Month: June 2008

The City of Los Angeles planning department is partnering with Compass Blueprint to make the Sunset Junction MTA stop a more usable multi-modeltransit hub. By using urban design strategies the City hopes to create more connections to other transportation such as bus lines and bikes to accommodate for a planned transit plaza near the intersection of Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards.  Join us to discuss ideas to better support pedestrian, bike, and transit access and connections. The workshop is designed to be very hands on, so it should make for a lively discussion.  Come let planners know what you like to see in your community.  

Tomorrow in the early morning, LA Streetsblog will be down for a couple hours while the redesigned site is uploaded.  I don't think it will have too much of an impact because the down time is scheduled for 6 A.M. to 9 A.M. our time.  However, these things can go long, so please be patient with us tomorrow as the site goes down and with any bugs that might pop up in the afternoon.

Metro Board Member Richard Katz took aim at San Gabriel Valley Congresspeople who are fighting Metro’s congestion pricing plans for the I-10, I-110 and I-210.  Steve Hymon, who is suddenly the busiest writer in Los Angeles, wrote about the brewing fight over HOT Lanes at both the Bottleneck Blog and in his weekly Road Sage column.

Last night the Expo Construction Authority held a community meeting in the Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services Gymnasium, right in the heart of a community that has historically been opposed to construction of Phase II of the Expo Line.  As expected, it was hard to find a supporter of extending light rail from where Phase I ends in Culver City all the way to downtown Santa Monica.  In recent days, the Bottleneck Blog has done a great job of covering the controversy.

After the 2004 presidential campaign, in which both candidates attracted attention for riding bikes (and falling off them), it's refreshing to see a nominee on two wheels who is neither A) biking in the woods, nor B) straddling an $8000 Serotta while clad in spandex. Obama stayed upright and apparently rode with one of his daughters in tow (none of the AP photos actually show who or what is attached to his trailer).

The Cost of Raiding Transit Funding (The Examiner)  Assembly Votes To Waste A Billion Dollars on I-15 Widening (North County Times) Rail Rider’s Union Take to the Streets of West Hollywood (RRU) 16 Senators Skip Vote on Climate Change Bill (Bottleneck Blog) Some Drivers Hang on to SUVs No Matter the Cost (CNN) Florida Lawyer … Continued

Later, at the end of the post she gives an update:

The Arc of Tires Marked the Stop and Start for Many Riders Yesterday marked the 8th Los Angeles River Ride. Thousands of cyclists, riders and even some Ridazz gathered at Griffith Park to go on organized rides of 10, 50, 70 or 100 miles. The first ride started at 7:00 A.M., and by the time … Continued

From the way back machine comes this remarkable essay, "The Last Traffic Jam," about the blind spots that plague the motoring mentality. The anonymous author, writing for Time Magazine in 1947, delivers observations about road rage and the endemic violence of driving that still apply today.