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.

Seismic study begins on Beverly Hills High campus (Beverly Hills Patch)

The Beverly Hills Unified School District has hired a firm to evaluate seismic issues on the Beverly Hills High School campus. The district wants a second opinion after Metro released studies in October that more clearly identified earthquake fault zone activity in the Century City and Beverly Hills areas. Those studies, done for the Westside Subway Extension, concluded that the subway station in Century City should be built under Constellation Boulevard and that tunneling under part of the campus could be safely done. Here’s a link to our post about the studies on The Source and here’s a link to the reports.

The usual reminder: No decision about the subway’s route has been made. That will likely come early next year after the project’s final environmental study is released and then voted on by the Metro Board of Directors.

Dramatic changes in demand for housing in Golden State, study says (P.R. Newswire/Sacramento Bee)

In the next couple of decades, demand for single-family homes in subdivisions will continue to be soft while consumers — driven by Generation Y — will seek more multi-family housing on small lots will increase. Especially for units near transit, says a new study by the Urban Land Institute. Of course, no one really knows what the future holds and there have been similar forecasts in the past that the distant ‘burbs would go belly up. We’ll see. A lot of people still call those ‘burbs home and it’s pretty obvious to yours truly that low home prices trump a lot of other considerations for many folks.

A streetcar in Zurich. Photo by Dantc, via Flickr creative commons.

Zurich, the world’s best transit city (Planetizen)

The author of this post recently moved to Zurich for work. He knew the transit system was good — and he’s come to realize it’s world class. He really likes that not every trip between outlying areas involves going through the center of town. Plus it’s affordable — averaging less than $3 a day for unlimited bus and train rides. Zurich has been eagerly expanding its system since the 1970s and the impact on the city has been great, with reduced traffic and more room devoted to public space, not car parking.

State to motorists: don’t change your oil – yet! (L.A. Times)

The majority of auto owners believe they should change the oil in their vehicles every 3,000 miles — just as the Quickie Lube Industry wants them to believe. State officials in California say that’s nonsense and wastes a lot of oil. In response, they plan to push an educational campaign to inform motorists that every 7,500 to 10,000 miles is more appropriate.

Ballpark seats in play at Indy bus stops (Urbanophile)

Seats from a shuttered minor league baseball stadium are being used at bus stops around Indianapolis. It appears to be a win-win. The seats are sturdy and were designed for being outside and many bus stops in Indy don’t have much in the way of seating or other accoutrements. There’s a new proposal out to double the size of the Indy region’s transit system. I grew up 100 miles down the road in Cincy and I think Indianapolis — which will be hosting the Super Bowl this season — has done as much as anywhere to fix up its downtown and become relevant again as a city.