Month: February 2011

Unlike the other races we've covered thus far, Council District 10 has a group of candidates challenging the incumbent, the affable Herb Wesson.  Wesson hasn't been regularly featured on Streetsblog as Krekorian, LaBonge and Parks.  However, he has been a major player in some of the large issues we've discussed because they happen to go directly through his South L.A. District.

Along the lower part of Ballona Creek in the Marina area, of the Ballona Creek Bike path rest a small series of sculptures created by local artist John Nielsen. While many people enjoy these statues, the County Engineer, Gregory Sarpy has ordered their destruction.  You've heard the expression the "squeeky wheel gets the grease?"  This is a great example of that old saying.  One person has been calling the engineers office daily to complain of the statues and he's apparently getting his way.  The stated concern is that the rock art is interfering with bird nesting.  I'm not sure what birds are trying to nest in that superexposed area, which is flooded during storms and just inches from the bikepath, but maybe the county knows something I don't.

Highway projects can take 10 to 15 years from planning through construction. The length of the process leads to cost overruns, some due to inflation, some from having to pay engineers and contractors for years on end. No matter how you feel about the worthiness of road capacity expansion, if a project gets built it doesn't do anybody any good to have that project cost twice what it ought to because of delays. Plus, reducing delays is going to be a key element in upcoming debates over cost-effectiveness in the transportation sector.

Last week in Philadelphia, the Obama Administration unveiled its comprehensive plan to connect 80 percent of Americans by high-speed rail. And it wasn’t long before the proposal attracted critics, like Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post. Much of the blowback centers around the argument that rail is too costly at a time when budgets are stretched thin.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

It seems that every time that Streetsblog takes a moment to discuss the Transit Access Pass (TAP) Program, it's because someone is complaining about it. From its initial rollout, the program to provide fare cards that could be used as monthly passes on Metro and other local carriers, or put simply provide a universal fare card for the Southland and its many transit operators has been under fire.  Given that TAP is finding its way back in the news, now seemed a good time to check back in with the program.

As Chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, Barbara Boxer may be the single most important voice on the future of Obama administration's six-year transportation proposal. And yesterday, the California Democrat gave her qualified endorsement to the President's transformative plan.

We reported yesterday that the president's six-year transportation plan proposes simplifying federal policy by eliminating 55 highway programs and rolling them all into five umbrella programs: the National Highway Program, Highway Safety Improvement, Livable Communities, Federal Allocation, and Research, Technology, and Education.