Congestion Combine: USC PPD-360: Traffic Blog

10 Best Cities for Public Transportation

2011-03-01T16:02:00.001-08:00

10 Best Cities for Public Transportation

US News recently created a list of the 10 best cities in the United States for public transportation. Their criteria was based off of public transportation investment, ridership, and safety. The top ten cities were:

1. Portland, OR

2. Salt Lake City

3. New York

4. Boston

5. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

6. San Francisco

7. Los Angeles

8. Honolulu

9. (tie) Denver

(tie) Austin

This list was discussed in class and there was a lot of debate about the cities that showed up, and the ones that didn't. Specifically, people were surprised that Honolulu was on the list, and that Atlanta wasn't. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether you agree with this list and it's criteria used?

The article is available at this link

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/08/10-best-cities-for-public-transportation

It was originally found through

http://www.planetizen.com/

-Kelly Cass

California Roads Are Massively Subsidized

2011-02-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

California Roads Are Massive Subsidized

California High-Speed Rail Blog

Feb. 27, 2011

The California High-Speed Rail Blog reports on a recent study by Subsidy Scope on road funding in each of the 50 states. California data from between 1995 and 2007 indicate that only 39% of road spending was generated by user fees. The blog proceeds to note a prevalent double standard: rail and transit services are often expected to operate without subsidy while roads usually require large subsidies to operate and maintain.

CAHSR Blog: http://www.cahsrblog.com/2011/02/california-roads-are-massively-subsidized/

Subsidy Scope Data: http://subsidyscope.org/transportation/highways/funding/state/

-Justin Walker

Chinese BRT system wins sustainability award

2011-02-27T17:40:00.001-08:00

Great article regarding innovative BRT.

Click here for the full article.

The city of Guangzhou, China, won the 2011 Sustainable Transport Award for its new world-class bus rapid transit (BRT) system that integrates with bike lanes, bike share and metro stations.

The annual award created by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy goes to a city that made the most progress over the year to increase mobility, while reducing transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions and improving safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians.

"China has come a long way in delivering low-cost, highly effective bus transit systems. The Guangzhou BRT is the most important addition to this remarkable growth, said Dario Hidalgo, EMBARQ's director of research and practice. "The city integrated the new system with its Metro and bike-sharing programs, providing a complete package of sustainable transport worth studying and adapting in other rapidly growing cities. It also re-introduces the concept of direct services: buses come in and out of the busway, reducing the need for transfers and providing passengers with the convenience of 'one-seat' service."

Hildago also recognized the city of Leon, Mexico, one of the nominees, which is home to Mexico's first BRT system. Leon was celebrated for its unsurpassed level of integration, with 69 out of 100 public bus routes physically integrated with the city's Optibus BRT system.

The other nominees of this year's Sustainable Transport Award included:

Lima, Peru, where the long-awaited BRT is the first step towards creating an integrated citywide sustainable transport system.

Nantes, France, where the integration of its bus light rapid transit with its tramway network presents a model of efficient coordination.

Tehran, Iran, where the introduction of congestion charging complements the city's expansion of its metro and BRT systems.

Alan Huynh | 626.344.7363 | www.thealannote.com

Tim Papandreou: Sustainable Transportation Lecture

2011-01-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

Tim Papandreou is a former LA Metro planner who focused on sustainable transportation. One of the first planners in Los Angeles that really looked at how transportation policy can be shaped and what needed to be done to accomplish this. Although, he is a Bruin, he is one of the most well respected transportation minds in California.

Attached is a video of his lecture he gave at UCLA. Fast fwd to the middle to get to his segment as the first 30 minutes display Bruins trying to act like engaged planners.

http://academicearth.org/lectures/transportation-in-sustainable-living

Alan Huynh | 626.344.7363 | www.thealannote.com

Curitiba, Brazil is Seen as a Model for Bus Rapid Transit

2010-11-29T15:51:00.001-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2010/11/29/fc.curitiba.bus.subway.cnn

The system has been very effective in not only attracting riders who previously preferred driving a personal automobile, but it is also credited as a main reason for the low pollution rates in the city, and other quality of life improvements. CNN takes a closer look at the bus system and what has made it such a success.

--
Guergana Borissova

Finance and Administrative Director

Political Student Assembly
University of Southern California
International Relations '13

Please consider the environment before printing this message.

Phoenix Public Transportation Campaign

2010-11-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting article from Metro Magazine on the new marketing campaign for the Phoenix transit system!

Six Phoenix area bands have written and recorded 11 original songs about how to use public transportation as part of a new community education effort to help residents try environmentally friendly modes of travel.

"Surveys and research revealed there was widespread unfamiliarity about how to use public transportation across greater Phoenix, and that was a barrier to giving the system a try," says Mario Diaz, chief marketing officer at Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority. "So we asked local bands to record – in their own unique way – the various things you need to know in order to get out of your car and use public transportation instead."

