Damien Newton

It looks like Long Beach will be the first city in LA County to have a bike-share program as the City let go of its former contract with the defunct Bike Nation, handing it over to German company Nextbike. This follows the announcement earlier this year that the City would bid for a Downtown bike-share program.

Last week, in a short article celebrating that LADOT was beginning its portion of the bikeway that will run parallel to the Expo Line in West L.A., I stated that the separated bike path portion of the route was not under construction.

While construction of the Expo Bike Path still years away, the LADOT is doing its best to complete its portion of the bikeway that will connect westsiders to the Expo Line.

It was sort of a surreal moment. Even as Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell stood at the podium discussing the benefits of a planned new bicycle and pedestrian crossing over the L.A. River, the Bureau of Public Works released its recommendation (PDF) that the new Glendale-Hyperion Bridge would actually have fewer feet devoted to safe sidewalks than the current bridge.

If you're traveling through Pasadena, you may note a new "Public Service Announcement" billboard from Finish the Ride and Assemblyman Mike Gatto urging people to stop and give aide if they are involved in a traffic crash.

Welcome to the first episode of Damien Talks, a podcast series for Streetsblog Los Angeles, Streetsblog California, LongBeachize and Santa Monica Next. In each episode, I’ll be talking to someone from the transportation scene from somewhere in California.

Albert Einstein says that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

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In his 2015 State of the State, Governor Jerry Brown challenged the state legislature to come up with a funding formula that is both fair and that creates a sustainable funding stream for the state’s transportation trust fund. While the federal government continues to struggle to fund the national seemingly-always-beleagured Transportation Trust Fund, California now has three competing funding measures on the table, including one that is backed by the state's Senate Republican Caucus.

Last week, I conducted a phone interview with Assemblyman Mike Gatto, best known to Streetsblog readers for his tireless work fighting for tougher laws to prevent hit and run drivers. While Gatto's efforts have proven popular with safety advocates, his center piece legislation to create a statewide hit and run alert system was vetoed last session by Governor Jerry Brown after sailing through the Assembly and Senate.