Streetsblog Los Angeles

As mentioned earlier, I won’t be attending or listening to today’s Metro Board Meeting or the Special Hearing on the Westside Subway because I will be traveling.  However, after four years of public outreach, including a pair of three hour meetings in the last month, I don’t think I need to be there.

You really think this guy doesn't have his ducks in a row? Me neither. Image: L.A. Weekly

Fearless prediction: this afternoon, the Metro Board of Directors will vote to approve a subway alignment that from a station at La Cienega and Wilshire Boulevard to a station at Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.  The route will run underneath Beverly Hills High School.  Sometime in June, I’ll write a story about the City of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District suing the agency arguing that they did not meet state environmental laws when examining the subway route.

The approval will follow hours of public testimony.  There will not be any videos played.

Why am I so confident?  Simple math.  Unless a Board Member votes out of charecter, there are seven votes “in the bag” which is a majority of the board.  There is one vote that is a certain “no.” There are five votes that are in some question.

First the “no.”  At last month’s board meeting, Supervisor Mike Antonovich voted against even the extension of the existing subway to La Cienega Boulevard, four miles from the current end at Wilshire/Western.  Antonovich’s other public statements point towards another “no.” tomorrow.

Next, the “yes’s.”  Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is almost certainly a supportive vote.  With his support comes the support of his three appointees, Mel Wilson, Richard Katz and Councilman Jose Huizar.  Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is a certain supporter.  Diane Dubois voted for the route in committee.  However, there is a real chance that she will miss today’s meeting for personal reasons.

If Dubois is present, then a majority is nearly assured without the support of any other board members.  If it’s not assured, then the Subway route needs one more supporter from the five remaining votes. Read more…

Sorry, Ford: the honeymoon is over. Photo: Loti

The data tell us that young people are driving less; that Americans are driving fewer miles — and it’s not just because of the economy. Now the Washington Post asks a more transcendental question: Is the spark gone?

America’s fabled love affair with the car hasn’t ended, but like many a romance that gets off to a smoking-hot start, it has evolved over the years into more placid coexistence rooted more in need than pleasure.

There are a multitude of reasons: The roads don’t seem so free or open as they were when the affair blossomed after World War II. Congestion and the pillory at the gas pump have reined in some of the wanderlust.

Even the ad man who made muscle cars a status symbol, Jim Wangers, is quoted in the Post article saying, “In the 1960s it was absolutely mandatory that you had a swinging set of wheels. Now, personal mobility has been replaced by personal mobility on the Web.”

There are economic reasons and environmental reasons, as well as a culture shift away from the drivable suburbs of prior generations.

GM has hired MTV consultants to try to find out what makes young people tick these days but even their hired gun seems a little pessimistic about the auto industry’s chances of winning back this demographic. His prescient glimpse into the mind of today’s youth: “They think of a car as a giant bummer… Think about your dashboard. It’s filled with nothing but bad news.”

Read more…

Greg Spotts from the Mayor's Office sends along this picture of palm trees just planted at Roscoe Station as part of the Orange Line extension. A similar view can be had from the bike path in a recent post at the LADOT Bike Blog. But the real question people have is "when is it going to open?" The city anticipates "sometime in June." Stay tuned.

• 101 Year Old Burbank Man Killed by 91 Year Old Driver (Burbank Leader, LA Weekly)
• Feds: MTA Rail Car Deal Doesn’t Violate “Buy America” Rules (LAT)
• Anti-HSR Initiative Being Readied for Fall Ballott…in 2014 (CAHSR Blog)
• More on the Mixed Use Development for Sepulveda/Expo Thats in Your Mailbox (Curbed)
• Parking Scofflaws Don’t Like Parking Rules (LAT)
• New Golden State Warriors Basketball Arena to be Transit-Oriented (SFGate, CBS 5, SF Examiner)
• CA Senate to Vote on 3-Foot Bike Passing Bill Tomorrow (Cyclelicious)
• Beautiful Photo Essay of Every Venice Storefront that Faces the Ocean (HRGBRG)
• Panorama City Asphalt Median To Be Landscaped, for Real This Time (Daily News)

I’m traveling today, which means that there is an excellent chance that I missed a headline or two.  If you know one, leave it in the comments section.  If you don’t, read the comments section.  I’ll bet there’s a couple good links there by the end of the day.  We also won’t have any updates from Washington D.C., so be sure to check Streetsblog Capitol Hill for the news from Congress and more.  That being said, we have plenty of original content going up today, so be sure to check back often.