Each original creation describes a different aspect of using the Valley Metro system, such as how to buy fare, passenger courtesy, safety near train tracks and buses, or how one fare pass can be used on both bus and light rail. The 11 topics were selected based on common passenger questions at Valley Metro's customer service line and from the top questions city transit departments receive. Participating local bands are: Black Carl, Captain Squeegee, Elvis Before Noon, Mills End, Peachcake, and What Laura Says.

Beginning in November, Valley Metro will release the songs one at a time on a monthly basis. Songs are set to animated video a la "School House Rock." Videos will be available with other helpful information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at ValleyMetro.org/Notes.

"Riders and non-riders told us that they want their public transportation system to be friendly, progressive, and, most important of all, simple to understand and use," Diaz added. "The new online videos teach the basics of using the public transit system in a fun, memorable way that can help more of us reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and environmental waste."

Bands say they were motivated to be part of the project to support the local community and, for some, for personal reasons.

"Growing up, I used the bus to get to music lessons, arts and crafts, everywhere. My mom didn't let not having a car in Phoenix hold her back from enjoying the city with me," says Danny Torgersen of the band Captain Squeegee. "I'm so excited that there's an effort to involve music in public transit because music is one of the best ways to spread good ideas."

Guergana
P.S. You can watch the videos for the songs here: http://www.valleymetro.org/notes/topic/ridebuswls/

--
Guergana Borissova

Finance and Administrative Director

Political Student Assembly
University of Southern California
International Relations '13

Please consider the environment before printing this message.

How a Tourist Traveled in Los Angeles for $100 a day Entirely by Bike

2010-11-13T15:52:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles on $100 a Day

WHEN I told people I was visiting Los Angeles for a week without setting foot in a car, one word came up more than any other: "impossible."

There is the fact that the county covers more than 4,000 square miles. That it has seemingly endless, overlapping multi-lane highways versus a tiny number of bike lanes. And oh, yeah: that it is bisected by a mountain range.

Taken together — not a great place to get around on a bike.

But what if you can't afford to drive? What if, in fact, you wanted to visit the city on about $100 a day?

Well, that was my mandate — one I quickly learned would be impossible to achieve if I rented a car, which could run me $40 a day, not to mention gas and parking. So last month, armed with padded biking shorts and determination, I went to Los Angeles to take in the sights on two wheels.

Seven days and six nights without a car turned out to be not only possible but in many ways afforded me a more unfiltered view of Los Angeles than I would have gotten behind the wheel, taking highways rather than local roads and further buffered from my surroundings by a windshield and a loud radio. I could pedal down the Pacific coast, pause at food trucks and pop into parks uninterrupted by the need to find a parking spot — or worse, a valet. Los Angeles felt within reach.

And as the days passed, I realized that, for a city known for its car culture, Los Angeles can be managed on a bike. The small number of dedicated bike lanes and marked bike routes are scattered around somewhat unhelpfully, but Google Maps' bike mapping beta for mobile and Web does a fairly decent job of making sense of them. Widespread, though not ubiquitous, signs around the city urge drivers to "share the road" and give cyclists three feet leeway. Though I occasionally hopped up on sidewalks when I felt uncomfortable in traffic, I found drivers to be reasonably accommodating.

To be fair, my view may have been skewed by the fact that I chose Santa Monica as my base of operations, in part for its coastal bike path and relatively calm streets but mostly because I landed a $28-a-night bunk at an outpost of Hostelling International, the brand for youth hostel associations around the world. The 260-bed hostel on Second Street, just two blocks from the beach, had come highly recommended by an Angeleno I'd met on a recent trip to the Caribbean. Once settled in, I searched the Internet for bike shops in the area and went with Bicycle Ambulance, which, in addition to offering rental rates as low as $22 a day, with taxes, had stellar online reviews. That left me with $50 to play with, half of which I'd spend on eating in all those good spots foodies and taco connoisseurs had recommended to me, and the rest for recreation and for bus and train fare. (I had sworn off cars, after all, not public transportation, which in Los Angeles proved to be a nimble system that welcomes bikes on the light rail trains and on all buses.)

To maximize my biking and taco-sampling and bus-hopping, I kept to a fairly regimented schedule. Below is how I spent four of those days, biking anywhere from 15 to 40 miles a day and making it back to my base well before any leg cramps set in.

Beverly Hills and Hollywood

On Sunday morning at 7:45, I set out east on Santa Monica Boulevard toward Beverly Hills. At that hour, the street was so empty that it looked like one big bike lane. By the time I neared my destination about a half-hour later, traffic had picked up a bit, and I discovered an actual bike lane, which lasted for about 20 blocks before disappearing again.

