Picture a future where a smiling multi-racial police force, who apparently answers to nobody, moves unchecked through society arresting and detaining people for offenses to the environment.  Use plastic bags at the grocers?  You're arrested, frisked, and handcuffed before being frog marched from the store.  Set your hot tub at too high a temperature?  You're chased, early naked, through your back yard by a hoard of police officers.  Sound like a nightmare scenario dreamed up by a conservative talk radio host?  Nope, it's just another greenwashing attempt from the same car company that mocks cyclists, bus riders, pedestrians and people who drive cars run on vegetable oil.

Audi's offering for the Super Bowl, "The Green Police" is really something to behold.  From the admittedly catchy theme song parodying "The Dream Police," performed by eighties Super-Cover Band Cheap Trick, to the celebration of gestapo tactics against environmental offenders; Green Police has something for everyone.  The Huffington Post calls the advertisement "hilarious," while Grist beams that "The ad only makes sense if it’s aimed at people who acknowledge the moral authority of the green police."  Of course, the only way to avoid the unchecked power of the Green Police is to but an Audi that is powered by "clean diesel."

Completely absent from the commercial is any mention or image of cyclists or pedestrians, which is actually sort of an improvement from past ads.  The aforementioned vegetable oil powered car?  It's still waiting at a Green Police Vehicle Checkpoint while Audi's are waived through.  The attractiveness of the segway seems to have improved since it was mocked last fall, the electric powered vehicle is now the transportation of choice for the Green Police...when they're not in their helicopter or car caravan.

But Audi inadvertently has sent the correct message to the middle-class masses who might be interested in purchasing their diesel fleet: That buying this car is the best way to feel good about yourself without really doing much for the environment.  After all, it's the same paramilitary police force that sees that car as the answer to our environmental crisis that can't compute the amount of environmental destruction caused by a helicopter raid against someone not composting or surrounding a house with squad cars because the person isn't disposing of their batteries correctly.

I'm sure bus operations will come up...Photo: SoCalMetro/Flickr

As I noted in my previous commentary "Metro In Transition", while the Sectors are being disbanded the Governance Councils continue in their role of providing oversight of Metro bus operations.

In the past the Councils had an annual joint meeting where they had an opportunity to have a dialogue with agency management. Art Leahy when attending the 2009 meeting last Oct. for the first time in his role as Metro CEO announced he would like to hold the meetings more quarterly to allow more frequent consultation on regional issues that cross sector boundaries.

On Tuesday Feb. 16th at 3 p.m. the first quarterly Sector Governance Council Meet and Confer will be held in the Metro Board Room, on the 3rd floor of the headquarters building adjacent to the Gateway Transit Plaza just east of Union Station.

The meeting will include an opportunity to present public comment. This is a chance in one setting to address Metro management/operations staff and Sector Governance Council members regarding any bus service issues you may feel worthy of airing. I'll be attending and besides making a few comments will be interested to hear any other public comments and also what the Governance Council members have to say and what kind of presentations Metro staff make. Hopefully it will be somewhat educational.

Cass Sunstein, chief of the White House budget office's regulatory arm. (Photo: Wonk Room)

Another watchdog group traced the change to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which evaluates new agency regulations through a smaller arm called OIRA (short for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs). The president's nominee to lead OIRA, Cass Sunstein, has taken heat from green groups for his past criticism of government's role in the rule-making process.

What's the significance of the OMB's change to the EPA rule? "The fewer the monitors, the more likely it is that many metropolitan areas will be able to exceed EPA’s limits without detection or correction," CPR president and law professor Rena Steinzor wrote on the group's blog in late January.

Steinzor's post also addressed the significance of the new nitrogen dioxide rule, noting that the pollutant tends to be especially common, and dangerous, in lower-income neighborhoods located near busy roads:

Scientific evidence links human NO2 exposure with various respiratory health problems. ... The biggest source of NO2 pollution is automobile emissions, though power plants and heavy industry are also significant contributors. NO2 pollution levels tend to be greater in urban areas and near major roadways, which means NO2 pollution tends to disproportionately harm the poor and communities of color.

