Oh, and if you don’t have The City Maven on your daily reading list, take a second to add it now.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Johnson (D-SD) has joined Barbara Boxer in passing a bipartisan transportation bill. Image: ABC News

The Senate has so far reached bipartisan agreement on two out of three portions of their two-year bill. The only remaining title to be approved, the Finance Committee’s portion, will be taken up shortly. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to take the entire transportation package to the Senate floor on February 13.

The Senate bill’s progress draws a stark contrast with the legislative efforts underway in the House. The House bill has also moved forward at an aggressive pace, but it has looked worse and worse at every step. The most recent revelation, that the bill’s financing component would potentially eviscerate dedicated funding for transit, is only the latest in a long line of attacks on walking, biking, and transit. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told Politico earlier today, “It’s the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.” LaHood also gave credit to the Senate Environment & Public Works committee for legislating in good faith:

They get it. They passed a bipartisan bill with no dissenting votes in their committee. Because they worked together, and they really tried to put together a bill that reflects the transportation values of the senators… That’s not what happened in the House. Look, this is obviously a one-man show in the House.

LaHood was singling out John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, but the real star of the show may be Speaker John Boehner. With each successive piece of legislation, Boehner has forced his party and his chamber farther and farther away from the long-standing precedent of bipartisan transportation bills. With a highway-centric, drilling-heavy, transit-averse, anti-bike/ped, Keystone-pipeline-linked bill all but doomed to fail in the Senate, Boehner has reduced the reauthorization debate to a crude political tool.

“I used to rail against the Senate,” said Rep. Corrine Brown at today’s House markup (which, at the time of this writing, has just entered its second recess of the day). “But now I thank God for the Senate.”

In a move that should dispel any remaining thoughts that the House transportation bill [PDF] will ever be signed into law, the Ways and Means Committee announced today that they will try to forbid gas tax revenue from funding transit.

House Ways and Means chair Dave Camp (R-MI) and Speaker John Boehner. Photo: Talking Points Memo

The Ways & Means bill [PDF] would funnel all gas tax revenue toward road programs, redirecting billions of dollars per year away from transit, which for decades has received about 20 percent of fuel tax receipts. Instead, the House GOP wants transit funding to come entirely from the general fund, pitting transit against all other government spending. To offset that spending, $40 billion would have to be cut from the rest of the federal budget.

Essentially, the House GOP is holding transit hostage to achieve budget cuts elsewhere — and they don’t seem to care if the hostage dies. They will also be tossing aside a precedent set during the Reagan administration, one that has enjoyed bipartisan support through several transportation bills, including the 2005 law, known as SAFETEA-LU, which was passed by a Republican president and Republican Congress.

Dan Smith of USPIRG put it like this:

The House Ways and Means Bill stops just short of defunding America’s public transit system. Instead it says that the real money with a funding source will all go to highways, while the tooth fairy will pay for transit. For Big Oil and the highway lobby, this is a dream, but it’s a nightmare for America’s transportation future.

In keeping with the secretive nature of the current House’s transportation reauthorization process, the announcement comes just one day before Ways and Means will mark up the bill. There is even less time to protect transit funding in the House bill than there was to protect bike/ped programs in today’s T&I markup.

Now we know what this promise looks like in practice.

The Bureau of Street Services has repaved a section of Sharrowed street on Bronson Avenue in Hollywood.   Stephen Box grabbed a couple of images so we can see how the Bureau of Street Services handled the repaving.

Bronson Avenue at La Mirada | Bronson between Fountain and La Mirada Photo: Stephen Box

As you can see, the Bureau of Street Services’ solution was to paint around the Sharrows, leaving small stretches of the road where bicycles will ride unpaved. Sometimes they left the Sharrows untouched, sometimes they accidently paved over part of them.

Streetsblog will email LADOT for comment. If there’s any news, we’ll let you know.

Looking for a job? Here are this week’s listings:

Membership and Outreach Associate, National Complete Streets Coalition, Washington, DC
The Coalition seeks a motivated full-time Membership and Outreach Associate to coordinate the involvement and activities of Coalition members in pursuit of Complete Streets.

Santa Monica Columnist, Streetsblog Los Angeles
Los Angeles Streetsblog is hiring a writer to contribute a weekly column covering transportation and livability issues in the city of Santa Monica. The winning applicant will have a knowledge of progressive urban planning and transportation policy as well as a familiarity with Santa Monica city government.

Amazon describes Landau’s car-free guide:

Car-Free Los Angeles and Southern California is designed as a complete guide to a car-free vacation in Southern California, from the time travelers land or arrive until the time they leave. Car-Free Los Angeles and Southern California reveals how to get from the airport—or the train station or bus station—into town. For Los Angeles or Southern California residents, this book tells how to plug into the transit network and start traveling car-free to the local attractions.

James Rojas: City as Play 6-Step Design Workshop from Gilda Haas on Vimeo.

