Go Metro Weekends, May 17 – 19

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Don't miss Bike Night! Photo from Hammer Museum Official Facebook.

Don’t miss Bike Night! Photo from Hammer Museum Official Facebook.

Get out and about with your bike this weekend and take advantage of some special Metro discounts! Just mention “Bike Week” to save.

Tonight is Bike Night at the Hammer Museum. Celebrate all things bicycle, have your portrait taken with your faithful two-wheeled ride and enjoy plenty of other free activities. The Hammer’s North entrance on Lindbrook Drive will be wide open to bicyclists who want to ride right in and park at our guarded racks (but please bring a lock). Bike Night will take place from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Feel like checking out the museum on another day? Go Metro and save $5 on admission. (Metro Rapid 720 or 761 to Wilshire/Westwood)

For great food and drink, head to Pasadena and enjoy the collaborative efforts of Kings Row Gastropub and Congregation Ale House this weekend. The two restaurants are teaming up to bring you some great pub dishes and prizes. Flash your TAP card to save some cash at Kings Row (offer excludes special promotions). The festival of drinks ends this Sunday, so get while the going is good. Both restaurants are open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and until midnight on Sunday. (Metro Gold Line to Del Mar Station, Metro Rapid 780 and Bus 256 also serve the area, check Trip Planner for routes)

Bike to Long Beach to check out the new June Keyes Penguin Habitat at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Make sure to print out a coupon to save $2 on adult admission and $1 on child’s admission (valid this weekend only). The Aquarium is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. (Metro Blue Line to Long Beach Transit Mall)

Finally, this is the only weekend Hola Mexico Festival is in town, so squeeze in a film or two (between Star Trek: Into Darkness, who’s ready for Spock?).

Full northbound 405 closure from midnight to 5 a.m. tonight from Santa Monica Boulevard to Wilshire

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Here's the news release from Metro:

The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project contractor is scheduled to conduct a full northbound I-405 freeway closure from Santa Monica Boulevard to Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles beginning Thursday night, May 16 2013 from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The full northbound freeway closure is scheduled to conduct repaving and striping activities to facilitate widening of the roadway.

• Detour: Exit at the Santa Monica Boulevard off-ramp, right on Santa Monica Boulevard, left on Sepulveda Boulevard, right on Wilshire to the northbound I-405 on-ramp.

• CHP will be monitoring the area surrounding the closure.

What to expect:

• Construction schedule is subject to change based on daily progress and field conditions.

• Notification of ramp closures will be provided on a daily basis through the PM Closure e-mail notices. Subscribe to daily e-mail alerts at http://www.metro.net/405.​

• For a listing of daily closures and latest updates visit our website at www.metro.net/405 or follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/I_405 and Facebook at www.facebook.com/405project

 

New concept developed to better connect the Regional Connector to Grand Avenue; community funding, however, will be needed

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One of the three new stations for the Regional Connector project will be at 2nd and Hope Street. Due to the topography of downtown Los Angeles, that presents some challenges for future patrons: those exiting the station bound for Grand Avenue would have to walk uphill to reach the many attractions along Grand Avenue, including the front side of Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, MOCA, the Colburn School and the Broad, the new art museum that is presently under construction.

At the request of members of the Regional Connector Community Leadership Council’s 2nd/Hope Committee – a group of area residents and stakeholders interested in the Regional Connector project — Metro has developed a concept that would provide a direct connection from the new station to Grand Avenue.

Before I go any further, it’s important to understand that this proposed concept is not presently funded as part of the project. Metro intends to put the concept in the package going to construction firms interested in proposing to build the Regional Connector project as an option in order to determine the additional cost of the connection concept. The Contractor will price the connection concept as an option and will honor this price proposal for 180 days from the awarding of the contract. The funds related to this connection would need to come from contributions from the community. The Design/Build construction contract for the project is expected to be awarded around the end of this year.

With that caveat in mind, please flip through the above slide show. The first several renderings show the station as is planned. The entrance would be at 2nd/Hope and a series of elevators would take patrons 77 feet below street level to the station concourse.

Under the proposed concept that Metro has developed, a second level could be added to the station as well as a bridge over Hope Street, subject to community funding. In this concept, the elevators would stop both at ground level and at bridge level, 23 feet above Hope, at the same level as the proposed GTK Way Plaza deck.

The 2nd/Hope Committee will now have to begin to discuss ways to raise the funding to build this proposed connection. I personally think it’s a very intriguing idea that will make an already good project even better and even more attractive to potential riders.

Transportation headlines, Thursday, May 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.

