highway expansion
Streetsblog LA
Media on the I-405 Widening: It’s Going to Take Awhile, But It’s Totally Worth It!
I was somewhat heartened last week when coverage of the massive I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project actually mentioned the amazing amount of highway vehicle congestion that will be created by the project over its estimated three year construction phase. However, I waited to write about the press coverage because I was hopeful that some writer would actually make the connection that the this project could actually create more congestion over the course of the construction than will be "relieved"before induced demand helps fill those new travel lanes back up. Unfortunately, there is no such luck. The news coverage ranges from, "traffic is going to be awful but at least everything is going to be so much better when it's done" to "traffic is going to be worse than they're saying because the government is always wrong about these sort of thing." Unfortunately, nobody is taking on the government's claim that the project is going to permanently reduce congestion in the corridor.
January 21, 2010
We’re Number 1…In Auto Congestion
News website The Daily Beast crunches the numbers from the most congested areas in America and finds, to nobody's surprise, that the worst driving commute in America is right here in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Freeway ranks as the worst place to commute in the entire country based on rush hour congestion, the worst bottleneck, and the average amount of congestion per week at the worst bottleneck.
January 20, 2010
Diagram for Route 2 “Hybrid” Option Unveiled Before Tomorrow’s Metro Vote
Ten years ago, when the Route 2 Terminus Project was first conceived, it had some progressive goals. Among them was the goal of slowing down traffic on the Route 2 flyover that dumps traffic on Glendale Boulevard so that pedestrians on Glendale Boulevard would be better able to use the street in a safe manner. Until earlier this summer Metro, the lead agency on the project, and the Echo Park Community were working together on the project. However, once Metro's partner agencies got involved, the partnership turned sour and the Echo Park Community Action Committee is now saying that it might be better to return the funds for the project rather than go forward.
December 9, 2009
New Report: Road Funding From Non-Road Users Doubled in 25 Years
The myth
that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject
that's likely familiar to many Streetsblog Capitol Hill readers -- but
just how much of the nation's highway funding is provided by charging
drivers?
November 24, 2009
Echo Park Community Warns Metro: Hybrid Plan for Route 2 Terminus Untested, Illegal
At 1:00 P.M. down at Metro Headquarters Board Room, the Metro Board Planning and Programming Committee will vote on a staff proposal to accept a "hybrid alternative" to the Route 2 Terminus project. Last week, Streetsblog discussed the broken process that led to the "hybrid" where the community proposed a design that would have calmed traffic and added open space to the road but LADOT rejected that proposal because it didn't do anything to add capacity to the road. Basically, all three agencies had to agree on a design, and despite Metro's approval of the local design, it had to "compromise" with the LADOT on what is now being called the "hybrid option."
November 18, 2009
Superfund, Fault Lines, Groundwater All in the Way…Let’s Dig a Tunnel!
I wonder if it's still too soon to criticize the concept of digging a tunnel to connect the 710 Tunnel to the I-210.
November 18, 2009
LADOT Values Capacity over Community on Route 2/Glendale Blvd. Drags Metro along for the Ride
For over a decade, the Echo Park community has been in negotiations with the big three of local transportation agencies, Metro, LADOT and Caltrans, over redesigning the terminus of Route 2 to improve traffic flow. Over forty years ago a coalition of Echo Park and Silver Lake residents banded together to keep Route 2 from being completed south through several neighborhoods. The result is the road ends sharply at Glendale Boulevard and creates traffic jams on both Route 2 and Glendale Blvd. All three agencies have to agree on an alternative for it to move to the build stage.
November 11, 2009
At CNU, Representative of Texas Legislature says “No Road Pays for Itself”
Over the past two days at the Congress for the New Urbanism Project for Transportation Reform conference, attendees have called for transportation reform at local, regional, and national levels. In a panel debate about the future of transportation funding and the role of regional planning through MPOs, several speakers argued that the foundation of transportation … Continued
November 6, 2009
Officials Celebrate Highway Widening. Tough Questions Remain Unasked.
Anyone that reads Streetsblog knows that one issue that makes this blog different than your run of the mill news source is that we have opinions on how a transportation system should and shouldn't be built. Some people charge that this bias taints our writing. Other times, it's clear that bias helps us ask questions that traditional journalists don't ask. That is especially true when it comes to the dubious value of highway widenings.
November 3, 2009
Bad News from Governor, Courts on 710 Expansion Near Pasadena
Opponents of expanding the I-710 near Pasadena to connect the road to the I-210 received a double dose of bad news in recent weeks from both the courts and our environmental governor. First, Governor Scwarzenegger, between lecturing his wife about safe driving, found time to veto Senator Gil Cedillo's legislation that would have required any highway expansion in this area to take the form of a tunnel. Second, a state court ruled against the lawsuits brought by South Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge against the inclusion of funding for the I-710 expansion in Measure R.
October 28, 2009