I headed a few blocks to Rodeo Drive, pausing to window-shop at Porsche Design, Harry Winston Jewelers and Bijan. The stores were not yet open — not that it really mattered; they're not exactly frugal territory. Sweaty and clad in just a T-shirt and tight biking shorts, I'm not sure I would have been welcome anyway.

I worked my way through some small side streets over to a place that would sell goods I could actually afford: the Beverly Hills Farmers' Market. It was the first of many frugal food destinations recommended to me by friends and colleagues. (As I would learn during my trip, the incredibly varied cuisine of Los Angeles is a frugal traveler's dream, as long as you don't mind buying from stands and trucks.) One good thing about a traffic-clogged city is that there are plenty of signs to lock your bike to. After doing just that, I wandered the market, where I fueled up on fresh grapefruit juice, Mexican chilaquiles and British scones for just over $10.

My brunch over, I could embark on my entertainment for the day: a tour of stars' homes. Instead of paying $40 to take a tour in one of those open-topped vehicles, though, I set off on my own version of the tour, using as source material the bike route laid out in the "Beverly Hills Star Home Loop" section of the book "Bicycling Los Angeles County" by Patrick Brady (Menasha Ridge Press). Though the book overall proved useful, this particular tour was plagued with errors, telling me to turn left when I should have turned right. It did guide me to houses once inhabited by George Burns, Frank Sinatra and the Menendez brothers. Judging from the hedges hiding it, the Sinatra house was probably extravagant, but the other houses hardly looked more outrageous than those of any other upscale suburb. It was the broad, empty streets, the Maseratis in the driveways and the utterly impeccable landscaping that suggested something different. Well, that and the star-tour vehicles that crawled past me, their passengers staring my way as if I could have been a star myself.

From there, I cruised a few smooth miles east toward Hollywood via back streets parallel to major thoroughfares, where, even on a Sunday afternoon, traffic was looking like a challenge. (A smartphone with Google Maps or other GPS-like applications is an invaluable help, although I believe they still make maps on paper as well.) Once there, I made a turn on Vine for a quick stop at the Cactus taco stand, recommended by a college friend, for three tacos, one each of carnitas, moist goat and spicy al pastor. And then I was off to gawk at Jack Nicholson's footprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, in the middle of a crowded retail strip a couple of miles north of the taqueria — and a lifetime away from the calm residential streets I'd navigated in Beverly Hills that morning. My final stop that evening was at Jitlada, a foodie-anointed Thai restaurant a few more miles east of Grauman's. I stuffed myself with the Crispy Morning Glory Salad and the pork kua kling, ordered in its second-most spicy version (which I would characterize as "blazing inferno").

Thoroughly decongested but exhausted, I performed a routine that became easier as the week progressed: I waited for a bus, then when it arrived, I caught the bus driver's eye, lowered the bike rack on the front of the bus, and fastened my bike into place. Then I boarded, resting my legs on the ride back to my bunk.

The Coast

It would be crazy to try to see the 15-mile coastline between Santa Monica and Redondo Beach on anything but a bike. It's flat and almost entirely traversable if you use the dedicated bike paths that run along the beach. You can turn back any time you want, and you can go any day of the week at any time, since you won't have to compete with rush hour (or even weekday) traffic.

By bicycle, it was an easy trip. I was joined by Jeff Hartleroad, an old college roommate — now a neonatologist — whom I hadn't seen in well over a decade. Jeff is a serious biker. I was temporarily intimidated by the fact that he was wearing shoes that actually clipped into the pedals, but I got over it.

We started out at the Santa Monica Pier and rode the curvy, well-maintained path that heads down the coast. Even on a weekday, there were plenty of cyclists out, though not enough to make things crowded: my only complaint was that the path got a bit sandy in parts. In just a few minutes Jeff announced we were in Venice Beach, though I suppose he needn't have: along the boardwalk, one after the other, was a medical marijuana clinic, aBotox-on-the-beach clinic and a toe ring specialist. It was midmorning, and Venice Beach's homeless population was still camped out. I love it when iconic spots turn out to be exactly as I imagined them.

Right after Venice, the bike route turns inland and then runs alongside Marina del Rey, which is one of those places that I'd heard of a million times but never imagined actually existed. It looked pretty fancy, and Jeff once again became intimidating when he mentioned that he owned a boat docked in the marina that gives the neighborhood its name.

From there we biked on, first past Ballona Creek and the power plant eyesore between Dockweiler State Beach and Manhattan Beach, until we finally rode by the enticing beachfront homes along Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. When we turned inland in search of a lunch break at Redondo Beach, I was charmed by the shops and outdoor cafes lining the walkable streets of its town center.

