Op/Ed | Streetsblog Los Angeles

Posts from the "Op/Ed" Category

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 No Comments

Anti-Congestion Pricing Group Think Goes to the Next Level

Earlier this week a reader asked me why I write so many articles about congestion pricing and HOT Lanes. The insinuation was I was taking my cues from New York, where Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC dominated transportation discussions for over a year.

The truth is that I just happen to believe in congestion pricing and I've found that there is very little original thought or critical thinking that goes into a lot of the arguments against it. That's not to say that anyone that opposes congestion pricing is a dullard. Earlier today Tom Rubin had a thoughtful comment against Metro's proposal, but that the consistent pounding congestion pricing takes in the press is less the sign of a drumbeat against Metro's plans as it is an example of group thinking.

Take this op/ed by the Long Beach Press Telegram's Thomas Elias, who argues both the "there called FREEways for a reason," "the roads were already paid for with taxpayer dollars" and the "think of the poor" arguments. The exact same arguments, with similar wording and the same quote by Mayor Villaraigosa, appeared in Tim Rutten's column in the Times two weeks ago. Lest one think I'm accusing Elias of plagiarism, his piece does have these car culture warrior gems that Rutten's does not.

CityWatch Columnist Defends His Attack on Congestion Pricing

by Damien Newton

I know I'm a little late responding to this one, but CityWatch columnist Charles Tarlow responded to Streetsblog's critique of his attacks on congestion pricing, and some of it needs to be responded to.

Tarlow's March 28^th piece, "Paying to Use Our FREEways," offers no new arguments until the last three paragraphs when it presents the argument that tolling HOV lanes on highways will stop the author from picking up his kids at school. Then the column ends with a call for more transit.

And let's be real for a moment. The goal of Congestion Pricing is painfully obvious. The proponents of this scheme want to FORCE people out of their cars. By people, I don't mean them ... that would be crazy. By people, I mean people other than them. People who actually have to worry about what it costs to go to work, go shopping and pickup the kids.

This isn't as much about toll roads and parking fees as it is about quality of life. Congestion Pricing is an assault on the quality of life in our cities. If the decision makers in Los Angeles, our Mayor and our City Councilmen, had to take public transportation, Congestion Pricing wouldn't even be in the public discourse. We would be talking about mass transit and how we are going to pay for it.

In the end, that is what we should be talking about: Mass transit. It's the only long term answer to the city's gridlock. It is the only true solution; and not just for the rich ... for everyone.

City Watch Columnist Slams Congestion Pricing

by Damien Newton

Mid-City activist Charles Tarlow wrote a stirring, grass roots call to arms in this week's City Watch. Unfortunately, Tarlow's piece rails against congestion pricing and trots out some tired arguments that have been repeatedly debunked. It wraps opposition to one of the most environmentally friendly transportation planning choices in the flag, arguing that one of the most progressive ways to manage traffic and collect some funds to reinvest in alternative transportation is un-American.

Tarlow's argument can be divided into two parts. First is that congestion pricing will divide highway transportation into the "haves" and "have nots."

...the entire country will be changed forever and the divide between the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" will continue to expand until we won't be able to recognize this country.

The "Lexus Lane" argument, that congestion pricing is just a scheme to keep lower and middle class people off highways, has been used since congestion pricing was first introduced. Unfortunately for those that rely on class-warfare to fight congestion pricing, the argument doesn't hold water. Polling shows that where congestion pricing has been utilized, people of lesser means overwhelmingly support it.

Why Congestion Is Good

by Damien Newton

Why Congestion is Good - by Kent Strumpell

Bemoaning the evils of congestion has become perhaps the most common complaint heard about urban living today. Everyone groans about it but few do anything meaningful to lessen their contribution. Somehow government is supposed to solve it, but we all know how well that has worked. Stuck with it and stuck in our ways, here then, is a partial list of the benefits of being stuck in traffic.

1. Congested traffic is one of the few restraints on excessive automobile use. When a limited commodity like road capacity is free and demand is high, the result is invariably overuse. Heavy traffic causes most drivers to think twice before using their cars at peak hours and encourages many to carpool, use alternative travel modes or move closer to their most common destinations.

