Yesterday, I finally had the time to take my wounded Flying Pigeon Bucket Bike back to its nest to get repaired and retrofitted for baby carrying.  As you might expect, Josef "ubrayj02" Bray-Ali was fantastic, the bike is great, and baby has already had his first fun, and safe, bike ride.  You can view a couple of pictures of us here.  But, this is not our story.

Because my bucket bike needed some repairs, I took a less-than-capacity trip on the Gold Line to the Heritage Square station before biking up 37th Avenue to Figueroa Street and then it's just a half a block to the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop.  On 37th, I was treated to riding on the only street inside of city limits with Sharrows.  True, they're not official, but when you're on the street, they're just as good.

Whoever put these down knew what they were doing.  The Sharrows place cyclists outside the door zone, are on a street with street parking, and are on a street with a fair amount of traffic.  It's nothing like the traffic on Figueroa, but with the transit station right there, it also sees slightly more than your everyday residential street.  It's amazing to me as an activist that these paint markings have been to D.I.Y. project that roared.  Councilmen Garcetti and LaBonge have talked about them during City Council hearings.  The LADOT has responded to their placement and bike activists have pleaded with the city to not remove them.  Given how the "D.I.Y. Bike Lanes" on Fletcher Bridge are still visible even after Streets Services "removed" them, it will be interesting to see how the city deals with these street markings.  It will be equally interesting to see if they just "reappear" after they're taken out.

When the Sharrows first appeared, the conversation was about how the D.I.Y. team was showing up LADOT, who has spent years studying and balking on whether or not to put Sharrows on L.A.'s streets or about how our bike culture is so sick of waiting that they're just painting they're own streets.  Given that it's almost two months since the Sharrows went down, it doesn't seem like time that was poorly spent.

Riding on the Sharrowed street was empowering.  The paint on the ground didn't cause me to slip or lose my balance and it was a clear statement that bikes belong.  Also, the Sharrows were correctly designed and placed on the road, a credit to the DIY team, which is more than what we can say about the "legitimate" Sharrows that appeared in Westwood in 2008.  And for a closing thought, when Sammy grows up and we're looking at all the great strides that Los Angeles has made in encouraging "people powered transportation,"  I'll be able to tell him his first trip in a bicycle was on the fabled Sharrowed 37th Avenue, done by the community for the community, while our city was too mired in red tape to get the job done themselves.

The opening up of the Eastside Gold Line Light Rail afforded twenty-four students from Mujeres y Hombres Nobles Continuation High School in East Los Angeles and I the opportunity to explore urban planning and transportation options together. As part of the HeArt Project (www.theheartproject.org), I taught a 10-week art course that used the rail line and urban planning as the subject.

Many of the students come from low-income families that use daily public transportation so this was very relevant to their lives. They witnessed the construction of the light rail in their community for the past couple of years. In fact one student now uses the existing Pasadena Gold Line to the Eastside to get to school.

I developed a curriculum that used their built environment and included presentations, discussions and model building to engage the high energy students on this topic. Each session focused on a variety of topics such as mobility, open space, architecture, and geography. Class activities included mapping their community, designing buildings, examining open space, constructing the rail line, and writing their thoughts on urban planning.

During the course students were tasked to re-imagine and create a model of the Gold Line taking into consideration land use and accessibility in their community.

The first exercise was to place the Gold Line right-a-way on the board, than map and draw out the streets and landmarks adjacent to the rail line. Next they identified land uses which led to the creation of landscape, buildings, and structures. The students constructed their destinations from the stations, such as where they lived, McDonalds, churches, their friend's homes and many more. Issues such as gang territory, busy streets, lack of parks, came up. Some students created what they would like to see such as parks, and entertainment areas around the stations. Each groups board were placed next to each other to create a vibrant 12 foot model of the Eastside Gold line.

The class culminated in a field trip to Chinatown via the new Eastside Gold Line. The students were very excited about what they learned about planning and witnessed these elements by using the train. As a planner, I learned a great deal from the students about their individual and community perceptions, and mobility patterns.

In the process, they seized the meanings of urban planning, architecture, and transportation and commanded a greater understanding of how they participate in it.

The finished 12 foot model of the Eastside Gold line and other student artwork will be on display at Washington Adams Gallery at the Pacific Design Center from Dec. 17, 2009 to Jan. 8, 2010.

Earlier today the Metro Board of Directors unanimously approved the light rail alternative for the Crenshaw Corridor and agreed to study making the light rail run underground for a dozen blocks between 48th and 59th street over the plans of the Metro staff. According to a press release, "The light rail alternative will be 8.5 miles in length from the Metro Green Line Aviation Station to the Expo Line, now under construction, at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards, with a travel time estimated at 20 minutes. There will be seven new stations plus an option for one more. The final Environment Impact Study/Environment Impact Report could be ready by the end of 2010, with the line scheduled to open in 2018."

The vote today followed a mobilization of the community activists for the light rail option, as opposed to the BRT option, since alternatives for the line were first being discussed. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has been actively pushing for the light rail option since his election last year and today's vote can only be construed as a victory for his efforts. However, just because the underground alignment is being studied doesn't mean that it will be in the final design, but it would head off another prolonged battle between Metro and the South L.A. Community over a light rail line.

