Metro

You may have heard that the National Football League's Rams are back in Los Angeles. The football is no doubt exciting, but the team's presence has also elevated Southern California conversations about parking, congestion, transit, and traffic.

Today, Metro's Planning and Programming Committee approved $4.04 million for 17 L.A. County open streets events to take place through December 2018. The full Metro board of directors is expected to approve the open streets program funding at its meeting next Thursday.

At the American Public Transit Association's annual meeting in downtown Los Angeles, electric bus maker Proterra unveiled its new Catalyst E2 transit bus. The Catalyst E2 electric bus is "named for its unprecedented Efficient Energy (E2) storage capacity." According to Proterra:

Metro's Measure M will still need approval from two-thirds of L.A. County voters in November, but the transportation sales tax got a little good news today. A superior court judge rejected a lawsuit filed by the cities of Carson, Commerce, Norwalk, Torrance, Santa Fe Springs, Ranchos Palos Verdes, and Signal Hill. The lawsuit alleged that Measure M's ballot summary language is incomplete and therefore misleading. These cities also claimed that Measure M would shortchange the southern portion of L.A. County.

In thinking about the potential routes the eastern segment (B) of the Rail-to-River (R2R) active transportation corridor might take, stressed Mark Lopez of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, it was important that the needs of workers, youth, and community members of the Southeast Cities be put front and center. Connectivity to job centers and schools should therefore be the first priority.

We're working on a couple of larger stories for later in the week, but in the meantime we thought readers would appreciate this map by Adam Linder.

This week, the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) announced the recipients of its Transit and Intercity Capital Program (TIRCP) grants. TIRCP distributes state cap-and-trade funding to local transit agencies for projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In greater Los Angeles, funds were awarded to Metro, Foothill Transit, Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency, Antelope Valley Transit Authortity (AVTA), and Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). A detailed project list follows.

At today's Metro board of directors Planning and Programming Committee the board and the public got its first look into Metro's in-process plans for managing parking at transit stations. Metro has a couple of parking initiatives underway. The agency is creating its Supportive Transit Parking Program Master Plan (STPP) and a Parking Guidance System (PGS) and evaluating its current Parking Management Pilot Program and Monthly Parking Permit Program. All these are explained below.