This morning, the Los Angeles Times featured our own James Rojas in a story about his wonderful interactive planning exhibit in Long Beach that allows visitors to re-imagine their city in a new way. Streetsblog has featured Rojas’ work several times over the years as he’s traveled to United Nations’ conferences, all around the country or just a short hop to East L.A.

Anyone whose imagination was captured by Rojas’ work for the first time, or is a long-time follower looking for the next interactive modeling session, won’t have to travel to Long Beach to join the fun and learn something new. His next event looks at Glendale Boulevard in Echo Park from the 2 fwy to Sunset this Saturday at 1770 Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles at 10:00 A.M.

Rojas explains how the session will work at a post on the Latino Urban Forum list serve, reposted in the Streetsblog calendar section:

Participants will be asked to create their ideal street in 20 minutes. Using recycled objects participants will build small dioramas to help think through their ideas. Because there are no limitations, and right or wrong answers this is a safe zone for all ideas. Once the time is up the builders will share their ideas in a one-minute presentation to the group. Collaboration is the next step and participants will be place in small groups. They will have 15 minutes to share their ideas. They will be tasked to pick a spot along Glendale Boulevard where they can implement their ideas. Each team will present their plan to the group. As a conclusion the ideas will be synthesized and discussed.

As is customary, Rojas will post his notes on the session and discussion that follows on Streetsblog following the group presentations. For more information on Saturday’s event, visit the Streetsblog calendar section.

Thanks for the amazing year.  There’s just too many people who work to make this online media outlet such a success that I’m going to skip trying to list them because I always forget people.  So that being said, allow me to single out just a couple people without whom we wouldn’t be here today.

1) Mark, Aaron, Ben, Christa, Nick, Noah, Chris, Clarence, Elizabeth, Tanya, Aaron B., Angie, and everyone at OpenPlans without whom their would be no Streetsblog and certainly no L.A. Streetsblog.

2) Joe, Carter, Deborah, Joel, Jocelyn, and James, the current Editorial Board of L.A. Streetsblog and Dana, Dorothy and Jessica for their past work on the Board.

3) Everyone that contributed time, money, stories to the website.  A couple of notable donations include the reader who donated a car via Cars for Causes and Amanda Lipsey who has pledged to be our largest individual donor blasting past a couple of our Board Members and my Mom.

4) Michael, Paul and David at the David Bohnett Foundation who had the vision to support us in 2010 and 2011 before we had our fundraising organized enough to be self-supporting.  Mary Lou at the California Endowment for sharing our vision of community based reporting in Boyle Heights and South L.A.

5) All of our advertisers, but especially Howard and Lisa at GEK-Law and Josef at Flying Pigeon L.A.

6) All the people that promote our stories on social media but especially Alex Thomspson, El Random Hero, Ted Rogers, and Carol at LACBC.

7) My wife who puts up with me writing until midnight most nights and saying things like, “Can you watch Sammy for an hour? Paul Backstrom left a message…”

And of course, everyone reading this has supported us in one way or another.  I would be a negligent non-profit manager if I didn’t make one last pitch for our end of the year fundraising drive and to remind you that all donations are tax deductible.  Given all the good news we’ve had recently, you might not think your donation matters, but it really does.  Funds from major donors are tied to specific projects, and we still need help to cover our day to day expenses.

Thanks again for everything, and we’ll see you on January 3rd (or next Tuesday at the Library Alehouse for the LACBC fundraiser…)

All the Best,

Damien, Marybeth and Sammy

There was a lot of important news that broke over the last year.  It’s hard to believe that a year ago the City of Los Angeles hadn’t passed a Bicycle Plan and Metro hadn’t approved a route for the Wilshire Bus Only Lanes.  Here are the 12 stories that made 2011 the year that it was:

January: Metro Announces New Round of Bus Service Cuts

Right off the bat, Metro set the tone for what would be one of the ongoing stories of the year by announcing another extensive round of bus service cuts.  Most transit advocates panned the cuts even as Metro tried to spin them as necesary.  The cuts were ultimately approved and went into effect later in the year.  Also, as a sort of preview of another major story, Dana Gabbard noted that Metro wasn’t exactly meeting its own promises of providing information on all the service changes in the timeline it outlined.

February: Los Angeles’ First Livable Corridor on South Figueroa?

This is one of the "Good" designs for South Fig. It only has a separated bike lane and transit lane. There were more progressive designs proposed for other parts of the corridor.

A team of international design experts joined some of L.A.’s top local planners to create a truly amazing series of design renderings for a  new South Figueroa Street.  While the designs are out of this world (or at least out of this city,) it’s been almost a year since we’ve heard from the South Figueroa Corridor Project.  It’s past time for an update from the city and the CRA who have been mum even when asked directly what’s going on.