2. The daily experience of congestion can increase public support for investments in more fuel-efficient, environmentally sustainable travel modes such as public transportation, cycling and walking, which have multiple societal benefits and need more support.

3. Congestion can improve the experience of activities adjacent to roads. Roads with slow moving traffic are more conducive to walking, shopping, outdoor dining, conversing, crossing the street, children’s play on sidewalks, etc. On streets with fast, noisy traffic, all of these activities are less viable and less enjoyable.

4. Slow traffic is safer. It is an established fact that motor vehicle collision severity increases dramatically as speeds go up. Slower moving traffic also increases safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

5. Congestion can increase the value of retail property. When cars are able to speed by at or above the speed limit, motorists are less able to notice roadside businesses. When traffic slows down or stalls, drivers have more opportunity to take note of and stop to visit businesses.

6. Slower traffic can reduce energy consumption. The speed at which motor vehicles achieve their greatest fuel efficiency and lowest emission levels is around 30mph (admittedly, stop and go traffic makes matters worse). Above 30mph, aerodynamic drag increases fuel consumption in most cars.

7. Slower traffic can improve road efficiency. 25-35mph is the speed at which roadways achieve their greatest carrying capacity. Above that, it diminishes as the space between cars increases.

The point of this list isn’t to welcome or encourage congestion, but to point out the often-overlooked negative side effects of trying to eliminate it. Congestion may well be a condition preferable to what would be needed to continually alleviate it. If it’s any consolation, every prosperous city in the world has congestion (though many also provide pervasive alternatives to driving).

The solution to clogged roads will not be found in some optimized combination of highway improvements, advanced technology and behavioral tweaking. Instead, the key to becoming less burdened by traffic is to build and retrofit our communities so we can meet an increasing number of our daily needs without driving. Of course, not everyone is able to live close to their work, but many more could if land use planning encouraged and facilitated the creation of compact, walkable, mixed-use communities rather than automobile-oriented places with segregated uses. And travel to work is but one type of trip; many other excursions are to destinations that are easier to locate close to homes.

Roads in urbanized areas will probably always experience congestion. Our options for relieving it are increasingly limited and expensive. But if we design our communities to provide for more of our needs without driving, more of us could choose to opt out of congestion.

Kent Strumpell is a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and an a transportation and community planning advocate.

To read other guest essays at Street Heat please visit:

1) Pastor Talks About Bike Commuting

2) Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner Talks About Life in the Burbs

3) Transportation Engineer Talks About the Staples Center

Images by dctraveler.com and Kent Strumpell

Monday, January 28, 2008 No Comments

Another Street Heat Post at Emerald City

by Damien Newton

I've been thinking about some of the problems Congestion Pricing has been having catching on in LA. Emerald City has been nice enough to host a series on what I've been thinking. The first post can be read here. All future posts on this subject will be linked to hear in my "Today's Headlines" section.

Monday, December 31, 2007 2 Comments

SoCal Voices 3: Former Mets Transportation Engineer Marybeth Miceli Looks at Staples Center

by Damien Newton

Have a Very Transit New Year...Or At Least Try

As the former transportation engineer for the NY Mets, I was in charge of traffic demand management, VMS, wayfinding, transit, remote parking, shuttles, and general coordination with the zillion different agencies involved with transportation around Shea Stadium and the new Citi Field currently under construction in the parking lots adjacent to Shea. I spent two years on the project. I tell you this so you are aware of where I am coming from when I speak about the transportation access and egress at the Staples Center during a recent Lakers games.

Now, I have never before been to the Staples Center (being new to the L.A. area and neither rooting for the Lakers, nor the Clippers, nor the Kings, nor the Sparks, nor whoever else plays there). So I began by visiting the Lakers website for directions to the arena because I was going to a Lakers game. On the directions page, there is no mention of mass transit anywhere (though we will find out later, there is mass transit around the arena and we witnessed some people even taking it!) Not one mention of transit. In fact, you can’t even find any mention of transit on the entire site! My favorite part though is that under the directions it boasts, "the arena is accessible from many freeways", well of course it is, we’re in L.A. The handy dandy map provided is very helpful in showing all of the plentiful surface parking around the stadium but oddly, doesn’t show the many transit stops that are even closer than the parking at times. See below for the Lakers’ super helpful map.

