Dept. of Service Alerts: There will very likely be some today. For the latest, we encourage you to follow Metro’s main Twitter feed or our service alerts feed.
Things to read whilst transiting: “Reddit and the struggle to detoxify the Internet” in the New Yorker. You can also listen to the story. The crux of the article:
Is it possible to facilitate a space for open dialogue without also facilitating hoaxes, harassment, and threats of violence? Where is the line between authenticity and toxicity? What if, after technology allows us to reveal our inner voices, what we learn is that many of us are authentically toxic?
Art of Transit:
First modern transit-to-trails from Pasadena to San Gabriel Mountains starts in April (Pas Star-News)
Remains of the old hotel on Echo Mountain. Photo by Daniel, via Flickr creative commons.
The six-month pilot program will provide a shuttle from the Gold Line’s Memorial Park Station in Pasadena to the Sam Merrill trailhead at the north end of Lake Avenue in Altadena. The trail climbs for 2.7 miles to the top of Echo Mountain, the site of a long-gone hotel once served by streetcar, via an incline. From Echo, hikers can continue to a variety of other destinations in the mountains.
We’ll have more about the shuttle soon. Exciting stuff. The U.S. Forest Service piloted a shuttle to Chantry Flats in 2016 and Duarte had a shuttle to the Fish Canyon Falls trailhead (much of the area around the trail subsequently burned in the Fish Fire).
As the story notes, Metro is looking at other possible shuttles to open spaces but no funding has yet been committed.
Elon Musk’s underground bus tunnels would be a disaster for urban planning (Observer)
Experts say you don’t need to put people on a bus-like device that runs underground — rather a bus lane on surface streets would do the same trick and be a lot less expensive to build.
Fair enough point. But the article loses a lot of credibility when it points to the New York subway as one of the most inefficient transportation systems on Earth by linking to an article about inflated construction costs — an unrelated issue.
Check out renderings for lower L.A. River revitalization (Urbanize LA)
New renderings for 41-story tower at 8th and Fig (Urbanize LA)
Hopefully these changes or something similar will be funded and come to pass. If so, the lower river will be accessible from the Blue Line and, eventually, the Rail-to-River Corridor Project.
As for the new tower in DTLA, “the project calls for replacing a longtime surface parking lot with a 41-story, 501-foot-tall building that would feature 438 residential units above 7,300 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for 517 vehicles and 490 bicycles,” according to Urbanize.
Dept. of Brackets: It is my pleasure helping Source readers fill out their brackets every year. I had one of the top 13.4 million brackets on ESPN’s website last year.
Dept. of Robots:
https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/972995583370706944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.laobserved.com%2Farchive%2F2018%2F03%2Ftrump_comes_calling_on_la.php
Categories: Transportation Headlines
I notice the 2018 HSR business plan was posted and it is estimated to bring in a cumulative revenue of 170-280 billion by 2060. No ones talking about those numbers but it seems like a good counter to the concern trolling big over the 77 billion price tag.
About five years ago, electrification, a bunch of grade seperations and double tracking of union station to Burbank metrolink was on the docket to prepare for HSR, has any work been finished in that regard?
One of my first hikes in LA was following the old PE Alpine Division R/W from Echo Mountain to The Mount Lowe Tavern. Quite a bit of public transit history up there. Including the One Man and a Mule RR.
Good, it’s about time they planned to do something with that parking lot at 8th and Fig. Whenever I’ve walked by, my first thought was that it seemed like a waste of space. My second thought was that the street smelled like urine.
This is just half a block from the Figueroa entrance to the 7th St Metro Center, and easy access to transportation is an important selling point for tenants.
That tower is too short.
Unless Musk suddenly asks for public $ or his tunnel projects impede on safety or right-of-way, he should be applauded for trying something.
Good point. Elon Musk is a visionary who force us to consider new ideas and the potential of new technologies.
I think that having transit access to the Sam Merrill trailhead is a great idea, but I have to wonder if it couldn’t also be achieved by extending the Metro 180 bus a mile or so north from where it currently ends at Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive. (The extended routing could be weekends-only if there wasn’t the ridership to justify it at other times.) The 180 connects with the Gold Line at Lake station, so this way would also have a direct Metro Rail transfer.