March – Villaraigosa Signs the Bike Plan

After years of public outreach and months of debate and back room maneuvering, the City of Los Angeles finally had a shiny new Bike Plan.  The late morning ceremony at City Hall drew a crowd of cyclists, many of whom took time off from work, to celebrate what was viewed by many as a watershed moment.  There is pretty intense debate over whether or not the LADOT is fulfilling its pledge to complete the plan, but at the same time there is near consensus that the city did more for bikes in 2011 than any year in memory.

April – CicLAvia II

For the second time, Los Angeles closed 7.5 miles of streets to cars and opened them to a variety of uses for everyone else.  But even as Rob Adams was answering the question, “What is CicLAvia” for Streetfilms, there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction from the CicLAvians who didn’t use two years to explore the city.  These concerns led to a small retooling of the event for the October CicLAvia, with a series of mini-grants given out to make the event more about games, open space, and the amazing City of Angels than about racing from one place to another on two wheels.

May – Metro and “Crenshaw Subway Coalition” Collide at Board Meeting

One of the most powerful Metro Board Meetings of the year occurred when Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas brought a motion to add a Leimert Park Station and full grade-separation for the Crenshaw Light Rail project to the Board.  Hundreds of South L.A. residents, many brought by Damien Goodmon’s Crenshaw Subway Coalition, packed the room.  In the end, the Board rejected the grade-separation proposal and came up with a compromise on the Leimert Park Station proposal.  The Board approved, but didn’t fund, the station so that any funds left over after the current route and stations were finished could go towards the new stop.  Needless to say, the advocates in attendance saw this proposal as “pandering” and not “compromise.”

June – The Christine Dahab/K-Town Wednesdays Crash

Take a group of Midnight Ridazz at a late night/early morning regrouping and add an inattentive driver, throw in an ignorant cop and don’t forget a mindless television reporter and you have a recipe for tragedy.  When Christine Dahab (allegedly) plowed into a group of Midnight Ridazz, it was only the first chapter in a tragedy that hasn’t reached its conclusion.  The LAPD badly bungled the “investigation” blaming the people being carted off on stretchers and not the person who plowed into them, but fortunately the crash occured just within the border with Culver City so the debacle was more “sideshow” than anything else.  Streetsblog added to the story with an important story detailing how Culver City was aware the intersection of the crash was dangerous and poorly designed.  Weeks after the crash, funds to fix the intersection were approved by a county panel.  Dahab is currently awaiting trial on felony DUI.

July – Karma/Heaven

Despite months of warning and media hype, Carmageddon turned out to be a non-event.  Angelenos are apparently smart enough to know how to avoid going out for long car drives when a major freeway is closed.  Who knew?  Oh, right.  I did.

Meanwhile, Wolkfpack Hustle, Gary Kavanagh, Joe Anthony and Ezra Horne pedaled and flew to the rescue with the Jet Blue v Wolfpack Hustle (aka #flightvbike) race.  A Jet Blue promotion flew people from Burbank Airport to Long Beach Airport.  On one of the planes were Anthony and Horne were on one of those flights racing against a Midnight Ridazz themed race team known as Wolfpack Hustle.  The race went from Horne’s house to the Long Beach light house  The flyers used taxis and airplanes, and never had a chance.  In the end, the Hustle beat the plane team so badly that a skateboard shop owner who pledged $10 to LACBC for every minute the Hustle beat the flyers had to sell his car to make good on his promise.

For our part, LA Streetsblog was the only website to offer live coverage of the race, thanks to a transponder placed on one of the Wolfpack’s bicycle.  Our coverage of the race that day shattered every Streetsblog record for readers and page views.

August – ExpressPark Comes to Downtown Los Angeles

Finally, the City of Los Angeles seems serious about doing something about its parking problem.  By parking problem, I mean that there’s too much cheap or free parking in a city that is somewhat famous for having more cars than it knows what to do with.  The city’s first real stab at implementing the theories of Parking Rock Star and UCLA Planning Professor Donald Shoup was put into place.  The Express Park program creates variable parking rates at meters in Downtown Los Angeles.  Hopefully the program will prove as successful in Los Angeles as it did in San Francisco and can spread from the Downtown to the rest of the city.

September – Eli Broad Steps Into and Out Of Regional Connector Discussion

One of Streetsblog’s major scoops for 2011 was publishing a letter, signed by billionaire Eli Broad, that proposed major changes to the Regional Connector.  Considered by transit experts to be the lynch pin of Metro’s ambitious rail expansion program, even more important than the Westside Subway, completion of the line would boost connectivity by allowing for easy transfers between nearly all of Metro’s planned and current rail projects.  If Broad, whose reach is considerable, had been succesful in his lobbying effort, it could have delayed the project for years, even if the ideas expressed in his letter made sense.  Metro politely rejected his changes and Broad has remained silent on Metro’s transit plans.

