Month: December 2011

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So, a local entrepreneur wants to build a beautiful, mixed-use building on a surface parking lot in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis. This is apparently quite controversial.

Featured Headline: Every year the state releases it's list of top 25 tax scofflaws.  LAist then broke the list down further, to 14 businesses in the Greater Los Angeles area.  Of those 14 businesses, six of them are car related be they dealerships or garages.

If you live in Stamford, Connecticut and your walk to the train station gets safer next year, you can thank USDOT’s TIGER grant program. Or when your hometown of American Falls, Idaho suddenly gets complete streets downtown, accommodating people on foot, on bikes, on buses, in cars, and in wheelchairs, encouraging local shopping. Or when you realize that traffic congestion between Olympia and Tacoma, Washington has eased, not by adding lanes but by installing intelligent technology to manage traffic and encourage ridesharing.

Yesterday afternoon, LADOT Senior Bicycle Coordinator Michelle Mowery and City Planning's Claire Bowen visited the Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee to give an update on the City's progress on implementing the surprisingly progressive Bike Plan.  You can read the entire report, here.

The EPW Committee passed the highway portion of the transportation bill last month. The Banking Committee will tackle transit on Friday. And today, transportation reformers applauded as the Commerce Committee passed its bill dealing with the rail and safety component, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

L.A. As Divided as Streetsblog Commenters on Traffic Safety and Undocumented Immigrants (NBC4) More Piling on the Blotted Green Paint on the Spring Street Buffered Bike Lane (Atlantic Cities) Metro Board Meets Today.  Expect Fun. (The Source) Get a Traffic Ticket?  Don’t Want to Pay All of It?  Wait Until Next Year…(AP) Zev: This Policy … Continued

As the year draws to a close, the a debate is popping up between LAPD leadership and the Los Angeles Police Protective League over how to handle unlicensed drivers.  Yesterday, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced that the City of Los Angeles would allow unlicensed drivers pulled over by the police to call a friend or family member to pick up their car rather than have it be impounded.  Beck explained the decision to the Times:

U.S. DOT is officially announcing the winners of the third round of TIGER grants tomorrow, but they give the news to members of Congress first so those members can brag about all the bacon they bring home. See below for a list of the grants we know about so far.