Damien Newton

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.

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Regional planning documents and hearings are hardly exciting to write about. Interminably long public meetings, wonky terms, never-ending studies. It's one reason that Streetsblog hardly covers the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), even though the regional plan it puts out is incredibly important in determining which projects receive federal funds and which ones don't.

The Assembly Transportation Committee said “thanks, but no thanks” to A.B. 6, legislation by a Santa Clarita Republican that would give voters the chance to overturn $8 billion in bonds meant to fund California High Speed Rail. A.B. 6 was defeated by an unofficial vote of 7-4 (which will likely be 11-5 when the official tally is released.)