By contrast, the NY Mets give transit directions first and have pushed transit through deals with the major transit rail agencies in the NY Metro area and a ton of advertising. You can see their very detailed and helpful directions here.

In fact Mr. Met and Mayor Bloomberg have encouraged mass transit to the game (the extensive ‘Take the Train to the Game’ campaign) in various TV and print ads, as well as in the stadium itself. The Mets have also added a ferry service as another appealing transit option.
So, of course, after seeing how poor the Lakers website was, in disbelief, I went searching for mention of transit and the Staples center anywhere.

I found it...sort of.

So, if you visit the Staples Center website and go to the directions page and scroll to the bottom, you can get...a phone number for the transit agency...wow, that’s great, thanks Staples Center.

Hey Lakers, Hey Staples Center, pay attention! Go to the Kings website...they list something called... transit.

Well, ok, they list trains and not buses but we’re getting closer to useful.

Then I went to the Clippers site and got very excited because they have a whole page called "Public Transportation", FINALLY.

Except...the page lists the same contact info as on the Staples site with this paragraph added:
"There are many alternative forms of transportation to STAPLES Center events, including Metro Rail and Metro buses which frequently stop near STAPLES Center. If you're coming to STAPLES Center by train, Metro Rail Pico Station is only a block away from the STAPLES Center. To find the route that's best for you, use the Trip Planner on http://www.metro.net/default.asp."

Well, ok, at least the Clippers acknowledge the existence of alternative transportation (though I’d like to point out mass transit is not the only form of alternative transportation but I guess I’m being picky) whereas it seems maybe the Lakers think it is some sort of mythical creature and refuse to use their website to propagate such a myth.

Well, enough about the Lakers joke of a website. Moving on.

Upon arriving at the arena, I was impressed...yes impressed. The parking permits are color coded so that traffic management teams can easily identify and direct vehicles to the correct parking area.

The signage and VMS (variable message signage) was well distributed. The pedestrian wayfidning was well planned, very visible and even architecturally appealing. The pedestrian walkways and crosswalks were well marked and wide. The signal timing allowed for easy pedestrian crossing to surrounding parking lots. The pavement markings for vehicles were clear. And to be fair, the immense amounts of surface parking is shared between venues which is better planning than designated parking for just Staples or just Nokia (though it looked as though a Nokia specific parking structure was being built.) Even during egress, they close Chick Hearn Blvd. for pedestrian safety and ease of egress from the arena. All in all the operations and planning in the immediate vicinity of the stadium was well thought out and executed.

However, here are my suggestions. So much more can be done to enhance the fan experience, to encourage patronage of the local businesses and vendors and generally for urban revitalization in the area.

1. The parking lots are spread out around the vicinity of the arena. Great, let’s use this to promote local businesses or local vendors as it is done around Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

If the parking layout is not going to be used for revitalization then just build one tall parking structure and allow the immense amount of surface parking land to be used to revitalize the neighborhood.

2. Transit...on the Lakers website...promote transit deals...consistency of information between teams and venues. Transit, transit, transit equals less congestion. And many stadiums are now planning transit oriented development (TOD) with residential and retail venues around the arena. That would certainly help revitalize the area.

3. Since Flower is a bike route, maybe some bike parking and some mention on the website.
In short, there are many things the Staples Center does correctly...for vehicles and people walking from their vehicles, period. There is so much more that can be done though. Transit should be encouraged and patronage of local businesses and/or vendors should be encouraged. With such a busy arena and large theater right in the area so much more can be done to encourage revitalization of the neighborhood. One might dare to say that the large venues there have an obligation to work with the city to encourage such a revitalization, certainly everyone would benefit. And transit would play a large role.

So, at the very least, let’s try to promote the use of transit and reduce congestion in the area. It can and has been done. The NY Mets have successfully achieved and maintained a modal shift from approximately 25% transit to 50% transit with a concerted marketing effort by the Mets and the MTA and by providing LESS parking. Perhaps a lesson can be learned here. Provide less parking, encourage mass transit and maybe, just maybe we can get people out of their cars and onto mass transit.

