If you are interested in urban (and suburban) planning, you may want to check out a podcast at the Smart City blog with writer Richard Florida, who talks about his views on what cities and ‘burbs will look like in the future. He envisions denser, more “livable” urban areas connected [continue reading]
The proposed agency budget for fiscal year 2011 has been released by Metro staff. Here is a link to the budget, which is posted on the Metro website (pdf). It will be discussed at a special meeting of the agency’s Board of Directors on Wednesday, May 19, at Metro headquarters. [continue reading]
As expected, the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has inspired a debate about where the United States should get its petroleum and how much petroleum the country is using. A smart article in the New York Times’ Week in Review section on Sunday laid out the conundrum [continue reading]
In case you missed it, the agency’s Board of Directors last week approved holding a special meeting to discuss and update the public on the fare increases that are scheduled for July 1. (Here’s a full list). The meeting will be held Saturday, May 8, at Metro headquarters in downtown [continue reading]
It was only a week ago that the Board of Directors of Metro endorsed the 30/10 Initiative to accelerate the construction of transit and highway projects funded by the Measure R sales tax increase approved by voters in 2008. And, in fact, Metro officials are already in discussions with members [continue reading]
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors Chairman Ara Najarian and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa participated in a news conference this morning about the release of the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report. It was a bad news/good news type of affair. The bad: The Los Angeles [continue reading]
Let’s face it: there’s a lot of confusion when it comes to Metro’s TAP (Transit Access Pass) program. Customers, bus operators, municipal agencies and even Metro all seem to have pertinent questions when it comes to the cards. Some of that, admittedly, has involved the promotion of the TAP cards. [continue reading]
In case you missed it, here’s the news from Metrolink about fare hikes and service cuts. The gist of it: as part of approving Metrolink’s annual budget, the agency’s Board of Directors also took steps toward eliminating two midday trains each on the San Bernardino and Ventura lines and toward [continue reading]
I spent the morning geeking out on a new report from the Federal Transit Administration that answers a question I’ve had and I’ll bet many of you have also pondered: what’s the impact of taking mass transit versus driving in terms of greenhouse gas emissions? It’s a natural question because [continue reading]
Ara Najarian, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metro and the mayor of Glendale, wrote the following on the bike parking situation at the new transit-oriented development being built just west of downtown Los Angeles: Last week’s groundbreaking of the Westlake/MacArthur Park joint development project was an important [continue reading]