October – Brown Vetoes “Give Me 3″

Governor Jerry Brown shocked the cycling world when he vetoed S.B. 910, which would have mandated a three foot passing cushion when drivers pass cyclists at speeds over 15 miles per hour was universally supported by Democrats in the Assembly and Senate.  Even worse than the veto was an incoherent veto message that was clearly heavily influenced by the unsafe driving advocacy group AAA or the comically mis-informed California Highway Patrol.  Some advocates are now calling an instance where a driver passes a cyclist at unsafe distance or speed a “Jerry Brown.”

November – Green Bike Lanes Appear in Downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights

Conflict zone green thermoplastic on First Street bike lanes

The Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane may be controversial today because of the poor condition of the green paint on the ground, but as recently as last month there was universal praise in the Livable Streets community for both the Spring Street lane and another green bike lane on Spring Street in Boyle Heights.  Joe Linton covered the lane announcements for Streetsblog and last week LADOT’s Michelle Mowery explained why one bike lane is chipping and another one is thriving.

Ok, everyone who thought L.A. would have predicted last year that we would have two green bike lanes this year by now, raise your hand.  That’s what I thought.

December - 

We’ve written five stories in six days about the F.T.A. report on Metro and Title VI Civil Rights Violations.  What do you think the story of the month is?

States left $10 billion in potential gas tax revenue on the table last year. Photo: CNN

It’s not just the federal government that is playing this game of chicken with roads, bridges and transit. A majority of states are equally egregious offenders. According to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, US states leave a combined total of $10 billion on the table every year that could be used for infrastructure.

Thirty-six states have gas taxes that aren’t indexed for inflation. For the average state, that tax has declined in real value by 20 percent since the last time it was raised. That amounts to $300 million in losses each for the states of Iowa and Oklahoma, or $500 million a piece for Maryland and New Jersey.

Of course, many states would likely just blow the additional revenues on unneeded highways.

But still, desperate states like Wisconsin, Utah and Nebraska are dipping into general fund revenues to offset the decline in gas tax receipts, according to TEP. That means education, healthcare, social services, economic development and other important government concerns are suffering because states are afraid to challenge the almighty driver.

Furthermore, that means those who choose to get around in single occupancy vehicles are enjoying an additional subsidy of their harmful activity.

You can see what your state has lost in forfeited transportation revenues in the appendix of the ITEP report [PDF].

If it still looked like this, people wouldn't fight about it. Photo: Joe Linton/Eco Village

Yesterday afternoon, LADOT Senior Bicycle Coordinator Michelle Mowery and City Planning’s Claire Bowen visited the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee to give an update on the City’s progress on implementing the surprisingly progressive Bike Plan.  You can read the entire report, here.

To nobody’s surprise, the duo reported that everything is going according to plan. “We’re actually ahead of schedule,” Mowery replied to Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl when he asked how completion of the physical projects is going.  ”We have great support from the Mayor…We have good leadership from the Department.  We’re chasing more money than ever.”

But almost everyone in the room had questions about the the Spring Street Green Buffered Bike Lane, and most of those questions had to do with the repeated problems of keeping the green on the ground.  Atlantic Cities reported earlier this week that while the city has applied a second round of green paint to the street, that green paint is looking just as chipped and worn as it did before.

But Mowery thinks she has the culprit, and it’s not just the rainy weather.  ”It looks like most of the paint is coming up on the concrete surfaces, not the asphalt,” Mowery reported.  In other cities with Green Lanes, such as New York and Chicago, more of the roads are asphalt.  In L.A., the roads are a mix, and for whatever reason the concrete road isn’t holding the green as well.

So what’s the solution?  Mowery and Bowin gave two possibilities.

The first is to find something green that sticks to asphalt better that the green paint, such as the thermoplast used for L.A.’s other green lane on 1st Street in Boyle Heights.  The 1st Street green lanes uses the more expensive thermopast, applied with applicators and blowtorches, but only uses them in conflict zones where cars and bikes have the greatest interaction, such as intersections or car parking areas.  This leads to using less and more expensive ground markings.

Councilman Paul Koretz, after praising the Spring Street Buffered Bike Lane for bringing more cyclists to Spring Street than he would have believed previously, went on to question LADOT about the beat up paint.  ”I don’t understand the problem.  As long as I remember we’ve been painting white on asphalt, concrete everywhere on the street.”  Mowery responded that much of what people believe is paint is really the more expensive, and more sticky, thermoplast.

The second option to fix the paint job on Spring Street is to wait to apply a third coat until the weather, the street, and everything else is dryer.  LADOT originally pinned the shoddy condition of the newly painted lane on the rain, and that answer does hold some truth.  But does the city really want to wait half a year to fix up the road on what is essentially a pilot project?  That remains to be seen.

Despite the concerns, the Council Members in the room, Rosendahl, Koretz and Jose Huizar, who represents the area of 1st Street in Boyle Heights that has the other green lanes, all wanted to know when the city was going to get more.  Neither LADOT or Planning were willing to commit to a timeline.

