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.
Measure J, L.A. County transportation tax measure, fails (L.A. Times)
The proposal to accelerate transportation projects by extending the Measure R sales tax for 30 more years received 64.72 percent of the vote — a nice show of support. But J needed a super-majority of two-thirds of the vote to pass and came up a little less than two percentage points shy of that. In the Times, an organizer for the Bus Riders Union says that she’s very happy about the result. Turnout may have been an issue. When Measure R was approved with 67.92 percent of the vote in 2008, about 889,000 more people voted. There are still some votes to be counted so the final J tally may change a little, but it’s unlikely the result will.
Here’s an interesting discussion about J on Twitter this morning, led by Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne:
The Vote 2012 (Transport Politic)
Scroll down this post for some key transportation-related elections around the country. Perhaps the one most relevant here is that a proposal to extend an existing sales tax for 30 years in Alameda County failed with 65.5 percent of the vote.
A good night for Honolulu light rail (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
Kirk Caldwell won election last night; his opponent had been threatening to shut down construction of a federally-funded light rail project, saying it was a waste of money and buses could better do the job. Caldwell is a key supporter of light rail.
Ontario Airport will lose more flights in 2013 (LA Observed)
The outlook for next year is not promising and the bottom line is this: LAX keeps growing while second tier airports such as Ontario are losing business. Something perhaps for supporters of extending the Gold Line to Ontario to think about.
Greyhound launches non-stop service between Las Vegas and L.A. (L.A. Times)
The five-hour trip is part of the carrier’s “express” brand service and includes plush seats and free wi-fi.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
the time length scared people. i would have asked for another penny added to the already current prop r
good, it wasnt fair for everyone. I dont understand how it would cost so much to just accelerate these projects if it is supposed to be so much cheaper to build them now. If lines were added to include more cities in LA county maybe J would have received more votes… I’ll tell you that when I saw how Measure J was writen I was pretty disappointing but figured something was better than nothing. I voted yes but, oh well..
next time try extending it 50 years and add some lines and incentives..
Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us.