Walking

Over the course of this year, I wanted to take time ever now and then to introduce you to members of our L.A. Streetsblog team here in Los Angeles by letting you hear them discuss transportation issues in their own words. Previous articles have focused on CicLAvia's Joe Linton and the Safe Routes to School's National Partnership's Jessica Meaney.

This morning, Transportation for America (T4A) released a report, "Dangerous by Design" which gives a state-by-state ranking of how dangerous each state is for pedestrians.  While there are certainly worse states to take a walk in than California, 6,957 Californians died (of 47,700 nationally) while walking as result of a crash between 2000 and 2009.

The Sylmar Business Improvement District (BID) is seeking to improve and re-imagine a just-over-half-mile section of San Fernando Boulevard through the power of greenspace creation and landscaping.  The BID isn't seeking to change the use of the road, all changes will happen on existing medians.  Instead, they just want to make San Fernando Boulevard a more pleasant place to be.

(Update: I've just received word that the Leimert Station/Crenshaw Subway motion has been delayed until the next Metro Board meeting in May.  - DN)

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, LADOT, has released it's report on how it plans to spend the portion of the Measure R Local Return funds that were "set-aside" for bicycle and pedestrian programs.  You may remember that during debate on whether or not bicyclists and pedestrian safety projects deserved a set-aside some Council Members, notably Bernard Parks and Greig Smith, were worried that there wouldn't be enough projects to meet the set-aside.

Yesterday, Streetsblog looked at the funding differences in the long range planning in the San Diego County Region as compared to the "SCAG 6-County Mega-Region" that includes Los Angeles.  But instead of looking at the success in San Diego and going "why not us," a group of advocates, notably Gloria Ohland and Beth Steckler at Move L.A. and Jessica Meaney at the Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership, is fighting to secure billions for active transportation in the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) long range transportation plan.

Earlier this week, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) allocated $2.58 billion of their thirty year plan for bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure improvements.  If that seems like a big number, it is.  While Los Angeles has been celebrating it's Bike Plan, and the Measure R set-aside that's going to help make it a reality, we should remember that the total funding set aside for the Bike Plan hovers around $50 million of Measure R funds plus whatever grants the city earns over the same time frame as San Diego County's multi-billion investment.

The confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco, is one of the most historic places in Los Angeles.  In 1769, Spanish explorers Colonel Gaspar de Portola, Father Juan Crespi and Michael Costanso "discovered" Los Angeles.  It also, in the words of the Arroyo Seco Foundation, "provides the key linkage of the Los Angeles River to vital habitat and wildlife corridor, joining the San Gabriel Mountains to the Santa Monica Mountains."

Metro has some pretty big plans on what to do with the federal funds they’re receiving to pilot a congestion pricing plan on two Los Angeles freeways.  But one plan for Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles has some locals scratching their heads.  At the same time that the CRA is proposing a pedestrian makeover … Continued