Transportation headlines, Friday, March 5

The headline of the LA Weekly story is certainly provocative: “Black Lung Lofts.” The story focuses on whether residential housing should be built adjacent to freeways in Los Angeles despite studies that have shown that poor air quality near the roads impacts childrens’ health. As the headline indicates, the Weekly doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

A new survey by auto clubs in Europe finds that Munich has the continent’s best transit system, reports USA Today. That’s pretty impressive for a city that was in ruins 65 years ago at the end of World War II. Munich, by the way, is one of three cities vying for the 2018 Winter Olympics — if it wins, Munich would become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter games. Having good mass transit probably can only help their bid.

New York’s Penn Station certainly isn’t much to look at — it’s actually big cavern-like thing underneath Madison Square Garden. Not only that, its signage is a mess, opines Slate. Visitors find it confusing and it doesn’t help that the departures sign includes info for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit but not the Long Island Rail Road.

The rest of today’s transportation headlines, compiled by the Metro library, are posted after the jump.

$8 Billion Rail Funding Offers Hope For Design Firms
Building Design + Construction

Amtrak To Congress: Liability Is A Nationwide Concern
Railway Age

The Art Of “Seduction” In Public Transportation (Seducing potential passengers with the latest innovations)
IBM Smarter Planet Blog

Black Lung Lofts: Many Children Being Raised In L.A.’s Hip, New Freeway-Adjacent Housing Are Damaged For Life
LA Weekly

Calif. Passes Gas Tax Changes To Help $20B Deficit
Business Week

Can We Design Cities For Happiness?
Shareable

City Has New Ride (Foothill Boulevard shuttle)
La Canada Valley Sun

DIY Bus Tracker Display (makes it easy for anyone with some computer savvy to show estimated bus arrival times on a display in a building lobby, a storefront window, etc.)
Transit Chicago

Downtown Parking Changes Underway
(Parking for 3 hours in downtown Santa Monica and not paying a dime for the privilege is soon to be a thing of the past)
Santa Monica Daily Press

How To Make High Speed Rail Fail: Don’t Connect The Lines
Infrastructurist

LaHood Faces Off With GOP Senator Over High-speed Rail, Livability
StreetsBlog DC

Lost In Penn Station: Why Are The Signs At The Nation’s Busiest Train Hub So Confusing?
Slate

Obama “Principles” Coming In 90 Days (new multi-year transportation bill)
Bond Buyer

Pasadena Bicycle Master Plan: Let’s Do More!
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

Pilgrim On A Biking Mission
Los Angeles Times

A Plan To Send Flight Data Somewhere Off The Plane
New York Times

Property Owners May Pay For L.A. Sidewalk Repairs
Los Angeles Daily News

Railroad Experts Focus On Efficiency (report from 15th annual Association of American Railroads Research Review)
Pueblo Chieftain

Riding Public Transit Saves Individuals $9,215 Annually (Transit riders now save $715 more per year compared to last year at this time as the cost of gas has increased 77-cents per gallon)
APTA

SEC Halts Ponzi Scheme Targeting Retired L.A. Bus Drivers
Article Ant

The Secret Language Of Signs: They’re The Most Useful Thing You Pay No Attention To – Start Paying Attention
Slate

Skype On A Train (Will a reliable wi-fi connection lure road warriors onto the rails?)
Globe And Mail

Solar-Roofed Bus Cleans The Air Inside And Out
Wired

Stimulus As Policy Lab
New Republic

Survey: Munich Has Europe’s Best Public Transportation; Paris, London Lag
USA Today

Urban Resilience Planning For Dummies
Green Flow

Who’s Poor In America? US Tweaks How It Defines Poverty (Experts say it’s a giant step forward from the old poverty threshold, which is based on a 1955 cost of an emergency food diet and does not factor in several considerations, including transportation)
Christian Science Monitor

Will Antonio’s 30/10 Gambit For LA Transit Work?
CityWatch LA

Categories: Transportation News