We turn to the Streetsblog Network for a little inspiration this morning, courtesy of Robin Chase -- author of the blog Network Musings and former CEO of Zipcar. Chase shares a story from a friend in India, Vinay Jayaswal, who believes that meaningful change on the most overwhelming issues can, and must, begin with the actions of individuals:

Just think what he could accomplish if he put his mind to it. (Photo: Network Musings)

The moral of the story for Vinay is that people want to help, want to do the right thing, want to improve society. They just don't have the confidence to act and take the first step. They can't figure out the first step; they think the process will be complicated and difficult. They think no one will follow. They expect government to be the enabler.

Just do it, says Vinay. Think globally. His most pressing issues were environment, sanitation, and health -- intractable issues for the common Indian. Act individually. Vinay isn't going to wait for government. He believes individuals can work together to help themselves. His budding idea will include a website and hope to spur Indian youth to take action on issues that affect their daily lives.

Many people in India are making those individual efforts. In the nation's most populous city, Mumbai, they've organized a Car-Free Day for February 21st. It's the first such effort in Mumbai, which suffers from some of the world's most chronically congested traffic conditions.

And in the small town of Ferezopur, on the India-Pakistan border, temporary street closures for a festival inspired a few individuals to push for a permanent car-free zone. Local merchants were skeptical at first, but have been happy with the results, and the zone may eventually expand.

These are just a couple of examples of how, even in a nation of 1.17 billion people, individuals can take responsibility and drive progress -- if they just choose to act rather than wait for someone else to take the lead.

Photo: New York Times via 4 LA Kids

UC Berkeley professor Michael Jerrett strongly suggests in a new study that reducing the traffic near people's homes could have a dramatic impact on the health of the children living near public streets.

The bad news?  Obesity rates for children in Los Angeles is high.  For example, a recent study by the California Food Policy Advocates showed that just over thirty-five percent of seventh graders in Los Angeles have an "unhealthy weight" and forty-two percent have an unhealthy aerobic capacity.  As you might expect, unhealthy kids are an indicator of unhealthy adults.  The CAFPA study shows that over fifty percent of L.A. County adults fall into the "unhealthy weight" and "unhealthy aerobic capacity" categories.  All of these statistics are well above the national average.

Both NYC Streetsblog and SF Streetsblog have taken a look at the report, and broken it down.

In NYC, Noah Kazis reports on the study, which links traffic volumes to youth obesity:

Jerrett shows that not only does the built environment matter, but traffic volumes matter too. His team's long-term study tracked children from across Southern California, starting from ages 9-10 and continuing through high school. Controlling for a wide variety of factors, they compared the children's body mass indexes (BMI) to the density of traffic near their homes.

Children living within 150 meters of high-traffic areas were found to have, on average, BMIs five percent higher than those living near low-traffic areas. Only the immediate surroundings seem to matter: Traffic levels within 300 or 500 meters didn't affect BMI.

Michael Rhodes, in San Francisco, continues, 

The researchers put forward two reasons for why traffic volumes contribute to obesity. High asthma rates could be part of the equation, making kids less likely to engage in physical activity. Kids - and their parents - also seem to be especially sensitive to the real or perceived danger from cars, much more so than adults.

So what can be done?  Jerret sees the ultimate solution to be less cars in sensitive areas, i.e. places where people should be open to walking or biking for transportation and places where children live.  He uses the example of London's congestion charging, which reduced traffic by 18% in the central city. 

Unfortunately for Angelenos, he takes a somewhat dim view that mixed use neighborhoods are a complete solution if traffic persists.

Moreover, solutions posited in existing literature on built environments suggest that connected, mixed land use neighborhoods with good “walkability” to destinations in proximity to the home may provide some protection against obesity and physical inactivity. If traffic is an independent risk factor, however, improving the physical structure of the city may be ineffective if high levels of traffic persist in residential neighborhoods.

