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.
Fate of Crenshaw/LAX Line's Leimert Park station still a mystery (Curbed LA)
The awarding of a construction contract for the light rail project has been delayed and is now scheduled for the May meeting of the Metro Board of Directors. Metro staff told the Board's Planning Committee on Wednesday that best and final offers for the contract were received last week. The Leimert Park station will only be built if a contractor can fit it into the project's budget of $1.75 billion or so.
Trends in urban planning in 2012-13 (Planetizen)
Using streetcars to spur development and helping cyclists get around were two of the most frequent topics tackled on the blog in the past year.
Yosemite National Park considers banning bike rentals (San Jose Mercury News)
As part of a plan to protect the Merced River, the park is recommending getting rid of bike rentals, horse rentals, raft rentals, an ice-skating rink, swimming pools and an arts center. No, private cars are not being banned. The plan is the result of a long, convuluted process to satisfy the courts and environmental law. Seems to me it's basically a plan designed to fail; even some environmentalists who sued the park are disappointed.
I don't recall anyone ever visiting the car-congested Yosemite Valley and suggesting bike rentals are impacting anything. Sigh.
When public-private partnerships are a bad idea (Governing)
Interesting post looks at a pair of deals made by Chicago and Cincinnati, respectively, to allow private firms to run city parking lots and garages in exchange for big upfront payments. Governing suggests that cities starved for cash often ink deals that aren't good for anyone over the long-term.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
Why hasn’t Metro looked into private-public partnerships to build stations?
Sounds to me like the bidding process is broken if there is a flat budget of $1.6b for the whole project. A contractor is incentivized to do as LITTLE as possible since less work for the same amount of money means more profit to them.
If they managed to ‘squeeze’ the Leimert Park station in, it doesn’t mean they’ll get paid any more right? So why would they bother?
How about building the Leimert Park Station INSTEAD of the Crenshaw MLK Station?!! It seems like that the majority of the South Los Angeles residents might actually prefer this alternative?
I agree with Jose Escobar. Stop throwing money at the 710 extension that nobody wants, and move the money to here.
Let it be said that for the record people around Leimert Park are actually clamoring for this station to be built. Didn’t community organizers campaign against Measure J because they felt Metro was not going to built the Leimert Park Station? I think it would help Metro garner more support from South Los Angeles residents if they found a way to get this station built. I can’t believe there can’t be savings from other projects that could be transferred to this project.