Daily Trojan)

History of LA Transit Planning (Times)

Metro Sues Parsons for Gold Line (Pasadena Star News)

Sacramento a Stronghold of Bike Culture (Sac Bee via Bike Commute Tips)

Councilman Moves to Stop Sale of Hollywood Hills Lot

2008-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

A battle is brewing between Councilman Tom LaBonge and the real estate company who owns land to the west of the famed "HOLLYWOOD" sign.

Last week, Teles Properties of Chicago issued a press release announcing the sale. The agency, claiming an easement was obtained by former property owner Howard Hughes and that the city reneged on a deal to buy the land for preservation, has begun shopping the 138 acre site for residential development.

LaBonge held a press conference later in the day disputing these claims. “I’m going to use all of my options to fight this and I’m going to ask the public’s help and support, ” LaBonge said. The most likely option to stop the sale would be for the city to declare that the development on the land is impossible, a prosepct deemed unlikely by Teles Properties.

If the Councilman is going to be succesful in fighting the development planned for the area, he better move fast because the properties are on the market, and according to the Washington Post, "the phone is ringing."

Image (and caption) from the office of Councilman LaBonge

Today's Headlines

2008-02-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

Pico/Olympic: The War Continues (Bottleneck Blog)

A Beverly Hills Look at Pico/Olympic (Blog Beverly Hills)

43 Injuries, One Death on LA Public Transit So Far in 2008 (LAist)

Patriarch of City Planning Passes (Times)

SANBAG Considering Carpools for Part of I-10 (San Bernadino Sun)

London Mayoral Hopefuls Tout Their Green Credentials (BBC via Planetizen)

This Weekend's Headlines

2008-02-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

Review of Bike Master Plan Meeting (Militant Angeleno)

Former Citycouncil President Poo-poo's Maglev (Daily News)

Mayor Sued Over Pico-Olympic Plan (City Watch)

Percent of Trips Made in Single Passenger Vehicles Decreases (LA Times)

Hollywood 'bike rider' killer still at large (ABC7)

Video Tour of New Redondo Beach Bike Path (SM Breeze)

Farewell to Flexcar (LA Downtown News)

How Federal Policy Favors Highways Over Transit (Politico via Planetizen)

China Spending Huge Sums on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (Economist)

"Done Deal" Pico Plan Moves Forward Depite "Some Opposition"

2008-02-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

Who Cares What This Guy Thinks?

In their rush to cover the news (broken last night in an excellent piece in the Times) that the Mayor is ignoring the wishes of the City Council and local councilmen, the mainstream media is downplaying the opposition to the Mayor's plan to remove parking, synchronize lights and promote traffic flow on Pico and Olympic Boulevards.

Fox, the LA Business Journal and NBC are all running with the AP story on the mayor's move which marginalizes the near unanimous opposition of the community groups, business groups, business owners and residents along the corridor as "some opposition." The AP story takes the Mayor's word on the benefits of the project, and ignores the controversy created by a Mayor bulldozing opposition and the public process. There is no mention of the thousands of people that have shown up to hearings and public meetings, that testified and signed petititions in the time between the plan's surprise announcement and yesterday's decree that "the council did not have jurisdiction over such issues as parking regulations or whether streets were one-way."

The Times gets it right, repeatedly going back to the breadth and passion of the opponents to this plan. The story here isn't just that the Mayor has a new plan to fight traffic, the story here is also that neighborhood councils and councilmen don't have any power to influence what happens on their streets (according to the Mayor's office.)

While the community will doubtless fight on, lawsuits are already in the works, the other big loser is Counciman Bill Rosendahl, an outspoken critic of the project who saw the concerns of Councilman Herb Wesson addressed (the plan no longer extends all the way from Santa Monica to La Brea, it now stops at Fairfax) and his own ignored.

And what were Rosendahl's radical ideas that were so revolutionary that they couldn't even be considered? Rosendahl asked that the Department of Planning work with LADOT and the community to address the community's concerns before the plan was implemented.

Yesterday's power play by the Mayor marks the end of the pretense that the city and the community is working together to make the best plan possible for everyone.

You can check back with Street Heat for full all of the latest coverage as the controversy enters its next stages.

For previous coverage of the Pico/Olympic plan, click here.

Image from PR Web.

