Transportation headlines, Friday, Dec. 9

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.

Taking transit to Farmers Field (Huffington Post)

An exec with AEG, the firm proposing the downtown NFL stadium, told an L.A. City Council committee that one day to reduce the number of people driving to games would be to sell transit tickets along with game tickets. The Blue Line and future Expo Line will share a station that is a short walk from the stadium location next to Staples Center and the Red/Purple Line station at 7th/Metro Center is also within a stroll-able distance. Not to mention the many bus lines serving the area, including the Silver Line.

LaHood pushes for national ban on texting-while-driving (USA Today)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to see the ban in all 50 states — only 35 so far have enacted bans, many thanks to LaHood making an issue of it. But the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety say that such bans haven’t reduced the number of crashes. LaHood says the bans would — if states enforced them. One issue is that solid data on distraction-related crashes has been hard to come by. Until recently, different states and localities tracked data in different ways. In 2010, the feds estimate that there were 3,092 distraction-related crash deaths. For the sake of comparison, there were 10,228 drunk driving deaths in the U.S. in 2010 and 32,885 traffic deaths. All sad numbers — and a reminder why so many of our readers would like to see more late night transit service.

Making your Smartcar larger (Autoweek)

Not enough room in the Smartcar for your tastes? Here’s a trailer that adds an axle and some trunk space that can hold a battery to extend the car’s range.