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.
Here's a neat U.S. Interstate Map schematic by designer Chris Yates. The Interstate highway system broke ground 55 years ago this summer. Click through for the high resolution image.
AEG unveils stadium traffic impact (Daily Breeze)
The L.A. City Council — and those who tuned in — got their first peak at AEG’s plans for how to manage transportation to and from its proposed downtown football stadium. Of note for transit riders is this nugget: “AEG also plans to fund the expansion of a light rail station at Pico Boulevard that serves the Expo and Blue lines,” writes the Daily Breeze. In particular, the AEG representative discussed the possibility of adding a second platform to Pico Station to boost capacity. The L.A. Times and Daily News also have coverage of the hearing.
Railyard on track for service to Port of L.A. (SCPR)
Good news for the oft-congested 710: The Port of L.A. and rail company BNSF are collaborating on a $500-million project that would improve ship-to-rail connections at the port. Port officials suggest that the project — dubbed the Southern California International Gateway — would eliminate 1.5 million truck trips from the 710 Freeway annually, or about 4,000 per day. This could also help reduce pollution, as trains typically move cargo much more efficiently than trucks.
Slow train coming: After years of planning, cities say Orangeline project moving forward (The Downey Beat)
Ben Baeder takes a look the West Santa Ana Transit Corridor project, an important, if less heralded Measure R project. Baeder traces the project back to a 2002 proposal for the corridor called the Orangeline. One version called for an elevated maglev train running from Santa Clarita to Santa Ana, via Burbank. As for the current Measure R project, the Southern California Association of Governments is heading up a preliminary analysis for the corridor that will evaluate bus rapid transit, light rail and other technologies. SCAG’s website says the agency plans to release a “locally preferred alternative” this fall.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
infamousme, does Greyhound count as public transportation? I can’t imagine a trip is possible across the country using only local transit agencies, considering how vast are the empty spaces (desert, mountains, or prairie) in between cities that have transit.
i like the map. i used it to daydream a route from LA to NY. that map has planted the seeds for a future cross country trip!
Eeek, did i just suggest a drive through the country on a public transportation sight?
Challenge to the Source: Map out a route from LA to NY via public transportation (and use of Amtrak is cheating)!
I can’t imagine anybody actually using that map, as the font is hard to read, the numbers are too small, and it suffers an extreme version of the “not to scale” problem that all stylized maps share to a certain degree. (Look at Sacramento to Portland, or Tampa to Daytona Beach).
Orange County has too many pro-car, anti-government NIMBYs to get light rail up and running any time soon, unless Metro Rail inches its way across the border…
James,
If I had to guess, I think the map is less about practicality and more a design exercise to help us think differently about connections, national transportation, etc. As for the numbers’ being hard to read, that’s only because I had to scrunch it to make it fit in the blog. Here’s the link to the full image.
http://www.chrisyates.net/reprographics/index.php?page=424
Cheers,
Carter Rubin
Contributor, The Source
@Elson 2030s is being optimistic. They had plans for a comprehensive rail system to combat 57/5 freeway traffic. Would had connected Fullerton/Anaheim/Santa Ana/ Irvine, but they let a few whiners who can never let go of their car dictate the conversation. Now OCTA piggybacks off of Metrolink. In some positive news though, there will be a few rail links built though. Metro must make sure that OCTA had ambitious plans for the Santa Ana Corridor.
We need HSR links to start looking like the graphic, especially in NEC and CA corridors. Most of those highways are clogged.
If you think our Metro has done a bad job with our rail system, Orange County is a thousand times worse. Our Metro Rail as we know it today was first conceptualized in the 1970s, funded in the ’80s and the first line opened in 1990. OC isn’t even at the same point we were in the ’70s. So count on OC opening their rail system sometime in the 2030s, at the earliest!