Bike Plan Stop 5: New York City

2008-02-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

That's NYC DOT Commish Janette Sadik-Khan, a Regular Bike Commuter, in the Black

New York City offers perhaps the most prophetic glimpse into what the future may hold for bike/pedestrian projects and planning in the coming years. At the top levels of the government, there is a dedication to improving the lot for cyclists. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, an avid cyclist, has surrounded herself with a dream team of alternative transportation advocates and has pushed forward with a lot of exciting projects even though she's been in office for less than a year. In just the last six months, new bike lanes have opened and major bike routes have been planned, for instance:

New Bike Shelters Are Popping Up All Over the City

The City Announced Its First Bike Share Plan

Prince Street Bike Lane Has Arrived

Manhattan Bridge Bike & Ped Improvements Nearing Completion

While none of these stories is earth shaking by itself, the trend is clear; the city is slowly re-engineering itself to become a more bike compatible place.

However, giant urban bureaucracys being what they are, the execution remains uneven as bureaucrats and the police continue to do things the old way and slow the pace of the reforms.

Image (and about half of the links) via Streetsblog

(Full Disclosure: Sadik-Khan sat on the board of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign while I was the Campaign's New Jersey Coordinator. During much of that time, Jon Orcutt was the Campaign's executive director)

"Making Connections" Website Looks at Transportation for Two Communities

2008-02-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

The programs offered by Livable Spaces aren't limited to their speaker's series, the group also does community and transportation planning for communities around the city. Currently, the group is chronicling their efforts in creating the needed bicycle and pedestrian connections for two neighborhoods surrounding the Chinatown and Lincoln/Cypress Metro Gold Line Stations. Much more information about the project can be found at the projects website, which can be found here.

Image from Livable Spaces

Today's Headlines

2008-02-15T06:44:00.000-08:00

Done Deal, Mayor Ignores Council Moves Ahead with Pico/Olympic Plan (Times, CBS2)

Metrolink and law enforcement agencies team up (KHTS 1220 AM)

It's Official, No Widening of 2nd Next to CALTRANS (blogdowntown)

In Historic Shift, U.S. Rail Network Is Expanding (WSJ via Planetizen, CBS2)

Wisconsin College Gives Bikes to Students Who Don't Have Cars (Grist)

Lance Armstrong Opens Shop, Wants to Promote Bike Commuting (Austin 360)

Bike Plan Stop 4: Mexico City

2008-02-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Viva La Raza

Like the other cities discussed this week, Mexico also has a bike lover as a Mayor. Last year, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered a new Bike Master Plan and set a goal of tripling the mode share for cyclists in the next three years from .7% to 2%. The eventual goal of the plan is for mode share to stabilize at 5%

When Ebrard announced the new plan, he also announced that city employees must bike to their jobs on the first Monday of every month. Surprisingly, the rides have been a hit with city employees, but of course such symbolism is worthless if not backed by policy.

The final Master Plan will build 186 new miles of bike lanes, install bike facilities at Metro stations and create a bike sharing program for residents unable to purchase bikes themselves. As we've seen before, cities serious about promoting cycling commit to building hundreds of miles of new lanes.

Unrelated, my research also found what is perhaps the coolest bike law in the world, "...Also, anyone who whistled at or annoyed a bicycle rider could be arrested."

For the second time in two international stories, my research led me straight to research already done by writer's at my future home at Streetsblog. Helmuts off...
Photo from San Diego Union Tribune via Streetsblog

Council Holds Slimmed Down Pico/Olympic Plan

2008-02-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

When an angry mob of westside business owners descends on city hall it can mean just one thing...it's time for another hearing of the Mayor's Pico/Olympic Plan.

Yesterday, the City Council's Transportation Committee picked up where they left off last December to listen to LADOT and the local business owners tell two different stories of the beleaguered plan to eliminate parking, modernize traffic signals and give "preferential directional flow" to the Pico and Olympic Boulevard corridors.

But first, the Council Members registered their own anger and opposition to the project. Councilmember Bernard Parks read a letter from Councilmember Herb Wesson promising an amendment to the plan exempting his district to the applause of the audience.
Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes the northern end of the process, didn't go as far as Wesson but did promise a similar resolution for his district if the LADOT didn't work with the city's planning office and the community to rethink the plan in his area. "If we're every going to move beyond the rhetoric of transportation and planning being joined at the hip, it's now."

LADOT representative John Fisher reported on the 13 public meetings the DOT held with community and business groups along the corridor. Based on community response, the new Pico/Olympic plan has fewer parking restrictions than the previous plan. Restrictions are no longer planned for the areas of Pico Boulevard between Centinella and Gateway, and the area between Fairfax and La Brea. DOT has also shortened the hours for restrictions in both the morning and evening. The DOT distributed maps of the new restricted areas to the committee, but not the general audience. Fortunately, Councilmember Tom LaBonge shared his with the audience and community activists huddled around the map as the DOT continued its presentation.