The Crenshaw Corridor Light Rail line wasn't the only rail line to move forward. The Board also voted to move forward with an extension of Metro Green Line rail service to the proposed Torrance Regional Transit Center in the South Bay area of the region. The study of bringing transit to the twenty six mile freight rail corridor is in a much earlier phase than the Crenshaw Corridor. At this point there is no "opening" date for the project.

The Board also voted to move forward on quad gates for segments of the Gold Line Eastside Extension. After Metro staff and Board members swore up and down that the line was safe when it opened last month, a car was hit by a light rail car over Thanksgiving weekend and two girls walked into cars claiming they were confused by the crossing signals.

After listening to a parade of speakers berate the Board for pushing the Gold Line Eastside Extension's opening before all safety precautions could be taken, Mayor Villaraigosa chimed in wondering why a full Environmental Impact Review was necessary just to install barrier gates. It turns out the quad gates would cause several intersections to get a failing grade because of the traffic congestion that it would create.

However, Villaraigosa, Councilman Jose Huizar and Supervisor Gloria Molina devised a plan to work on a declaration of "no significant impact" for the gate installation that could take less time than an EIR. Just in case the environmental researchers reach the conclusion that there is a significant impact, Metro will be moving forward with an environmental review at the same time.

Noting that even a finding of "no significant impact" would still take a lot of time, Molina joked that they should just find a billionaire in the City of Industry to get the legislature to pass a law allowing Metro to do whatever they want. When Board Chair Ara Najarian asked her if she knew any, she joked that she heard the Mayor had some contacts.

Briefly, the Board also voted to approve the "hybrid" option for the Route 2 Terminus Project, support minority businesses in the Crenshaw Corridor and the Mayor's vision to move and empowered the staff to reach an agreement with Caltrans to widen the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass.

Last week, LA Eastside decided to take a poke at Metro and posted a series of fake signs in "local lingo" to help keep Eastsiders safe from the Gold Line Extension trains.  One look at the above example, and you can probably guess that the signs at LA Eastside are a parody.  However, not everyone got the joke, as evidenced by commenters at LA Eastside and the lecture posted today at The Source.

After explaining the situation, and before showing what real Metro safety signs look like, Fred Camino delivers Metro's stance:

Here’s the thing, Metro actually does takes safety very seriously and safety signage is there to inform and educate people about the risks around train tracks. You’ll find safety signage everywhere on the system, from the street running Gold Line to the underground Red Line.

The bloggers over at L.A. Eastside would do right by their readers and community by informing them that the signs are indeed a hoax. No one at Metro thinks we’re above criticism — but we would like to be criticized for things we’ve actually done.

Personally, I can see Metro's point if they're getting complaints about these fake signs.  But LA Eastside's point, that Metro didn't take every precaution for the communities through which the train now runs, is certainly fair game.

Yesterday, C.I.C.L.E. announced that they are ready to take the next steps in advocacy when they announced their "North East L.A. Campaign."  Generally, C.I.C.L.E. has focused their advocacy efforts on helping people get, and stay, on their bikes by providing classes, workshops and social rides.  However, the group hasn't spent a lot of energy on traditional advocacy concerning engineering and enforcement issues.

At least in N.E.L.A., that is going to change.  While C.I.C.L.E. hasn't announced the goals or platform for the campaign, that is going to wait until after meetings with members and other cyclists in the community, the potential campaigns the Ciclists list are all engineering treatments.  Many of those treatments would be "first ever" for the City of Los Angeles if they were to come to pass:

- Bike Boulevard: implement a bicycle boulevard in NELA.

- Bike Parking: implement innovative bike parking in NELA, possibly bike corrals (proposed in this council motion.)

- Colorado: implement bike lanes on Colorado (east of Figueroa approved in 1996 bike plan,  interest in additional stretches from TERA  and others)

- Eagle Rock: extend the Eagle Rock Blvd bike lanes (in the draft 2009 bike plan)

- Figueroa: implement bike lanes on Figueroa (north of Ave 60 approved in 1996 bike plan)

- Fletcher: implement bike lanes on Fletcher Drive (approved in 1996 bike plan)

- Sharrows: implement sharrows in NELA, in appropriate places, possibly including the Eagle Rock Blvd bike lane gaps for right turns at York and Avenue 36.

- York: implement bike lanes on York Boulevard (approved in the 1996 bike plan)

If you have any ideas for C.I.C.L.E., feel free to leave them in the comments section.  However, if you want to commit to helping with the project, you should leave a note for C.I.C.L.E. at their blog.

During our ride on Friday, Steven Frien wondered a couple of times why there wasn't talk of having a bicycle lane on 1st Street running parallel to the Gold Line on First Street .  Later in the day, during The Source's review of our review of the Gold Line, Steve Hymon upped the score by asking why there wasn't better bike planning along the entire route.  After all, we know how much bike parking there is at every station, wouldn't it be nice to have a bike network to keep those racks full?

A look at the Draft Bike Plan shows a lot of opportunities for the area around the lane.  Those yellow dotted lines are "potential bike lanes," the purple one is a "proposed bike route," and the blue dotted lines are for "potential bicycle friendly routes."  However, dotted lines on a map are just dotted lines on a map.  LADOT confirms there are no timelines for any of these street improvements in East, L.A.  Now, we can rely on LADOT to work with Metro to do the right thing, or we can put some pressure on the agencies ourselves.