New Year’s is described on Wikipedia as "an event that happens when a culture celebrates the end of one year and the beginning of the next year." Wouldn’t it be great if we could at least try to embrace transit culture in L.A. in the New Year and dissuade the insane car culture here?

Marybeth Miceli served as the senior transportation engineer for the New York Mets in 2006 and 2007. She now lives in Los Angeles and serves as Chief Operating Officer of an engineering firm.

Thursday, December 27, 2007 2 Comments

SoCal Voice 2: Joe Shaw, Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner, Talks About Transportation in the Suburbs

by Damien Newton

Greetings from Huntington Beach! Most of Orange County and Huntington Beach as well, was built on the back of the mighty interstates, which led to the massive development that is Southern California. I want to tell you a little about my town and our challenges as a pedestrian and transit friendly town.

Much of my city is defined by sprawl: subdivision after subdivision, cul-de-sac-ed and surrounded by walls, you know, the American Dream. Many of our streetscapes near our older subdivisions feature dismal, diminished sidewalks abutting walls, that seem to be mostly there as an afterthought. Few dare to walk these streets. Who’d want to?

Amazingly enough, Downtown Huntington Beach and Old Town--the parts of town that are walkable--are the parts that are the most derided by our residents as noisy, dirty and full of people, you know, urban. What many of our residents moved here to escape.

But these are the parts of my city that I love, there’s nothing better to me than walking around our downtown with my dog, which I do several times a day. Usually along my walk, I greet people that I see everyday, stop to catch up with people I haven’t seen, you know, like it used to be when people were connected to the place they lived.

People ride their bikes in droves downtown, downtown has events in the summer, a street fair on Tuesday nights, a farmer’s market on Friday afternoons, a famous pier and a sunset to-die-for nearly everyday of the year. We can get almost everything we need here by foot. We’ll soon have a drugstore. A grocery we can walk or bike to is on downtown residents’ wish list.

A big challenge for us in the future, as fossil fuels become more expensive and less available, will be to find away to retrofit our subdivisions, create more walkable streetscapes and promote sustainable mixed-use development that provides more services that people can access by foot or bicycle. The days of the stand-alone mall that you can only access by your SUV are numbered.

Our city has started to move in that direction, slowly but surely. We have a number of mixed-use projects in the planning pipeline. We’re in the final stages of creating areas along two of our major corridors for mixed-use zoning.

Unfortunately, many of the people here, as everywhere, are still living in a world that doesn’t recognize that the suburbs’ best days are probably behind us. Even the environmentalists who have worked hard to save and restore our numerous wetlands, have yet to fully embrace the need for more density and mixed-use development in our city.

That’s why it’s important for us all to continue to talk about making cities more walkable, and finding mass transit solutions. The conversation we’re having with each other on blogs like this needs to filter out to the masses and create a demand for change in the way we develop cities.

Joe Shaw is a member of the City of Huntington Beach Planning Council. Joe also wrote a great piece called New Suburbanism. You can read all about Joe (and read some of his writings) at his website http://www.greetingsfromhb.com

Thursday, December 27, 2007 No Comments

SoCal Voice 1: Pastor Joshua Elliott-McGuffie Preaches Virtue of Bike Commuting

by Damien Newton

So I'm a bike commuter, or at least I was up until an amateur football match two weeks ago at Pan-Pacific Park, next to the Grove.

Ending up on the wrong end of a tackle, my right foot has now been multiple shades of purple and I've been told by various medical personnel to 'stay off it' for either a) the next few weeks or b) until a leftist is in the White House.

This is troubling to me. First of all because these lovely, cool, clear days are great days to be out on the bike in West LA (the siren song of the Santa Monica Bay Bike Path is so sweet). Secondly, because I now have to rely on my mostly-trusty '79 Mercedes 240d (The Desert Fox) to get around the West Side. This is a hassle for everybody, mostly for my wife, Nicole, who's stuck ferrying me around. From a less narcissistic standpoint though, having to drive around in the car is a hassle because it means needing to participate in the vehicular orgy that is rush hour in Los Angeles and it means needlessly spewing out hydrocarbon exhaust as we putter around Palms/Mar Vista.

