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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.
Union Station and downtown Los Angeles. Photo by Joel Epstein/Metro.
A win-win scenario for Farmers Field (Los Angeles Times)
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup writes that AEG should bundle their event tickets for Farmers Field with free Metro day passes (and, in fact, AEG has proposed to sell transit tickets with game tickets as part of their draft environmental study). In support of his proposal, Shoup cites the experience of Seattle’s 72,000-seat Husky Stadium where the team contracts with Seattle Metro to allow tickets to serve as transit passes on game days. Public transit ridership among fans jumped from four percent the year before the program began in 1987 to 20 percent in 2008.
New York City finalizing maps of bike share stations (Transportation Nation)
Bike share in New York is inching closer to becoming a reality as the city finalizes its bike station locations. Large bike docks are planned for important transit stops including the Port Authority, Penn Station, Columbus Circle and Astor Place. The placement of bikes at subway stations and major bus stops should help New York address its first mile/last mile problem, or how commuters travel between the subway or bus to their nearby destination.
Despite concerns, BART recommends Canadian firm to build new fleet (The Bay Citizen)
BART staff have recommended that the transit agency award a $2.5-billion contract for a fleet of new rail cars to Bombardier, Inc. The Canadian company has come under scrutiny recently for installing faulty parts in Chicago subway cars and for not agreeing to build more of each BART car in the United States. Bombardier has pledged to build 66 percent of BART’s 775 new train cars in the U.S. Alstom, a French firm and a runner up to Bonbardier, had promised to build 95 percent of the new cars in the Bay Area. In other words — and as usual — a rail car contract proves to be controversial.
U.S. orders Metro to review cuts in bus service (Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the FTA’s letter to Metro about how the agency communicates with the public about changes to bus service. Here is a link to Metro’s response to FTA’s letter.
Categories: Transportation Headlines, Transportation News
Shoup’s proposal sounds like a great one.
Of course, with locked turnstiles, Metro will have tossed away the ability to implement such a program.
Oh well…