When it was time for the public to comment, the tepid support expressed to the Daily News on Monday gave way to a more positive response from the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition’s Alexis Lantz and Jay Slater, the Chair of the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Lantz used the word “excited” multiple times to express support for what the city is trying to do to advance cycling during her testimony.  She did have one caveat, and it concerned Mayor Villaraigosa’s pledge to bring 40 miles of completed bicycle projects to the city every year.

Lantz noted that the LADOT’s weekend of Sharrows, where they placed over 20 miles of Sharrows in 48 hours throughout the city, should not completely count towards the Villaragisosa’s promise.  After all, some of the streets that now sport the thermoplast chevron are slated to have bike lanes or be bicycle friendly streets at some point in the future.  Just placing Sharrows doesn’t complete these projects, so they shouldn’t count.

The city has been accused of using the 20 miles of new Sharrows to pad their stats on bicycle project milesage, including a scathing critique from Streetsblog contributor and Board Member Joe Linton, but yesterday there was only support for Sharrows and the city’s plans for the infrastructure tool.

“Sharrows are not a replacement for a bike lane,” began Slater.  ”If we got the time and we got the space and we got the money…If we can get them down, and we can have a bike facility in place, then I vote ‘yes’ on every attempt to get them that we can.”

Rather than poke at the city for any perceived issues with implementation, Slater took aim at un-named City Council offices for not giving political support to their representatives to the Bicycle Advisory Comittee or taking time to respond to Slater’s request for meetings.  When Rosendahl pushed the BAC Chair to get him the names and he would talk to the Councilmen directly, Slater said he would talk “offline.”

But one Councilman was singled out for a black hat was Tom LaBonge, who Slater claimed undercutted work done to make the “4th Street Bike Boulevard” a reality.  While LADOT, LACBC and LABAC staff and volunteers were trying to explain and sell the importance of bicycle signals at certain dangerous intersections, LaBonge announced at a community meeting that he was pulling support for the signals.  LaBonge was replaced on the Transportation Committee by Huizar when the Council reshuffled committee assignments in July and was not present to defend himself.

So what’s next for the Bike Plan projects?  LADOT didn’t mention anything particular project by name, but did mention that there are over 4 miles of projects ready to go on the ground, another 11 and three quarters in the environmental review stage and over forty in some sort of design.

The city’s environmental review for bicycle projects that would require removing a lane of traffic in a high-car volume area will not be completed until after this fiscal year (i.e. July 2012 bat the earliest).  What that means for the city’s plan to create 40 miles of completed bike projects in the 2013 fiscal year was not addressed, but looms large as we approach the end of the current calendar year.

Streetsblog will have more coverage tomorrow morning and throughout the day. In the meantime, you can read the report itself above, Metro’s response at The Source, and the press statement of the Bus Riders Union after the jump.

Bus Riders Union Statement on Damning Federal Civil Rights Audit of LA Metro

Statement of Sunyoung Yang, Bus Riders Union lead organizer:

In its civil rights compliance review of LA County MTA (Metro), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a crushing indictment of MTA. This is the most serious compliance review findings issued in at least a decade.

FTA’s report includes unprecedented findings of racially discriminatory impacts. Specifically, the report emphasizes that, when Metro found racially discriminatory impacts in its recent service cuts, it failed to act.

The procedural failings discussed in the report are no less serious. FTA found Metro has carried out service cuts for years without doing the most basic and legally required equity analysis to determine if there are discriminatory impacts on its riders, who are overwhelmingly low-income and people of color. Similarly, Metro has approved and/or started 10 construction projects and failed to provide FTA with the required equity analyses .

Metro was under court supervision for 10 years to remedy civil rights harms on bus riders. When the consent decree expired in 2006, the agency claimed it was leaving that era behind. It is clear that claim was false. FTA’s review found Metro’s compliance irregularities began with service cuts it initiated the year after the consent decree expired.

The real question now is whether FTA will insist on an honest and fair corrective action plan from Metro. We believe such a plan would have to restore the nearly one million hours of bus service that Metro cut the last four years, cuts that rolled back transit service that was originally added as part of BRU’s lawsuit against Metro

Mayor Villaraigosa, current chair of Metro’s Board, and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas both spearheaded opposition to this June’s transit service cuts raising concerns for riders’ civil rights. They should work to reverse the harms to riders’ rights caused by the past four years of cuts.

According to Richard Marcantonio, a senior attorney at the civil rights law firm public advocates and a national expert on civil rights enforcement, these findings are landmark for transit civil rights. “FTA’s findings are a damning indictment of a transit agency that was under a federal civil rights Consent Decree for 10 years. The strongest compliance findings we had seen from FTA previously were last year against BART. The BART findings sent shock waves across the country. This is BART times ten.”

