Art of Transportation 1:
Today was scariest morning commute of my life: #gettycenter #skirballfire pic.twitter.com/aECWhnJ26I
— Patrick S. (@70sspacepunk) December 6, 2017
You’ve probably seen a lot of similar photos online since yesterday. Still, it’s pretty remarkable (and dangerous, IMHO) that some of the 405 freeway remained open with the fire so close, although I’m sure it was a pretty dynamic situation. Curbed LA has a good photo roundup of the Bel Air fire.
Amazing that air quality isn’t even worse. And, remember, 2016 and ’17 have not been good air quality years, according to the LAT.
Art of Space Transit:
This classic "Blue Marble" photograph of the Earth was taken 45 years ago today, on December 7, 1972, by the crew of Apollo 17. https://t.co/0tO5zHEofr #bluemarble pic.twitter.com/4qwozp20gC
— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) December 7, 2017
As we’ve noted in the past, generally speaking taking transit instead of driving alone results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Checking in on DTLA’s Park Fifth (Urbanize LA)
Construction work has moved above street level on the new tower across 5th Street from Pershing Square — the site of a long-time parking lot.
The site is certainly transit-friendly, near a healthy variety of bus lines (including Metro’s Silver Line) and the Red/Purple Line subway. As Urbanize points out, there are development proposals for another parking lot in the area, as well as developers vying to build on the Angel’s Knoll site.
Anheuser-Busch orders 40 Tesla electric trucks (WSJ)
Tesla has promised the truck — we’ll see if it actually makes its way to production and markets. The beermaker wants the trucks to lower fuel costs and improve its vehicle emissions.
Speaking of Tesla…
Can Elon Musk make subway tunnels cool again? (CNN)
A good look at The Boring Company’s proposal to build an underground transit system, beginning with a route along the 405 on the Westside.
As the story notes, the challenges are many and profound. The proposal is also a return to Days of Yore when private companies — not The Government — built transit lines.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
When was that air quality sample taken? Both yesterday and Tuesday were terrible for hours after each fire started. The Creek fire smoke was thick as far south as Santa Monica, for all of Tuesday, even moreso than the closer Skirball fire that was raining ash all over the westside. Both mornings, people in the hills would have been in a dense cloud of smoke.