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.
A great photo of Meb Keflezighi training near Mammoth Lakes. At age 37, he finished fourth in the men’s Olympic marathon in London on Sunday. Photo: NBC/Reuters.
So did London pass the Olympic test? (The Independent)
Most press accounts that I’ve read — including this one — praise London’s public transport system for making it easy to get around the past couple of weeks. As feared and predicted, the Tube inevitably suffered a few breakdowns, but everything seems to have gone smoothly, even the conversion of regular traffic lanes to “Olympic lanes” for use by transit and Olympic officials. As for the games’ budget, that seems to be a bit of a moving target.
Now to Rio, full of 2016 Olympic jitters (CBS News)
In addition to building new sporting venues, the city is promising a $12-billion infrastructure overhaul, including a controversial new Metro line that critics say serves the needs of lobbyists more than residents. There’s also a hotel room shortage — the plan is to offer rooms on cruise ships (yuck!) — and an equestrian venue that will need to be swept for military ordinance. The 2014 World Cup — with some games in Rio — should serve as a good warmup for the big show in 2016.
Meters to lose their heads near Port (L.A. Times)
Six hundred forty five meters will be yanked from the Earth in San Pedro and Wilmington in order to make it easier to park and help local businesses — contrary to a push in the rest of L.A. that has seen increased meter rates and ticket prices.
Temporary use of Rose Bowl for NFL would cause ‘unavoidable’ impacts (San Gabriel Valley News)
A new draft environmental study by the city of Pasadena concludes air quality and noise levels would be impacted by using the Rose Bowl as a temporary venue for an NFL team (should one magically appear in the L.A. area). Apparently, air pollution from traffic and noise from NFL games is somehow worse than air pollution and noise from UCLA games — or, to put it another way, air pollution and noise from UCLA games is okay because the pollution and noise got there first. If traffic is such a concern, why not just vastly limit the amount of parking at the Rose Bowl and increase the number of bus shuttles? The Gold Line is a mile away, people.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
Kinda hard to bring tailgating food and drink when ice chests are not allowed in the stadium and you don’t have any place to lock/secure them. If just going to game, then Gold Line works well.
Re the Olympics: My local station is on the Jubilee Line (the one that serves six Olympic Venues including the main stadium – and, interestingly, has stations which seem to have been modelled on LA’s Red and Purple Lines) and trains ran much more smoothly than at any time in the last three years! I can ever remember! I only experienced one delay in
two weeks, whereas it’s normally two or three a week. Traffic seemed to have been spread more evenly during the day, so that during the morning peak, for example, I was actually mostly able to get on the first train to arrive, rather than having to wait for the second or third (or fifth or sixth when there is disruption), which is my normal daily lot.
The line serves not only Central London but also a dense employment area not unlike Century City, and I often think that the Purple Line will have similarly heavy traffic once the extension is complete. Whether you’ll get London frequencies is another matter: trains are scheduled every two minutes during peak hours.