That means that we can do all the planning and encouraging of cleaner lifestyles that we want, but if we're unsuccessful in reducing the number of cars on our streets, than we're going to be fighting a losing battle against obesity.  That's just one thing to consider the next time a traffic engineer proposes widening a street for "safety and efficiency" reasons.  They may be encouraging more cars to drive on the street, but any perceived safety benefits should be weighed against the damage being done to the health and fitness of our children.

A future commuter rail station along Boston's Fairmount Line, one of five areas selected for EPA sustainable development aid. (Photo: Globe)

The latest moves came as Obama administration officials gathered in Seattle for the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference, where HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan officially tapped Shelley Poticha and Ron Sims as leaders of his agency's sustainable communities office.

On the HUD website, Donovan's aides are seeking input and suggestions from local planners as they prepare to award an initial $100 million in grants to cities with plans for transportation and land use reform.

Not to be outdone, EPA took the opportunity to launch two pilot grant programs aimed at using clean water funds to boost community development and rebuilding brownfield communities around transit access.

The water-funding pilot will focus on New York, California, and Maryland, while the brownfields -- former industrial sites where hazardous materials may impede environmental cleanup -- selected for transit-oriented development aid are located in Indianapolis, Iowa City, Denver, Boston, and the San Diego area.

A couple of interesting things on the agenda this week, and the events are spread around the city so there's something for everyone.

Tuesday - CICLE hosts a meeting at Cafe de Leche at 5000 York Blvd. to discuss what kind of improvements the community in Northeast L.A. wants to see on their streets.  Besides Sharrows, of course.  The meeting begins at 7:00 P.M.

Wednesday - Wednesday sees one of the more interesting events to appear on the calendar, as the Eco-Village hosts a talk byEric Romann, BusRiders Union organizer and producer of KPFK's Voices form the Frontlines at 7:30 P.M. at 110 Bimini Place.  The  interactive presentation is entitled, "

Re-Envisioning Urban Transportation &⁞ Building A Mass Movement for Civil Rights & Environmental Justice" which is so descriptive, I don't think i need to add anything else.

Thursday - Move LA sponsors its "We Love L.A." party at Catherdral Plaza, 555 Temple Street in Down Town Los Angeles.  The invitation avoids the word "fundraiser" but when you have a lot of heavy hitters, such as Mayor Villaraigosa, Assemblyman Mike Feuer, and Supervisor Yaroslavsky being honored, and tickets packages range up to $35,000, you can bet that some funds are going to help the Measure R advocacy group move forward.  The party starts at 6:00 P.M.

Saturday - The outreach continues for the plan to beautify Rosa Parks Station in South Los Angeles.  This meeting begins at Ronald McNair Elementary School Cafeteria 1450 W El Segundo Blvd. at 10:00 A.M.  For more information, or directions, visit the L.A. Streetsblog calendar section.

Saturday - The Southern California Transit advocates host their monthly meeting, which is open to the public, from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. at Angelus Plaza. 255 South Hill Street.  This week's featured speaker is Kim Turner of Torrance Transit.

For today, we have an LA Now Column by Ari Bloomekatz which is bound to stoke the flames of the "bike versus car" culture wars that often heat up on websites and the streets when a simple question is posed such as "Should L.A. give cyclists more space on the road? "  Right?

Well, less than two hours into the article, the comments section is overwhelmingly positive towards cyclists.  At the time of writing this article there are fifty two comments answering the question and over forty five of them are positive.  Only two are negative and the rest are somewhat off topic.  I'll be monitoring the Times article throughout the day to see if the mood changes, but if not, I propose a mass tweeting of the article @villaraigosa and @MobilityMaven tonight to make the point that it's not just bicycle blogs, and Streetsblog where people make the case that cyclists deserve more and safer space on Los Angeles' streets.

Update: 11:10 - Over 100 comments, and it's still mostly positive.  A few motor heads are speaking up, but we're still running at least two-to-one foe positive comments in the last fifty comments.

