Category Archives: Transportation Headlines

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Transportation headlines, Wednesday, April 17

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Our response to So Cal Connected’s segment on pedestrian safety (L.A. Walks)

The pedestrian advocacy group wasn’t happy with the piece that focused on new high-visibility crosswalks and where they are installed in the city of Los Angeles. My three cents: I thought the segment was interesting; I also think poor pedestrian infrastructure and the almost complete lack of enforcement of motorists encroaching on crosswalks could be the subject of many more hours of media coverage.

Here’s the KCET piece:

Tabloid columnist calls for bicycle ban in Toronto (The Urban Country) 

The Urban Country spends a few hundred words completely taking apart the argument that traffic congestion in Toronto, the largest city in the Great White North, is caused by cyclists. It’s a very satisfying taking apart/takedown.

Smart tips for building a better subway car (The Atlantic Cities) 

More doors, better spread is the way to avoid crowding and get people to the seats they covet, so says this blog post.

New bicycle friendly universities announced (League of American Bicyclists)

One local school makes it: the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. I bike through there all the time and it is a bike friendly campus — mostly because it’s small and cars are mostly kept out of the two main east-west paths through it. Of course, CalTech is in Pasadena, which hasn’t done much for cyclists in recent years. On the east side of campus is Hill Street, where the city of Pasadena could easily install bike lanes but has decided that providing street parking for cars is more important despite the fact that homes on the street all have big driveways. On the west side of campus is Wilson Avenue, which has bike lanes that are dangerously close to the parking lane and where it’s very easy to get doored.

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, April 16

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

The Boston T's Park Street station. Photo by Dylan Pech, via Flickr creative commons.

The Boston T’s Park Street station in a photo taken last month. Photo by Dylan Pech, via Flickr creative commons.

Anxiety, heightened security on the ‘T’ (Boston Globe) 

The Globe’s story posted today about the city’s transit system on the day after the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Excerpt:

For many of the day’s commuters, the sight of Boston police officers, SWAT teams, National Guardsmen, and police dogs at MBTA stations around the city — and especially downtown and the Back Bay — brought a small measure of relief to a region trying to go about the business of downtown life the day after a tragedy.

At stations around the city, law enforcement officers paced up and down train platforms, rifles in hand. At Arlington Station, National Guardsmen asked commuters heading into the station to open their duffels and purses for a security check. “No guns, no bombs?” asked one as he pulled back the zipper of a backpack.

Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel were conducting random baggage checks throughout the subway system.

“Customers have been very cooperative, and we greatly appreciate their patience and understanding,” Pesaturo said this morning.

Thwart terrorism, experience CicLAvia (L.A. Streetsblog) 

From Streetsblog editor Damien Newton:

So when I look at yesterday’s tragedy and say that there’s a peaceful way Angelenos can fight back against whoever plotted and executed that attack and, it’s not something I say lightly. Think about it for a second. Terrorism is using force in some form to scare people and keep them apart. Keep people in their houses and behind closed doors. Keep people from meeting and understanding their neighbors. Keep people angry.

The idea of Livable Streets is the exact opposite.

Livable Streets is about breaking down barriers our society has accidentally (and not accidentally) created that keep people apart now. There’s no greater example of the power of Livable Streets than our own CicLAvia.

This Sunday, somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 of your neighbors will take to the streets in Downtown and Mid-town Los Angeles and West Los Angeles. Tree Hugger might think that nobody in L.A. rides a bicycle, but we know better.

You won’t know many of the participants. But one of the many great things about CicLAvia, is you’ll probably know more of them by the end of the day. And that gives all of us a chance to make Sunday about more than a car-free trip to the beach.

Doubling efforts on Metro fare studies? (L.A. Streetsblog) 

Dana Gabbard posts a Metro staff PowerPoint given to the agency’s Citizen Advisory Committee last month on different fare scenarios. As Dana points out, Metro Board Vice Chair Diane DuBois has requested a staff report on fare structures — and that will be given as an oral report at the Metro Board’s full meeting on April 25. Just to emphasize: this report, written in February, looks at some different and obvious fare structures, including distance-based fares, time-based fares and fares based on type of payment.

