City Council: Its Time To Think About Our Future Together

EDITED BELOW (10:11 PM)

Earlier this morning, the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee met to help begin the process of creating a long-range transportation plan for the City. The meeting was held bright and early at 8:30 A.M., giving the council members a chance to hold a press conference outside city hall in time to make the noon news.

The official motion, put forward by Chairwoman Wendy Gruel and Councilman Jack Weiss, notes that, “Contributing factors include a large and growing population, the disperse geography of the region,high automobile dependence, low levels of transit usage and a mature highway and roadway system with limited options for expansion.” The motion, passed unanimously, goes on to say that the long-range plan (not due to be completed for over a year) will be based on the models provided by New York City, Portland, and Baltimore.

During the meeting, the committee members told DOT and other officials what they wanted to see in the plan, including funding plans, a new government relations plan, as well as long- and short-term transit and road improvements designed to reduce congestion. Sorry cyclists, not a lot of bike-talk here.

The first chance the public will have to get involved with this plan will be to comment on the plan’s mission statement. Since I pride myself on getting ahead of the news, here’s a sneak peak at the what that statement is…

EDIT: A press release from Councilwoman Greuel’s office has a preliminary website to begin to provide feedback. It can be found here.