For lunch, Jeff suggested El Burrito Jr. in Redondo Beach, a cheesy-looking structure with a red A-frame roof and yellow awnings and a few tables to the side. I had the chili verde burrito with pork, he had the super-deluxe burrito with carne asada, both around $6. We laid down our bikes along the round tables and dug in. Mine was mediocre, his was much better, but when you're not used to biking for 19 miles or so, it really doesn't matter.

Downtown and Beyond

I knew that Los Angeles had a real skyline full of tall office buildings and bustling activity, but on my brief previous trips I had never bothered to go there. In my mind, it had become like the view of Emerald City just before Dorothy and the gang run through the poppies: a faux backdrop. So I was curious to see what it was all about — and the No. 10 express bus covered the 16 miles from Santa Monica to downtown's Union Station, saving energy to bike up and down the hilly downtown.

I found that close up, downtown Los Angeles is even more dazzling than it is from afar, with architectural baubles like the Bradbury Building, its cast-iron interior staircases almost as stunning as the metal-sheathed exterior of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

My first stop off the bus was for lunch at Traxx, an Art Deco restaurant right inside Union Station that is credited with reviving the downtown food scene. Though bicycles are allowed inside the ornate, soaring station, I locked mine at the bike rack out front and braced myself for a potential confrontation with the maitre d' over what I feared might be a no-bike-shorts dress code. "Don't worry, it's a train station," he said. The menu was good — I went with the asparagus appetizer and contemporary version of the Mexican pork soup called pozole. And because I happened to be visiting during dineLA restaurant week(twice annually, in October and January), my fanciest meal of the week set me back $22 plus tax and tip.

Right across from Union Station is Olvera Street, which goes through El Pueblo de Los Angeles National Monument, a collection of historic buildings at the site where in 1781 a few dozen settlers established the community that would ultimately become this sprawling metropolis. My trip down history lane was disappointing, though; unfortunately the buildings were largely obscured by horrendous tchotchke-selling stands set up along the middle of the street.

I hurried along to the heart of Chinatown. I biked through its central plaza — closed to car traffic but not to me — enjoying the kitschy feel of pagoda-influenced architecture and (after locking up my bike) wandering into shops with names like Phoenix Imports selling novelties like morning stars, ninja outfits for Halloween and deformed coffee mugs reading "I got smashed in California." Tempted as I was by the chocolate-flavored cigarette wrappers, my only purchase was some mediocre pork buns and pastries from the Wonder Bakery.

The rest of the day, however, was more challenging, as I set out for the vast, nontouristy immigrant neighborhoods west of downtown. I was especially interested in Koreatown, with its strip malls packed with Korean businesses, some without English-language signs. I also had received a great dinner idea from Margy Rochlin, who writes about food (and other things) in Los Angeles: stop off for a taco appetizer along West Third Street at dusk, then head south to Koreatown for the main course.

These traffic-clogged and unevenly maintained roads were not meant for biking, so I was glad I had chosen a sturdy hybrid Trek model from Bicycle Ambulance. My attention darted from pothole below to braking cars ahead to Guatemalan bakery windows to the side. This was definitely not cyclist heaven.

At Taco Móvil at Third and Mariposa (every day, 4 p.m. to midnight), I downed a surprisingly ungreasy chorizo taco (ungreasy being a relative term for chorizo; it generally means the orange ooze drips only on the ground and not down your arms and onto your shirt). But the torta de milanesa de res — or breaded beef cutlet sandwich — was the highlight, bathed in beans, topped with white cheese, jalapeños and avocado on a roll dusted with flour.

For the Korean course, I went to Beverly Soon Tofu. It was also fantastic — a bubbling cauldron of tofu and kimchi and a side of galbi (Korean short ribs) that tasted almost like candy. By this time, it was after 8 p.m., and I was in no mood to bike the rest of the way back to Santa Monica. So Google Maps led me to the No. 920 bus, a straight shot back to Santa Monica via Wilshire Boulevard.

Pasadena

Pasadena is about as far away from Santa Monica as you can get in Los Angeles-area tourism, but I wanted to enjoy a sporting event while I was there. Fortunately my budget and my interests aligned: why would you go see the Lakers when you could see a football game at the Rose Bowl? And though paying $36 face value for reserved seating at aU.C.L.A. game would have still been extravagant, Craigslist led me to a guy named Steven willing to part with his reserved seat for that Saturday's Washington State game for only $15. We met in a Von's Supermarket parking lot just 40 blocks inland from my hostel.

I planned a day in Pasadena, figuring if I got there early enough, I could fit in breakfast atMarston's, home to a reputedly legendary breakfast, and at least a short visit to theHuntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, which opened at 10:30, before heading to the 12:30 p.m. game. The trip from Santa Monica to Pasadena was just under 90 minutes via the No. 10 express bus to Union Station and then up an elevator to the bike-friendly Gold Line train to Pasadena.