I do want to emphasize that the report doesn’t propose any imminent changes to the current fare system, nor is there anything on the table at this time. Changing Metro’s fares is a long process that involves public hearings and ultimately a vote by the Metro Board of Directors.

Transportation headlines, Monday, April 15

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: Here's a nice one for a drizzly morning, taken last week near the Expo Line's new bridge over Cloverfield Boulevard in Santa Monica. Photo by Expo Line Fan, via submission. Click above to visit his photostream of Expo Phase 2 construction photos.

ART OF TRANSIT: Here’s a nice one to distract you from a drizzly morning, taken last week near the Expo Line’s new bridge over Cloverfield Boulevard in Santa Monica. Photo by Expo Line Fan, via submission. Click above to visit Expo Line Fan’s Flickr page of Expo Phase 2 construction photos.

A one-man sanitation engineer for the busway (L.A. Times)

Nice Steve Lopez column about a 64-year-old man whose daily 5:30 a.m. walks have turned into a mission to pick up trash along the western portion of the Orange Line. Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of trash, nor is there an easy explanation for why some public trashcans along the busway are overflowing.

Traffic experts don’t like Garcetti’s traffic idea (LA Weekly)

In last week’s mayoral debate, Councilman Eric Garcetti tossed an idea out there as an example of outside-the-box thinking: what if the city raised $1 million in private funds and offered it as a reward to someone who could solve Los Angeles’ notorious traffic?

The Weekly picked up the phone and gave some well-known traffic academics around the area a jingle, asking them what they thought of Garcetti’s idea. Very little, it turns out. The academics say that there are plenty of good ideas out there — one-way streets, more congestion pricing, higher gas taxes, limits on who can drive on particular days, parking and development reforms — but the problem is that politicians don’t want to implement them because all reforms end up ticking someone off.

A missionary’s quest to remake the Motor City (N.Y. Times)

Check out the lede of this story, journalism fans:

The best way to experience all that is strange and a little otherworldly about downtown Detroit is to walk the streets around 5 p.m. on a weekday. At that hour, you’ll notice not just the peculiarity of what is around you — notably, the gorgeous, Art Deco skyscrapers alongside empty, decrepit buildings — but also what is missing. There is no traffic here. As the workday ends, cars trickle out of underground parking lots and speed off to nearby highways, but in a volume that doesn’t cause delays.

It is just one small sign of how far Detroit’s fortunes have fallen: the birthplace of the mass-produced automobile, the city that gave us the infuriating, bumper-to-bumper commute, is now so sparsely populated that it doesn’t have a rush hour.

The article is about Dan Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, and his attempt to revive downtown Detroit, which like the rest of the city is in the doldrums these days due to a precipitous drop in population, employment and local government’s ability to pay for anything. My three cents: every time I read one of these Detroit stories, I just want to  watch “RoboCop” again. The original, btw, was made in 1987 and maybe it wasn’t just a dumb, fun action flick after all! :)

What if you could decide how your tax dollars were spent? (N.Y. Times)

As the story notes, Americans fail to see their taxes as money well-spent. Excerpt:

Why the hatred? One reason is that it’s not easy for people to see how taxes provide benefits. One survey that asked Americans whether they had used any government social programs found many saying they hadn’t — when in fact, a majority had taken advantage of tax deductions for mortgage interest or child care. Fifty-three percent had taken out student loans, and 40 percent had benefited from Medicare. Clearly, the government has a marketing problem.

And the solution: The co-authors propose allowing taxpayers to choose how some of their taxes should be spent — i.e. on anit-poverty programs, the military or even transportation!

The idea is that many people actually gain satisfaction from giving – they just want to know how their gift is being used. And how is your tax money being used now? Check out this nifty tool from the White House website.

One man’s journey from Los Angeles to Real Madrid’s good luck charm (Sports Illustrated)

Nice story about how a Metro used his vacation time to haul equipment for the Real Madrid soccer club and befriending team manager Jose Mourinho.

Transportation headlines, Friday, April 12

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: Bullet trains in China in a 2010 photo. Photo: kwramm, via Flickr creative commons.

ART OF TRANSIT: Bullet trains in China in a 2010 photo. Photo: kwramm, via Flickr creative commons.