The first thing we can do is to use the public comment function at the Official or Unofficial Bike Plan websites to let the city know that East L.A. deserves a transportation system that is truly multi-modal and that the plan should move from paper to pavement quickly surrounding the extension.  However, just sending comments to city staff isn't going to get the job done.

Fortunately, the Gold Line has two representatives on the Metro Board of Directors, Councilman Jose Huizar and Supervisor Gloria Molina.  A little pressure on their offices will lead to a little pressure on Metro to get more involved in providing funding for a bike network for the Eastside Extension.  You can find contact information for Huizar and Molina at their official websites.

Of course, L.A. County has its own Bike Plan and public process.  We'll be back with a look at that plan and what the next steps for the Eastside Extension should be.

The reviews are in on yesterday's opening of the Gold Line: the day was a rousing success.  Press accounts were universally positive.  Sometimes they focused on what a glorious and succesful day yesterday was by itself.  Other times they took a more universal view.  I wasn't at the opening, I'll make a point to ride the line during business hours sometime in the next two weeks, but I know you were so feel free to fill the comments section with your stories and opinions from yesterday's Golden party.

If you were like me and skipped the party, here's a sampling of the press coverage from yesterday.

• After Decades of Waiting, Their Train Has Arrived (Times)
• Video of Different Sites from Yesterday (The Source)
• Photoes of Different Sites from Yesterday (The Source)
  
• A Golden Reality (LA Opinion) 
• Why Are People Still Talking Subways (Human Transit)
  
• Workday Commuters Piling on Gold Line (LA Now)
  
• Times Editorial Takes a Shot at Molina Before Going Into Celebration Mode

(Editor's note.  Some people are asking why there isn't more on the bike amenities at the station.  The Source did such a good job on the lockers and racks issue that we didn't think it was necessary.  Read their review here. )

As many of you know, the Gold Line Eastside Extension is scheduled to open on Sunday stretching from the Little Tokyo Arts District to Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park.  Because of some controversy over the safety measures taken by Metro, a team of six cyclists including myself, Carlos Morales, Renee Morales, Browne Molyneux, Steven Frein, and Andrew Didia headed out to check out the new stations, and the area around them, for ourselves.  Andrew deserves some sort of prize for doing the ride on his birthday.  Browne's review of the ride will be available on The Bus Bench next week.

Overall, we had a favorable impression of the future Gold Line and see how it will be a boon for the communities through which it passes.  However, there were some safety concerns we had, especially at the Little Tokyo and Indiana Stations.

For the record, we're going to set-aside the issue of whether or not stations should be grade-separated with the exception of Indiana Station.  Indiana is the first station not separated after the two that are. 

Also, I timed every intersection to see if the timing was appropriate for pedestrians to get across the street.  The farther east that we went, the worse the signal timing was.  Our recommendation is that the city or Metro should do a study of all the crossing times at these intersections and re-time several of them.  In the meantime, the short signals on the east are going to create pedestrian/car conflicts.

There was also a general concern that there are no gates separating the trains from the pedestrian crossings.  For a pedestrian crossing the street, the site of a train coming at them, even if it stops, with nothing between them is a daunting one.  Without gates, pedestrians are in a more vulnerable position.

Last, we didn't look at the intersection from a driver's perspective.  If that's what you're looking for, call AAA.

We also noticed that there were workers installing signs and doing cleaning at every stations.  Some stations had power tools and even construction materials.  The best analogy I can give is that Metro is acting like I did in college when I was cramming for exams at the last second.  Maybe Sunday is too soon to open?

You can read our station by station review after the jump after a surprise impromptu interview with Los Angeles City Councilman and Metro Board Member Jose Huizar who happened to be giving an interview to a Metro camera person at Mariachi Plaza.  For all of my pictures, check out the LA Streetsblog Flickr pool.  Before the jump, let's here from Councilman Huizar on the state of the $4.5 million that the Metro Board put towards safety improvements along the Eastside Extension.

Honest question, if all the safety improvements aren't going to be done for a couple of months, why are we opening the station in two days?

We began the ride at Union Station and headed South to the Little Tokyo Station, where we had a series of concerns with the pedestrian crossing at Alameda and Temple Street. 

For pedestrians going east on the North side of the street, a wall creates a blind intersection for trains traveling South.  Mercifully, the tracks that are running feet from the crossings are going north so the pedestrian does have some space.

However, for everyone walking along the east side of the station, the northbound rail cars travel feet from you at all times.  You can literally reach out and touch the cars as they go past.

On the south side of the intersection, there is a pedestrian island separating the station from the street for pedestrians.  Unfortunately, the island is only a couple of feet wide.  A group of people standing on the island could easily spill out into the rail area.  Worse, a family, with the parents looking forward, could easily miss someone behind them taking a step backwards into the tracks.

As a whole, that intersection needs improvements.  Widening the island or using pedestrian gates to help keep people off the tracks are two solutions.  No matter what, this intersection is going to need some help.

The good news is this intersection was one of the worst we saw the entire trip.  I was a little worried when we had so many complaints from the first intersection we saw...

The intersection at the South side of the station was an improvement, although trains taking a right from first onto Alameda again cross so very close to the sidewalk.  There is another pedestrian island, but this time it's a much larger island.