First hassle: Rush Hour

Sitting in a miles-long queue of cars kills men's souls. Doesn't matter if it's on the freeway or on surface streets, a mass pneumaticide is going on in the greater Los Angeles area every day. Sure KUSC or KCSN provide calming classical music, sure KPCC will allow you to drown out your sorrows in progressive news and banter, sure KFUO will indulge the insanity you feel after taking 45 minutes to get between Wishire and Olympic on Westwood. But at best, the airwaves are only filling a part of all of us that is dead, killed by the crawling king snake of steel, plastic, and rolling rubber. We need to get cars off the road. More of us need to file onto buses or enjoy the sartorial splendor of whizzing, on the right in the liberated zone between the cars and the curb, past the stopped line of cars on our bicycles.

Second hassle: Exhaust

I like the folks in the Inland Empire as much as the next person. My college roommate was from Yucaipa. I have a colleague in Upland whom I respect. Yet, I feel pangs of guilt when, turning the key and feeling the 2.4 Litres of pure diesel power, the Fox is fired up and CO2, CO, NO2, NO and a host of Particulates warm the cold winter air behind my exhaust pipe. If these various and sundry emissions were to stay in place, I suppose that would be kinda OK. But given the offshore breeze that makes Palms a quasi-Eden, my vehicular refuse will end up as part of the lovely haze that graces the San Gabriel Valley, the Inland Empire, and eventually, if conditions are perfect, the Mojave National Preserve. The fine folk and flora and fauna of these locals simply don't need this gift that I have to offer them every time my four-speed performance machine hits the road. Much better would it be, and has it been, for me to bike the 1.5 miles to work and for my wife to walk down to Venice Blvd. to take the bus all the way to CSULA. We find ourselves in the desirable position of living within walking distance of a Trader Joe's, Albertsons, two bars, and a number of restaurants. We live within easy biking distance of a Whole Foods, a Target, and the Westside Pavilion. Really, much of LA live within easy walking or biking distance of much of what we need to live on a week-to-week basis. We just need to start walking and biking more, treating our cars properly, as a guilty pleasure, best used driving up PCH or Angeles Crest Highway on Saturdays!

So, use your legs! Be good stewards of both your body and the earth! I'd pontificate more, but I'm off to practice on my crutches so I can make the walk up the hill on Palms to Sepulveda, so I can bus it to work on Sunday.

Pastor Joshua Elliott-McGuffie, STS, serves St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in West LA.

Friday, December 21, 2007 No Comments

Announcing the "SoCal Voices" Series

by Damien Newton

Streetheat will be operating at about half power for the next week and a half. Between the holidays, my travel back east, and working on an exciting change for next year; I'm going to be very busy...too busy for three posts of unique content a day.

However, for those of you that read this blog daily, I've arranged for some help over the next twelve days. Four different SoCal residents (at least) will be writing posts about their own experiences and opinions on our transportation network. They'll cover everything from the urban planning around the Staples Center to life in the suburbs.

If you'd like to join them with a post about something that's been on your mind about the LA Transportation scene...I'd be happy for the extra help. Email me at thedaymen@gmail.com

Thursday, October 25, 2007 No Comments

Thanks Again Ventura County Star

by Damien Newton

Following up on a great editorial last week, the Star follows up the only sensible way it could, by printing an LTE by me.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/24/no-headline---ob7wclets24/

Driving the problem

Re: your Oct. 19 editorial, "Ride the rails into the future":

The editorial was absolutely correct. If Southern California is ever going to find its way out of perpetual gridlock, it's going to be by getting more people out of their cars, not by continually finding more ways to encourage driving.

On the East Coast, its somewhat older infrastructure has fallen into a state of disrepair while Department of Transportation officials tried to build their way out of congestion. Now, these governments are spending more and more money on maintenance with funds needed, and originally dedicated to, upgrading transit and local roads.

Hopefully, our elected officials will remember the lesson of Oct. 15 next time they're
tempted to take funds dedicated to expanding transit and using them to balance
the general fund. If not, we'll find ourselves in the same position as our
friends to the east — unable even to maintain the transit system that we have as
congestion and commuting times continue to rise.

Damien Newton, Los Angeles

(The writer is the author of the blog "Street Heat," which can be found
at streetheatla.blogspot.com. — Editor)