Looking down from a bridge in Cheviot Hills at the proposed future Expo Bike Path. Photo:LA Streetsblog/Flickr

A group of Cheviot Hills residents who’s property abuts the proposed Expo Bikeway on the Westside of Los Angeles have filed suit for the second time in two years alleging that environmental clearances given the bikeway were given in error.  Their first lawsuit, filed in June 2010, resulted in the City of Los Angeles and Caltrans reversing their original environmental clearance decisions and re-working their studies.  The bikeway was granted a second environmental clearance, known as a Categorical Exclusion (CE), in November of 2011.

The second Categorical Exclusion (published here, on Streetsblog) was received no better than the first.  Attorney S. Zachary Samuels filed suit again alleging that the new CE is no better than the old one.   While the current complaint is not available online, passages appearing on Courthouse News sound word for word identical to ones from the 2010 lawsuit.  Named in the suit are the FHWA, who provide the $2.5 million budget for the bikeway, Caltrans, who granted the CE, the City of Los Angeles, who applied for the CE and Metro, who is responsible for building the bike path.

The lawsuit only covers the portion of the bike route in the City of Los Angeles, and not the part in the City of Santa Monica.  The 3.85 miles of bikeway would run mostly along the Exposition right-of-way owned by Metro from Robertson Boulevard and Venice Boulevard to Centinela Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard where the path is picked up by Santa Monica.

Details on the lawsuit are sketchy, but based on what appears in the Courthouse News article, we can make some assumptions about the lawsuit’s chances of being successful.

The homeowners say the bike path would run behind their properties and “through what is now green space which serves as a buffer between the I-10 freeway and the plaintiff’s homes and other homes.”

Read more…

Cyclists may only account for 1 percent of all trips taken in the U.S., but that’s still good enough to save the American people a total of $4.6 billion per year, according to research recently released by the League of American Bicyclists, the Sierra Club, and the National Council of La Raza. The announcement coincided with National Bike to Work Day, observed last Friday as part of Bike Month.

National Bike to Work Day, as observed last Friday in St. Louis, MO. Photo: @aboutcycling via NPR

It gets even better, as a recent article in Forbes pointed out:

The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.

The Forbes story made it into our headline stack on Monday, but as congressional Republicans seem poised to make another run at eliminating the Transportation Enhancements program (a major source of funds for bike infrastructure), the numbers bear repeating.

Especially these numbers: Biking and walking put together make up 12 percent of trips, but bike-ped funding accounts for less than two percent of transportation spending. Furthermore, though the U.S. had 40 percent more bicycle commuters in 2010 than in 2000, efforts persist to gut what few bike-ped programs remain in favor of increased highway spending.

And yet, here’s a list of bicycling facts that have emerged (or re-emerged) in recent research:

• Bike path and trail projects create more jobs per million dollars spent than highway projects.
• Building bike paths and trails encourages more people to ride more often.
• Cycling is not a purely urban phenomenon.

Add to that the knowledge that transportation is overtaking housing as the single largest household expenditure in America, especially among low-income households, and it should be a no-brainer: Funding bike-ped infrastructure is a bargain.

Read more…

This is the first in a three-part series on Transit Oriented Development and Los Angeles.  Today’s piece is an introduction and a look at Metro’s role.  Tomorrow looks at the history of TOD on the Red Line.  Friday examines what L.A. has to do to embrace true Transit Oriented Development.