It should be noted that both crossings had flashing "train approaching" signs along with wide, brick crosswalks and yellow uneven entrances to the crossings so vision impaired pedestrians have a warning before crossing the tracks or a street.  All of these amenities appeared at every intersection affected by the Gold Line.

From there we traveled east to the Pico/Aliso Station in Boyle Heights.

This hard hat had plenty of times to cross the six lanes of traffic and transit. </sarcasm>

Maybe we were distracted because the staff on hand at this station were the only ones that let us get up into the station of the raised ones.  From where we were standing, the intersections looked good.

We continued on first street down First Street to Mariachi Plaza.  The station itself blends beautifully with the iconic architecture around the plaza.  It looks great and enhances the plaza area.  Good work, architects.  Sadly, there were no mariachi's present at the time of our arrival.  Instead, we had Councilman and Board Member Huizar.

That's Browne, not the Councilman

Generally, we found both ground level stations for below-level rail to have adequate amenities.  Many of the problems that we note at stations are caused by adding a third mode of transit to an already busy street.  As I said earlier, we don't intend to make the argument that the line needs to be built below grade.  From a safety standpoint, it can't be a coincidence that the stations we felt most comfortable and safe around were the same ones that didn't have the train running on the street.  Even the crossing signal times seemed adequate.

Our next stop was Soto Station.

Soto station through steel.

Soto station has a huge plaza surrounding the station, but is sort of charmless.  Especially after the beauty of Mariachi Plaza, the giant empty plaza surrounded by fence architecture style seemed more like a prison than a transit stop.

Of course, by Sunday the fence should be down and according to some the plaza will be full of street vendors.  At the south side of the station were some benches so we assume that there's going to be something for those sitting to do in the rest of the plaza.  The layout of the station plaza reminded me of the Santa Monica/Vermont Station on the Red Line, and that station features a handful of street vendors selling hats, sunglasses, and food.

From there, we returned to at-grade stations stopping at Indiana.

Fencing on the far side

Our first reaction was, "why isn't this station built below grade?"  The poor quality of the street and sidewalks had us concerned.  When you add in the experience our friends at Curbed had here a couple of months ago, and there are larger problems.

The light rail, not at-grade again, comes down first and turns right into Indiana station.  After traveling south through the station, it then takes another right onto third.

In the middle of the station, passengers have the option to cross the tracks to get to the center island or to get back onto the street by crossing through a series of gates that you can push open.  True, there are large flashing lights when a train is coming, but at the least this crossing should be below or above grade and the fences should be closed.  Having gates that can be opened that easily is a recipe for disaster.

However, there's a larger issue with this station that would be best addressed by bringing in some progressive transportation engineers and changing the character of the three streets, First, Third and Indiana, that surround the station.  Even with large crosswalks, the area had a bad feeling to it, with traffic racing along the street and trains moving through the station just feet from the sidewalks.

Our next stop was the Maravilla Station.  The station itself, like the other raised stations at Pico/Aliso and the two that end the line, are located in the street so pedestrians have to cross the street to get to the station.  It seems that at all of these stations there is going to be conflict between pedestrians trying to get to the station and catch a train and cars, who may have a green light at the time, not looking for them.

Of particular interest at this station was the bike parking.  I'm standing in a circle with racks and lockers.  The Christmas tree is the start of the station.  See any issues?

Another note is that it was nigh impossible for seniors that we saw to cross Third all the way.  A pedestrian trying to get across from the north to the south might miss a train while jogging across the street, even with the signs.  Especially with the giant Christmas tree.

From here we moved the East L.A. Civic Center.  The Civic Center stop is going to have the same issues as the others with a mid-street station, but other than that we found the crosswalks to be wide and the signals to be strong.  A wide street again creates an issue for pedestrians.  Maybe the city should have a task force to address pedestrian signal timing around the stations?

For our car driving friends. Be careful making a left out of the Eastside Civic Center. The train is partially blocked.

Our last stop is the Atlantic Station, where the crosswalk signalization problem kicked into over-drive.  Because each intersection had a series of islands, there were times were it would take over five minutes to cross the street, and that was for Browne who is young and healthy.  A senior might well just give up on crossing altogether.

It may be the end of the line, but our friend the bus moves forward.

On the east side of the station, you actually have to cross a lane of traffic to get to a signal-call box.  I've never seen that before.

From there, we got back on our bikes and headed west toward Little Tokyo and Union Station.  To summarize our views and impressions:

1) The Gold Line is going to be a positive for the community.  The route was well chosen.

2) Our general concerns with the intersection timing should be addressed across the line by LADOT

3) Metro doesn't seem ready for the opening.  There was work being done on every station, and sometimes it involved construction equipment.  Maybe by tomorrow it will all be fine, but today it seems not yet ready.

4) There still needs to be a lot of work done around Indiana Station.  The crossing within the station should also be improved somehow.

5) The intersections around Little Tokyo also need to be addressed.  The one at the North side of the station seems particularly dangerous.

6) First could use a bike lane.  It's wide enough and it's a good idea to combine modes.

The full text of Clarke's email, and the videos are available after the jump:

Here is the view through operator's window during a preview ride in a Breda train on Los Angeles' Eastside Gold Line, last Friday, 11/6/09. The line
opens to the public next Sunday, 11/15/09. Go to YouTube and use the full screen and HD for the best ride!