Photo: Carter Rubin

Thanks to:

• Earl’s Gourmet Grub, for being such fine hosts on such short notice;
• The Streetsblog Contributors and Board Members who were such help all year, especially David Barboza who translated all those Streetfilms yet I neglected in my presentation;
• Our Streetsie Winners: Sunyoung, Colin, Antonio, Rye, Dana and Brigham;
• Greg Spotts from the Mayor’s Office for reppin’ for our politician of the year and for being a good sport;
• New Belgium Brewing, the LACBC, and Kay for their donations to the auction and of course all the wonderful beer;
• Everyone who contributed idea, stories, cash, food, drinks, ideas, fundraising locales, advice, encouragement or anything over the last three years and nine months.

We’ll be back to our regular publishing schedule next week.  Thanks to everyone for last night and the last 45 months.

Multiple protests have been held in Portland in opposition to the CRC Bridge project, which Federal Transit Administration officials yesterday praised as "forward-leaning." Photo: Stop the CRC

But many state and regional transportation agencies continue to operate as if it were still the 1980s, when highway budgets were flush, gas was cheap and the destructive impacts of auto-centric planning were less well understood.

It’s especially discouraging to see those old-fashioned attitudes prevailing in greater Portland, which enjoys a reputation as the country’s most progressive transportation city. The fact that the $3-plus billion mega-bridge project known as the Columbia River Crossing remains a regional transportation priority is a testament to the pervasive grip of highway-building interests.

Just yesterday, this “highway boondoggle in disguise” passed another milestone when it was given environmental clearance from U.S. DOT, opening the way for land acquisition and construction. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced yesterday that the project has been granted a “record of decision,” a disappointing endorsement from an administration that has made “livability” a key issue.

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff even praised the project as a break from carbon-intensive traditions, saying, “This is the type of forward-leaning project that will greatly benefit the entire region well into the future.”

It’s true that the project does include a transit component. About $800 million will be spent on light rail through this corridor between Portland and suburban Vancouver, Washington. But project opponents like David Osborn, head of the community group Stop the CRC, point out that a much greater share of the money will be spent widening the highway to 10 lanes and adding a number of interchanges. This is fundamentally at odds with Portland’s professed emphasis on environmental stewardship and sustainability, Osborn told Streetsblog in April.

“If we build transportation infrastructure that supports single-occupancy-vehicles, it will increase low-density sprawl,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of opposition to this project in the community.”

Joe Cortright, a consultant with Impresa and one of the project’s most vocal opponents, says he is disappointed but not surprised by the U.S. DOT announcement. “This has been clearly in the pipeline for some time,” he said. “It reflects kind of the internal consensus of the state DOTs.”

But he added that the federal government has yet to award the CRC any funding — and the project plan assumes a $1.2 billion contribution from the federal government. Nor has either state DOT committed any money, he said. He added that legal challenges to the environmental impact statement were likely forthcoming.

So the fight certainly isn’t over yet in Portland.

Happier days at Occupy L.A. Josef Bray-Ali donates some bikes to the Occupy L.A. bike share from Flying Pigeon Bike Shop. Nice shirt. Photo:ubrayj02/flickr

Anyone watching the drama unfold between Occupy L.A. and the LAPD last night couldn’t help but notice the active involvement of Metro in the eviction of the Occupy protests.  News reports reported that between 27 and 30 Metro buses were used to bus police from Dodger Stadium to Downtown Los Angeles and any overhead shot of the LAPD’s home away from home, the Dodger Stadium Parking Lot, showed rows of Orange Metro buses being loaded with police in riot gear.

Here’s a quick list of questions and with some answers Streetsblog had in regards to Metro’s involvement in the Occupy L.A. Eviction.  As we get more answers, we’ll update this post so if you’re looking for more information, be sure to check back here.

How Many Buses Were Involved in the Police Action:

Metro Spokesperson Rick Jager: We were asked by LAPD to provide assistance in transporting LAPD officers during their Occupy LA operation. We provided 30 buses driven by Metro bus operators. We have a mutual aid agreement with law enforcement.

Is Los Angeles or the LAPD Reimbursing the Metro for the Service:

Metro Spokesperson Rick Jager: The City of LA/LAPD is not paying for the buses. We provided them, as we have in the past during potential crisis and other periods, because we faced a public order and safety situation and needed to cooperate and assist the law enforcement authorities.

Were the drivers paid overtime:

Metro Spokesperson Rick Jager:I do not have that detailed information yet. It is being calculated and I will get it to you when it is available.

What is the cost (it can be an estimate) to Metro for your support actions last night, and where do those funds come from?

Metro Spokesperson Rick Jager: No cost estimates available at this time. They are being calculated and when available I will provide them to you. Unknown exactly when that will be.

