highway expansion
Streetsblog LA
Divide and Conquer on the 710 Big Dig
Last week, Metro finished its most recent public meetings outlining twelve proposals to fill the so-called 4.5 mile "gap" on the I-710 between Alhambra and Pasadena at the I-210. The public response to the twelve alternatives presented was near-uniformly negative. Anger was particularly high at new proposals to connect the I-710 to the I-210 including, a tunnel connecting the 10 Freeway to the 134 Freeway, a surface route that would widen Avenue 64 and a highway route along Huntington Drive, Fair Oaks Avenue and Pasadena Avenue.
August 20, 2012
Derision Grows for Caltrans 710 Study That Argues for Massive Road Widening for Cleaner Air
(There are two more meetings for the I-170 Expansion Project, tonight in Long Beach and tomorrow in Commerce. The Long Beach Post has the meeting details. If you can't make a meeting, you can email comments to 710eir@metro.net by August 29th.)
August 8, 2012
Coming Soon: Carmageddon II
It's official: Carmageddon II is scheduled for the end of September from the evening of Friday, September 28 to the early morning of October 1. As before, Metro is demolishing a portion of the Mulholland Bridge in part to make place for a carpool lane. The full details of the closure can be found at any number of news sites, including Patch.
July 20, 2012
Do You Drive the 405 in Westwood? New Website Shows How Rampture Impacts Your Commute
Today, my colleague Joe Maddela sent me a link to something he'd programmed called the Rampture Calculator. The Rampture Calculator attempts to estimate the number of days someone (commuters, residents, UCLA students) will be inconvenienced by the closure of an on or off ramp at Wilshire Boulevard to the 405.
June 22, 2012
Missed in 2011: O.C. Road Agency Brings Toll Project Back from the Dead
There was a saying my mentor Janine Bauer used to tell me when I was back fighting wasteful highway projects in New Jersey. "The public process for highway expansion isn't over until the road is built." What she meant was that the monied interests in building expensive highway projects won't stop no matter how often they are rebuked by oversight agencies or judges and will always find a new way to push forward.
January 3, 2012
The 405 Sepulveda Pass Widening: Is This Really Worth It?
Streetsblog has been plenty critical of the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project which will will add a 10-mile HOV lane and widen lanes from the Santa Monica Fwy. (I-10) to the Ventura Fwy. (US-101). The project is back in the news after the most recent round of closures created ire among drivers angry with the lack of public notice.
October 26, 2011
Guest Op/Ed: Gaps in 710 Tunnel Arguments
(I've noticed that ever since South Pasadena passed a resolution cooling some of their resistance to the 710 Big Dig that the War of Words over the project has picked back up. While researching an article on that issue, I came across "Under the Paperweight: Gaps in 710 Tunnel Arguments" at The Sunroom Desk, a great local blog in Glendale. Elise Kalfayan generously allowed us to republish her article. - DN)
August 9, 2011
The Real Lessons of Carmageddon – Angelenos Aren’t Idiots, We Have Too Many Highways
There are two theories to transportation engineering and traffic. One theory is that traffic is like a raging river. If you block it in one place, it will flow someplace else. If you add more space for it to flow, it will flow more smoothly. This theory has dominated traffic and transportation plans for years.
July 18, 2011
Open Thread II: Carmageddon Experiences
We got your predictions in the thread below, but as the weekend progresses feel free to let us know how/if Carmageddon is impacting your weekend. My first report is that we're relieved that the news is recharging at the moment so that we have a couple of hours without helicopters flying overhead.
July 15, 2011