Transportation headlines, Monday, Feb. 8

The L.A. Times’ Steve Lopez drives a deputy mayor’s Hummer to work — the deputy mayor takes the subway and beats Lopez in a race to City Hall. The race isn’t the highlight of the column. Rather it’s Lopez once again calling for more programs that would discourage people from driving as much, including raising the gas tax and charging people more to drive at rush hour. Lopez remains skeptical that the region can build its way out of its traffic mess by constructing more rail lines.

Remember the $8 billion the Obama administration recently handed to 13 high-speed rail projects around the country, including the Anaheim-to-San Francisco proposed line in California? ABC News notes that the $8 billion isn’t enough to finish any of the lines and that it’s unclear who pays the rest of the $60 billion to $100 billion that the 13 projects will actually cost.

New Geography takes a look at a trend discovered by the New York Times last summer: less than half of federal transportation stimulus funding is going to the largest 100 metro areas in the United States. Instead, state lawmakers have funneled that money largely to rural areas for projects that in some cases seem to have dubious economic merit. Hmmm.

The rest of today’s transportation headlines, compiled by the Metro library, are waiting for your perusal after the jump.
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Metro hosts cycling roundtable on Feb. 19

This landed in my email box recently and wanted to pass along because of the surge of interest in the last few years in making the area more hospitable to bicycles. It’s also a good chance to chew on the ear of Doug Failing, the former chief of the local Caltrans division who is now with Metro.

Here are the details:

Metro is convening a series of Bicycle Roundtable meetings in 2010, and we welcome your participation! Doug Failing, Metro’s Executive Director of Highway Programs and Interim Chief Planning Officer, was active in the Caltrans Bicycle Advisory Committee. He will kick-off the first Metro Bicycle Roundtable meeting.

The purpose of the first meeting is to initiate a dialogue and identify issues of importance to cyclists in Los Angeles County. This will lead to a vision for enhancing Metro’s current program. The outcome of the first meeting will determine the frequency, next steps, and agendas of future meetings.

The first Metro Bicycle Roundtable meeting is scheduled for:

Friday, February 19, 2010

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Metro

One Gateway Plaza

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Windsor Conference Room, 15th Floor

Light refreshments will be served.

Sign-in and receive a visitor badge at the 3rd Floor security desk.

Please be on time. This meeting will start promptly at 2:00 pm.

Please RSVP by Friday, February 12, 2010 to Jennifer Gill at (213) 922-4224 or gillj@metro.net

Go Metro Weekends, Feb. 5th – Feb. 7th

This weekend Go Metro to this month’s First Friday’s at the Natural History Museum, celebrate Korean and Japanese culture in Little Tokyo, and watch the Super Bowl for free on the big screen in Downtown L.A. Have an event you’d like us to include? Shoot us an email at thesource@metro.net. Time and space constraints limit us from listing every accessible event in this city, but this curated list represents what we think is cool and easy to get to.

To plan your trip and to check all other transit options, please consult Google Transit or the Metro Trip Planner.

Friday, February 5th

Comedy Central Live: Gabriel Iglesias
Self-proclaimed “fluffy” comedian brings his popular act to the Wiltern.
Website: http://www.fluffyguy.com/tourdates.html
Type: Comedy
When: 8:00 p.m.
Price: $38
Where: The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Boulevard
Nearby Rail: Purple Line Wilshire/Western Station

First Fridays at NHM: Yeasayer and WarPaint
Indie rock and science discussions makes for a great Friday night.
Website: http://www.nhm.org/site/activities-programs/first-fridays/february-2010
Type: Music
When: 5:30 p.m.- 10:00 p.m.
Price: $9
Where: Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd.
Nearby Rail: Blue Line Grand Station (1.9 miles away, transfer to Metro Line 81)

Aquarium of the Pacific: Shark Lagoon Night
Pre-party with the sharks for FREE this Friday night.
Website: http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/newsevents/eventsdetail/shark_lagoon_nights/
Type: Museum
When: 6:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
Price: FREE
Where: Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way
Nearby Rail: Blue Line Long Beach Transit Mall Station
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Update on state transit funding

Metro employees often receive email alerts about key legislation that impacts the agency. This alert went out yesterday, concerning the proposed cuts to transit funding in the state budget.

As debate over the budget continues, I thought this may be useful in helping you sort out some of the issues and how they may end up impacting Metro. Due in part to the proposed state budget, Metro is grappling with a projected $251-million budget deficit in fiscal year 2011 and that may result in service cuts as a way to make up the shortfall.