Marston's Restaurant, set in a cottage across the street from Memorial Park, is one of those upscale comfort-food brunch spots that attract lines on weekend mornings. But as a single customer, I almost immediately got a spot at the counter, where I ordered sourdough French toast crusted with corn flakes and topped with strawberries, and their good coffee, and was off, through the tree-lined, bike-friendly-at-least-on-weekends streets of Pasadena and just over the border into San Marino to the Huntington.

I locked up my bike on the convenient racks in the Huntington parking lot, which I noted was more elegantly landscaped than most New York City parks; the gardens themselves — especially the mind-blowing Dr. Seuss-like cacti of the Desert Garden — concentrate more landscaping effort than some nations. The 90 minutes I had were not enough to begin to cover the gardens alone, and I also managed to sneak in a visit to the one of the dozen existing vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the midst of the Huntington's awesome collection of ancient books.

It was a 40-minute bike ride to the Rose Bowl from the Huntington, which I thought more than justified buying a $7 grilled pork banh mi sandwich from the Nom Nom Vietnamese food truck stationed in the parking lot when I arrived.

With no bike racks visible among the sea of cars filling up the $15-a-space lots, I locked my bike to a parking sign, gazed admiringly at the Rose Bowl sign and headed inside to my seat in the corner of the stadium, where I was surrounded by the powder blue T-shirts of fans whose wild enthusiasm suggested they were recent graduates. It was hot and the stadium was not full, so I was eventually able to move up under the shade of the press box, where almost as enthusiastic, although somewhat more wrinkled, older fans were enjoying the game in the shade.

When my week drew to a close, I turned in my wheels to Bicycle Ambulance, packed my bag and hopped the No. 3 bus to the airport. To be honest, I had expected getting around Los Angeles by bike and public transportation to be a barely tolerable chore — a money-saving second-best way to see the city.

Why, then, was I feeling so elated about my trip and smitten by a city I had never particularly liked before? No, it was not just the endorphins, or the sightseeing — as much as I had enjoyed the palm trees and beaches of the coast, the glittering facades of the mansions of the stars in Beverly Hills and the footprints rendered in concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. What I had really liked were the moments in between: the strangers who shared secrets on the buses, the dog walkers and Dutch tourists who stopped to chat with me along Rodeo Drive, the aspiring actor I struck up a conversation with on Santa Monica Boulevard, as he cycled to an audition and I cycled to pick up my U.C.L.A. football ticket. These were true Los Angeles moments — moments that most visitors, stuck in freeway traffic behind the steering wheel of their rental car, never get to experience. Or, at most, happen only when they stop their car at a taco or banh mi truck.

SETH KUGEL writes the Frugal Traveler column.

Alan Huynh | 626.344.7363 | www.thealannote.com

High Speed Rail Ethics

2010-11-02T12:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a short article I found today on the San Francisco Chronicle's website about the board of congressmen overseeing the high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and the Bay. One of them is proposing more stringent ethical boundaries for the project. I thought it was interesting because although we've discussed the political side of transportation, we haven't touched much on ethics yet, and in major public works projects with billions of dollars at stake, ethics are a very real issue.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/02/state/n054253D78.DTL&type=politics

- David

--
David L. Branch
University of Southern California 2011
B.S. Policy, Management, and Planning
Alpha Gamma Omega Fraternity
Men's Track and Field
davidlbranch@gmail.com | 951-295-7581

blog posting

2010-10-26T21:04:00.001-07:00

Here is an Entry for the blog.

Here is a cool article from the Calgary Herald about Wildlife Crossings. Wildlife/human interaction has always been a problem in National Parks, both in Canada and the United States. Its inspiring to see a the Province of Alberta doing such a great job of mitigating the negative effects of Trans-Canada highway. Hopefully we will see something like this in the future for the Canada railroad.

One thing to note that is of interest, Banff National Park is using cameras to monitor wildlife and their use of the crossings. Strangely similar to what has been done with ITS and freeway congestion monitoring?

hope you all enjoy!

-David

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/2010wintergames/Bridging+killing+field+Banff/3718493/story.html

Also here is a secondary web link to post on the blog that has to do with the wildlife photos posted by Banff National park: http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/plan/plan1.aspx

--
David Price
University of Southern California
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
4472 Arista Dr.
San Diego CA 92103
(213)-435-7759
davidnpr@usc.edu

Villaraigosa "Give Me 3" PSA- a Road Safety Approach to Cycling

2010-10-13T11:21:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnLViXcG7mE&feature=player_embedded

Though this PSA is a bit dry, if this video is targeted to the right audience I think it will be fairly effective in promoting overall road safety.

