Today’s Headlines

• Northeast L.A. Getting the City's First Bike Friendly Business District (LADOT Bike Blog, Curbed)
• Coincidence? NELA Police District Conducting Dangerous Driving Sting (Eastsider)
• Want to Beat Car Traffic? Ride a Bike Train (Voice of America)
• Plenty of 911 Calls on Woman Driving Wrong Way Before She Crashed and Killed (LAT)
• LAUSD Requested Traffic Guard At Intersection Where Woman Was Killed (LAT)
• Garcetti Huddles with Feds., Gov. on Climate Change (Daily News)
• A Review of the Most Recent Metro Bicycle Roundtable (Biking in L.A.)
• Walking Through Downtown Santa Monica's Past (SaMo Next)
• Amtrak Offering "Jamzilla" Specials (Daily News)
• CA Assembly Bill Introduced to Target Cell Phone Use While Driving (Cyclelicious)
• Parking Wars in Fancy Hollywood Neighborhood Heating Up (City Watch)
• I-5 Named Most Congested Freeway in U.S.A. (Daily News)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

CITY OF LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (LADOT) ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF TAP CARD DESIGN COMPETITION

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
(February 13, 2014) – Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for City Services, Doane Liu unveiled the winners of a city-wide competition to design the new versions of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s (LADOT) TAP smart card.More than 150 Los Angeles artists submitted 265 designs for the competition that was the first of its kind in a major urban area in the world.

The theme of the design competition was Downtown Los Angeles and LADOT’s Transit Services.Artists were asked to interpret the Downtown area and how LADOT’s transit services impact the area.

During the monthly Downtown Art Walk celebration that has been held in Downtown Los Angeles on the second Thursday of every month for the past two years, Deputy Mayor Liu presented awards to Kristie Kam, a Los Angeles Graphic Designer and graduate of the University of Southern California, and David Lomeli, an animator and illustrator living in Los Angeles. The entries were judged by a five-person jury panel: Nic Cha Kim (Gallery Row Organization), Qathryn Brehm (Downtown LA Art Walk), Nathan Cartwright (The Hive Gallery), Bruce Gillman (LADOT) and Susan Bok (LADOT), who selected the two winners in January 2014.

Deputy Liu said that the LADOT TAP Design Competition is a prime example of the vibrancy of the arts community in Los Angeles, ”The fact that we can have such a great response to a competition such as this, demonstrates the creativity as well as the commitment of the artists who call Los Angeles home. The two designs are very unique, reflective of the huge change that has taken place in Downtown Los Angeles, and the fact that LADOT’s DASH bus services have become such an important service to those who live, work, shop and visit the area.”

The two designs will be reproduced on LADOT TAP cards that will be available later this year. LADOT is a member of the regional TAP smart card system that is the primary means of fare payment for the 1,500,000 weekday riders of transit services in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) developed the TAP system in 2008 with LADOT introducing its own branded TAP cards in 2012 when its transit services began to accept the TAP card.

LADOT is the second largest provider of transit services in Los Angeles County, second only to LACMTA. LADOT provides three types of transit services:

1.Commuter Express Services:Weekday commuter services from points across the San Fernando Valley, the Beach Communities, Thousand Oaks and the West Side to Downtown Los Angeles; service within Long Beach and between Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank.

2.DASH Circulator Services:Local bus services that circulate in 27 neighborhoods throughout the City and in Downtown Los Angeles.

3.Cityride:A program that provides transportation solutions to seniors and the mobility challenged with dial-a-ride, taxi and discounted monthly passes.

The City of Los Angeles began its transit services program in 1985 when the then Southern California Rapid Transit District, now LACMTA, abandoned its Miniride Program in Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council voted to have LADOT assume responsibility for that service, and since then has voted to support the expansion of LADOT’s transit service program that now carries more than 26,000,000 riders annually.