The community was unimpressed with the new plan. The cruxes of the arguments were one's we've heard before at other public hearings. Some new twists were added as two groups promised legal action to stop the project.

Jay Handal, Chairman of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, claimed that 5th District Councilman Jack Weiss, a vocal supporter of the plan, is telling people the plan is a "done deal." Despite not yet receiving funding from the Council, Weiss is allegedly giving specific dates that the project’s phases will begin. Handal claims that such deal making is a violation of the Brown Act (mandating open public meetings in California) and the WLACC will contact the Attorney General's office later today. Weiss was again conspicuous by his absence.

Zariah Washington, representing the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, announced a lawsuit against the DOT claiming that the informal community process is a violation of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The committee ultimately tabled the report, meaning it will have to hold another hearing before either sending the report to the full council or rejecting it. Based on the strength of the opposition and the multiple avenues it is pursuing to fight, this project isn't a "Done Deal" quite yet.

Photo from LA Times

Less People, Same Passion at Westside/Central Sector

2008-02-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Planned Westside and Central Sector Changes

Last night the Westside/Central Sector Council for the Metro Board held their public hearing on Metro's planned service cuts. The meeting wasn't as well attended as the one I attended last week in the San Fernando Valley, but nearly everyone that attended the meeting testified and the outcry was the same, "don't cut our buses, now is the time to grow our transit system, not cut it."

Nearly 30 people testified last evening, all opposed to either some or all of the proposed cuts. A note of levity was added to the evening as Chair Jerard Wright continually announced the "last speaker" only to have someone turn in a speaker's card while the "last speaker" submitted their comments. But, the meeting remained a somber one, as a mix of transit riders all pleaded for their local lines. Among the most popular lines due for elimination was the 220, and the entire night owl (service between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.) cuts planned for the 10, 14, 37 and 38.
In another rare show of unity, SO.CA.TA and the Bus Rider's Union both spoke forcefully against the elimination of the late night bus service.

SO.CA.TA representative Ken Ruben noted that "Owl service has always been a 'lifeline' service for those who are both transit-dependent and forced by their economic circumstances to work hours that are not otherwise conductive to using public transit."

A flyer (written in both English and Spanish) from the BRU reminded that Metro planned to cut owl service in 1997 and the BRU with help from janitors, security officers, and hotel workers worked together to defeat the cuts.

If an alliance is forming to stop Metro cuts, they better act fast. The last hearing is tonight, and written comments need to be postmarked today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Image from the Transit Coalition

Today's Headlines

2008-02-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

Cops in the Right in Koreatown (Curbed LA)

City Beat Examines Damien Goodmon, Expo Line (City Beat)

"Ride Metro with the Mayor" Is Good Politics Hiding Bad Policy (Daily News)

Riding the Rails with the Mayor (City Beat)

Mayor's Subway Report Card (LAist)

Miami Cyclists Bike On Despite Awful Conditions (Miami New Times)

New Bike Path Opens in Redondo Beach

2008-02-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

From a press release:

The City of Redondo Beach recently completed construction on the Bay Cities / North Redondo
Beach Bikeway. The bikeway provides a critical “green” transportation link between corporate
employers in the northern sections of the South Bay and residential communities to the south.

Adding another link in the human-powered bike trails in the South Bay, the Redondo Beach
portion of the bikeway begins connects the final segment of the Torrance bikeway at Anza
and 190th Street and concludes as a bike lane as it unites to the MTA/Redondo Beach Green
Line Station on Marine Avenue.

Bike Plan Stop 3: Seattle

2008-02-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

As a precursor to full plan implementation, Seattle DOT Tagger Future Bike Routes

Last year, Seattle revamped its Bicycle Master Plan after the city had agreed to rethink all future road projects as "complete streets" projects, i.e., all modes of transportation would be supported, not just cars. A lot of the plan is typical master plan boilerplate, but Seattle earns major kudos by planning to increase its bike lanes by 900%.

Seattle's plan aims to change the percent of trips taken on a bike from 2% to a whopping 12%. To meet this goal, the city decided to add 200 miles of bike lanes to the 25 that already exist. The Seattle P-I reports that by adding more bikes, the city hopes to increase safety:

At least four times a week, John Duggan, a Seattle attorney specializing in bicycle accidents, gets calls from people who have been hit by cars. "In almost all of these cases, the cars are not aware of the cyclist or they misjudge the bicyclist's speed," he said.

