Car-free and car-lite in L.A.: Where to live (The Source) 

If you missed it yesterday, he’s a good post about neighborhoods that are particularly transit-friendly and livable in our region. Of course, not all our commenters agree (do they every?) and the fun part of this list is that we’ll likely have to revamp it down the the line as  the transit system is built out. I hope Westwooders are thinking about what it might take to get them on this list!

Analyzing the York Boulevard road diet (LADOT Bike Blog) 

In 2006, a 1.3-mile segment of York Boulevard between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Avenue 54 was reduced from two lanes in each direction to one lane plus a middle turning lane; bike lanes were added four years later. Did it make the road safer? LADOT has stats that show it did, although it doesn’t remain an accident-free zone. Interesting stuff!

L.A. has approved cycle tracks but Council motion calls for more study (L.A. Streetsblog)

Speaking of road diets, the city of Los Angeles has been planning to put Figueroa on one between Staples Center and USC — including cycle tracks, which are bike lanes separated from traffic by barriers (such as parked cars or bollards). Some street parking would be lost as part of the plan and now new City Councilman Curren Price wants more study of the impacts — with some businesses (including car dealerships and AAA) concerned about those impacts.

Excerpt:

The motion does not call for LADOT to stop work on the project, and word out of the Mayor’s Office is that the agency will continue planning for construction if/when this motion moves forward. At this point, we don’t know if Price plans on waging a campaign against the project or if he just wasn’t satisfied with the information provided in the Environmental Impact Report.

UTA unveils new electronic cards for cash paying riders (Salt Lake City Tribune) 

The agency that runs buses and trains in the Salt Lake City region is adopting fare cards very similar to Metro’s TAP cards. UTA officials say they believe the cards will help move them toward a distance-based fare system eventually; patrons currently get to ride for two hours (including transfers) on the base fare of $2.50.

With San Francisco on board, bike sharing in U.S. doubles (Grist) 

New York launched its bike share program on Memorial Day weekend and the San Francisco region debuted theirs on Thursday — with bikes in San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, Redwood City and Mountain View. It’s a modest program compared to New York; the Bay Area will initially have 700 bikes compared to New York’s 6,000 bikes. There are now 34 cities in the U.S. with programs. A bike sharing program is planned for Los Angeles but has run into (shocker!) problems involving advertising on bike rental stations. It may launch next year.