Part 1 of 2 is Union Station to 1st & Lorena:

Part 2 of 2 is the rest of the way to 3rd & Atlantic:

The video skips time stopped in stations; total travel time was about 22 minutes for the six miles. Signal priority / synchronization was working well, with little or no train delay at most intersections. The most significant was waiting about 35 seconds to turn onto 3rd from the Indiana station.

For a series of recent construction photos and a map see my recent post at the Light Rail Blog.

Yesterday, a twenty-five year battle between the Los Angeles City Council and the development group Monterey Hills Investors may have reached the end of the road. The Council agreed to pay a settlement of $9 million for the land known as Elephant Hill. Instead of housing a 24-home subdivision as MHI planned, this twenty acres of green hillside in El Sereno will be preserved as open space.

At issue was the quality of the environmental documents for the project, that were consistently opposed by residents, environmental groups and city leaders. When the project was first proposed in 1984, it was a 13-acre project. As time passed, the project continued to grow to its current 24-acre size. The complaints against the project alleged that the developer's plan to strip existing ridges down to bedrock followed by extensive fill would endanger both the El Sereno community and workers constructing the site. The ridges rest on seemingly unstable geography and an underground stream. The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that in 2006, workers installing fencing on Elephant Hill created a large sinkhole. In 2005, a worker was buried in a hillside slide in El Sereno.

For those opposed to the Elephant Hill Development the settlement is a clear victory for the city's efforts to preserve this land as open space. The settlement comes after the Council voted in August of 2008 to require the developers to undergo an extensive environmental review, despite advice from the City Attorney that they did not have the power to do that. In January of this year a judge agreed with the developers that the Council over-stepped its powers.   The developers counter-sued the city alleging that the lawsuit caused a delay which caused MHI to lose $8 million dollars while the city appealed the decision.

All of that may have come to an end yesterday.  While an attorney for MHI notes that the agreement wasn't finalized,  yesterday's decision by the Council was hailed as a victory by all opposing the development and fighting for their community and open space.

Elva Yanez, the Elephant Hill Campaign Coordinator, released a statement hailing the settlement.  Via the Latino Urban Forum:

This is a huge victory for the residents of El Sereno and the coalition of community and environmental organizations that waged a long and hard fought struggle. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Councilmember Jose Huizar for his steadfast leadership as he championing residents' public safety and environmental concerns related to this development.

The residents of El Sereno have been afforded the environmental protections that are rightfully theirs. We are thrilled that this poorly planned project is not moving forward and environmental justice has prevailed!

Environmental Justice was also a theme of a quote by local Councilman Jose Huizar that appeared in today's Times. Meanwhile, the NRDC senior attorney David Pettit praised the El Sereno Community for their role in this long-coming victory:

Collective efforts of residents, community-based organizations and elected officials to protect public safety and require developer accountability succeeded in preserving one of LA's few remaining open spaces benefiting public health and the environment for years to come.

While it's a good day for El Sereno and supporters of Open Space, I can't help but note that it's a good thing that Monterey Hills Investment didn't have a Governor and Legislature in its back pocket.

Two weeks from today, November 13, a group of activists will pedal out from Union Station for points east to see for ourselves whether the soon-to-be-opened Gold Line East Side Extension passes our safety check.  The extension will open two days later on the fifteenth.  The ride is currently supported by L.A. Streetsblog, the Bus Bench and the L.A. Eastside Bike Club and will begin promptly at 7:30 A.M.  We'll cover the whole route of the extension, stopping at every stop to take pictures and discuss what we see.  Later in the day I'll post the "findings" of our ride here and I'm certain Browne will have plenty to add at the Bus Bench as well.

Anyone interested in doing some research before joining us on our rush-hour tour has plenty of ways to research the history of the project.  Metro held a "press only" ride earlier this morning that I'm sure will get significant coverage; even if they gave their own bloggers a pre-preview. Many of the complaints mentioned by Supervisor Molina at last week's Board Meeting can be found in this report, put together for Metro by independent consultants.  Whether or not Molina's attack had anything to do with the resignation of Rick Thorpe, one of Metro's executives signaled out in her presentation, is up for debate.  However, on his way out Thorpe responded to Molina's concerns in this report.

Or, if you want to read all the official information, you can find the Metro website for the extension here.

The ride is free, but I recommend bringing your own refreshments and safety gear.  If you're with a group that would like to co-sponsor the event, drop me a line at damien@streetsblog.org.

(Editor's note: Originally, this was going to be a post written by Dana Gabbard about Metro placing their public Gold Line Eastside Extension documents online.  As I was writing the introduction, the story got away from me.  A deep hat tip to Dana for his help with this article and you can see the Metro presentation on the extension at the Transit Coalition Website.)

As was noted in Streetsblog's coverage of the Metro Board Meeting, and more with its own article at The Source, yesterday County Supervisor Gloria Molina held the floor for roughly a half hour, delivering a powerful rant against Metro staff concerning the soon-to-be-opened Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension.  Molina accused staff of pushing for the opening of an unsafe line for political reasons, and only doing work for certain favored members of the Board.  Meanwhile her fellow Board members, and L.A. County voters, received a lesser tongue lashing for intentionally short-changing the Eastside.