This is a step in the right direction, unlike his announcement at the recent Bike Summit that he would push for state legislation to require helmets. I think a helmet law sends the wrong message- that cycling is so dangerous we can only ride the streets of LA wearing our protective armor. Attacking the issue from the driver awareness side is more proactive, and will go further in making the streets actually safer for all users. The focus should be on overall road safety, not bicyclist-specific injury prevention.

Rachel Finfer

Please add this link to the blog

2010-10-05T10:50:00.001-07:00

Here is an interesting slideshow of different forms of transportation
around the world!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/transportation-around-the-world_n_749886.html
Elizabeth Tauro

USC Bans Bicycles on Bike Lane, More Restrictions to Come

2010-09-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

Please go to the LADOT Bike Blog to view the whole story and additional comments.

Full article can be found here.

Yesterday at USC Dr. Charlie Lane, associate senior vice president for Career and Protective Services, announced at a bicycle safety forum that the school is enacting a bicycle ban on Trousdale Parkway and Childs Way, the two major pedestrian thoroughfares on the USC campus. With near 80% of USC students self-identified as bicyclists (another survey estimated up to 15,000 bicyclists on campus), the effects of this new measure could be quite drastic. Given better planning and educational efforts, this situation may have been avoided.

A thing of the past? USC bans bicycles on major pedestrian thoroughfares.

No Bikes in the Bike Lane

The areas currently under ban for bicycle riding are Trousdale Parkway and Childs Way (map), the primary north-south and east-west thoroughfares through campus, each almost half a mile in distance. Trousdale Parkway is currently listed as a bike lane in Metro's new bike map and is listed as a bike path facility by google. As of Tuesday September 14, bicyclists must walk their bicycles on these two thoroughfares from 9AM to 4PM.

Pushing Bikes to the Periphery

USC's Depart of Public Safety (DPS) has decided that conditions have become so hazardous on campus that a ban needed to be put in place. In a survey of USC students, a majority had reported being struck by a bicycle 2 or less times in the past year. DPS blamed the safety problem on the enormous growth in bicycles over the past few years and attributed the rise in accidents to bicyclists "texting and sipping a latte while riding through campus".

What's the problem here? Hint: it's not the bike

The plan calls for the creation of bicycle parking facilities on the very edges of campus, making the campus core a pedestrian-only zone. The Department of Public Safety cited the expense and manpower involved in appropriately supervising bicycling on campus as a reason for needing to push bicycles to the edge of campus. Although Dr. Lane claimed that students also considered bicycles a problem on campus, it was later shown in his presentation that a majority of students considered bicycle congestion to be either "average" or "not a problem".

Further recommendations for the school include encouraging incoming freshman not to bring bicycles and stronger enforcement of bicycle restrictions.

Bikes on Campus – What's the Real Problem?

While Dr. Lane and DPS seemed to classify bicycles themselves as the problem at USC, it is the school's response to date (i.e. none) towards a growing bicycle culture which has caused the problem. The growing popularity of bicycles is a trend that should be embraced, not shunned; alternative modes of transportation should be encouraged at all times. By relegating bicyclists to the edges of campus, bicycles are being de-legitimized.

Other cities, like Copenhagen, have found innovative ways to accommodate high volumes of bicycle traffic

The Problem – Recontextualized

The problem, it seems, is not that a large number of bicycles are being ridden on campus, but rather the behavior of those bicyclists and the consequences of that behavior in relation to pedestrians. While DPS rightfully claims that they do not have the resources to police bicycle behavior, providing proactive solutions like education and infrastructure (rather than DPS's currently reactive solutions) provide a low-cost, long-term solution to bicycle congestion on the USC campus.

Education

Currently, USC has no training, information, or classes on safe bicycle riding beyond a website mainly concerned with registration and parking. Inserted as an educational element during orientation or as an online seminar, USC could educate incoming students on how to not only ride safely on campus, but also the bicycling laws of Los Angeles and California. Because many USC students come from either out of state or even out of the country, they often don't know what is expected of them as bicyclists.

Infrastructure

USC also has no on-campus infrastructure for bicycles. With nowhere clearly marked for bicycles, it is no surprise that bicycle/pedestrian conflicts have arisen as bicycle culture has become more popular. While instituting pedestrian-only areas within campus can be a sound safety measure, it needs to be coupled with equal bicycle-only infrastructure on campus. By providing space for bicycles, conflict with pedestrians can be minimized.

Berlin offers an unobtrusive, aesthetically pleasing option for creating pedestrian and bicycle space in the same area

While it certainly is true the there are limited opportunities for traditional bike lanes on a built-out campus like USC, there are still many creative solutions which would improve bicycle and pedestrian safety. On the current streets on the USC campus, bike lanes or Sharrows could be installed to give bicyclists greater confidence to use those roadways rather than pedestrian areas. On wider thoroughfares, aesthetically pleasing treatments could be applied to delineate space for pedestrians and bicycles which could easily fit into the campus' architectural theme.

