highway expansion

Last week's poll asking you to vote on what name L.A. Streetsblog will use to describe the 710 Extension Project was easily Streetsblog's most popular poll to date, with 252 total votes.  Two project names got sixty votes each to move on to this final poll.  One week from today, either Art Dean's "Golden Freight Freeway" or Joanne Nuckols' "SR-710, L.A.'s Big Dig" will become the official name that Streetsblog uses to describe the project from here on out.

It seems suggestive that Metro and Caltran’s just launched SR-710 Conversations public outreach process features a timeline of transportation milestones printed as a board game. It remains to be seen whether it will be a game that the public plays: a creative rethinking of mobility needs in the San Gabriel Valley and Northeast Los Angeles, or a game that plays the public: going through the motions of input on environmental studies for  a 710 ‘gap closure’ tunnel that agencies intend to pursue regardless of any alternative proposals.

As long time Streetsblog readers are well aware, our editorial team believes that language matters.  It's why there's a slew of stories arguing that using the word "accident" as a synonym for "crash" is both incorrect and insidious.  Last week, a reader pointed out to me that Metro, in both press materials and on The Source, continually refer to the I-710 Extension project as the "I-710 Gap Project."

Los Angeles County has one of the most extensive and far-reaching carpool lane networks in the country.  And it's still growing.  Between 1997 and 2010, the County added 244 lane miles of HOV lanes bringing the total system to 513 lane miles.  Pretty much every highway expansion project in the county is an HOV project as the greenwashing the claim that these projects take cars off the road tends to blunt criticism.

The never-ending debate over whether or not to “complete” SR-710 so that it connects with the 210 provides a  great opportunity to create a sustainable option for the 710 Tunnel.  Instead of a tunnel designed to move trucks and cars, we need to create a light rail alternative that connects the region’s biggest job centers with the poorest, transit dependent communities.  Yes, let’s build a light rail alternative between Long Beach and Pasadena!

Streetsblog Capitol Hill caught up with Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) yesterday after the T&I Committee meeting wrapped up. He’s the only new Republican on the committee who’s not also a new member of Congress. He followed his father, also named Duncan Hunter, into the seat in 2008. Hunter is on the Republican Study Committee that recently pushed for cutting $100 billion from the federal budget. New to transportation and infrastructure issues, Hunter has mainly focused on military matters and immigration.

You’ve heard it a thousand times from the highway lobby: Roads pay for themselves through "user fees" -- a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls -- whereas transit is a drain on the taxpayer. They use this argument to push for new roads, instead of transit, as fiscally prudent investments.

Three years of construction.  Massive Delays. Circuitous detours. A $277 million price tag.

Now that the full agenda for this week's meeting of the Metro Board Meeting is finally online, we can focus on issues beyond the Wilshire Bus Only Lanes.