While I admit that I find Molina's monthly displays of self-pitying on behalf of the San Gabriel Valley, where admittedly I don't live so I'm hardly an expert on the area, to be an exercise in self-promotion; this time she came armed with reports and concerned locals to raise the question:  Is the Gold Line Eastside ready to be opened as a safe line?  The evidence seems to say that it is not.

Yesterday's rant was hardly the first time people have raised questions about the Extension.  Safety concerns have been raised by residents from Little Tokyo through the Eastside and into L.A. County.  This summer, Metro began to go into communities to explain why and how the Eastside Extension would be safe.  A good example of their public presentations can be found at Little Tokyo Unblogged. 

Many in the group were equally dismayed at the lack of barriers or gates to prevent an accident. MTA staff assured us, however, that gates are being evaluated, and that a study on the issue will be released in July or August...and there will be an opportunity for public comments.

The other questions that came up time and again were the lack of language-appropriate signage (some of the signs that were up did have Spanish translations). Many in the group expressed concerns over how local Japanese and Korean residents, most especially seniors, would be able to read the warnings. The MTA is also going to take into account the timing of pedestrian lights to enable seniors sufficient time to cross sidewalks.

The safety issued remained a simmering local issue as rumored opening dates came and went, but the arguments became more heated after Dakota Smith, the editor of the pro-development blog Curbed, which referred to the above quote from Little Tokyo Unblogged as "fear mongering," almost got hit by a train that was testing the tracks while she touring the future Eastside train stations.  Dakota seemed even more annoyed by the somewhat bemused attitude of Metro staff even as they tried to explain how the incident was her fault and the crossings are completely safe.

While Curbed was annoyed, local concerns were still being raised causing Metro to bring in a group of rail safety experts from San Diego, San Francisco and Arlington, V.A., to review the preparations being made for the opening, currently rumored to be November 15.  Their somewhat confusing findings could be summarized as: this line is safe, but here's what needs to be done to make it safer.  For example, the safety experts noted that ""no trespassing" signs were placed in appropriate places but advised that the wording on the signs be larger.  Yesterday, Molina admitted that she had no idea the status of these proposed changes, which undercuts her overall message that the staff isn't addressing safety concerns; especially since staff claims that they're working on it and the Board passed $4.5 million in funds to complete the improved safety standards earlier in the meeting.  The major fix will be miles of fencing separating the tracks from the community.  How they were planning on opening that line without fencing is beyond me.

Molina ended her rant by making the somewhat bi-polar claim that she would be at the opening of the line, whenever that will be, to share that moment with her community and assure them the line is safe.  However, she isn't sure the line is safe and called the line "sub-standard" several times.  If Molina had kept her comments focused her comments on just the Gold Line and the safety issues, and stayed away from re-airing her grievances for perceived slights going back over a decade; she could have pushed her message without the monthly beating of a dead horse and perhaps scored more points with Board Members, and advocates beyond her San Gabriel Valley Base.

In truth, Molina is still angry that back in the 1990's voters approved a transit funding plan which excluded an Eastside Subway, yet the same pols fought against an Eastside Subway are enthusiastically supporting the Westside Subway.  Her attacks on the Gold Line and staff are a fill in for calling out Zev Yaroslavsky or ranting against voters across the county for not following her sage advice to vote against transit funding plans, such as Measure R.  While transit advocacy groups and blog writers can decry her obstructionism tactics, the reality is; they have been somewhat effective. 

While she has been unable to move voters outside her base to vote against transit taxes, she was successful in getting what are now called "FAST Lanes" and the hundreds of millions of dollars of transit improvements off the I-210 in her district and on the I-110.  Hooray?  The problem is, that in cases such as this, her sense of victim hood, combined with other substance-free grandstanding from the state and congressional delegations, and outrage actually cost her constituents hundreds of millions of dollars in transit improvements for a "congestion pricing" plan that won't actually change traffic patterns at rush hour and actually increase capacity at other times of the day.  Is that really the sort of advocacy that the San Gabriel Valley needs on the Metro Board?

An alien invasion and the Eastside Extension are coming in November.  Photo: Randall Fleming

Several trains have been added to compensate for the longer runs. On the Union Station to Pasadena run, there are normally 20 trains assigned-although not all are running constantly. According to Gold Line spokesperson José Ubaldo, there will be 36 trains assigned to the entire Gold Line in the same fashion. During the five-week pre-revenue testing phase, there will be 7 more trains running to compensate for the non-passenger testing stretch beyond Union Station. Gold Line passengers are being urged to disembark at Union Station as if exiting at any other station, as the trains continue south and east to Atlantic. Save for the absence of straphangers, the trains are running as they are planned to perform when the MGLEE is opened for public transit. The opening date is set for November and will be announced sometime in October, according to Metro spokespeople.

All except two of the stations are above ground. The exceptions are Mariachi Plaza and Soto stations. The rest of the line is along at-grade track that maintains various distances from sidewalks and motorways. Much of the MGLEE's path is through working class neighborhoods with heavy pedestrian traffic, and there are some portions that run very close to where school children tend to walk as well as cross the tracks. These segments have concrete berms on either side of the track but no railings nor gates; all of the stations have special traffic lights to warn of oncoming trains. Metro has declared that safety remains a top priority for the MGLEE's operation, but the tight turns on either side of the Indiana station are the ones to watch. Portions of the steel fence surrounding the platform and nearest the intersection and pedestrian gates had to be removed owing to the train operators' severely limited vision.

