Livable Streets

On Monday US Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa introduced "The Complete Streets Act of 2008," a bill "to promote the design of streets that are safe for all of those using the street -- including motorists, bus riders, bicyclists, and pedestrians, including people with disabilities."

In yesterday's Times, Steve Hymon discusses the changing attitude at LADOT about how best to move people throughout the city. The headline, "L.A. officials do a 180 in traffic planning" suggests that we were about to read some radical stuff. Maybe he was going to discuss Gordon Price's argument that LA needs to be more like Vancouver and plan on how to design the roads to best move people, not cars . Maybe he was going to discuss charging people to use our highways through a toll or HOT Lane system and redirect that money towards transit. Instead, this is what we was meant by a "180 in traffic planning":

The programs offered by Livable Spaces aren't limited to their speaker's series, the group also does community and transportation planning for communities around the city. Currently, the group is chronicling their efforts in creating the needed bicycle and pedestrian connections for two neighborhoods surrounding the Chinatown and Lincoln/Cypress Metro Gold Line Stations. Much more information about the project can be found at the projects website, which can be found here.

Gordon Price began his lecture at City Hall yesterday by noting that big changes are coming as a result of global warming and a decline in the amount of oil the world can produce and warned that Los Angeles will be one of the cities that will see the most change.

Vancouver’s Skyline The Envisioning Green Los Angeles Speakers Series kicks off with lectures and a bike tour from Gordon Price, a former Vancouver City Councillor. Price will show us how Vancouver recreated itself as an urban model for Eco Density. Price’s lectures have been described to me (not by someone associated with these events) as … Continued

After reading the very comprehensive coverage of yesterday's meetings on some of the other blogs around town, I decided that rather than write a long coverage post on what's already been written, that I would instead just pull out some highlight quotes from many of the leaders that were there yesterday.