How was rail service impacted:

KTLA News: From the moment the LAPD closed off streets around City Hall, stops at Civic Center and possibly Pershing Square were skipped by Red and Purple Line scales

A quick note on Streetsblog’s public support and reporting on the Occupy L.A. Bike Share.  Streetsblog focused some coverage and effort on promoting the bike share program because we thought it was an interesting side story and case study about how to have a volunteer bike share at a public event.  If the Tea Party or any other political group wants to do something similar, LA Streetsblog would be happy to help.  The bikes that made up the bike share program were long gone by the time the LAPD arrived Tuesday night.  On Sunday, Josef Bray-Ali reported that the bikes had been distributed to needy cyclists.

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Jose Huizar, in blue shirt, and Jan Perry, in black jacket, leading yesterday's opening ride on Downtown L.A.'s new buffered green bike lane on Spring Street

City crews were literally greening Los Angeles streets over the past weekend.

Stretches of Boyle Height’s First Street and Downtown’s Spring Street received bright green pavement coloring. Though pavement color has been used in Europe, and various U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Long Beach, these two projects represent the city of L.A.’s first foray into colorization.

The Spring Street green buffered bike lane was celebrated at a press conference yesterday afternoon. Councilmembers Jan Perry and Jose Huizar praised the new lanes and the safety and visibility they bring. LADOT’s Tim Fremaux acknowledged the city council, mayoral, departmental, and community work that had gone into the rapid implementation of this project, inspired by Dutch planning ideas explored at the recent ThinkBike event. The Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council’s Valerie Watson thanked businesses and residents for supporting the effort to convert Spring “from a raceway to a neighborhood street” and looked forward all the additional bike facilities approved for Downtown in the city’s Bike Plan and its 5-Year Implementation Plan. The L.A. County Bicycle Coalition’s Jen Klausner rounded out the program urging politeness among all road users from drivers to pedestrians to bicyclists. 

Continuous green-painted buffered bike lane on Spring Street

Downtown’s green lane is on Spring Street, extending 1.5 miles from Cesar Chavez Avenue to 9th Street. The lane is 6-feet wide, with a 4-foot buffer. To create space for the bike lane, one traffic lane was removed and one peak-hour parking lane was made into an unrestricted parking lane. The Spring Street lane is painted with green paint. The paint is continuous for the entire length, other than in merge zones, where it becomes intermittent. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the paint not fully setting during the past weekend’s wet weather, in some places the paint is already wearing off. This is the first LADOT project using this roadway paint, so they’ll be finding out what works well and what doesn’t.

Conflict zone green thermoplastic on First Street bike lanes

Boyle Heights’ green lanes are on First Street, extending 1.6 miles from Lorena Street to Boyle Avenue. The First Street green lanes differ from the Spring Street ones in a couple ways. On First Street, green has been used only in conflict areas, including driveways, alleys, turn zones, and at the beginning of each block. The First Street project uses green thermoplastic instead of paint. Nearly all of the striping and other markings on L.A. streets use thermoplastic, which is essentially a very durable, long-lasting form of paint. Thermoplastic is more expensive than paint, and lasts much longer.

L.A.’s streets are looking a little greener than they used to.

• Council Votes to Replace 6th Street Bridge with Cable Bridge (Curbed)
• Wesson Taking Over as City Council President, Loves Adorable Dogs (LAT)
• Does Downtown Need a Streetcar? (Transport Politic via Curbed)
• Fabulous Santa Monica Bike Facility Opens (The Source)
• Meanwhile, Great Bike Plan On Its Way (Bikeside)
• Gov. Working on Budget (LAT)
• Just Because R’s Cut HSR Funds, Doesn’t Mean There Won’t Be HSR Funds in 2012 (Railroad.net)

We’ll be on a partial publishing schedule today and tomorrow, meaning no syndication.  If you want to see what’s going on in Capitol Hill and beyond, check out Streetsblog D.C. and the Streetsblog Network.  Also, I’m traveling right now so I probably missed some headlines, leave any I missed in the comments section.

The proposed I-69 route through Indiana. Since, it represents just 92,000 people, the Bloomington MPO fighting the highway segment through their region could face elimination under the Senate bill.

These local MPOs often (though not always) see the importance of things like urban transit and active transportation where states too often focus on big road-building projects. MPOs can provide a buffer between communities and state transportation bureaucracies, re-orienting priorities back to the local level.

There are 384 MPOs in the country. Two-thirds of them represent communities of less than 200,000 people. And there’s an existential threat to all of those MPOs in the new Senate transportation bill.

The bill states that the “continuing designation” of an MPO representing an urbanized area of under 200,000 people “shall be terminated” unless it meets “the minimum requirements established by the regulation,” to be determined by the Secretary of Transportation. Those “minimum requirements” have not yet been spelled out, and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) is nervous about such vague wording.

AMPO Director Delania Hardy said that right now, no one knows what it means, exactly, to demonstrate “technical capacity,” as required in the Senate draft. “It’s a very fuzzy term that doesn’t have a lot of explanation in their text,” she said. She went on:

If we wound up with somebody who’s a pretty hardcore “let’s cut-cut-cut,” they could put together a stack of things that are almost impossible for the sake of killing off these MPOs. It could go that way.