Gov. Jerry Brown wants China aboard California’s bullet train (L.A. Times) 

The Governor also talked to the Chinese about possibly investing in the California high-speed rail project, which is about $55 billion short of funds needed to complete the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles segment. ”People here do stuff,” the governor said. “They don’t sit around and mope and process and navel-gaze. The rest of the world is moving at Mach speed.” There’s a short video — the Chinese trains are certainly sleek looking.

Garcetti, Greuel are positive, specific in their first debate of runoff (L.A. Times) 

KABC-TV showed the debate live but good luck finding the video on their cluttered website. I tuned in and the candidates got the “what will you do about traffic?” as the second question of the night. Both were supportive of more mass transit, with Garcetti in particular calling for a Sepulveda Pass rail tunnel to connect the San Fernando Valley to the Westside.

Some quick background: A transit project spanning the Sepulveda Pass was included in the list of projects to receive Measure R funding. The Sepulveda Pass project is due to get about $1 billion but under Metro’s long-range plan would not be finished until the late 2030s. For that reason, Metro is exploring public-private financing that would both fully fund the project and possibly allow it to be built faster. Here is a post from last year about the concepts being studied; a rail tunnel is among them.

Transforming L.A. into a world-class place to live (LA 2050) 

The activist group Angelenos Against Gridlock is competing for one of the 10 $100,000 grants to be handed out by the Goodhirsh Foundation as part of its LA 2050 plan initiative to help make the region a better place. The group is seeking money to build a campaign to persuade the region to build out its rail system. From their proposal:

The biggest challenge to building the housing supply that will meet demand and lower costs, and to making areas with affordable housing accessible, is our traffic and lack of adequate mobility options, which causes citizens to block new housing construction.

Can’t argue with that. The reason that so many developments become big battles is the fear — sometimes well-founded, and often not — they will bring unbearable traffic to neighborhoods where driving is the only option.

BART extension to San Jose; heavy lifting about to begin (San Jose Mercury News)

Heavy construction of a 10-mile segment of BART from Frement to downtown San Jose is expected to begin. The project has a scheduled completion date of 2018 but officials are trying to beat that goal by a year. When done, the BART line will mean that San Jose is connected to San Francisco directly by the existing Caltrain and will also have a rail connection to the many cities in the East Bay.

Transportation headlines, Thursday, April 11

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: The Gold Line crosses the 1st Street Bridge; click to see larger. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

ART OF TRANSIT: The Gold Line crosses the 1st Street Bridge; click to see larger. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

Metro’s free ride may soon be over (L.A. Times)

Jon Healey looks forward to gates being latched on the subway this summer, saying it’s about time people had to pay to ride trains in Los Angeles.

Packed audience cheers and questions MyFigueroa! project (L.A. Streetsblog) 

A community meeting was held earlier this week to review plans to put Figueroa on a road diet and add bike lanes and pedestrian improvements for the stretch between Staples Center and USC. Among the predictable concerns: would losing a lane of general car traffic lead to more congestion in downtown? My three cents: is the status quo — basically having a mini-freeway cleave through downtown and South Park — really that great?

Ideas for downtown L.A.: minor tweaks to 110 overpasses will boost pedestrian activity (DTLA Rising)

Blogger Brigham Yen takes a closer look at the long, loud overpasses that carry 7th Street and Wilshire over the 110 freeway, neither of which could accurately be called pedestrian friendly. Brigham has a few suggestions, including planters and raising the railings. A lot of development has taken place on the west side of the 110 and connecting that area to downtown proper seems like a smart and humane move.

 

Transportation headlines, Wednesday, April 10

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: A Metro local bus on Broadway passes the entrances to Grand Park in downtown L.A. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

ART OF TRANSIT: A Metro local bus on Broadway passes the entrances to Grand Park in downtown L.A. Click above to see larger; looks better larger! Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

Traffic zips in toll lanes but slows in free lanes (L.A. Times)

The Times kicks the tires of the ExpressLanes project and looks at the preliminary data released last month for the project on the 110 freeway. The gist of it: speeds are up in the ExpressLanes, down in the general lanes and some motorists are happy and others are very not happy. Transportation experts continue to back the project, saying it’s the best way to potentially add capacity to the freeway and it will take time for the public to get used to the lanes.

