Streetsblog Los Angeles

The White House is re-centering its message around economic and fiscal concerns ahead of tomorrow's State of the Union address, with a new package of job-creation measures expected to vault to the top of the agenda and a three-year "spending freeze" pitched to deficit-wary conservative Democrats.

Yet despite data showing that transit stimulus spending's effect on employment was nearly twice as large as that of road projects, it's far from clear that the Obama administration's pivot to the economy will prove a boon to merit-based infrastructure investment.

One thing is clear: Democrats are finally catching on to broad public support for building more efficient and sustainable infrastructure.  As Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chief of the Senate majority's campaign committee, put it to CNN on Sunday (emphasis mine):

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Have you ever idled in traffic or waited for a late bus while thinking: "The city government should put me in charge of fixing this mess"? (editor's note: Ubrayj, put your hand down.)

Well, it's time to make notes on that brilliant traffic-calming idea. The Intelligence Transportation Society of America (ITSA) kicked off a $50,000 "Congestion Challenge" today that seeks to pair social networking with innovative transportation policy-making.

Co-sponsored by Spencer Trask, a private equity firm specializing in high-tech investments, the contest asks transportation professionals and everyday citizens to submit their proposals for clearing the nation's jam-packed roads, bridges and transitways. Each submission will be judged based on its ability to address five issues: sustainability, safety, behavioral impact, economic competitiveness, and speed & efficiency.

But the most compelling aspect of the challenge is its approach to judging. Instead of subjecting entries to an evaluation panel that might be too tied to outmoded ways of thinking, the ITSA asks aspiring judges and contestants to set up their own Facebook-style profile pages (register for your own right here) and rate entries themselves.

This democratic format appears ripe for urbanites to flood the zone with support for genuinely worthy ideas. If livable streets advocates can organize and support a congestion solution devised from within their own ranks, one can imagine a lot of state and federal DOT officials taking notice.

Texas officials this week marked the opening of new lanes on the Katy Freeway, a stretch of Interstate 10 that runs 40 miles west from downtown Houston. The state has added 20 miles of interior lanes, including 12 miles of HOV lanes, which officials say will eventually be converted to variable-rate HOT use. The rebuilt Katy Freeway is 18 lanes wide.

The ribbon cutting for the $2.8 billion project was attended by Congressman John Culberson and Governor Rick Perry. The Houston Chronicle was there and got some choice quotes.

"This project, for all intents and purposes, is complete," announced Delvin Dennis, interim director of the Texas Department of Transportation's Houston District. "Tomorrow morning the (high occupancy-toll) lanes open. If you're not doing anything, take a ride on them."

Perry noted the roar of traffic below, above and around the crowd, which was gathered on a frontage road overpass.

"This is the sound of freedom we hear," he said. "These people need roads to get to work, to church and to school."

One kind of freedom Texans don't need, according to the state and Rep. Culberson, is freedom of choice.

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Bike infrastructure can help overcome safety concerns, says Portland-area researcher Jennifer Dill.

How
effective are bike lanes at enticing people to ride? Portland State
University professor Jennifer Dill has been looking into that question
for more than a year, and her research is starting to get some
attention. Using GPS trackers to map more than 1,700 bike trips, Dill
found that about half of all bike travel occurs on dedicated
infrastructure like bike lanes or bike boulevards, even though such
routes comprise only eight percent of Portland’s street network.

Dill
also conducted surveys about who rides most often and why people choose
to bike or drive. She concludes that bike riding won’t expand far
beyond a core demographic of young men unless perceptions of safety
change, reports the Portland Tribune:

According to Dill, most regular bicyclists are young men. This means
that if the city wants to substantially increase the number of people
riding bikes on a regular basis, it needs to reach out to young women
and older people. And, Dill said, that is what public spending on bike
infrastructure can accomplish.

All this may come across as confirmation of common sense (Portland DOT has based its bike network strategy
on similar surveys), but the notion that dedicated bike routes make
cyclists safer is not universally accepted. Proponents of "vehicular
cycling" reject bike infrastructure forcefully,
claiming that biking with traffic reduces collisions. They wield
considerable influence over design standards at the federal level, and
in Portland they have consistently opposed steps intended by the city to improve safety and boost bicycle mode share.

Dill’s preliminary research [PDF]
adds to the evidence that dedicated bike infrastructure matters.
Without a bike network that makes everyone feel safer — men and women,
children and seniors, veteran and inexperienced riders — it’s hard to
imagine that American cyclists will ever enjoy the safety in numbers that cities like Copenhagen have managed to produce.

