The L.A. Times has a story about one young woman who decided to overcome her snobbery against public transit and become a bus rider and then started a blog to chronicle her experience. Some commenting on the L.A. Times site, and elsewhere, have deemed the story as trite and condescending – implying that the plight of one midwestern transplant does not really represent the reality of riding transit in Los Angeles. I tend to disagree with that assertion though, because one of the realities of public transit in Los Angeles is that the vast majority of people view it as nothing more than a last resort. As long as that idea exists, the chances for the city to embrace transit like other great cities is unlikely. So the story of one woman confronting her preconceived notions of what it means to be a bus rider is a very important story to tell.

The L.A. Eco-Village Blog heads down to L.A. Live only to discover a conspicuous lack of bicycle parking. Amidst multi-million dollar parking garages, bikes could be found locked up to any old railing, fence or light pole – likely to the dismay of L.A. Live security. But designated and friendly bike parking? Nowhere to be found. For a development – paid for with the help of taxpayers – that is supposed to be part of L.A.’s denser, more urban and transit oriented future, the omission of basic bicycle parking facilities is disappointing.

Joel Epstein over at the Huffington Post channels Bob Dylan in hopes that Angelenos will rally together and get Congress to make Mayor Villaraigosa’s 30/10 plan – which involves an unprecedented bridge loan from the federal government – a reality. The gist of Epstein’s humorous post is that if all of L.A. doesn’t get behind this idea we’re going to be missing out on our future – a future that offers an alternative to bumper-to-bumper traffic. That’s something I think we can all rally for.

The rest of today’s headlines, compiled by the Metro Library, after the jump.

Burbank Debates HSR Station Location
California High Speed Rail Blog

Could A New Kind Of Fuel Tax Help Break The Senate Climate Deadlock?
DC StreetsBlog

DOT Budget Isn’t Keeping Up With Need For Road, Bridge Repairs
Federal Times

Downtown Parking Ban To Ease Traffic (Efforts to ban downtown parking in Los Angeles recounted in news stories from 1920 and 1908)
Los Angeles Times

Federal Transportation Law Expired Over The Weekend: What Next?
DC StreetsBlog

Free Money Inspires Los Angeles’ Activists And Urbanists
Curbed LA

Gasoline Consumption Continues To Decline
LAist

Heated Debate Over High-Speed Train Station In Burbank
Examiner

Introducing The 2010 Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team (students working with UCLA Transportation on bike and pedestrian issues)
Be A Green Commuter!

Looking For Bike Parking At L.A. Live
L.A. Eco-Village Blog

[D.C.] Metro’s Mixing Of Signal Part Brands Could Have Caused Crash, Maker Tells NTSB
Washington Post

New Push On Transit-Rail Safety Rules
Wall Street Journal

The Not-So-Fast Track For High-Speed Rail (Federal money is making high-speed rail possible, but state governments are unsure if they can afford to operate and maintain the systems once they are in place)
Stateline

Off-Ramps & People-Movers & Monorails, Oh My… (connecting Anaheim’s proposed ARTIC transit center to Disneyland)
TransitRider OC

One-Time TSA Nominee Resigns From Police Post At L.A. World Airports
Los Angeles Times

Political Games Disrupt Key Transportation Programs
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

The Ports Challenge
Huffington Post

Preaching To The Choir: Metro And 30/10 Revisited
Huffington Post

Pre-Paid Cards And The Transit Industry
Smart Card Alliance
Full-Text Report: A Guide To Pre-Paid Cards For The Transit Industry – A Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council White Paper (36p. PDF)

Riding The Bus Changes Her View: A Self-Described “Snob” Makes The Switch To Public Transit – Though Frustrating, It Proves Enriching In Ways She Never Expected
Los Angeles Times
Her New Blog: Snob On A Bus

Transportation Agencies Lay Off 2,000 As Funds Expire
Business Week

We Gotta Clean Up: Freight Transportation’s Hidden Cost To Health And The Planet
Environmental Defense Fund Way2Go Blog

What Should The Gas Tax Pay For? (panel of experts discuss key issues)
National Journal Transportation Blog