The cul-de-sac's glory days may be past. (Photo: piermario via Flickr)

Early last year the state of Virginia became the first state to severely limit cul-de-sacs from future development.  Similar actions have been taken in Portland Oregon, Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.  What they are beginning to realize is that the cul-de-sac street grid uses land inefficiently, discourages walking and biking, and causes an almost complete dependence on driving, with attendant pollution and energy use. Furthermore, town officials are beginning to realize that unconnected streets cost more money to provide services to and force traffic onto increasingly crowded arterial roads, which then, in many cases, need to be widened (more tax money)...

With municipal and state budgets at the breaking point, why aren't CT officials looking at land use patterns and their accompanying expenditures and begin the process of growing smarter? I don't know about you, but I am willing to live without the cul-de-sac if it would save me some tax money. 

More from around the network: Beat Bike Blog has a great little item about an older gentleman who rides his bike in Hartford, Connecticut:

In this bike's owner, we have personified the nullification of every excuse anyone has ever given for not riding. You think you're too old? Unless you are well into your 70's or older, this man has you beat. Too cold? Temps were in the low 20s this particular afternoon. Are you too tired, too sore, too out of shape? I invite you to check out the custom cane mount. This man walks with a cane, hooks it on to the rack and frame of his heavy single-speed bike and rides on.

A new presentation on the causes and severity of bicycle crashes, available here after being hand-scanned by Enci Box, has been made available and analyzed at Westside Bikeside by Dr Alex Thompson. Amongst the results is the above chart showing that nearly one quarter of the reported bicycle crashes in the City of Los Angeles in 2008 were also "hit and runs." While this number is high, the news gets worse; these are just the ones that are reported and recorded. We've already seen that sometimes hit and run crashes involving cyclists aren't taken seriously, and other times the police report is just poorly done. However, as Thomspon notes, just getting our hands on these statistics is a step forward in the relationship between cyclists and the LAPD.

While having this data is a step forward, it can be somewhat confusing in its current form.  For example, while it breaks down that roughly ten percent of collisions were caused by someone running a red light or ignoring a stop sign, it doesn't differentiate between crashes caused by aggressive cyclists or aggressive motorists.  Hopefully that information is made more clear in an update promised in a couple of weeks.

Looking at the presentation, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition noted in an email that 25% of bicycle related collisions are due to wrong way riding. Considering that their own bike counts showed that fewer than ten percent of all riders are going in the wrong direction, this act is a major safety concern. While the LAPD claims to be working to better educate cyclists about this, which is surely music to Councilman Tom LaBonge's ears, the LACBC wants those outreach materials to be in English and Spanish to build off the success of the City of Lights Program. A sound idea.

It seems that since last December, when the Coalition was surprised to find out at a City Council hearing that it was working with the LAPD on their bicycle related educational materials to officers, that relations between the Department and the Coalition have improved.  In a post at the Coalition's blog, Aurisha Smolarski reports on their collaborative efforts with the LAPD to crack down on bike thefts and improve the training of police when it comes to cycling.  Currently, the Bike Coalition is working with the LAPD to help identify the most dangerous intersections in Los Angeles.  You can help the LACBC help the LAPD through a variety of online tools: via Twitter @lacbc, Facebook, or through an interactive Google Map the LACBC has set up.  In its first day online, the map got 600 views and thirty intersections tagged, so the Bike Coalition is now asking that people narrow their suggestions to places where there were actual collisions, not just places where it seems dangerous to drive.

I've already tweeted them that, "The intersection of Third and Fairfax, where the Farmer's Market is located, is a death trap waiting to happen."  If for some reason it's easier for you to leave your nightmare intersection in the comments section, I'll make sure to forward your thoughts and experiences on to the LACBC.

After years of debates, threats of lawsuits, contentious community meetings and even heated discussion on Streetsblog message boards; there was a feeling that yesterday's meeting of the Expo Board to debate the certification of the environmental documents for Phase II would be a momentous meeting.  Predictions of a 4-3 vote either for or against certification seemed a safe bet; with the exception of the Transit Coalition's Bart Reed who predicted a "blowout," everyone I talked to thought it would be close.