For Duggan and city officials, it's a matter of numbers. There often aren't enough bikes on the road -- and designated bike lanes and signage -- to make motorists aware.

From Copenhagen, Denmark, to Portland, cities have found that as the number of bicyclists increase, so does the safety for those riders. Toward that end, Wentz said his planners are hoping to encourage a threefold increase in urban bicycling over the next decade.

Another sign that the plan was being taken seriously was a city hall press conference where the Mayor announced that Seattle was going to be the NW's new bike capital...while I think Portland may have something to say about that, this ten-year plan is certainly something that the Emerald City can be proud of.

image via IHeartBikes

Mayvis Coyle Redux

2008-02-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Public Enemy #1

Last week, Curbed LA reported that the LAPD was busy over-enforcing traffic safety laws in Koreatown by ticketing people who were crossing the street, even some who were doing so legally. While most commentors shared my sense of outrage, there were of course a select few who were thrilled that the police were finally cracking down on the "lawless" behavior of pedestrians.

While it's certainly concerning that the LAPD is spending time harassing pedestrians that it could spend enforcing traffic laws, it shouldn't be a surprise considering the police's long-standing animosity toward pedestrians.

Two years ago, then 82-year old Mayvis Coyle stepped off the sidewalk into an intersection when she had the walk signal. Half a minute later, she was receiving a $114 ticket for obstructing the flow of traffic. It seems the elderly woman couldn't get across the intersection in the allotted 20 seconds. Coyle found the smugness of the police officer to be as offensive as the ticket itself. “I think it's completely outrageous. He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing,” she told the Daily News.

Following a report in the Daily News, Coyle's story got picked up worldwide and she became a celebrity. The LAPD, always conscious of looking like fools on the world stage, quickly apologized and tore up the ticket. They received an accommodation from Councilwoman Wendy Greuel for acting so quickly to fix a mistake.

Of course, that's not what really happened.

The LAPD closed ranks and despite changing the intersection timing at the request of the Councilwoman, attempts to get the ticket taken care were brushed aside. When contacted by the Ellen Degeneres show to make an appearance, Coyle told them she was being threatened by the LAPD not to do any more media appearances. In July of 2006, a judge found Coyle guilty but waived the fine.

And if that's not bad enough, Coyle's fine of $114 was more than the fine if a car had "accidently" crashed into her while she was crossing the street and the signal was still white.

When a story breaks about the LAPD harassing pedestrians in the name of traffic flow (and it will happen again, and again...), remember Mayvis Coyle and prepare to be outraged all over again.

Image via Transportation Alternatives

Citing Traffic, Councilmember Slams Project in Santa Clarita

2008-02-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

Councilmember Richard Alarcon is taking aim at a major planned development that he says will add "long commutes over already jammed freeways into the San Fernando Valley creating further gridlock and adding pollution to our air." The environmental documents for the project state that it will create 357,000 average daily trips, but there is no follow-up on what that will mean to the surrounding roadway network. Alarcon is asking the city to weigh in on this development and do everything in its power to stop the development.

The catch? Alarcon is railing against the Landmark Village residential project which is outside of city limits in the San Fernando Valley. Despite the project's potential impact to the City of L.A.'s transportation network, the city has not weighed in.

At last month's all-day transportation meeting in the City Council chambers, Director of City Planning Gail Goldberg told Alarcon that the city doesn't have a procedure to comment on projects outside of the city's jurisdiction.

For the city to have an impact it has to hurry. The LA County Board of Supervisors could vote on the project as soon as February 26th.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-13T06:29:00.000-08:00

City Council Passes Cash Out Parking Resolution (LAist)

Council Committees Move on Making City More Bike Friendly (blogdowntown)

USC Master Plan Focuses on Ped. Safety (Daily Trojan)

Ride Metro with the Mayor (Daily News)

Parking Plan Targets RV's (Times)

More on London's Bike Transformation (Guardian)

Bike Sharing Coming to Tucson? (Tucson Citizen via Bike Commute Tips)

Years of Delays Caused by 101 Widening Project (Pac Coast Business Times)

How Will the Next President Effect Transporation Policy (Smart Growth Online)

Speeding Is Illegal (Times)

Event Tonight: Latino Transportation Needs in Regional Planning

2008-02-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is currently in the comment period of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). This twenty year plan (up to 2035) will set a long term framework for transportation investments for the six county SCAG- region (comprised of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties).

