Happy Almost Summer!
A little summer music about hitting the highway…
Yes, once upon a time, that’s what TV looked like. It’s still a great song.
And from sort-of-Gold-Line-adjacent-Bradbury:
And taken about 1 p.m. Monday from my office at Source World Headquarters of the wildfire in San Gabriel Canyon above Azusa:
There’s also a fire in Duarte. Follow the Angeles National Forest for updates. Should be some pretty dramatic views from the Gold Line. Hopefully the winds die down and all firefighters remain safe.
And From the Department of Unfortunate Code Words:
Yeah, there was never trash on the beach prior to the Expo Line’s arrival in Santa Monica.
State Sen. Kevin de Leon calls for hearing on Metro’s potential ballot measure (Press-Telegram)
The Metro Board is scheduled to consider putting the sales tax measure on the November ballot at their meeting on Thursday. De Leon wants to postpone the vote to accommodate a hearing on Friday. Reports the PT: “Our board chair, Mark Ridley-Thomas, is taking it into consideration now,” said Pauletta Tonilas, chief communication officer for Metro. “There is no change in our plan at this point.”
Metro’s plan for L.A. transit would be transformative with one small fix (LAT)
In this op-ed, Inglewood Mayor and Metro Board Member James T. Butts and WeHo Council Member Lindsay Horvath write that they want the Green Line Extension to Torrance and the Crenshaw/LAX Line northern extension to be accelerated in Metro’s potential ballot measure.
Under the revised plan that Metro released earlier this month, the Green Line extension would break ground in 2026 and be completed in 2030-32 and the Crenshaw extension would break ground in 2041 and be done between 2047-49. Butts and Horvath want both projects to break ground in 2018.
Updated look for Culver City’s Ivy Station development (Urbanize LA)
The development that will occupy the current 550-space parking lot at Expo Line has been refined and headed toward probable construction later this year. The new development, when complete, will have 300 spaces.
In the meantime, Metro is working to replace some of the parking spaces during project construction. If you park at CC Station, consider this an early heads up. More details later in the summer.
The ultimate commuting race: Expo vs car vs bike (Hollywood Reporter)
A replay of sorts of a race staged by one of the local radio stations earlier this year. In this one, between DTLA and DTSM during the morning rush hour (when westbound traffic on the 10 freeway and other roads is fearsome), the car takes first at 55 minutes, the bike comes in at 59 minutes and Expo at 64 minutes, including some walking on both ends. Not a bad range of times.
NASA unveils plans for electric plane (NYT)
The small plane is no replacement for commercial aircraft. But it’s a start. NASA has also proposed to build an “X” series of planes that would be lighter and use less fuel than the current crop of planes.
How do planes stack up when it comes to greenhouse gases. From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
Categories: Transportation Headlines
Maybe we should add #xenophobia to the list of code words for our friends in Santa Monica.
I notice that the site map shows a “BIKE RENTAL HUB” under the Culver City Expo platform. I think that’s a mistake. Metro is planning a BIKE HUB at the Culver City station, but I don’t think it includes bike rentals.
Do you have any stats on the demand for parking at the Culver City station, now that it’s no longer the end of the line? I’m sure it’s gone down, as you guys predicted, but 250 spaces seems like a huge reduction.
Also, neat to see that the development is named after the old Pacific Electric station. The old Ivy Substation building still exists, but you can walk right by it without knowing its historical use (as I have several times).
There is plenty of other parking available at nearby Expo stations, to replace the temporary capacity at Culver City. (Remember that the Culver City parking has always been considered temporary while Phase 2 has been under construction.) Two new stations to the west of Culver City – Sepulveda and Bundy – have plenty of parking available. Almost 500 spaces and fewer than 100 being used on an average weekday. The La Cienega station, one mile east of Culver City, has 450 spaces, of which one-third (150) are empty on an average weekday. As soon as Metro imposes parking fees at the Culver City and La Cienega stations (as they have planned in their parking policy statement) the demand will decrease further.
Yes, demand for parking at Culver City has changed. Demand from the west (Santa Monica and Palms) has decreased because they now have closer stations to use, which are more accessible by other modes (bus, walk and bike). Demand from the areas closer to Culver City has increased because they now have two major destinations for trips using Expo: Santa Monica and downtown LA.
What happens to all that parking in the Culver City station, do we lose it?
The Valley and South Bay have NOT been neglected. That really needs to be addressed. The Valley and South Bay historically HAVE NOT WANTED TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS since about up until a few years ago. Even Redondo Beach/Hermosa Beach just covered the original right of way with a “veterans memorial” (strategic a bit huh?) While Redondo Beach has plans to redo the pier. When the 105 was built, people specifically thought that the green line would bring people into their neighborhood.
So they need to really stop feeling sorry for themselves. Stop covering up right of ways, improve your bus services (south bay), stop cutting lines (south bay), or just be quiet. There are plenty of car dealerships in those areas that prove you guys are recently trying to get it together.
South Bay native here, and public transpo lifer. Those two regions NEVER made it easy.