Transportation headlines, Wednesday, Oct. 20

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 blog.

Among the headlines: Crenshaw/LAX Workshops, Rail-Volution Updates, Is Removing Traffic Lights Beneficial?, Broader Impacts Of Transportation, End Of Parking Meters & More. Here’s a closer look at three:

City of Beverly Hills sends letter to Metro opposing tunneling under homes, schools (Beverly Hills Courier)

The city prefers a route for the Westside Subway Extension that would stay under Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards with a station on Santa Monica Boulevard in Century City. The other possible route to a station on Constellation in Century City would carry the train under Beverly Hills High School and a few homes. Excerpts from the letter:

In the letter to Metro, the City Council notes, “Of paramount importance is the safety and well being of the High School’s students and faculty. … The City of Beverly Hills sees no reason to risk tunneling under Beverly Hills High School when Century City can be provided a “Base” station on Santa Monica Boulevard.”

(snip)

The letter to Metro also states “… Constellation station would cost $56 million more than the Santa Monica Boulevard Century City station. We find no evidence in the DEIS/DEIR that a Constellation station would result in significantly higher ridership than the Santa Monica Boulevard station.”

Bus rapid transit coming to Manhattan (The City Fix)

New York City debuts its limited stop service on First and Second avenues, where buses are currently running about six miles an hour — and a trip on the M15 takes 90 minutes to travel 8.5 miles. Bus passengers will pay fares at ticket machines on the street and bus lanes will be marked by deep red paint. Here is New York City’s press release with renderings of the lanes.

Seattle offering drive-time technology on surface streets (KOMO)

The city has installed electronic message signs that tell motorists how long it will take them to drive along certain popular routes. How’s it work? A camera takes a photo of a vehicle’s license plate in one location, then another camera takes photos of license plates in other areas and then a computer calculates the speed based on the time it took the car to travel between the two cameras. Clever, but I wonder how long it will take before someone protests there are privacy concerns.