Latinos are a growing part of this region which will influence mobility patterns. We need to ensure that these needs will be addressed in the next cycle of the RTP.

Please join us for a lively discussion and presentation on the RTP and Latino mobility patterns.

For further information contact: James Rojas, (626) 437-4446

DATE: TONIGHT!

TIME: 7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.

PLACE: Metro Headquaters, Gateway Room, 3rd Floor.

For more LUF about visit http://www.latinourbanforum.com/

To post events, activities or meetings that promote planning, cultural or dialogue contact James Rojas at 213 892-0918 or email Latinourbanforum@yahoo.com Please submit post in a word document.

Image and Text from Latino Urban Forum

Road to the Bike Plan Stop 2: Chicago

2008-02-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

Nice, It's Even Cubs' Blue

Chicago made news last week when it's #1 bicyclist, Mayor Richard Daley, introduced ordinances that would increase fines for reckless drivers who injure cyclists. The Chicago Sun-Times notes that "It's designed to reduce the number of crashes involving bikes and motor vehicles. There were 6,000 such crashes in Chicago between 2001 and 2005, killing 30 cyclists." For a quick comparison, there were more than 100 bike deaths in Los Angeles over the same period.

The Chicago bicycle federation quickly got behind the plan and wrote on its blog the details:

Specific provisions of the ordinance define three feet as the minimum safe distance to pass a bicyclist, prohibit opening a vehicle door into moving traffic, increase the fines for parking in bike lanes or marked shared lanes, clarify that left-turning motorists yield to oncoming bicyclists and prohibit motorists from turning right in front of a bicyclist.Violation of the proposed rules will result in a minimum fine of $150 and no less than $500 when the violation results in a bicycle crash. The proposed ordinance will make it easier for police to issue tickets, and for prosecutors to bring charges when motorists hit bicyclists.

Better enforcement of bike safety laws is a key part of the city's "Bike 2015" Master Plan, which aims to "make bicycling an integral part of Chicago's daily life." The plan is divided into eight sections, each with a specific goal:

Bikeway Network – Establish a bikeway network that serves all Chicago residents and neighborhoods.
Bicycle-friendly Streets – Make all of Chicago’s streets safe and convenient for bicycling.
Bike Parking – Provide convenient and secure short-term and long-term bike parking throughout Chicago.
Transit – Provide convenient connections between bicycling and public transit.
Education – Educate bicyclists, motorists, and the general public about bicycle safety and the benefits of bicycling.
Marketing and Health Promotion – Increase bicycle use through targeted marketing and health promotion.
Law Enforcement and Crash Analysis – Increase bicyclist safety through effective law enforcement and detailed crash analysis.
Bicycle Messengers – Expand the use of bicycle messengers; improve their workplace safety and public image.

As Los Angeles moves forward with it's own Master plan, Chicago's provides a useful blueprint. It shows that a Master Plan is more than just engineering, it's about creating a city where biking is safe, pleasant and affordable.

Image from bike2015plan.org

Price Speaks on the Failure of LA's Boulevards

2008-02-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

Gordon Price began his lecture at City Hall yesterday by noting that big changes are coming as a result of global warming and a decline in the amount of oil the world can produce and warned that Los Angeles will be one of the cities that will see the most change.

But it didn't have to be that way. Back in the 1920's, Los Angeles, like Vancouver, was built around a streetcar system. The difference between how each city grew in the last 75 years can be described in two sentences, "Los Angeles committed to the car. Vancouver accommodated the car." Today in Vancouver, nobody is more than 1/4 mile away from public transportation, and in the walkable, bikeable downtown area more people walk or bike (to say nothing of transit) than drive.

To achieve this mode share, Vancouver had to do a lot of thing's differently than Los Angeles has been doing. First, it needed to re-zone and rebuild its downtown and neighborhoods. Price claimed the key to walkability wasn't just having wide sidewalks, attractive store fronts and minimal white noise (traffic of more than 30 mph reduces walkability because it impedes a conversation). A community also needs access to a mid-sized grocery store. Without it, people will get in their cars to go grocery shopping and once in their cars drive other places.

In Price's own neighborhood, a grocery store was put in the bottom floor of a high rise (that is easily accessible via foot traffic) and of the 230 spaces built below the store, there is never more than 1/4 of them being used.

Of course, parking, and the North American obsession with providing free parking, is also at the root of many urban ills. Price pointed to the Larchmont Village in Los Angeles as an example of the kind of development that works for both neighborhood residents and business owners. He then pointed out it would be illegal to build today under LA's parking codes because of a lack of car parking.

