Uncategorized

U.S. Judge Sides with Ports in Clean Truck Lawsuit (Times) Meanwhile, Port Activity Picking Up (LA Business Journal) Man Killed While Getting Mail by Hit and Run Texter (LAist) L.A. Could Learn a Lot About Urban Planning from Tokyo (Times) El Capitan Kicks Miley Impersonator Off Their “Private Property” aka the Sidewalk (Metblogs) Bike Portland … Continued

Last month, the L.A. Daily News reported that so far, 2009 was shaping up to be a far deadlier year for pedestrians living in the Valley than last year.  Just last week, after a particularly brutal week for pedestrians, I wondered what exactly was Los Angeles' plan for making the streets safer for pedestrians.

(After writing about the desperate and deadly streets faced by pedestrians, it seemed callous to follow it with an April Fool's article.  But since I know you all deserve a laugh in your life I grabbed the following links from an email sent by Reconnecting America for you all since you won't get to read my great story about the new Expo route that's going through Damien Goodmon's house, turning at the house he was raised at and ending at his former grade school.)

The Los Angeles City Planning department held scoping meetings on March 16th 2009 to hear comments on their proposed Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan, known as the CASP. The good news is that CASP has a lot of great features that will transform the area. Among these are: river greenway area set-asides, parking reform, and dozens of miles of bikeways. The somewhat-bad news is that it will take a while. Environmental review will take a year, so the plan will be adopted in 2010. Once the plan goes into effect, over the next couple dozen years, it will gradually guide private and public development.

It may be 16 months away, but thanks in large part to the Governor's and legislature's complete victory over transit riders when they re-worked the budget and completely eliminated the transit operating deficit back in February; either fare hikes or service cuts or both are coming to the City of Los Angeles' transit services. 

The Case for Taxing Vehicle Mileage (WSJ) More on the Lowenthal Parking Bill (Greater Greater Washington, Curbed) Safety a Concern for Eastside Gold Line Extension (Eastside Sun) Parking Hike Effecting Gold Line Commuters at Park and Ride (LA Now) A Day in the Life of L.A.’s Parking Ambassasdor (Times) Port Cargo Levels Sinking Fast (Times) … Continued

Longtime readers of L.A. Streetsblog may remember that the occasional post highlighting a variety of ride options as part of what we called "bike weekend."  In the lead-up to the bike summit, it seems a perfect time to highlight some of the great rides that will be going on this weekend to both plug more riders in to what's going on and to show off the depth and diversity of our bike culture.

Last month when I first looked through the environmental documents for the proposed Phase II of the Expo Line, I was encouraged because the maps included with the Draft Environmental Impact Review required by clearly showed a completed bike trail connecting Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles.  Appendix E of the DEIR actually includes a description of what facilities along the trail would look like.

The final draft of the Senate's economic recovery bill will require all projects funded by the stimulus to have approval under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA. Sponsored by Barbara Boxer, the NEPA amendment was adopted late Thursday (full text after the jump) following Republican attempts to exempt highway projects from environmental oversight.