Bicycle Parking

Bike racks don't have to be ugly

Another complaint against bicycles was the overflow demand for parking and the ugliness of existing bike racks. The idea that bike racks are ugly, however, is something of a dated concept. Art racks have been installed in major cities across the world and can add to the beauty of an area rather than detract from it. Even in Los Angeles there are examples of art racks which contribute to the street aesthetic.

"Bike" racks in front of Caltrans headquarters

Pennyfarthing racks at the LA Times Building

Additionally, providing U-racks at dormitories can function as longer-term or night-time parking for bicycles, freeing up the existing day-time racks on campus that currently get used for long-term purposes.

Going Forward

We hope that USC will reconsider its plans to marginalize bicycles on campus. With an innovative approach, bicycle/pedestrian conflict can be minimized at little cost. We also hope that USC will reach out to regional bicycle organizations like the LACBC or LADOT – Bikeways when considering how to accommodate bicycles on their campus.

Alan Huynh
www.thealannote.com

With 10,000 to 15,000 Bicycles a Day on USC's Campus, Calls for a Beefier Bicycle Plan

2010-09-15T17:59:00.001-07:00

From LAist.

Los Angeles may be gearing up to finalize its master bicycle plan, which would bring some 1,600 miles of bikeways to the city, but that may not be enough for those whose primary location is USC. That's where some 10,000 to 15,000 cyclists roam the campus each day, according to 2009 report.

According to Daily Trojan columnist Lucy Mueller, the problem for the past year has been enforcement of bicycle riding in non-cycling areas and not much else. "Walk your bike" has been a mantra for campus safety officers, apparently with little success.

But how do you encourage fewer bicycles in no riding areas? Mueller has some ideas. "Funds used to beef up the hall monitor presence in the no-bike zone could instead be allocated to deterring traffic in more productive ways, such as placing more racks on the campus perimeter — which could encourage students to park and walk — and making clearly marked bike paths where possible," she suggests. "Our campus might be too small to accommodate a system of paths, but bike lanes are still possible."

USC is also one of the few places in the Los Angeles region that has a car sharing program.

Full article can be found here.

Alan Huynh

FTA Gets Ready to Play a Larger Role in Safety

2010-09-13T15:51:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend, the Washington Post hosted a story discussing how the FTA will start having more oversight with regard to transit safety.

The article can be found here.

Some takeaways from the article are:

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has composed a new committee for transit safety called "Transit Rail Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS)" which consists of two dozen stakeholders from various departments (transportation, public works, operations and maintenance), which include individuals whom have an interest in labor and administration.
Next phase in steps from the Obama administration as a response to commuter rail transit accidents like the Metrolink crash, Metro Red Line crash in DC, and others.
The FTA does not have any enforcement ability, therefore, TRACS is still unable to set forth any regulations.

Alan Huynh

San Fransisco Loves Don Shoup

2010-08-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

San Fransisco will soon by offering the most aggressive market price parking pricing scheme in America.

Click Here for More Info

The City will have variable parking metered spaces throughout the entire city to reduce parking cruising congestion, increase parking garage use, and always have a space available for parking.

DOT Livability Program

2010-05-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

Senator questions whether DOT livability program will hurt financial support for roads

For the second time this year, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., has questioned DOT Secretary Ray LaHood about whether spending money on sustainable community issues with impact financial support for highways. (The Trucker file photo)

The Trucker News Services

5/7/2010

WASHINGTON — The ranking minority member of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee for a second time expressed concerns during a hearing Thursday that money channeled toward sustainability initiatives undercuts financial support for highways and might "reflect a view that we want to get rid of auto transportation."

During questioning by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood defended the $527 million requested in the Obama administration's Fiscal Year 2011 budget for livability efforts at U.S. DOT, according to the Weekly Transportation Report issued by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).

LaHood was appearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development along with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The two were testifying about the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

LaHood said highways are not being shortchanged.

"We have a state-of-the-art interstate system in America; we have very good roads," he said. "At DOT, we have an obligation to maintain our roads, to make sure they're fixed up, and in places in the country where they need capacity, we're for that. The idea we're giving up on our road program or don't care about highways is nonsense."

LaHood also underscored, however, the widespread frustration with traffic congestion and how many people want transportation alternatives.

He discussed the importance of meeting transportation needs not with a "one size fits all" approach but rather through understanding the unique priorities and preferences of communities nationwide.

Efforts to create multimodal transportation systems in those communities, he acknowledged, "have to come from the ground up" and enjoy popular support.

Helping Americans gain better access to more transportation options, lowering travel costs, and providing affordable housing are also goals of the partnership.

LaHood cited his agency's efforts to help state and local governments leverage investments in transportation infrastructure to advance sustainable development.