So, what are the results of the different planning styles we've seen between Vancouver and Los Angeles? In Vancouver's downtown, 49% of all trips were made by car in 1992, compared to 13% car pool, 23% transit and 15% walking/biking. The government set ambitious goals to change the mode share. By 2021 they planned to reduce driving to 36% and car pooling to 12% by increasing transit usage to 34% and walking and biking to 30%.

So far, they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. By 2004, single-occupancy driving was reduced to 30% of all trips with car-pooling adding another 9%. Transit usage and walking/biking each achieved a 30% share meaning more people commute by transit, walking and biking than by car. By contrast, census figures show that in 2006 more than 70% of LA commuters drove in a single passenger vehicle and another 12% car pooled. Given that 6% worked from home that means about 1/5 as many workers either took transit, walked or biked as they do in Vancouver.

So, what can Los Angeles do now? Price didn't have a silver bullet answer, but the blueprint is there in his talk. But re-engineering our streets for all modes of transportation, reforming the parking code, adding more dense development, and rebuilding our mass transit system is easier said than done. But since we live in a world where oil is beginning to run out just as the competition for it is heating up, if Los Angeles wants to remain one of the world's premier cities we don't have a choice.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-12T06:22:00.000-08:00

GM Has Record Loss in 2007 (Times)

10 Ways to Improve LA Public Transit (Metro Rider via Blogging LA)

It's Official, LA Traffic Lights Suck (LAist via Times)

OC Not Collecting All of Red Light Revenue (Bottleneck Blog)

A Critique of Downtown Ped. Friendliness (LA Straphanger)

NY Mayor: Climate Change 'Just as Lethal' as Terrorism (Post)

Countdown to Bike Master Plan: Five Days, Five Stories

2008-02-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

As we count down to the hearings for the City of Los Angeles' new Bike Master Plan, I thought we could take a look at what other cities are doing when it comes to planning a city that is safe and enjoyable for cyclists. I was all set to write about Chicago and they're bike loving Mayor, but then I heard Gordon Price talk about some big news out of London. Naturally, by the time I got home Streetsblog had more than covered it, but here we go anyway.

Earlier today, London Mayor Ken Livingston released what is probably the world's first billion dollar bike plan.

"By ensuring that Londoners have easy access to bikes in the centre of the capital, as well as making our city a safer and more enjoyable place to cycle, we will build upon London’s leading position as the only major world city to have achieved a switch from private car use to public transport, cycling and walking," Livingston said in a statement.

The five parts of the Mayor's plan are:

A Central London bike hire scheme, similar to the recently launched Paris scheme, with up to 6,000 bikes located across docking stations every 300m so Londoners and visitors have quick and easy access to a bike. This will be supported by a series of easily navigable routes so that people can enjoy London’s sights by bike.
Around a dozen radial Cycling Corridors for commuters to provide high-profile, easy to follow cycling streams into central London.
The creation of a series of Bike Zones for shoppers and the school run in Inner and Outer London, with cycle priority streets, 20mph speed limits and quick, clear and simple routes that link key local destinations and open parks and waterways for cyclists.
The expansion of the Legible London signage system to help people make short trips around the capital on foot, rather than driving, or taking the bus and tube.
Working with the London Boroughs on the establishment of 200 Streets of Gold – urban makeovers which link key local destinations like stations, schools and shops in inner and outer London with high quality walking facilities, delivering improved pavements, seating and crossings alongside regeneration measures.

Image: This is London, via Streetsblog

The Bus Bench Ends "Dead Escalator Series"

2008-02-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

If there was a great example of a blogger/activist writing to bring about change on an issue, it was The Bus Bench's Dead Escalator Series. The series chronicled the experiences of "Bus Tard" as he went from station to station wondering why the hell the escalators/elevators would work one day and not the next (or not at all.) In the series' final post, Bus Tard is able to both claim partial victory and gets an explin why the escalators are sometimes working and sometimes not.

This past week, a team of inspectors was in the Metro tending to the escalators and lifts. Quite a few escalators were fixed, and for that I am happy. The lifts may take a bit longer, but we'll see...

The emergency stop button is frequently engaged by school kids (whose idea of a prank is frighteningly dim, I might add) and to re-start the escalator in question, one must reach into the lower left panel for the switch. (Those panels are rarely locked, a statement that prompted no responce from the MTA official that day.) The aluminum steps —"teeth," as I call them—cost several thousand dollars each. When a metal item—say, a penny—is dropped and becomes stuck in the upper or lower skirt, the aluminum ridges are ground down and the "tooth" has to be replaced. Several million a year are spent replacing these parts. Finally, there is an emergency number for the reporting of dead escalators that is placed not very prominently near the emergency stop button.

