Today’s Headlines

  • Dangerous Driver Keeps Hitting Guys With Her Car, Some Are Cute (LA Now) 
  • Angelenos Like Westside Extension, Not Sure on 101-405 Expansion (CityWatch) 
  • People Who Only Break Law a Little Don’t Like Red Light Cameras (Times)
  • Governor Aiming at Cutting Transit Again (North County Times) 
  • Increased Ridership Making Metro a More Crowded Alternative (Times) 
  • But Ridership Is Actually Down v This Time Last Year? (LA Now) 
  • Traffic Congestion Keeping People from Beaches (Daily News)
  • IbikeU of the Day: Bikes in Pop Culture
  • My Hometown Is Now Bike Friendly (Reading Eagle)
  • Do We Need Privatized Rail? (Engineering News Record)

  • Regarding that Westside Transit Corridor Extension:

    The following was posted on the Planitzen website from WeHonews.com:

    ———

    “To their own surprise, the proposed subway expansion makes better sense to planners when a Santa Monica Boulevard route is added to the traditionally better-preferred Wilshire Boulevard route.

    A crowd of 75 attendees listened in rapture while Long Range Transportation planners explained how a Santa Monica spur running from the current Hollywood/Highland Red Line Station hooking up with a Wilshire line south of West Hollywood would not only increase ridership significantly, but also provides enough in travel time improvements to give Congress reason to fund the subway expansion.

    ‘What was surprising to us,’ David Mieger, project manager said, ‘is that adding Santa Monica Boulevard to the Wilshire route, in compliment to one another, it works [from a feasibility, cost and ridership perspective]’.”

  • If I can add one more…

    The following editorial, “Stranded in Suburbia”, was posted in the New York Times by one of my favorite columnists, Paul Krugman.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    From the article:

    “There have been many news stories in recent weeks about Americans who are changing their behavior in response to expensive gasoline — they’re trying to shop locally, they’re canceling vacations that involve a lot of driving, and they’re switching to public transit.

    But none of it amounts to much. For example, some major public transit systems are excited about ridership gains of 5 or 10 percent. But fewer than 5 percent of Americans take public transit to work, so this surge of riders takes only a relative handful of drivers off the road.

    Any serious reduction in American driving will require more than this — it will mean changing how and where many of us live.

    To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

    It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

    And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia — utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas — it’s starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.”

  • *cough cough*

    How goes it?

  • Damien Newton

    Dude, third from the bottom…

  • Hi,

    I’m Alex Thompson, and I’m illiterate. I can write, but I can’t read.