Month: February 2008

New Downtown Delayed (Times) Feuer Introduces Transportation Funding Bills (California Chronicle) Downtown L.A. Rail Battle a Street Fight (Mass Transit Magazine) LACBC Announces This Year’s River Ride (LACBC Blog) Obama Announces Transportation Plan (barackobama.com)

Don't Worry, There's Nothing to Dodge These Days Councilmember Ed Reyes and Council President Ed Reyes have stood out recently as advocates for cyclists in recent weeks. If their resolution urging Metro and the Dodgers to work together to (re)create bus access to Dodger Stadium is succesful they may also gain praise from baseball fans. The resolution will be heard by the City Council Transportation Committe at tomorrow's (Tuesday, 2/27) meeting. That we're discussing adding bus service to baseball games is confusing to this east coaster. How can a baseball team that was partially named after a mode of transit (the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers) doesn't have any non-automobile options to get to the stadium? That no transit service of any kind exists for Major League baseball in Los Angeles is just one of many signs of how car culture has taken control of the transportation grid. In other major cities transit is a crucial part of local nine's transportation plan and in some cases transit is spotlighted by the team as the best way to get to the ballpark. Yet in L.A., one of our teams has no transit access at all and the next closest team, the geographically challenged Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, doesn't list transit as an option to travel to the ball park on the official website.

A new art show opens at Gallery 727 (727 South Spring Street), focusing on life as a pedestrian in Los Angeles.  It's an interesting approach to understanding walking in LA.  This even will tell us why we don't.  Walking LA/(Sur)facing the City is a multi-disciplinary perfomrance work that evolved from Sara Wookey's research of walking in Los Angeles.  It is a meeting ground of movement, video, text and live electronic music that celebrates teh subsurface layers of a city made available only to the one who walks.

You can make Downtown Pasadena a more walker-friendly city by participating in the Downtown Pasadena Walkabout on Saturday, March 1, 2008 from 8:30 am to 2pm. Teams of walkers will fan out across Downtown Pasadena to evaluate and record their walking experience, ideas and recommendations. We will provide participating walkers with a continental breakfast, lunch, water and encouragement!

Join Metro, the LADOT and the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition for the 14th Annual Bike to Work Day.  Visit the official website at metro.net/biketowork to pledge, find a buddy, locate your nearest pit stop, and more.

Some baseball teams have full transit plans...the Dodgers don't even have buses

The tech work being done to move Street Heat to Streetsblog is almost complete and LA Streetsblog ought to be here soon. Before the final touches are made and the move is complete, I need a little help from all of you, especially you Angelenos.

Crenshaw Alternative Slammed (Times, LAist) Ed Reyes, Bike Advocate (Brayj Against the Machine) Greenhouse Gas Used as Car Fuel (Carectomy via NYT) Fact Sheet for Sepulveda Boulevard Reversible Lane Project (Bel Air Online) Ventura Also Considering Toll Roads (Ventura County Star) Speak Out on Regional Connector Meetings (LA Downtown News, Times) Amgen Coverage (Star News)

Just because I've been writing about bikes and development, doesn't mean that Metro hasn't been busy with a myriad of different rail and light rail expansion projects. In addition to the Subway to the Sea and the Expo Line, both of which have been talked about extensively on this and other blogs, Expo is also looking to add light rail along the Crenshaw Corridor and to connect the Gold, Blue and Expo lines in LA's downtown.