E Line (Expo Line)

Beginning tomorrow at noon, you can board the Expo Line for free at the newly opened Farmdale and Culver City Stations. You'll be handed a voucher for a free return trip at that time.

The question of how far Neighbors for Smart Rail, a coalition of homeowners and community groups fighting the expansion of the Expo Line into West Los Angeles, were willing to take their legal challenges to the line is now answered.  They're willing to take it all the way.

"Ooh -- careful!" I gestured to James McDuffie, a safety ambassador for the Expo Line, as a bicyclist came riding up quickly behind him on the sidewalk.

A group of Cheviot Hills residents who's property abuts the proposed Expo Bikeway on the Westside of Los Angeles have filed suit for the second time in two years alleging that environmental clearances given the bikeway were given in error.  Their first lawsuit, filed in June 2010, resulted in the City of Los Angeles and Caltrans reversing their original environmental clearance decisions and re-working their studies.  The bikeway was granted a second environmental clearance, known as a Categorical Exclusion (CE), in November of 2011.

"Can you really take your bike on the train??" one of the two girls at the Expo/Vermont station asked me, incredulous.

If you were an alien that landed in L.A. this weekend, you could be forgiven if the juxtaposition of the festivities surrounding the opening of the Expo Line and the ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots (Civil Unrest or Rebellion, depending on your perspective) left you a little confused.

On Earth Day this past Sunday, the Expo Line Phase II Bicycle Advisory Committee, of which I am a member, was given a tour of the Expo corridor and bikeway proposals with a few of the private consultants and public planners involved in the project. Looking at diagrams is never a sufficient replacement for some on the ground perspective, so I was glad we had this opportunity to scope everything out. It was also exciting to see a few testing trains in operation in preparation for tomorrow's opening.  I had not had a chance to get out and see the trains in action previously.

In economics, "free riders" are usually a bad thing.