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Reminder: Game 7 between the Kings-Ducks begins at 6 p.m., which also brilliantly coincides with the Friday Happy Hour. If you’re considering celebrating this lovely confluence, please also consider taking transit and putting your car on the healthy scratch list.

Why it makes sense to commute by bike (KCET) 

Nice article by Krista Carlson urging people to at least give biking a try to save time on their commute, get some exercise and better learn their city. Excerpt:

Los Angeles sprawl creates unique commuting conditions; we know our freeway interchanges better than our Sunday school psalms, and an hour-long commute is par for. But those freeways will be there when El Nino comes back; there’s not reason not to bike to work today, or any other day, especially with all the Metro bus routes and train lines available to bridge the gaps. It certainly is doable, as indicated by the 7.5 percent increase in ridership in the city between 2011 and 2013, according to the latest L.A. Bike and Ped Count released by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition this week. [snip]

On one hand, biking to work offers more predictability than the unexpected nature of day to day traffic. Accidents, road construction, broke down Metro buses, and random weird debris vary from one arterial road to the next, but all those things aren’t clutch-burning obstacles when you and your bicycle can roll past every driver sweating over the minutes, belting out a top 40, or picking their nose while you pedal gingerly through the intersection into calmer waters. Car commuting times can vary, so can public transportation, but as long as your bike is in running order, there isn’t much that can hold up a cyclist.

Reminder: tonight is Bike Night at Union Station beginning at 5:30 p.m. More info here.

Mixed-use dreams for Blue Line adjacent parcels (Building LA)

A mixed-use project may be coming to the 7.5 acres of parking lots next to the Reef Building at Broadway and Washington. It’s yet another project in the southern part of downtown and would be near the Blue Line’s Grand station. It’s in the city of L.A., meaning that a zoning change must first be approved.

Utah denied claim to road in Canyonlands National Park (High Country News) 

The latest news in an ongoing legal battle. The state of Utah and 22 Utah counties have for some time have been trying to reclaim jurisdiction over closed roads on federal lands, with the goal of reopening them. They’ve mostly lost thus far.

Nothing to do with transit but interesting: a good blog post on defunct and long gone amusement parks in So Cal.