Some hearty Street Heat congratulations go out to Bus Tard. Now, good luck on fixing those service cuts.

Reminder: It's Gordon Price Day!

2008-02-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

For those that can't make one of today's talks...

Just a friendly reminder that Liveable Places is presenting three different presentations by Gordon Price, former Vancouver City Councillor, tell the story of how Vancouver became a greener city. Price's speech kicks off the "Envisioning Green LA" series for 2008 which will also include Manuel Pastor, Bill Reed - May 2008, and Jan Gehl.

Today's talks include a lunchtime chat at city hall (which is already completely booked) and a 2:30 P.M. talk at the Long Beach Public Library.

But the highlight of the day will be a talk between Price and Cecilia Estolano, Chief Executive Officer of L.A.'s Community Redevelopment Agency at 5:30pm Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

For directions or other information, visit the Liveable Places website.

Video from You Tube courtesy Liveable Places.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

Police Harrasing Pedestrians in Koreatown (Curbed LA)

SOCAL Officials: Bond Money for Highways Not Freight Rail (Times)

Downtown Streetcar Plan Moves to Phase II (Blog Downtown)

Taxi plan moves forward (Downtown News)

Biofules Bad for the Environment? (Times)

Waxman Subpoenas EPA/Greenhouse Documents (Times)

CA Greenhouse Guidelines Should Lead to More Walkable Cities (Ventura County Star)

It's Time to Call Out Reckless Drivers (Gristmill)

Women-Only Buses Prove Popular in Mexico City (NYT)

Coulmnist: More Transit Options a "Virtuous Circle" (SM Lookout)

Bush Budget "Bad for Transit"

2008-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

My old friends at Mobilizing the Region have crunched the numbers on President Bush's FY09 budget, and the news is not good for transit. Even in a year where Transporation Secretary Mary Peters is arguing that the federal government should think about getting out of the transportation funding game, Bush continues to set a new low by robbing transit funds to pay for highway projects.

Mobilizing the Region, writes:

In the broader scheme, however, the Bush budget is bad news for transit. It proposes to shore up the Highway Account of the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) by “borrowing” $3.2 billion from the HTF’s Mass Transit Account. It would also cut national transit spending by more than $200 million from previously proposed levels.

There is some good news...MtR predicts the Democratic Congress will reject Bush's transportation budget, but also notes that:

If the Bush proposal goes through, it will establish a dangerous precedent of raiding transit funds to build highways. More immediately, it will cut the balance in the Mass Transit Account to the point where, without new funding, the 2010 federal transit program could not be funded at current levels, let alone see an increase.

East coast governors have already blasted Bush's budget priorities. We're still waiting for a statement from Governor Schwarzenegger.

Photo from Coljan.com

LACBC Opens Blog...

2008-02-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

In what's been a big week for bike bloggers, the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition decided to join the online party and opened their own blog at http://lacbc.wordpress.com/.

So far, the CBC's posts have had to deal with group business. The first post is a promo for their Valentine's Day fundraiser and their second announces the timeline for new board elections. Be sure to check back regularly for more bike and LACBC news as time progresses.

Today's Headlines

2008-02-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

Daily News: LA Needs to Slow Down Las Lomas Plan

OC Tollway Plan Not Dead Yet (Times)

Decrease Your Mass by Taking Mass Transit (Calorie Lab)

Scientists Find Ethanol May Worsen Global Warming (Gristmill, Times)

Bicycling Guru Sheldon Brown Is Dead at 63 (Bike Commute Tips)

TSA Opens Blog (TSA.gov)

Expo's Bumpy Ride Continues

2008-02-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

Dorsey High, At the Center of the Storm

The issue of grade separating Phase II of the Expo Line at Dorsey High School is back on the table after the Expo Board voted to undertake an Environmental Assessment on five different options for the grade separation at the Farmdale Avenue intersection. The Board stopped short of reopening the EIR (a move advocates of Phase II fear would kill the project) and claimed that the EA will not impact the schedule for the project.

The study will examine five options for the intersection:

1) The at-grade intersection plan as it is included in the EIR

2) A pedestrian bridge and closing the connecting road

3) Running the train below grade at and around the intersection

4) Running the train above grade at and around the intersection

5) Anything else they can come up with

Both sides seemed happy with the compromise. Bart Reed of the Transit Coalition stressed on the phone to me that this study shouldn't delay the project. An email from Damien Goodmon, head of Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line, declared victory stating simply, "It's what we requested: that the study include the underpass option."

