Caltrans

Ten freeway crashes have damaged the Gold Line - four crashes in 2018 alone: January, April, October, and last week.

Caltrans should fix the freeway where vehicles repeatedly crash into the Metro Gold Line. At a minimum Caltrans should let Metro proceed with upgrades.

It is jarring that nearly two decades into the twenty-first century, California's transportation department is still making claims that freeway widening will somehow curb pollution and reduce congestion. These are false claims--lies. Past experience and research show that widening freeways worsens congestion and air quality, yet Caltrans repeatedly claims the contrary.

The Metro board approved the $6B 710 widening project, but emphasized expediting only the "early action program" smaller projects at this time

This week Metro board committees are considering approving a distinctly backward-looking $6 billion project to widen the 710 Freeway through southeast L.A. County. It is difficult to believe that, in the 21st Century, Caltrans and Metro are still seeking to spend billions widening a highway in order "to improve air quality, mobility, and quality of life" per the Metro project website. East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice Executive Director mark! Lopez criticizes the 710 Freeway project because it "does little to advance zero emissions, does little to ensure local labor is hired to build this enormous project, and will displace hundreds of longstanding families from their homes."

Caltrans is lying when a new video still asserts that widening the 5 freeway improves air quality and reduces congestion.

In this new promotional video, Caltrans District 7 inexplicably proclaims that widening a stretch of the 5 freeway in southeast L.A. County will "reduce congestion" and "improve air quality." The video, shown at Metro's board and committee meetings recently, further boasts about "better safety" and how outsized new bridges over the freeway will each "dwarf the original bridge." It goes on to herald Caltrans' $1.9 billion project (funded by Metro's Measure R) as a "21st-century transformation."

Tonight, Caltrans is hosting a meeting to gather input on a new freeway off-ramp that would funnel 110 Freeway traffic onto Figueroa Street just south of downtown Los Angeles. The meeting takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Orthopedic Institute for Children, 403 West Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

The Arts District of downtown Los Angeles is now a vibrant residential community. But the signs of its warehouse past are everywhere. Abandoned railroad spurs, peeking up from the asphalt and running down old brick streets, speak volumes about bad public policies and metrics that, even as LA struggles to rebuild its once-great transit system, persist in too much of its bureaucracy. That's exemplified in two 710 freeway studies released by Caltrans and Metro.