Transit Advocacy
Streetsblog LA
Dana Gabbard: Why My Community Is the Best for Transit
(Editor's Note: This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of residents defending their community as the best for car-free living in Los Angeles. Make your submissions to damien@streetsblog.org. For more information on the series, visit yesterday's story.)
June 23, 2009
Is Your Community Transit, Pedestrian and Bicycle Friendly?
Last Friday I received a forwarded email from Dana Gabbard of So.CA.TA. fame from someone looking to move to Los Angeles. This future resident wanted to know what the best neighborhood for transit riders was in L.A. While Gabbard can certainly offer a take on pretty much any community in Los Angeles, we thought it would be better to let residents speak on behalf of their own communities.
June 22, 2009
Congress Agrees to Keep Transit Operating Aid in War Bill
House
and Senate negotiators struck a deal last night on a $106 billion war
spending bill that also gives cash-strapped transit agencies the
ability to use 10 percent of their economic stimulus grants to pay operating costs.
June 12, 2009
Transit Planners to Congress: Please Figure Out How to Fund Us
To all but the most ardent transit wonks, the phrase "New Starts"
sounds like a motivational tape sold on late-night TV. But those two
words actually represent Washington's predominant mechanism to pay for
major transit expansions -- everything from expanding an existing rail
station to building a new bus line.
June 4, 2009
Metro in 2010: More Rail, BRT and Highways. Less Bus Service
Even with Measure R, not even Metro is immune to bus service cuts.
May 20, 2009
Will: Government Shouldn’t Interfere — Except To Benefit Big Highways
Conservative columnist George Will's angry screed
against the Obama administration's transportation policy is worth
digging into this morning -- not just to bring one's blood to a healthy
boil, but also to provide a window on the lack of coherent opposition
to expanding transit options and diminishing auto dependence.
May 18, 2009
Governor Finds a New Way to Rob Transit Even More
This morning when I saw the L.A. Times headline about new budget cuts announced by Governor Schwarzenegger, I wasn't worried. After all, I knew this time there wasn't anything else he could do to damage transportation and transit. How much more damage could be done after he abolished state subsidies to transit in his most recent round of budget cuts?
May 15, 2009
Doomsday Across America
Following up on Sarah's post
about transit funding woes in Illinois, this CNN segment from earlier
in the month brings home the effect of service cuts and fare hikes in
St. Louis. Similar scenarios are playing out all over the country.
According to the latest tally from Transportation for America, 85 transit systems serving 22 million riders are facing some combination of shrinking service and higher fares.
April 30, 2009
Is the Obama Administration Poised to Push Transit?
While President Barack Obama promoted wind power and cap-and-trade legislation, VP Joe Biden spent Earth Day talking up transit. Public radio's "The Takeaway"
reports that Biden held a presser at a bus maintenance facility in
Landover, Maryland, to tout a $300 million investment in hybrid buses
and other municipal vehicles as part of the federal stimulus package.
Said Biden:
April 24, 2009
California Transit Association Recommends Long-Term Funding Ideas
Flickr photo: pbo31 The California Transit Association has submitted a list of recommendations (PDF) to the Commission of the 21st Century Economy, a “bipartisan” panel mostly appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger, that call for establishing a “stable, predictable source of long-term funding” for the state’s public transit agencies. “The latest budget shell game only reinforced what … Continued
April 17, 2009