Graphic: Jennifer Dill

Outspoken City Councilman Tom LaBonge is taking a stand against the massive planned development at the Universal City Metro stop.  Citing concerns about traffic and whether the development will use up the "Park and Ride" spaces that are set-aside for transit users, LaBonge's office sent out a letter to his constituents providing them with information on where to find the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project and how to comment.

You can find the full text of LaBonge's letter after the jump.  Emphasis added by Streetsblog.

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The Transportation Corridors Agency, an organization founded in the 1980's to help build more highways through privatization,  has thus far been stymied by local opposition from building a sixteen mile freeway extension for the I-241 through San Onorfre State Park by a coalition of environmentalists, surfers, concerned citizens and civil rights advocates.  From packing a 14 hour hearing on the project with over 3,500 opponents of the widening to lobbying government officials, the groundswell against the extension project in conservative Orange County has been impressive and effective.

However, toll road agencies traditionally don't roll after a major setback when there's a road to build, so the TCA is fighting back.  In addition to appealing the CCC's decision, they're also working to turn public opinion against their opponents by attacking them in mailers sent to Orange County households.  The best part?  The mailers are being paid for by tax payer dollars.

A TCA mailer sent to O.C. homes in July includes a photo depicting freeway gridlock. The caption reads, “Driving home just got harder,” and in bolder red text, “They don’t want you at ‘their beach’ even if it means double the time you spend driving home.”

Like other TCA opponents, Sierra Club attorney Mark Massara is outraged by the tactic. “The saddest part of their entire multi-million dollar ‘blame it on the surfers and environmentalists’ PR campaign is that it is entirely financed by public taxpayers’ dollars in the form of federal loans and gifts to TCA. What a sick scam: the public is financing a project the public is dead set against,” he complains.

The United States Secretary of Commerce will hear the TCA's appeal later this year.  A public hearing on the complaint was postponed after it was estimated that 10,000 people would show up for a hearing at a UC Irvine Auditorium that only holds 5,000 people. 

Image: OC Voice

Yesterday, the Bottleneck Blog reported on the breakdown of highway expenditures that Metro is proposing if the proposed half cent sales tax increase is successful in this fall’s election. Snoble was most likely trying to counter some of the spin coming out of the San Gabriel Valley that they are getting less than their fare share of the sales tax dollars. In addition to funds for the Gold Line extension to Azusa, the San Gabriel Valley will also see a $1.7 billion investment in expanding its highway system.

But for transportation reformers, the news was bad. If Metro moves forward with this new budget, the amount spent on highway projects will be increased from 15% to 20% of the entire tax. Presumably the money will come from the "Local Return" budget line, further reducing the amount of funds available for bicycle and pedestrian projects. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no discussion of setting aside any of the budget for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

To read the full text of Snoble’s letter, read on after the jump. For a breakdown of the highway expenditures by region, check out the Bottleneck Blog.

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Stephen Box reports that last weekend's "Destiny in the Valley" conference, hosted by the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council, was a success. When a community comes out in force to discuss fixing their neighborhood through an improved and integrated transportation network, government agencies and elected officials take notice.

Stephen writes:

As for news, the "Destiny of the West Valley" Community Forum was a tremendous success.

Over 300 people joined us and demonstrated a significant commitment to making Woodland Hills Warner Center a great neighborhood.

The day began with the usual questions about 311 and potholes but after the "Panel of Visionaries" had presented and after Zev had urged them to take charge of their neighborhood, we ended up with an auditorium of community leaders asking "What next, what next?"

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The Woodland Hills Warner Center Community faces a tsunami of development. The Westfield Village bulldozers are revving, the Warner Center Specific Plan update is underway and the 3rd densest employment center in the City is besieged with gridlock.

The community needs a plan to fight back and reclaim their streets.  To that end the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Community Council has assembled a panel of visionaries to discuss the problem and elicit feedback from the community at an open meeting this Saturday at the Kaiser Permanente Hospital Auditorium from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

The public is invited to join in the discussion on the issues and opportunities that challenge our neighborhood including traffic congestion, urban design, water reclamation, energy conservation, mass transit, accessibility, mobility, walkability and livability.

The panelists includes:

• Bart Reed, Transit Coalition Executive Director
• Joyce Pearson, Chair of the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council
• Denny Zane, the former Mayor of Santa Monica during the revitalization of the Third Street Promenade
• Larry E. Smith, Executive Director of North East Trees

Photo:Wikipedia