Alhambra declares 710 day, reaffirming support for freeway extension (L.A. Times) 

Mark your calendars: the big day will be July 10 to show support for a tunnel that would connect the 710 from its terminus at Valley Boulevard to the 210 freeway in Pasadena. The current connection involves using city streets such as Fremont, Pasadena Avenue and Orange Grove that are also heavily residential. Metro is currently studying a project to help improve traffic in the area; the alternatives include a freeway tunnel, bus rapid transit, light rail, traffic signal and intersection improvements and the obligatory no-build option.

Mayoral candidate scorecard (Crenshaw Subway Coalition) 

The group advocating for a Leimert Park station and the undergrounding of the light rail line in Park Mesa Heights between 48th and 59th issues its grades on where L.A. mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel stand on the two issues. Here is the news release and here are letters from the candidates.

It is worth noting (as the news release does) that it’s still possible that the Metro Board of Directors will select a firm to build the project before the next mayor takes office on July 1; otherwise the decision will be made when the next mayor will be on the Metro Board along with three appointees. Metro is seeking a firm that can build the Leimert Park station within the project’s existing $1.76-billion budget. The Leimert Park station is included in the project’s final environmental study that has been approved by the federal government; the 48th to 59th tunnel is not in the study, meaning the study or a part of it would have to be re-done.

Furthermore, while the candidates have similar views — there is some subtle differences in the language they employ — neither says where the hundreds of millions of dollars would come from to reopen the project’s environmental studies and then build the light rail line underground in Park Mesa Heights.

Portuguese car commercial goes Metro to slam transit riders (LA Streetsblog) 

Hmmm. How shall I spin this? I know–I’ll change the topic and use the video to remind everyone that eating ginormous hamburgers is prohibited on Metro trains and buses! Thank you for your cooperation and helping to keep our local transit system clean and tidy!

Want a subway extension? Here’s what you can look forward to! (LAObserved) 

The recent news that bids came in high to build stations for San Francisco’s Central Subway project lights the fuse at LAObserved with Mark Lacter predicting it’s inevitable to happen here with the Purple Line Extension. Lacter cites a 2003 study that found that rail projects around the world often go over budget.

Limited service on Blue Line from Willowbrook to Long Beach on Friday, May 17

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Willowbrook-LBTM (30 Mins)

Due to urgent track switch maintenance that must be completed on the Metro Blue Line, there will be limited train service between Willowbrook Station and Long Beach Transit Mall this Friday, May 17.

Starting at 9 p.m. until close of service, trains will only run every 30 minutes between Willowbrook Station and Long Beach Transit Mall. Announcements will be made at Blue Line stations, you can also follow real time alerts on Twitter or check Metro’s Service Advisories page. Please plan ahead and expect extended wait times if you need to travel that segment Friday night.

Regular Friday evening service will run between 7th/Metro and Willowbrook.

Go Metro to Taste of Hawthorne

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The Taste of Hawthorne food and music festival is happening this Sunday, May 19. Don’t miss the headlining performance of Grammy Award winning band Ozomalti at the Music FEEDS Stage. The Taste will be at the Hawthorne Airport from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is open to the public.

Go Metro to get a free souvenir and the opportunity to win a two-night stay in Palm Springs! Simply present your valid TAP card at the main entrance information tent. Souvenirs are available while supplies last, so claim yours early.

The Taste can be reached from the Green Line Crenshaw Station or by Metro Bus 210 to Crenshaw/Northrop. Check Trip Planner for more routes and connections.

LASD and Metro announce arrest of suspect who allegedly assaulted bus operator

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Metro today announced the arrest of a Reseda man wanted in connection with the assault on a transit bus operator last Friday, May 10, 2013. The suspect, Anthony Gamez, 24, was taken into custody at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, 2013 on an Orange Line bus after the on-duty bus operator recognized Gamez from photographs displayed on a “wanted” poster distributed earlier in the day.

One of the reasons the operator identified the suspect was because he was apparently wearing the same clothing depicted in surveillance photos from Friday’s incident. The driver called the dispatch center and deputies from the Transit Services Bureau made the arrest at Canoga Avenue and Oxnard Street in Van Nuys. Sheriff’s detectives will be seeking Felony Battery charges.

The assault occurred Friday about 7:35 p.m. as the operator of the bus stopped at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The patron engaged in a fare dispute with the operator and attacked the driver, knocking him unconscious. The injured operator was transported to a hospital and subsequently released.

Gamez is also being investigated in connection with another assault on a bus operator that occurred Monday, May 13, 2013 at 1:40 p.m. at Fallbrook Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard in West Hills under similar circumstances as Friday’s incident.