LADOT lays the ground for functional car share with Hertz; goodbye Zipcar? (L.A. Streetsblog)

The city of L.A. is considering switching its car-share vendor to Hertz from the current Zipcar. The issue is there are very few Zipcars in L.A. — just 40 (yikes!), mostly around UCLA and USC — and Hertz is seemingly offering the city a better deal by paying for exclusive parking spots and revenue sharing. My three cents: too bad it has to be one car share firm over another; it would be great if consumers had a choice.

Semi-related: As we posted recently, there are now four Zipcars available for rental at Los Angeles Union Station. More info here.

Mayoral candidates miss the train (LAObserved) 

Bill Boyarsky attends a community meeting over a proposed apartment complex at the future Expo Line’s Sepulveda station. Residents are worried about traffic and meanwhile, Boyarsky writes, neither of the candidates to be the next mayor of Los Angeles — Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel — are saying much about transit and what it will do to the city in the future. Excerpt:

What was missing here and in other city policy discussions was an examination of what these train lines would do for—and to—the city. In the Valley, there is talk of converting the popular Orange Line express bus to light rail, better able to handle the growing patronage. A Crenshaw rail line will be built and light rail is changing East L.A. The subway extension will remake the neighborhoods in the Wilshire corridor.

It’s definitely something for Greuel and Garcetti to discuss. But the subject deals too much with Los Angeles’ future to attract attention in a campaign where both candidates are worried about a short-term gain of votes in an election less than two months away.

A Los Angeles primer: the subway (KCET)

Fun and well-written post by Colin Marshall looks at the phenomenon that many Angelenos have never set foot or tushie upon the subway here — a subway system that Colin thinks is quite pleasant albeit somewhat limited. Excerpt:

Yet on the whole, those I introduce to our subway emerge impressed. Say what you will about their limited reach; the Red and Purple Lines surely must rank among the cleanest, most comfortable, least urine-smelling systems in America. You may lose twenty minutes waiting on platforms, but you’ll have taken a subway — in Los Angeles! Some transit observers regard this town as a child who, having broken a leg on the playground, started school only after a considerable delay: perhaps he hasn’t caught up with his peers yet, but you should’ve seen how far behind he was a year ago. This sense of Los Angeles in the remedial class intersects with the notion, correct or not, that transportation just works differently here: differently when we didn’t have a subway, and a different kind of subway now that we have one.

Read the whole thing. Colin makes some very cogent points about the region and its attitudes toward transportation and, more specifically, the changing attitudes of some younger residents toward the concept of automobile ownership.

It’s Tulsa versus Milwaukee in Parking Madness title game! (D.C. Streetsblog)

The funny-but-sad tournament is trying to determine which American city did the best job of turning its downtown area into a giant parking lot, i.e. a parking crater, to serve whatever buildings were allowed to remain. Check out the photos of Tulsa, which appears to have leveled a big chunk of its downtown since the 1970s to accommodate more cars. Geesh. If you’re just turning in, L.A. surprisingly got bounced in the tourney’s first round by Dallas. Speaking of L.A.-Dallas….that was a sour third period last night, Kings. 

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, April 9

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: Nice shot of an eastbound Expo Line train at Culver City station. The crane in the background is building the bridge that will take the train over Venice Boulevard. Photo by Brian Hsu, via submission.

ART OF TRANSIT: Nice shot of an eastbound Expo Line train at Culver City station. The crane in the background is building the bridge that will take the train over Venice Boulevard. Photo by Brian Hsu, via submission.

Subway kiosks will guide riders — in between the ads (New York Times) 

The new six-foot-four-inch wide touch screen displays will be installed throughout the New York subway system and are intended to replace the old print maps. They will also feature service alerts — of which there are no short supply in the vast New York system. But they will also feature ads and the Times notes that it will be hard for riders, a captive audience, to avoid them. That said, there’s already a lot of advertising in the Big Apple’s subway, just as there is in many transit systems that need the revenue.

The golden age of gondolas might be just around the corner (The Atlantic Cities) 

New urban gondola systems have popped up here and there across the globe and La Paz is planning a seven-mile system. Proponents cite their cost, saying gondolas go for $3 million to $12 million a mile compared to, say, a $400 million-a-mile-or-more subway. Skeptics (such as yours truly) point to the fact that a train holds a lot more people. That said, gondolas do seem to work well in some places — i.e. hilly areas where they can serve a direct route and not have to carry crushing commuter loads. If memory serves, I recall one was studied to connect Chinatown and Dodger Stadium; lack of capacity was seen as the issue. I think at some point there was also a Griffith Park plan that mentioned a gondola to the Observatory, an idea that made some park neighbors hopping mad.