After nearly five hours of public comment and debate, the Board voted and the final tally was six in favor, zero against, and one abstention.  The abstention wasn't even made by a fully-vested Board Member, but a staff member from the office of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who was empowered to vote in place of the Supervisor.  There was a vote on a Ridley-Thomas motion to delay, not reject, certification for three months that failed by the somewhat closer vote of 2-5, with Rosendahl joining Ridley-Thomas in support.

Instead of a close vote, the most controversial thing that occurred was a procedural move by Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks who blocked fellow Councilman Paul Koretz from voting on the measure.  Technically, until Phase I is completed, Parks and Council Woman Jan Perry sit on the Expo Board.  However it was widely believed that Parks and Perry would yield to their successors, Councilmen Koretz and Bill Rosendahl who's districts would be most directly impacted by the construction and operation of Phase II. 

While Perry yielded to Rosendahl, Parks decided to hold on to his seat for the meeting to, in his words, defend the grade crossing policy at Metro that was under attack from opponents to Phase II and Ridley-Thomas.  Whether that was the real reason for Parks' maneuver, or  a more political one such as wanting to prevent the expected "no" vote from Koretz or even to spite his formal rival Ridley-Thomas is unknown.  What is known is that Koretz was one unhappy Councilman.

After public comment closed, Los Angeles Councilman Herb Wesson, who chairs the Expo Board, allowed Koretz unlimited speaking time as though he were a seated board member.  Koretz took advantage with a strong attack on many of the parts of the environmental documents, especially the traffic study, that Cheviot Hills residents had spent hours attacking during public comment.  While he couldn't vote, some of Koretz's concerns were later addressed by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Rosendahl.  Koretz railed against the quality of the traffic studies at intersections, especially the crossings at Sepulveda, Westwood, and Overland.

Supervisor Yaroslavsky made a pair of motions that somewhat addressed Koretz's concerns.  The first requires further study of whether or not to elevate the crossing at Sepulveda Boulevard, which would cost an extra $17 million.  The second addresses the concerns of the group Expo Greenway and put off the decision on whether or not to have a parking lot or park space at Westwood Station.  Rosendahl seconded both motions, although he seemed ready to just support "park over parking" at Westwood Station.  Each motion passed unanimously.

Rosendahl's support was somewhat of a surprise to people closely watching the Board.  The Councilman had been a very vocal supporter of grade-separated intersections, but ultimately supported certification of environmental documents without elevating rail at the intersections.  He did use his vote to get assurances from the Construction Authority staff that they would create a Bike Advisory Committee to help with issues such as crossings, access to the bike path, and parking and an Urban Design Committee to help with the station design.  Some opponents of certification of the environmental documents focused their comments at Rosendahl for not sticking to his guns, but with the vote going against grade-separation with or without his vote, his political pragmatism might pay dividends for cyclists and residents in the future.

The major question that remaining, is whether or not there will be a legal challenge to the Expo Board's decision to move forward?  It's long been assumed that with the amount of money being raised, and their forceful public statements, that Neighbors for Smart Rail will move quickly to challenge the Board's decision in court.  The Times raised the issue in their coverage of the meeting, and while a final decision hasn't been announced, it does seem all-but-certain:

Robert P. Silverstein, an attorney representing a coalition of Westside homeowners' associations called Neighbors for Smart Rail, said his clients support extending the rail line but feel strongly it can be made better.

"I want to be clear that my client is not opposed to the project, but is opposed to it being built without below grade, grade separation between Overland and Sepulveda," he said at Thursday's public hearing of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority board. "Build it, but build it right."

If an announcement on a lawsuit is coming, you'll be able to read about it here at Streetsblog.  In the meantime, given all of the complaining I do about Board and Chair conduct at Metro Board meetings, I should note that not only did Councilman Herb Wesson do a superb job chairing the meeting and respecting everyone's views, but the Board didn't act like a group of school children who were eying the clock waiting for the recess bell.  Even with Mayor Villaraigosa announcing his layoffs, the City Councilmen didn't threaten to bolt the meeting if the public would just shut up and let them do their job and waited nearly five hours to cast their votes.  It's a positive sign that all seven Board seats cast votes, even if Ridley-Thomas needed a surrogate to do so.  The Metro Board would do well to follow their example.

