SCAG

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is currently in the comment period of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). This twenty year plan (up to 2035) will set a long term framework for transportation investments for the six county SCAG- region (comprised of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties).

On Friday, a commenter to It's Not Getting Safer Out There challenged me to do more research to see how those safety stats look when you compare them to VMT, or population growth. It was difficult to get numbers for all of the years, and get them from the same source, so let me just say this. He's right at least on this much: there is more VMT for biking and driving in LA now than in 2000 and there's more people. Taken in that light, yes. Based on the numbers, each individual person is safer on the road than they are in 2000 in LA.

With the weather outside being about as bad as it gets here in LA, you can bet that somewhere tonight (or perhaps already) at least one cyclist or pedestrian will be killed by unsafe driving. A look at the stats for bike and pedestrian fatalities in LA and Orange counties show almost no improvement since the turn of the century. One could argue that because the stats don't show an improvement in safety for cyclists and pedestrians that the lack of improvement is a black mark for the city and Orange County.

2000 2006

It isn’t easy to try to analyze a Regional Transportation Plan without a close examination of the project list (which isn’t available yet) but a first read of the Southern California Association of Governments' RTP shows an agency at least somewhat committed to improving lives for those that don’t take their care everywhere. There will be much more coverage of this report here in the coming weeks, but first lets look at the bike/ped section.

Congratulations Southern California! Our transportation system is no longer considered a failure (at least by the government agency in charge of transportation funding.)

In 2005, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign released a report showing that heavy truck traffic in New Jersey would grow by 80% by 2020. The report's numbers were based on FHWA projections based on figures from 1998.