Transportation headlines, Friday, July 27

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.

State PUC orders re-hearing on parts of Expo Phase 2 environmental document (L.A. Streetsblog)

The hearing, requested by Neighbors for Smart Rail, will deal with some procedural matters as well as whether the Expo Line’s environmental document needed to better describe an undercrossing of the 405 freeway and a pedestrian bridge in Palms. I know. I’m sure that you, like me, believes that state environmental law should concern itself with the impacts of a light rail line on a freeway undercrossing. Parents: sign your kids up for environmental law school sooner, not later.

LaHood: major increase in TIFIA funding (Welcome to the Fast Lane)

As a result of the part of America Fast Forward that was approved as part of the recent transportation bill in Congress, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $1.7 billion in federal TIFIA loans is now available for critical infrastructure projects. By offering federal backing of loans, that money be leveraged into $50 billion overall in public and private funds. Local agencies will be applying for the loans.

California Incline to be rebuilt beginning in 2013 (Santa Monica Mirror)

The ramp that connects bluff-top downtown Santa Monica to PCH has long-needed a seismic overhaul and will get it beginning in the fall of 2013 and lasting a year or more. The closure of the heavily-trafficked incline is expected to hinder the area’s already bad traffic. The new incline, however, is touted as being safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Why we should pay people to bike to work (Boston Magazine)

Office and retail space in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge has increased 40 percent in recent years while auto trips in the area declined 13 percent. What the what?! As it turns out, a law required employers to provide employees a subsidy they could use toward parking or transit. Many, it seems, have opted for using the extra money on transit or biking because they can pocket they money they don’t use.