A real prediction? You'll hear the words "peak oil" a lot in 2011.
The start of the year is a great time to make predictions, and a wonderful way for an intrepid blogger to write something interesting on a day when there hasn't been a lot of news to write about. To that end, I encourage all of you to write your predictions for 2011 in the comments section. For my part, I've got a year's full of predictions below.
January-February: The Bike Plan sails through the City Council and gets the Mayor's signature. The city begins implementing almost immediately by painting some new bike lanes somewhere in the city along the Backbone Bikeway Network.
March: Stephen Box stuns the city.
April: As gasoline prices pass the $4.50 a gallon threshold, the city holds its second CicLAvia. Unofficial attendance counts crush the numbers from 10/10/10. Everyone has a good time. The mainstream press still doesn't get the connection between CicLAvia, gas prices, and transportation policies.
May: Metro picks a route for the Westside Subway that goes directly under Beverly Hills High School. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky puts up token resistance by voting "no" on the alignment but doesn't get the rest of the Board to follow his folly.
June: Phase I of the Expo Line opens. The light rail doesn't go all the way to Culver City until later in the year.
The second half of the year, after the jump:
July: LADOT General Manager Gabe Klein announces city plan to bring car-share non-profit to all corners of the city.
August: 3 Foot Passing Law for Cyclists dies in the Assembly Transportation Committee after opposition from AAA and California Highway Patrol convinces Chariman Mike Eng that it would somehow make streets less safe.
September: At start of NFL season, Minnesota Vikings announce they're getting the heck of out of Minnesota as soon as they can. Both Southern California Stadium Plans kick into high gear.
October: With local gas prices at $5.25 a gallon, city holds its third CicLAvia of the year. Media still can't make the connection.
November: Metrolink releases new schedules and routing which looks a heck of a lot like the Transit Coalition's "simplified system" they released in 2009 on Streetsblog. In his typical understated style, Bart Reed doesn't take a victory lap.
December: Spokker posts in the comments section, "How come we haven't heard anything about your New Year's predictions? Is it because none of them came true?"
