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.
Is Mickey Mouse driving up costs of Anaheim streetcar? (Voice of OC)
The costs look to be higher than expected for the Anaheim streetcar project. Is this worthy of attention here in L.A.? Only if we’re considering a downtown streetcar project for our own.
Improved bike parking at Dodger Stadium: No home run yet (StreetsBlog LA)
One bicyclist cruised the scene looking for improved bike access and services and offers a little coaching. Perhaps better — at least for the moment — to take the Dodger Stadium Express from Union Station.
What does Anthony Foxx know and what should he know? (National Journal Transportation Experts Blog)
As mayor of a major city, the Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx obviously knows something about transportation issues. But is it enough for this time in history when a wrong step could be critical to public momentum in favor of mass transit? What should Foxx be fighting for in the administration and in Congress? What can he learn from LaHood’s experience? What do you think Foxx ought to know and push? And, finally, will it do any good?
Categories: Transportation Headlines
Anaheim and the OCTA should consider a transit district tax for businesses in the resort district to cover the extra cost.
Hmm. Regarding Anaheim, well,
1. Disney’s California Adventure recently installed a “selectively compressed” Pacific Electric “Red Car” line, running from the main entrance to an area between the Tower of Terror and the back entrance of Bug’s Land. For vehicles that short, a run that short, and speeds limited to a leisurely stroll, there’s no reason in the world why they couldn’t run the cars on battery power. Indeed, the Toontown Trolley (has anybody seen that run in the past decade?) does so, and decades ago, Knotts ran a small fleet of California Street cable cars, converted to battery traction, to service its parking lot (my understanding is that they originally bought the cars from the MUNI, and then later, during the system rebuild, donated them back).
Yet the DCA management strung up overhead, and went to the expense of training their motormen (and women) in the arcane art of keeping a trolley pole on the wire, and safely reversing the pole at each end of the run.
2. I don’t know what the proposed alignment is, but I do know that between the trees, the deep turquoise retro-looking streetlight and signal posts, and the other retro details (not to mention the powerlines crossing the Disney property!), appropriately-vintage-looking overhead would fit in rather nicely.
“Unsightly” overhead indeed!