Meanwhile, the Expo Line faces delays in other areas. Phase I is already running behind schedule because of increased fees causing a conflict between the contractor and the authority, a cracked sewer pipe, and other unexpected impacts of construction.

Advocates for and against reopening the EIR spoke passionately before the board went into a closed session.

Karen Leonard, speaking on her own behalf, argued that the at-grade plans for the Farmdale intersection were much better than the treatments being given at schools along the Gold Line routes on the east side. "This project is a no-brainer, don't blow it," she warned the board.

Fear for students’ safety was questioned by a letter written by two middle school students saying, "We and our friends aren't as dumb as some groups would like you to believe...that we can’t look both ways before crossing a street nor could we not see flashing lights and gates which mean the trains are coming and to stop. These are things we’ve learned since Sesame Street."

Advocates for reopening the project were just as forceful. Clint Simmons accused Friends for Expo of being an "agency for the MTA" and claimed "you've got to be insane to think that this would be safe at grade running next to a high school."

Colleen Marion Heller brought a letter from her own. Dated in 1992, the letter was written by the Unified School District of Los Angeles, and raised concerns with both the way the project was being done and some of the safety concerns that we see now. Heller claimed this letter shows that the Expo project has been ignoring the safety concerns of the community for 16 years. Representatives of the Unified School District were present at today's meeting and supported grade separating the crossing.

Now that both sides seem to have gotten what they wanted today, the question of what's next for the Phase II looms large and whether or not the rhetoric of both sides can begin to cool down. Typically there is a public comment period as part of the EA procedure, but a time line for the EA (other than an estimated completion date) was not released today.

photo from answer.com

Sector Board Also Against Service Cuts

2008-02-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

Residents Get on the Bus in the Valley

Just before last night's hearing was gaveled to a close, Board Member Kymberleigh Richards stopped the chairman before the meeting was ended. It was a good thing she did, because each board member took a turn discussing their views on the service cuts (all were negative in some way,) and those statements offered a look at the dilemma facing these volunteers. I doubt that they volunteered to serve on these regional councils because they liked messing with bus schedules, and last night we got to see the emotional impact these cuts will have on the people that are being forced to vote for them.

Richards was one of the more pragmatic board members. She recognized that Metro's ongoing financial crisis must lead to some cuts, but proposed her own plans for several lines. Her plan was backed by SO.CA.TA. and the Glendale Hills North Neighborhood Council. Richards' plan proposed alternatives for cuts to four lines (Lines 96, 154, 155, and 237) that would preserve service on the lines by trimming the fat elsewhere.

Here's some of the other interesting quotes and ideas from the board at last night's meeting.
Board Chair Coby King, "Our hands are tied...the full board has mandated the creation of rapid bus lines...some of these lines will cause cuts in other areas."

Richard Arivzu called on greater involvement by the public sector, "we need more of you to come to these meetings to help us send a message."

Joan Lenard, who like Richards rides the bus, called for a greater public process. "We need the numbers on specific cuts...these numbers should be public."

Later, she offered a general attack on cuts and the public process Metro is pushing, "At a time we should be encouraging people to get on the bus; we're encouraging people to get off the bus...we're being forced to pass our approval on cuts we don't believe in."

The most impassioned came from Nury Martinez, who noted that her father rode the bus to work six days a week. Martinez offered a combination of Arivzu's and Lenard's comments, "to be under the kind of pressure to accept these cuts...we need your help. We need more bus riders at these meetings....We must stop balancing the budget on the back of working class people!"

In a board with seven voting members and a board chair (if they're following Roberts Rules of Order, the chair votes only in the case of a tie), three board members speaking so forcefully against cuts and for making a statement is a significant number. However, the board won't vote until March 5, and it remains to be seen what will happen in the next month.

Photo from Metro Rider

Today's Headlines

2008-02-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

Bus Riders Vent Anger at Service Cuts (Daily News)

Bike Writers Present Bicyclist Bill of Rights
(LAist, WildBell, West Side Bike Side, Digg.com, Soap Box LA)

Panel rejects toll road through San Onofre State Beach (Times)

Bullet Train Will Have Zero Emissions (Alameda Times Star)

Hillary Clinton on LA Public Transportation (LAist)

Portland Passes Bike Parking Ordinance (Rights of Way)