And then, you could also wind up with someone who understands the value of involving your public participation, involving your local elected officials, keeping these things that have been around, in some cases, since the early 1960s, and they could say, “if you guys are able to do [the two main responsibilities of an MPO: the Transportation Improvement Program] and the long-range plan, and you’re able to satisfy your federal requirements and go beyond and take it to the next level, living up to the spirit of the law, maybe then everything’s OK.”

But there are some huge question marks in the way this bill is drafted right now.

The risk of dissolution of smaller MPOs would affect some people disproportionately. For example, eight states don’t have any urbanized areas of more than 200,000 people, so all of their MPOs are at risk. Besides, some small-population communities have large-scale transportation and planning issues affecting them – like those that lie along major trucking and freight corridors, for instance.

Charlottesville's MPO board tried for a long time to stave off excessive road-building. Will some small MPOs get the axe from the new Senate law? Photo: Cvillepedia

This idea of creating a mechanism to eliminate MPOs was floated in the leaked Obama administration draft of a transportation bill in the spring. The provision has been toned down some from that version, which reportedly was written by staff members at FHWA and FTA and hadn’t necessarily been approved by the higher-ups.

Senate aides say the idea is simply that, in a more performance-oriented bill, there should be accountability measures for everyone, “so just being an MPO by itself, with no criteria at all as to how that fits or what role they play” isn’t enough. They also say that with four years to satisfy those requirements, it “gives MPOs the opportunity to remain a very important player in the process.”

“It’s not an ‘on-off switch’ for smaller MPOs,” said one staff member.

AMPO itself has seen the writing on the wall for years and now supports a ban on the creation of new MPOs in communities of under 100,000 people. Hardy says the National Association of Development Organizations, AMPO’s rural counterpart, adequately represents those communities. But still, Hardy would grandfather in any existing MPOs, and she worries that the Senate isn’t planning to take that precaution [PDF].

Some environmental and smart growth advocates are concerned that eliminating MPOs would weaken the impact of the strongest state-level smart growth law in the country, California’s SB 375. The law tasked California’s 18 MPOs with creating “Sustainable Community Strategies,” including integrated land use and transportation planning, to reduce emissions. If some of those MPOs disappeared, the impact of SB 375 on those small metros would be thrown into question.

A 76-year-old man in LA county was hit by a truck while riding his bike in 2008. Republicans want to keep current trucking laws in place that Democrats and others say lead to driver fatigue, causing accidents like this one. Photo: Aitken Aitken Cohn

October 28 was the original deadline by which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was supposed to announce new hours-of-service regulations for trucking, but in the end, they gave themselves another month to do it.

The pending change is the result of a lawsuit brought by Public Citizen, the Teamsters Union, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and the Truck Safety Coalition against the FMCSA to tighten the standards. They have agreed with the FMCSA to change the current 11-hour driving day and the 34-hour rest period before starting a long workweek to a 10-hour driving day, keeping the 34-hour “restart” but with new restrictions.

The 11-hour rule was a “midnight regulation” made during President George W. Bush’s final days in office, according to the Teamsters. The Bush administration increased the workweek from 60 to 77 hours of driving and reduced the restart period from 50 hours to 34.

The Teamsters say truck crashes cost the nation $20 billion in 2009, and that truck driver fatigue is a major factor in truck crashes. Some statistics indicate fatigue is a factor in 30 to 40 percent of truck crashes, though the FMCSA itself puts the number at 5.5 percent.

“We will continue to push for a rule that protects truck drivers, instead of the greed of the trucking industry,” said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa when the court case was decided two years ago. “Longer hours behind the wheel are dangerous for our members and the driving public.”

The problem isn’t limited to highways. Six percent of pedestrian fatalities and nine percent of bicyclist fatalities in 2009 were caused by crashes with large trucks, according to the NHTSA. Between 1996 and 2005, crashes with large trucks accounted for almost a third of all cyclist fatalities in New York City, according to a joint report by NYC agencies [PDF].

Industry lobbying groups including the American Trucking Associations and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have mobilized against the changes. OOIDA says new safety rules would negatively impact not only “driver flexibility and the business operations of small-business truckers” but highway safety as well.

Some lawmakers have aligned with the trucking industry. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has claimed that reducing the hours of service is “cost-prohibitive” and that the “impact on safety is unclear.” Republicans are uniformly against the changes, with everyone from House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to Transportation Committee Chair John Mica working “aggressively” to block any alteration to the hours-of-service provisions.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has urged Congressional leaders to go along with the new safety rules, saying they apply “the most comprehensive and up-to-date data and analysis to the issue of driver fatigue and allowable hours of service” while allowing carriers “new operational flexibility.”

This is the third time the Bush-era rule has been struck down by the courts, but the FMCSA kept reinstating it — first in late 2007 and then about a year later. This time, the agency appears ready to make a change.