Here’s the alert:

STATE SENATE TO CONSIDER DRASTIC DISMANTLING OF STATE TRANSIT FUNDING

ISSUE

The Legislature is expected to consider a drastic restructuring of transportation funding. This proposal includes a modified version of the Governor’s tax swap proposal and could be submitted for a vote in the Senate as early as Monday, February 8, 2010. The Senate’s proposal is as follows.

* Endorse the Governor’s proposal to replace the sales tax on gas with an excise tax on gas which eliminates Proposition 42 protections for these funds;
* Eliminate three of the four fund sources for the Public Transportation Account (PTA) undoing decades of established transit funding;
* Maintain one of the four sources of funds to the PTA (the sales tax on diesel fuel) and allocate an estimated $313 million this year; and
* Allow Metropolitan Planning Organizations to impose a fee on gasoline linked to SB 375.

We understand that State Senator Alan Lowenthal has agreed to carry this legislation.
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Transit forum streaming live video

Chapman University is hosting the day-long Southern California Transit Forum today. The agenda includes panel discussions of funding and high-speed rail issues, among others. Here’s the Forum’s web page that includes the agenda and links to live video from the event.

Metro CEO Art Leahy and Metro Board member Richard Katz are participating in a 2 p.m. discussion on the transit funding crisis.

Transportation headlines, Friday, Feb. 5

The L.A. Times takes a look at the outcome of yesterday’s Expo Line meeting and what it means for the Westside. After approval yesterday by the Expo Line Construction Authority board, construction of the 7-mile extension could start later this year. Anyone who knows transit in L.A. knows that the Westside is the one place that has really been left out of the rail building boom of the last 20 years — currently rail in Los Angeles only goes as far west as Wilshire and Western in Koreatown. That’s a long way from the beach. Despite this fact and the often crippling traffic in the Westside, there a number of residents who are opposed to the light rail line unless a costly underground alternative is built between Overland Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard. The approval by the Expo Line board yesterday means the line is going to be constructed as planned, but opponents are threatening to file a lawsuit that could delay construction. If all goes as planned, officials hope Angelenos will be able to travel from Santa Monica to Downtown L.A. on the new light rail line by 2015.

Portland is going all out for bicyclists and trying to become the Copenhagen of the U.S. with a 20-year, $613-million plan to build 681 miles of bikeways across the city. Portland, which is also a leader in light rail transit, spent $575 million building the new MAX Green Line light rail — so the metro area is going to be spending more on cyclists than its newest rail line, assuming it can come up with the money. Wow. In addition to the hundreds of miles of dedicated bikeways, there are also plans for improved street design and a public outreach program to encourage and educate residents about getting around on bikes. There is some worry about the massive costs, but as one Portland city official notes, the $613 million if spent on freeways would only amount to about 12 miles of new road.

UCLA’s Be A Green Commuter Blog attended a recent meeting for Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus, another transit agency facing a nightmarish budget crisis and planning drastic changes to solve it. The big (bad) news? Due to rising operating costs and declining subsidies, fares are going up — from 75 cents to at least $1.25, maybe $1.50. Ouch. There is some positive news: Big Blue Bus is getting more eco-friendly hybrid buses, some snazzy new bus stops and a new website that promises NextBus arrival technology and social media features.

Check out the rest of today’s headlines, compiled by the Metro Library, after the jump.
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Authority board gives go ahead to Expo Line phase 2 environmental report

The Board of Directors of the Expo Line Construction Authority voted on Thursday evening to approve the final environmental impact report for the light rail line from Culver City to Santa Monica.

The vote allows design and construction work of the line to go forward. The seven-mile, $1.5-billion line is scheduled to open in 2015. The first phase of the Expo Line, from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, is currently under construction.

The vote was six yeas with one abstention from Dan Rosenfeld, the senior deputy for Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who was voting as an alternate for Ridley-Thomas. Rosenfeld said the main issue was Metro’s grade-crossing policy and that Ridley-Thomas’ office does not believe it takes into account pedestrian traffic and future economic development created by the line

Despite the approval of the report, some residents who live near the Expo Line — mostly in the West Los Angeles area in neighborhoods near the Westside Pavilion — said they are planning to file a lawsuit alleging that the environmental report is flawed. In particular, they allege that the report failed to take into consideration the full traffic and safety impacts of building the line at street level across Overland Avenue and Westwood and Sepulveda boulevards.
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Expo Line phase 2 EIR approved

The Expo Line Construction Authority board voted Thursday evening 6 to 0 with one abstention to approve the final environmental document for the second phase of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica. More later.

Tonight’s 405 construction work postponed

Blame or thank — depending on your point of view — the weather.