(editor's note: Welcome our newest guest blogger, live from Long Beach, Drew Reed.  Reed is a writer, film editor, and cycling activist based in Long Beach. He blogs about cycling issues in Long Beach and the greater LA area at LA Loyalist.  We first met Drew when we interviewed him about his experience traveling the country to go to the inauguration of Barack Obama. - DN)

San Luis Obispo, the central California town best know for its wineries, cozy inns, and occasional rowdy Mardi Gras celebrations, has quietly been building a reputation as a hub for bike-friendly innovation on the Central Coast. The San Luis Obispo Bike Coalition has helped to install sharrows along busy Monterey Street, and runs a popular bike valet service every week. But perhaps the most unique piece of SLO's bike infrastructure is its bike boulevard along Morro Street.

SLO is not the first city to install bike boulevards; they have been used in Berkeley, Portland, and Vancouver. But what's significant about the Morro Street/Bill Roalman Bike Boulevard is its effective bike-only intersection medians, which allow bikes to pass while redirecting cars to turn onto the cross street. As opposed to traffic circles and other traffic calming devices, the bike medians are more effective at encouraging cars to use alternate routes, creating a more bikeable street. Berkeley has some similar medians, but the regularity with which they appear in San Luis Obispo greatly augments their effect. They also provide an opportunity for prominent signage.

There's a lesson to be learned here. With bike boulevards in the works for Long Beach and Pasadena, and the beloved 4th Street Bike Boulevard in Central LA slowly gaining ground, we should look how our Central Coast brethren have perfected their bike boulevard and do the same here.

Atlanta's Metro won a share of the emissions-cutting transit grants that the White House proposes to cut next year. (Photo: Atlanta Metblogs)

In real dollar terms, that 2 percent comes out to $986 million of the stimulus law's $48 billion in total transportation spending. The low total for disadvantaged and minority firms, known by the shorthand of DBEs, comes five months after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a $20 million bonding program aimed at helping less well-connected companies compete for federal business.

"This number is absolutely shocking," TEN executive director Laura Barrett said in a statement. "Secretary LaHood is encouraging state DOTs to increase allocations to minority and disadvantaged contractors, but this number proves that encouragement is not enough. The old boys network that locks out minority contractors was built on the state and local level, and it needs to be fought at that level to reverse this outrageous inequity."

Anecdotal reports of minority contractors getting shortchanged by transportation stimulus spending have emerged in Illinois, Minnesota, and California, among other states. The 2005 federal transportation law states that at least 10 percent of federal roads and transit spending should be routed through DBEs, unless the Transport Secretary determines otherwise.

The second not-so-great transportation number, $53 million, reflects the total spending on pollution-reducing transit grants that the White House included in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2011.

The administration hopes to steer nearly 10 times that amount, or nearly $530 million, to its new three-agency partnership for sustainable communities. Still, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) pulled out the $53 million number today to note that the White House had proposed $22 million more for the same type of transit grants last year (and ended up spending $100 million).

From the EESI's budget statement (emphasis theirs):

A focus on livability is expected to have benefits for air quality, public health, energy savings, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. The rest of the proposed budget, however, represents very little change in how these issues and public goals are addressed. A special fund to help reduce GHG emissions within FTA, in fact, saw a significant decrease from $75 million to $53 million.

It's a complicated question, and we suggest that you go and read his very thoughtful post in full. Here's a taste:

Too many roads to nowhere. (Photo: Peter Zarria via Flickr)

Among urban and rural areas, who subsidizes whom?

It's methodologically difficult to measure net taxation, but the studies that have been done suggest that, contrary to the belief of some, urban areas are big time net tax donors. For example, a recent Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute study found that Indiana's urban and suburban counties generally subsidize rural ones...