Metro CEO Art Leahy requested an independent panel of three rail transit safety experts whose experience was gained working at Muni (San Francisco), Tri-Met (Portland), Federal Transit Administration's office of Safety and Security and the San Diego Trolley as well as several tri-state rail agencies in NY, NJ and PA. The panel concluded that "the new Metro Gold Line to East Los Angeles has been designed and built to operate safely."

Nevertheless, the panel of three "suggested additional safety enhancements such as installing fencing in areas where frequent jaywalking is observed, installing raised buttons or rumble strips and reflective pavement markers so motor vehicles don't accidentally intrude on the trainway, reduce warning sign clutter" among other suggestions.

As the tests near the end of the first week's testing, Metro states that the trains are running as planned and that there are no problems.

This upcoming weekend is a big one for bike culture in Los Angeles County.  While our famed DIY culture is already kicking into high gear today, a Friday that features the LACBC's Car-Free Fridays and two Critical Masses; this time the highlights are from a pair of official events.  Tomorrow morning, the City of Long Beach unveils green-colored shared lanes marked with a Sharrow on Second Street.  Across the county, the Eastside Bicycle Club celebrates their one-year anniversary with a ride and party sponsored by the Los Angeles Parks Department.

As you can see, the paint is already on the ground in Long Beach, and writer/photographer Russ Roca  provides a little preview.  Roca, an experienced and knowledgeable rider, is celebrating the new paint for several reasons.  Between the green lane and the Sharrow, it's going to be impossible to not get the message that bikes have the right to full use of travel lanes.  A point especially important to Roca, who recently received a bogus ticket for not riding in the gutter from an uninformed member of the L.B.P.D.

Of course, as with any improvement there are detractors.  While Roca was trying to interview Mobility Coordinator Charlie Gandy, a malcontent interrupts the interview to give Gandy a piece of his mind.  Roca and Gandy take the interruption in stride, but watching it I can't help but feel the interrupter is a perfect example of the entitled, arrogant drivers that make these kinds of amenities necessary.  He's rude, possesses no self-awareness, doesn't care that other people were in the middle of something and is mis-informed.  You can see the full video of the "interview" at the link above.

But let's focus on the positive.  Congratulations, Long Beach.  We hope your efforts are multiplied throughout the county.

Meanwhile on Eastside., the Los Angeles Eastside Bike Club is celebrating their first anniversary in style.  At 3:00 P.M. tomorrow, the club will meet at Lincoln Park for a 4:30 ride through the communities of Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights and El Sereno.  The ride will conclude back at Lincoln Park where riders will picnic.  The Los Angeles City Parks and Recreation will provide bands and DJ’s playing music.

After dinner, there's going to be movies and fireworks.  That's quite a birthday party!  Congratulations to the Eastside Bike Club and thanks to the Los Angeles Parks Department for pitching in.

Sadly, tomorrow I'm going to be running electronics recycling day for my church and probably won't be able to make either event.  If you make it out to the Eastside tomorrow and want to write about it or take some pictures, drop me a line at damien@streetsblog.org.

Last week, the news blog LA Eastsider reported on efforts of residents in Echo Park and other Eastside communities to fight back against Dodger fans that cruise through and park on residential streets.  Basically, faced with a city that hasn't been quick enough to help out, residents have taken to posting their own signs, barricades and even dressing as security guards to keep fans looking for free parking off their streets.

When I first saw the article, I wanted to repost it, but thought better of it.  In this city, DIY projects tend to get erased awfully quickly when someone shines the light on them.  Sure enough, when I checked back yesterday there was a note that many of the signs that were put up were taken down the same day the article posted.  Consider this Fletcher Bridge Redux.

Just as in the now-famous Fletcher Bridge incident, regular people are trying to protect themselves and their streets after he city turns a deaf ear to their concerns.  The Eastsider explains:

With City Hall and the Dodgers unable or unwilling to spend money on traffic and parking control measures that mean something, residents say they are on their own. "We are kind of left to do what we have to do," said the resident from Solano Canyon.

Of course, now the signs are down so the limited protection the community created for itself are now gone.  One of the commenters on Eastsider claims that the communities are working with the city and Eric Garcetti's office to try and come up with a long-term solution and I'll keep my eyes open for what's happening on those streets.

In the meantime, wouldn't it be nice if there were a transportation story involving the Dodgers that wasn't about car-culture run amok?

With meetings already announced to advance the Subway to the Sea and the Regional Connector, Metro could be forgiven if they held off on any other major announcements; but that's not the way things work.  Late last week, Metro announced another set of meetings to gather information on the four possible routes for the second Eastside Extension for the Metro Gold Line.

Everyday, 50,000 commuting trips to Downtown Los Angeles from the cities of Bell, Commerce, Downey, El Monte, Industry, Los Angeles' Eastside, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, Santa Fe Springs, South El Monte, Whittier, and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County; and with both jobs and residency expected to balloon in the coming years, an increase of transit options is needed.  Thus, Metro as designed four possible routes to extend the Gold Line into this area to better meet the current and future demand.

