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.
91 gets a new lane (L.A. Times)
A new lane on the eastbound 91 between the 241 and 71 will open on Thursday. Officials hope the six miles of new lane — the 91 will now have five lanes in this segment — will ease commutes between Orange County and the Inland Empire. The newspaper does not question that assumption.
City parking smartens up (Wired)
As Wired explains, the firm Streetline “mounts low-cost sensors in parking spaces, retrofits existing meters and ties them into a mesh wireless network to draw a real-time picture of the spaces available, the cars needing tickets and how much to charge for parking.” The story says that the city of Los Angeles uses the technology and remotely knows when someone’s meter in front of Musso and Franks has expired. But they still have to dispatch someone to go write the ticket.
Senate votes down earmark ban (D.C. Streetsblog)
Reactions from transportation advocates are mixed because many projects have benefited from earmarks over the years — although even those who have gained say that earmarks isn’t a terribly great way of “managing a democracy.”
Categories: Transportation Headlines, Transportation News
“the 91 will now have five lanes in this segment”
Actually, there will be 5 free lanes eastbound, plus 2 more toll lanes. This is the 7th lane in this direction!
Adding one more lane to this freeway will only increase capacity in that direction by 16%. I doubt it will do much to improve traffic on the 91, since more people will just switch from the toll lanes to the free lanes.
OC should have made on of the 4 existing free lanes into a toll lane. That would have improved traffic for everyone who paid, and would not have cost taxpayers as much. Remind me again why I should be subsidizing the commutes of people who bought houses in Riverside and work in Orange County?