People

The above ABC News story on this Monday's meeting of the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee's hearing on the anti-harassment ordinance for cyclist has a couple of jaw dropping moments.  One bike messenger describes being the victim of a hit and run crash four times and Ted "Biking in L.A." Rogers recounts the hate mail he's received in the wake of the conviction and sentencing of Dr. Christopher Thompson.  Scary stuff.  But perhaps the scariest thing is the comment by City Councilman, former LAPD Officer and former member of the Bike Advisory Committee Dennis Zine who clearly states that this is a car town and it's going to stay that way.

After touring the Detroit Auto Show yesterday with fellow lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took one question yesterday: Why are Democrats not pursuing a federal gas tax hike, given its potential to cut carbon emissions and its support from auto industry players aiming to stoke demand for efficient cars?

 Earlier today City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl's legislation requiring the City Attorney to draft "anti-harassment" ordinance protecting cyclists and pedestrians was heard by the City Council Public Safety Committee. The passage of Rosendahl's motion, which doesn't tie the Council to the final ordinance in any way, would have been an easy way to show the most basic support for a community that has been attacked, neglected and feels unsafe in public streets.

The Associated Press published a piece today that, after putting "economists and statisticians" to work on analyzing $21 billion in federal stimulus money for transportation, reached a volatile conclusion:

The annual powwow of thousands of transportation workers, planners, and wonks that's known as the Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference kicked off in the capital yesterday with a candid admission from some senior U.S. DOT officials: reorienting American transport planning to accommodate the overlap with housing and environmental sustainability is proving pretty difficult.

For much of the last year, Los Angeles' transit riders were spared much of the suffering caused by the Governor and legislature's decisions to eliminate transit funding in the name of partially closing the yawning chasm which is the state's budget deficit.  However, those days are long gone.  Already we've seen a large service cut plan passed by the Metrolink Board of Directors.  Today we see the outline of a coming massive service cut for LADOT's DASH, Commuter Express, Charter Bus, and City Ride bus services.

Local transit advocates are reacting with fury to the Governor's rumored plan to skirt a court ruling requiring that the state stop robbing transit funds dedicated in the gas tax by completely revoking the tax and reinstating it as an excise tax.

Despite continued cash flow crunches facing nearly every transit operator in the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said absolutely nothing about transportation or fixing transit's woes in his State of the State address today. Transit operators are still bracing for the expected budget proposal this Friday that would thwart the state Supreme Court's ruling declaring the governor's raids on transit funds to fill general fund coffers illegal.

The nation's Amtrak rider-in-chief, Vice President Joseph Biden, has penned an op-ed for the rail network's monthly magazine entitled "Why America Needs Trains."