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Metro outlines light rail extension plans for Eastside Gold Line (San Gabriel Valley Tribune) 

The draft environmental study for the Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 project is due to be released this summer and Metro this week provided some updates on two of the light rail alternatives under study. Excerpt:

The Washington Boulevard route, which would go through Montebello and Pico Rivera, ending in Whittier, would be 9 1/2 miles long, carry an average of 19,900 passengers a day, with a travel time of 17 to 22 minutes from East Los Angeles.

The other proposed option that parallels the 60 Freeway, would be 6.9 miles long, carry an average of 16,700 passengers a day, with a travel time of 13 minutes.

 

This is a Measure R-funded project that isn’t scheduled to open until the mid-2030s under the current expenditure plan. There is a possibility the project could be accelerated if funding is found to advance the schedule for this project and other Measure R projects — a big task.

Nonetheless, elected officials and stakeholders along both routes are pushing for a route that would serve their communities.

Here’s the current project map:

And here’s an interactive map that allows you to see what is near the proposed station locations.

Standoff on roadway repairs becoming highway cliff (L.A. Times) 

The Highway Trust Fund is on the verge of running dry while lawmakers in D.C. continue to battle along partisan lines over a multi-year transportation funding bill. “Failure to agree on new funding sources will put at risk more than 112,000 highway projects, 5,600 transit programs and nearly 700,000 jobs, the White House warned,” the Times reports. One proposal in the Senate would be for a six-year bill that continues to keep funding at current levels — below increases proposed by President Obama.

Three things I like about Bike Week and two things I don’t (Streetsblog LA)

Joe Linton likes new facilities that have opened recently, events and photos of politicians riding bikes. But he also thinks L.A.’s Bike Week should take place in fall or winter for better weather. And he wishes it lasted more than a week, fearing the marginalization that sometimes goes with celebrating something for a short period of time each year.

Muni axes seats on SF trains to create more space (SFBay)

Some seats have been removed on light rail trains in San Francisco to create more room for riders to stand. Muni has a light rail car shortage and needs to create more capacity on its heavily-used trains.

It’s not always a bad thing if rents rise with transit growth (The Atlantic Cities) 

A follow-up to a previous article on Atlantic Cities about what happens when new transit projects lead to gentrification. That, in turn, can push people out of neighborhoods they can no longer afford.

Writer and transit blogger Yonah Freemark points out that new transit doesn’t necessarily mean relocation. And it can impact neighborhoods in good ways. Excerpt:

The desirability of living near transit reflects, in part, the fact that better transit options allow households to reduce transportation costs by replacing car trips with cheaper public transportation trips. Sometimes residents can eliminate car use entirely. So if families redistribute their costs from transportation to housing, they should be able to afford more expensive rents or mortgages. The average car owner spends about $9,000 a year on the vehicle, versus roughly $900 to $1,300 for an annual unlimited transit pass. A complete switch from private automobile to transit could leave a family up to $700 for additional monthly housing spending.

Higher housing values around transit also usually translate into more development in those areas. That’s a good thing for locals. Regions that emphasize growth around public transportation lines produce more livable communities. The more growth that is concentrated in areas near transit, the less it will be shuffled out to exurban, car-dependent communities — where commute times and transportation expenses are high, public services are expensive to provide, and ecological impacts are considerable.

In particular, he points to proactive efforts in Minneapolis to keep affordable housing intact near a future light rail project. The key word there is ‘proactive’ — with Freemark urging cities to think about preserving affordability well before the ribbon is cut on new transit lines.

Using incentives and insight to end rush hour (The Atlantic Cities) 

More on efforts to use data from fare card swipes to learn more about how people actually use transit systems — and how that information can be used to incentivize people to travel outside rush hour to avoid system crowding.