Exhibit A is transportation. Two-thirds of Americans live in large metro areas, yet less than half the federal transportation stimulus funds are going to the top 100 metro areas. Missouri is spending half its stimulus money on 89 small counties that account for only a quarter of the state's population. In Ohio, the state cancelled plans to spend $100 million in stimulus funds on the crumbling Cleveland Inner Belt bridge in order to divert them to paying for a $150 million bypass around Nelsonville -- a town of only 5,000 people. This is part of a plan to construct a four-lane divided highway into sparsely populated southeast Ohio as part of a “build it and they will come” economic development plan. Mecklenburg County, NC, the state's largest and home to Charlotte, received only $7.8 million out of the first $423 million in projects in that state. The Atlantic Monthly described this as a contest between a “mayor's stimulus” and a “governor's stimulus” -- and the governor won.

State after state has rural “roads to nowhere.” Without any legitimate economic development strategy on offer for depressed rural areas and small industrial cities, salvation is said to lie in access to four lane highways. The logic is that until every county in America is crisscrossed with these things, somehow residents are deprived of their due. This plays well to rural resentment, allowing people who are by nature proud believers in self-reliance and dismissive of welfare to claim instead that they've been cheated out of their “fair share” of transportation money...

Regardless, a lack of transportation investment is crippling our cities, many of which have congested, crumbling roads and shaky bridges... [G]overnance reform at the state level is critical to bring transportation funding allocations in line with real population and economic development measures. That's not to say that rural areas should get no funding. There are many areas where legitimate state funding is warranted, such as replacing substandard bridges or correcting roads with dangerous geometry. But that doesn't mean states should spend huge amounts of money on large rural expansion projects of dubious value that rob urban areas of the funds needed for projects with genuine transportation merit and real economic development potential.

As soon as today's Expo Board Hearing begins, which should be in a couple of moments, Streetsblog will begin "tweeting" the coverage live at http://twitter.com/lastreetsblog.  Once the Board votes on the Final Environmental Impact Statement on Phase II of the Expo Line, we'll post the results at this link.  Tomorrow morning a post with more complete coverage of the meeting will come tomorrow morning.

Update, 6:45- It's official.  The FEIS is approved by a of 5-1-1.  Voting for the motion were Los Angeles Councilmen Wesson, Parks and Rosendahl, along with County Supervisor Yaroslavsky, a Councilwoman from Santa Monica sitting in for the injured Pam O'Conner, and Councilman Maslin from Culver City.  Daniel Rosenfeld, sitting in for Supervisor Ridley-Thomas abstained.

Earlier this week, Streetsblog Capitol Hill's Elana Schor wrote about the transit agencies across the country that received federal "New Starts" funding.  As is common knowledge now, Los Angeles was shut out, receiving $0 in federal funds in this round of funding from the federal government for the two projects for which they applied, the Regional Connector and the Subway to the Sea.  Yesterday at The Source, Steve Hymon explained why Los Angeles was shut out, but also made the case that the most populous county in the country deserves a share of federal dollars.

The reason: the projects haven’t yet been designated as official New Starts projects, although FTA officials are working with Metro on the complex application process.

As a result, the FY 2011 budget has no New Starts money for Los Angeles County, the most heavily populated county in the United States, with 9.86 million people...

...The county did receive its last installment of nearly $500 million in New Starts money last year to help pay for the Eastside Gold Line, which opened in November. In fairness to the feds, it can also be argued that Metro may have received subway and connector funds this year if the planning process for both had started earlier than 2007 and the projects were farther along.

Both advocates for the Gold Line Foothill Extension and opponents of the Expo Line have argued that Metro should apply for "New Starts" money for these projects as well.  Adding more projects to the list of projects Metro submits does increase the chance that Metro will bring home more of that federal bacon; but it also decreases the chance that those projects favored by the Board are the ones that are partially funded.

Regardless of where "the blame" should go for "the most heavily populated county in the United States" getting shut out of this popular transit funding program, let's encourage both Metro and the Federal Government to make certain this doesn't happen again next year.