Dana Gabbard

(Note: When Streetsblog first launched, we were taken to task by the writing team at The Bus Bench for reporting about the dangers of cycling and harassment from drivers, but never the risks taken by transit riders, especially those riding after hours. We've gotten better on this issue, Sahra Sulaiman's piece on THAT GUY and our ongoing coverage of the dangers posed by LASD Sheriffs only touch the issue. In the wake of a story of a group of women being assaulted on a bus in New Delhi, Dana Gabbard wonders how prevalent harassment is on Metro and other transit buses. If you have a story you're willing to share, please do so in the comments section or you can do so privately by emailing me, damien@streetsblog.org. - DN)

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its excellent obituary memorializing former Metro CEO Julian Burke. His tenure was during the period when I actually attended Metro Board meetings. These days I figure between Steve Hymon of The Source, Laura Nelson of the Los Angeles Times and our own Damien Newton you don't have to attend to know the scuttlebutt about what happened. Albeit I do read selected staff reports for agenda items to educate myself.

We are on the last lap approaching the end of my long exertions as self-appointed chief TAP (Transit Access Pass) watchdog for our region, my friends. This long troubled program has finally unequivocally turned the corner and is fast approaching victory lane. Kudos and plaudits from all quarters are raining down on David Sutton who laist recently dubbed "the guy at Metro in charge of TAP operations." Sutton built on the yeomen effort mounted by Matt Raymond (until recently Metro's Chief Communications Officer) who first was handed the unenviable task of fixing TAP after the TAPucrats who labored ten years and spent millions in creating TAP mishandled it in such egregious fashion that one feels as if Raymond was one day handed a broom and told to tidy up the mess left behind by the elephant herd that TAP had become. We now have an actual date for the gate latching that feels real (June 2013) AND promised expansion that will fulfill the long promised potential of the technology (from 9 agencies to 24) in the next 12 months. Who'd have thunk it?

Here are tidbits and some updates on transportation happenings in our region.

(I want to be explicit this is solely my own opinion, and in no way endorsed by either Streetsblog or Southern California Transit Advocates - DG)

With much ballyhoo two years ago Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner converted one of its morning trips between San Diego to Los Angeles into an express, removing stops to reduce running time.

As I reported in a previous post one of the expansion FlyAway routes will serve the Orange Line (at Woodley Station) and is anticipated to start service later this year.

Starting in the 1990s OCTA worked on a light rail project that was to be known as CenterLine. Despite valiant advocacy by Orange County rail activists the project was buffeted by parochial NIMBYism resulting in multiple truncations of the proposed route. Finally, in 2005 the agency threw in the towel and cancelled the project. As a substitute to provide air quality improvements that the light rail was supposed to produce (and for which air confirmity was being relied on) OCTA undertook an expansion of intracounty Metrolink service, funded with the monies in Measure M that had been intended for CenterLine.

(Update: It turns out that unless the Najarian nomination is rejected by a majority in a weighted vote by the City Selection Committee, that no action is required by North County Cities earlier today. While the Committee didn't confirm his nomination, it didn't reject it either. This wasn't announced until today at the meeting, with everyone involved somewhat confused as to what the rules are. As Najarian put it in an interview with Streetsblog, "It's no surprise people are confused. This has never happened before."

Discussion of SCA 4 (55% sales tax passage legislative proposal) and question to pose candidates for L.A. Mayor as part of Streetsblog upcoming video interview series. Plus circa 2:30 p.m.-3 p.m. after formal meeting concludes we'll have an extensive digital program of photos taken during Muni's (San Francisco) recent 100th anniversary celebration.