A new flyer promoting a proposed development adjacent to an Expo stop at Sepulveda and Exposition in West L.A. is arriving in people's mailboxes today.

For those of us who grew up within walking distance of a commuter bus or train stop, the concept of development near rail stations seems like the natural way cities develop and expand. Where there is a train station, there are amenities around it — homes and businesses — the things that make a city, a city. It is just common sense.

As has been well documented here and elsewhere, Los Angeles once had a large streetcar network that was gradually dismantled over the decades. By 1963, the Red and Yellow Cars were gone. It wouldn’t be until 1990 that transit by rail began again in L.A. County with the opening of the Metro Blue Line. During that nearly three decade gap, the area continued to sprawl relentlessly outward, hemmed in only by the efforts of sensible growth advocates and the fact that water and other infrastructure just couldn’t keep pace with the developers’ ambition. Real estate speculators out to make a cheap buck on the region’s once-abundant open space effectively conspired against the concept of building housing near public transit.

But change the channel and one sees a different picture. Over the past 22 years, Metro has added 79 miles of rail with miles more to be added when the Expo Line is completed. There is also the Orange Line busway across the San Fernando Valley and the Silver Line, which runs on the El Monte Busway, and on the Harbor Transitway on the 110. As more transit has opened, the public has begun to see communities throughout L.A. take on a more transit-oriented hue.

Hollywood, North Hollywood, South Pasadena, Long Beach, Pasadena, Claremont, downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica have all emphasized putting new development near transit. As a result, these areas are noticeably different — and denser — places than they were just a few years ago.

The question remains, however, why some parts of Los Angeles County have seen transit as a boon to development whereas other communities served by the rail system have experienced relatively little change. Why is this? Is transit–oriented development (TOD) something that happens organically or is there a reason some places have it and others do not? Read more…

Although Senate Republicans had hoped the carefully crafted compromise over the Transportation Enhancements program would stand, some House members are stating their insistence that the program be stripped out entirely in conference.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe worked hard to negotiate an agreement on transportation enhancement funding -- a deal now threatened by House Republicans. Photo: Transportation Issues Daily

Transportation Enhancements is the primary source of funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. It comprises less than two percent of total federal transportation funds but has been a source of bitter contention, nearly derailing talks in the Senate. The two sides eventually made a deal under which TE is subsumed under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program’s “additional activities” category. Per that agreement, states can opt out altogether, and some road uses compete with bike and pedestrian projects for funding. An amendment to maintain some local control over the funds made it somewhat more palatable for advocates.

Sen. James Inhofe, the conservative top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, warned House members at the outset of the conference that “the conservative position is to pass this thing,” even if members are not 100 percent satisfied with the compromise. The changes to the enhancements program constituted “the most meaningful reform to conservatives” in the bill, he said.

Transportation conference chairwoman Barbara Boxer said today that lawmakers “have a chance” to make the bill longer than two years, as the Senate bill is written. She also said that 80 percent of the EPW Committee’s portion of the bill is not controversial and has been agreed to. According to Boxer, House Speaker John Boehner told her last night that he has instructed House negotiators to get a bill done.

Still, a staffer familiar with the ongoing conference talks has told Streetsblog that TE is again an issue of contention. Freshman Republicans have made a point of expressing their dissatisfaction that any funding whatsoever remains in the bill.

In addition to TE, Republicans took issue with one of the most popular bill elements among transportation reformers: the provision allowing for more flexibility for transit agencies in times of high unemployment. The Senate bill allows agencies in such cases to spend federal funds normally reserved for capital improvements on operations. GOP opposition to these programs is part and parcel of the urban/rural divide, according to Streetsblog’s source, who said some House members are bent on redistributing money from urban areas to rural districts.

