HWR, June 13: monorail fever, 6th Street closures, service changes

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Dept. of Service Changes — As part of its twice yearly schedule adjustments Metro is adding 24 hour service on the Orange Line between North Hollywood Station and Reseda Station and on the Silver Line between El Monte and Harbor Gateway. Here’s a flier with all the changes that go into effect June 25. And the answer is no, the new timetables have not been posted yet — and I’ll put the link up as soon as they are!

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This is the five month closure of 6th Street between Flower and Hope for Regional Connector construction work. Roberto Ayala of the project team put together the above video to show some of the work thus far.

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Bike Share special! 

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Dept. of Twitter — 

No details on that, although there are currently no Metro projects with monorail alternatives. But you gotta love social media where it took about a hypersecond for The Simpson’s ‘Monorail’ song to appear…

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Reviewing Metro’s new local return floor alternatives (Urbanize LA)

I tend to believe uttering (or even writing) the phrase “local return” is a good way to put anyone into a deep coma. But it’s an important topic, so a quick Q&A civics lesson for the newbies here.

What is local return?

Long story short: a portion of the L.A. County sales taxes that support Metro (Prop A, Prop C, Measure R and Measure M beginning July 1) is returned to cities and unincorporated areas on a per capita basis.

How is the money used?

Cities and unincorporated areas can use for their own local transpo projects — i.e. traffic signal upgrades, crosswalk upgrades, bike lanes, etc.

Does everyone agree with this approach on Measure M?

Nope. Some members of the Metro Board want to ensure the less populous get a minimum amount, the idea being they have enough to fund a project. That’s provoked a ‘meh’ response from other Board Members who want to continue using the ‘per capita’ formula.

Who will resolve this?

The Metro Board at their meetings this month when they consider the Measure M guidelines.

If you crave more info, Scott Frazier’s post at Urbanize is an excellent primer and he raises some interesting questions about whether local return perhaps encourages policies by small cities that run counter to good transpo and housing policy.

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s C.E.O., to Take Leave Amid Inquiry Into Workplace Culture (NYT)

Not a shock. There’s no doubt that cheap rides have taken passengers from the taxi and transit industries. The question remains how long will investors tolerate a lack of profits.

Why the LA River is getting a new $19 million bridge (KPCC)

Credit: City of Los Angeles.

The 400-foot bridge — partially funded by Metro — will connect Taylor Yard on the east bank of the river with the Elysian Valley and the L.A. River Bike Path. Sounds like a good plan to help people not in cars be able to travel between communities.

In Shrinking Akron, a Dead Highway Becomes a Forest (Citylab)

An under-used highway has been decommissioned and part of it will become parkland. Citylab suggests there are many other freeways in cities where this should happen but I think the lack of transit on the Akron road is the exception not the rule.

Categories: Transportation Headlines

5 replies ›

  2. I’m just wondering if your rail system will, at some point, offer owl service even if its either once an hour or every 45 minutes specially. on weekends when people tend to be out at bars or dancing and metro closes a little too soon to get to a rail station on time to get on a train.

  3. Are there any other bus lines (Metro or city agencies) than run 24 hours a day? If so, it might be a good idea to create a list of them to be linked on the Metro website and app – or maybe highlight them with some kind of icon saying “24hr service” or similar. This might come in handy for people who find themselves out late at night, at hours when they might expect that the only transit options are taxis or ride-sharing services.