Why Google Transit will never be enough for small- to medium-sized transit agencies (Human Transit) 

Guest blogger Nate Wessel, who makes transit maps in Cincinnati, argues that Google Transit may offer specific information about a particular trip but fails to show users an entire transit system. Excerpt:

Exploring a transit system with Google Transit is like blind men trying to understand an elephant by touch. This part is thick, this part is bumpy, we don’t know how any of the parts attach to each other, and the whole thing is constantly, inexplicably moving. A thoughtfully hand-rendered transit map tells us what the elephant really is. It doesn’t go into detail about the dimensions of it’s toenails, but tells us of it’s overall size, shape and temperament. It tells us that you might be able to ride the thing and that you probably don’t want to try poking it with a sharp stick. Once we know these basics we can begin to ask exactly what the trunk is for.

Transportation headlines, Friday, April 5

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

There’s finally light at end of Expo Line Phase 2 legal battle (L.A. Streetsblog) 

The California Supreme Court has set a May 7 hearing date to consider the long-running lawsuit filed by Neighbors for Smart Rail against the Expo Line Construction Authority. The group alleges that environmental documents for the second phase of the project are flawed because they considered future traffic conditions when analyzing rail crossings instead of current conditions. There has been conflicting rulings on similar cases in other courts, thereby earning the interest of the state Supreme Court.

The bus lane en route to Dodger Stadium. Photo: Metro.

The bus lane en route to Dodger Stadium. Photo: Metro.

Trying to beat Dodger traffic blues (ZevWeb) 

A good look at the 1.5-mile bus lane on Sunset Boulevard being used by the Dodger Stadium Express this season. The lane comes courtesy of the city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, which admits that traffic hasn’t been peachy in downtown on game days. LADOT also says it is considering allowing carpools of four or more to use the lane.

Critics sue over UCLA’s hotel plans (L.A. Times) 

The plan to build a 250 room hotel and conference on the site of an existing parking garage on campus results in a lawsuit from the group Save Westwood Village, a group that includes nearby homeowners. The suit alleges that UCLA should have to occupancy taxes — the school says it should be exempt — and financing for the structure is illegal due to the use of tax-exempt bonds. The suit is further proof that it’s difficult to build anything of any size in Los Angeles without it resulting in a lawsuit.

Transportation headlines, Thursday, April 4

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Photo: city of Phoenix.

Photo: city of Phoenix.

New people mover set to debut at Phoenix airport (Arizona Daily Star) 

Dubbed the “Sky Train,” the automated system connects the airport’s busiest terminal to airport parking and a nearby light rail station. A people mover is among the alternatives being studied by Metro and Los Angeles World Airports as a way to connect the Crenshaw/LAX Line and/or a light rail extension to the LAX terminals (here’s the Metro Airport Connector home page). According to this fact sheet, the 1.7-mile first phase of the project cost $644 million and will take five minutes to travel between the light rail station and Terminal 4. The city plans to extend the system to connect with other terminals and the airport’s rental car center.

Reaching high in Hollywood (L.A. Times) 

The Times’ editorial board comes out in favor of the proposed Millenium Hollywood project, which proposes two skyscrapers near the Capital Records Building; the actual heights of the buildings has yet to be defined. The Times’ reasoning: the buildings substantially conform with the Hollywood zoning plan adopted by the City Council last year. The buildings have been controversial and Councilman Eric Garcetti even wrote the city’s Planning Commission last week saying the towers were out-of-scale with the surrounding area and they have yet to earn enough community support.

Of course, there are the usual complaints about the project generating traffic. Well, the Millennium project would be a stone’s throw from the popular Hollywood/Vine Red Line station — only 19 minutes to downtown L.A.!

I don’t live in Hollywood, but my three cents anyway: I think the Times’ editorial nails the issue. At some point, the city needs to stick with its zoning plans instead of negotiating each project individually, the result being visual chaos and the scattershot city you see everyday. Also this: if traffic is always the criteria for new development, how is it possible to build anything? And how does a city keep its economy afloat if it shuns erecting new buildings or redevelopment of existing ones? Beats me, but I’m only a lowly government blogger.