Read more…

Photo: Carlos Morales

(Many of you know Carlos Morales from his leadership roles with the Eastside Bike Club or Voice Community Newspapers.  In his earlier career, Morales was an event programmer, producing large concerts and other major attractions.  He offers his views on this weekend’s Sportsaggedon from both the view of a transportation advocate and large event planner.  In his eyes, L.A. has proven itself ready for many more major sports attractions. – DN)

What happens when fans of professional sports teams from basketball, hockey and cycling meet and collide?  That was the question for many Angelenos who live, work, or visited Downtown L.A. this past weekend.

As most of you know, Staples Center is home to the professional basketball teams the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers and also home for L.A.’s hockey team the Kings.  All three teams were in the middle of playoff series last week.

The Staples Center hosted six playoff games which included games for all three teams.  Added into the mix was AMGEN’s “Tour of California,” the largest and most prestigious professional cycling event in the United States.  This year it attracted 128 world class athletes to participate and ride 750 miles over 7 days.  The race ended at Staples Center, moments before the first of three playoff games last Sunday.  The convergence of this sports team mosaic made it ground zero and the perfect  traffic storm; a disaster and logistical nightmare that can only be best compared to hosting the Olympics.

Most Angelenos are aware of the amount of loyal fans that follow each sports team.  But when a team is in the playoffs each team naturally draws even more people.  Complicating the traffic planning is what happens behind the scenes; the team players, trainers, coaches, support staff, sponsors and VIP’s, the delivery of AV equipment, food, merchandise, signage, staging, printed materials, kiosks, as well as other supplies and materials that are being delivered via trucks.

It literally takes an army of support staff to set everything up prior to each event, maintain it during the event and take down after each event.  There is also the public safety staff that were in stealth mode, homeland security and many other support services. There is a tremendous amount of movement of people and logistics of equipment and supplies behind the scenes that many do not account for and most are just estimating their numbers on spectators showing up. Read more…

Bike licensing and mandatory registration — can we just go ahead and file these under bad ideas?

Bike licensing: Why? Photo: Wild Bell

Putting up barriers to healthy choices like biking makes no sense from a policy perspective — especially since many people cycling are children or very low-income, for whom the registration and licensing process may be especially difficult, offputting, or nonsensical. (By the way, if you don’t have a car, how do you legally get to the registration point?)

But in case you needed another reason, James Sinclair at Network blog Stop and Move has a good one for us today: police profiling. Sinclair points to a recent statement from the police department in Clovis, California:

From what I understand, Clovis still has a law on the books requiring that all bikes be registered (with a fee). Fortunately, that law hasn’t been enforced in years, and it’s entirely possible the current PD doesn’t even realize that law exists.

Anyway, in the title of the post, I mention that profiling is included. What do I mean by that? Well, the ABC news broadcast has a very unfortunate quote from a Clovis PD rep.

Calli Biaggi of the Clovis Police Department is quoted as saying:

If we stop somebody and they’re on a bicycle and it doesn’t look like maybe they should have that bicycle, we can run the serial number of the bike and then we can see that its owned by someone else. And then we can contact that person and see if that bike is supposed to be with that person.

Sinclair responds:

Read more…

• State Senate: Cars That Drive Themself?  What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (LAT)
• Metro Staff Says “No Thanks” to Beverly Hills Proposed Routes (Curbed, The Source)
• NRDC: Farmers Field Enviro Docs Ignore Health Impacts of More Traffic (LAT)
• Vigil Held for Slain Metro Bus Driver (The Source)
• Bicycling Magazine‘s Profile of Los Angeles
• It’s Time to Raise the Gas Tax (Frying Pan)
• CA Bike Coalition’s Dave Snyder: Senate Transpo Bill Would Preserve Vital Bike/Ped Funding (Sac Bee)
• After Seeing Un-Marked Pit Bull on Bus, Writer Wonders What Constitutes “Service Animal? (Opposing Views)
• Top 5 Places to Eat Off the Expo Line (LA Weekly)
• Draft Plan for “Orange Line,” Union Station to Santa Ana, Surfaces (Curbed)
• Man Driving with Zebra, Parrot, Charged with DUI (Daily News)