During the current round of public outreach, Metro is seeking comments on these four routes, one would utilize SR-60, another would run glide along Beverly, another would split time on Beverly and Whittier and the last would run on Washington. Each route would service different cities, and each is sure to draw different supporters and detractors as people clamor for better transit in their community.  As a matter of fact, one of the first posts I ever wrote back at Street Heat was about the Latino Urban Forum's public support of the alternative along Route 60.

For a full list of the upcoming meetings, check out our calendar section, Metro's press release, or just read on after the jump.

he meetings and open houses will be at:

• City of Montebello, Wednesday, April 8, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 1600 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, CA 90640
• City of South El Monte, Tuesday, April 14, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 1415 S Santa Anita Av, South El Monte, CA 91733
• City of Pico Rivera, Tuesday, April 14, 6 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 6615 Passons Blvd. , Pico Rivera CA, 90660
• City of Monterey Park, Wednesday, April 15, 7 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 320 W Newmark Av, Monterey Park, CA 91754
• City of Commerce, Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 2535 Commerce Wy, Commerce, CA 90040
• City of Rosemead, Tuesday, April 28, 7 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 8838 E Valley Bl, Rosemead, CA 91770
• City of Whittier, Tuesday, May 12, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers, 13230 Penn St, 1st Floor, Whittier, CA 90602

(This article is my first effort  to revive  a monthly series on Critical Mass in the Greater Los Angeles area.  Previously Streetsblog has celebrated an anniversary in the Valley, dodged the police in Santa Monica, cruised with the kids in Pasadena,  toured the downtown in Los Angeles, and kicked around in Venice. Why is a policy blog doing a series on Critical Mass?  Simply, it's an uniquely L.A. experience for so many communities to have their own Critical Mass and each ride tells us as much about the community as it does Bike Culture.)

Bike culture in Los Angeles is so vibrant, that even when a ride has been canceled for months or even years people will still show up for it.

Unbeknownst to me, Northeast LA Critical Mass hasn't happened in months.  But true to the roots of Los Angeles' "group rides" culture, it just takes a couple of people to bring back a group ride.  In this case nine first-time NE Critical Mass riders showed up at the appointed time and place, the Highland Park Gold Line Station, and after waiting around just to be certain the time wasn't wrong on the C.I.C.L.E. Calendar we took to the streets, our own mini-mass of riders.

Six of the massers were friends of a rider named "O.T." and varied in skill and experience from a rider on a road bike for the first time to a fifteen year old who was riding circles around me.  The other rider in addition to myself was an original Midnight Rida who stunned me by introducing himself as "Steve" and not something like "Dj Wheel Roller" or something of the sort.

The nine of us bonded quickly on the hour-long eight mile mini-mass and the eight riders that lived in Highland Park vowed that this would be the first of several rides to bring back Critical Mass to North East L.A.  O.T. picked the route, which took us up Figueroa to Colorado Avenue.  From there we took a left and headed west to Eagle Rock before taking another left south down York Avenue.  At this point we were back at Figueroa Avenue and Steve had peeled off with  shout of "See you next month!"  The group of friends pedaled off to a house party, and I took a right to head back to the Gold Line.

While the ride was short, it had many of the attributes of Critical Mass.  The hooting and hollering, riding in group formation, and even talking to curious drivers who wondered what in the world was going on.  There wasn't an "us versus them vibe" and it more resembled San Fernando Valley's mass than it did L.A.'s or points west.

So, was I witness to the rebirth of Critical Mass for Highland Park, or was last Friday a one-time affair?  If I hear anything about future rides on the East Side, I'll be sure to let you know.  If not, it was a pleasure to take a ride on the east side.

When Gail Goldberg took over the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, she promised that the city would help create better community plans, ones that took into account the charecter of the community and what the residents say that they want.

Well, the upcoming community plan for Boyle Heights, a largely Hispanic community located east of Downtown and the L.A. River.  will be a great test of that promise.

The city will hold two more public meetings next week to share its recommendations with the community on the future of their community plan based on comments received between November of 2006 and February of 2007.  If the city follows the recommendations of the community, Boyle Heights is in for the kind of new projects that can transform and upgrade a community.

While traffic congestion and truck traffic are listed as problems, the Boyle Heights community seemed more interested in making transportation more equitable for users of non motorized transportation.  The list of transportation improvements desired by the community doesn't mention one improvement for auto users:

• Sidewalks need repairs and better lighting along Boyle Avenue from 1st Street to 6th Street.
  Boyle Heights suffers from a lack of street trees.
• Alleys need to be paved, lit and otherwise improved to enhance mobility, safety and aesthetics.
• Highway underpasses need to be improved to enhance pedestrian mobility and sense of safety as well as aesthetics.
• Freeway guard rails, fences, retaining walls and guard walls need repair and upgrade (e.g. entrance ramp from State St onto I-10 Eastbound).

There's also some encouraging suggestions about increasing open space by creating parks along the shores of the river and converting some industrial areas, but the real issue is how ingrained will these suggestions be in the final plan?

I'll be at one of the presentations next week, but if someone was at one of the ones that already happened and want to fill us in, either drop a comment below or email me at damien@streetsblog.org.

Photo: Francisco Cendejas/Flickr