In semi-related news, ground was broken on the Transitbay Transit Tower in San Francisco last week. The 60-story, 1,070-foot tower will host a train and bus station and looks to be one of the more spectacular transit hubs in the nation; it will probably help the Bay Area’s economy and overall livability, concepts I would think other cities may want to embrace or consider. See the renderings here.

SEPTA unveils free virtual library (Metro Magazine)

Cool and creative idea: to celebrate National Library Week, the transit agency that serves the Greater Philadelphia area will host a free virtual library at one of its stations that allows station-goers to get free downloads of some books and podcasts using QR codes.

Transportation headlines, Wednesday, April 3

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

L.A. 2050 — some of the best ideas for the city’s livability (L.A. Streetsblog) 

The GOOD and the Goldhirsh Foundation are awarding 10 grants of $100,000 apiece to people, organizations and nonprofits that have an idea to make Los Angeles a better place. And there are a lot of ideas out there — 279 applications were received. Damien Newton looks briefly at some of his favorite suggestions. The two that caught my eye were creating bike-friendly business districts and a plan to install electronic signs that count how many cyclists are using particular streets/bike lanes.

As for the bike district idea, I think it’s great. I live in Pasadena where existing bike routes are pretty lame and completely break down when you get to either Old Town or the South Lake business districts. I see a lot of cyclists riding on sidewalks on Lake because the sharrows (a good way for making it look like you’re doing something when you’re doing nothing) are roundly ignored by motorists and it’s not a pleasant street to ride on.

I also love the bike counter idea, but good luck: I’m not sure any city wants to publicly advertise the effectiveness of its bike lanes. Don’t get me wrong. I love bike lanes — but they have to be done right to succeed. And by ‘done right’ I mean they need to offer some type of separation from car traffic and they need to be plugged into a bigger network instead of just ending and dumping the cyclist into vehicular traffic. (See: Cordova Avenue, Pasadena, California).

Quick question to no one in particular: where the heck is the media on this? If the region was building miles of new roads or transit lines, the media would likely be doing stories. Yet there are miles upon miles of bike lanes being installed across our region with little media scrutiny of their design and ability to serve those they intend to help — cyclists!

Okay, got that out of my system….

Cincy proposes eliminating parking requirements to save buildings and neighborhoods (Cincinnati Post) 

My hometown is as car-centric as most places in the Midwest. Yet there’s a proposal now in some parts of town get rid of parking requirements that mandate how many parking spaces each residential building must have. The problem is that many buildings in downtown’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood were constructed in the later half of the 1800s and have no parking spaces. That means that some building owners either have to find parking for tenants, demolish the building or let it languish because redevelopment is too expensive. I’m guessing many residents of old buildings will want cars anyway — there’s certainly no shortage of downtown garages or parking lots where they can store them, just like car owners do in other large cities.

The great Red Car conspiracy of Los Angeles — is it real? (KPCC/99% Invisible)

This podcast takes a look at the alleged conspiracy that car interests dismantled the old streetcar lines in order to force people into cars. Sorry, but the reporters here don’t buy it, nor do I. What happened? A lot of things. Low fares kept streetcars unprofitable and poorly maintained, streetcars were slow and unable to serve the sprawl they helped create and many people enjoyed the newfound freedom of having a car.

A streetcar on Brand Boulevard in Glendale in the mid 1950s. Photo by Alan Weeks via Metro Transportation Library and Archive's Flickr collection.

A streetcar on Brand Boulevard in Glendale in the mid 1950s. Photo by Alan Weeks via Metro Transportation Library and Archive’s Flickr collection.

Crosswalks in New York are not havens, study finds (New York Times) 

The new study looks at injuries suffered by pedestrians and cyclists brought to Bellevue Hospital Center. The major findings: of those pedestrians struck by cars, most were in the crosswalk and had the crossing signal in their favor and cyclists tend to be disproportionately injured by taxis. The study also found that many of those injured were using electronic devices. Overall traffic-related deaths in New York have plummeted in recent years and officials hope that the new data may help with future safety initiatives.