"As I have traveled around the country soliciting input on our surface transportation reauthorization, I heard resounding support for our livability initiative," LaHood told senators. "The feedback has been clear: It's time to rethink how we are investing in our nation's communities."

Bond and LaHood first exchange comments about the administration livability efforts during a hearing before Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during a discussion of a new transportation bill.

“What’s livability?” Bond asked LaHood.

“Communities where people have access to many different forms of transportation and affordable housing and the ability to really have access to all of the things that are important to them, whether it’s a grocery store, drug store access. … These are communities and neighborhoods where people want to live where they have access to all the things that they want,” the secretary responded.

Bond argued livability issues would focus on cities, at the expense of rural areas and pondered whether it was the federal government’s responsibility to build such livability features as sidewalks.

"I've got a lot of constituents for whom livability means having a decent highway," Bond said. "They've got to drive between one town and another town."

Link to story

4th Street In Motion Festival

2010-05-08T09:21:00.001-07:00

Mark your calendars: The 1st Annual ‘4th Street In Motion’ Festival is rolling onto 4th Street/Retro Row (between Cherry and Junipero Avenues on Mother’s Day, May 9th (11 am -5 pm)! This FREE event—part of the LB Bike Festival, will showcase fun for the whole family! “4th Street in Motion” is an all-ages, event with plenty of fun for the whole family! Featuring a bike-themed film festival at The Art, music, food & retail merchants, wine & beer gardens, safe cycling workshops, do-it-yourself bike repair, and more!

FREE
4th Street/Retro Row Long Beach (between Cherry and Junipero Avenues
Mother’s Day, May 9th (11 am -5 pm)!

Garmin-Asus Android-powered A10 ready for almost all transportation needs

2010-04-28T16:29:00.001-07:00

Garmin-Asus has thrown another Google Android-based smartphone into the mix. But the makers of the A10 handheld are promoting it as more than just a smartphone, but rather a “pedestrian navigation” device.”
The core reason for being of this device seems to be for providing transportation advice. The A10 is ready to take your feet almost anywhere with integrated GPS capability plus preloaded, detailed maps in case your Internet connection is slow, spotty or non-existent. When you’re planning to jump on public transit, there’s also support for cityXplorer, an app that retrieves information on local bus, metro and suburban rail systems. Finally, the A10 is also ready for some road trips with an included audio mount for your car.
Being an Android-powered smartphone, there will naturally be support for the Google suite of applications including Gmail, YouTube and Maps, plus access to 30,000 more applications in the Android Marketplace the plethora of Google Apps isn’t enough for you.
Here’s a couple of other nifty specs packed into the transportation-friendly A10:

3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen display
Built-in accelerometer (for tilting to portrait or landscape mode)
1,500mAh battery
WebKit browser
5-megapixel AF camera
Automatic geotagging
Electronic compass
Support for Microsoft Exchange

The Garmin-Asus A10 will be released first in Europe and Asia-Pacific region in mid-2010. There’s no information on a North American release nor pricing anywhere yet.

Transportation's bicycle policy hits potholes

2010-04-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his helmet on. A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.

LaHood says the government is going to give bicycling — and walking, too — the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy last month.
"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.
Not so fast, say some conservatives and industries dependent on trucking. A manufacturers' blog called the policy "nonsensical." One congressman suggested LaHood was on drugs.
The new policy is an extension of the Obama administration's livability initiative, which regards the creation of alternatives to driving — buses, streetcars, trolleys and trains, as well as biking and walking — as central to solving the nation's transportation woes.
LaHood's blog was accompanied by a DOT policy statement urging states and transportation agencies to treat "walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes." It recommends, among other things, including biking and walking lanes on bridges and clearing snow from bike paths.
Transportation secretary is normally a quiet post, a Cabinet backwater. But LaHood has been the administration's point man on an array of high-profile issues, from high-speed trains and distracted drivers to runaway Toyotas.
The new policy has vaulted LaHood to superstar status in the bicycling world. Bike blogs are bubbling with praise. A post on Ridemonkey.com calls him "cycling's man of the century." The Adventure Cycling Association's Web site calls LaHood "our hero."
"LaHood went out on a limb for cyclists," Joe Lindsey wrote on Bicycling.com. "He said stuff no Transportation secretary's ever said, and is backing it up with action."
The policy has also been embraced by environmentalists and many urban planners.
Word of the policy change is still filtering out beyond the bicycling and transportation communities, but the initial reaction from conservatives and industry has been hostile.
The National Association of Manufacturers' blog, Shopfloor.org, called the policy "dumb and irresponsible."
"LaHood's pedal parity is nonsensical for a modern industrial nation," said the blog. "We don't call it sacrilege, but radical is a fair description. It is indeed a sea change in federal transportation policy that could have profound implications for the U.S. economy and the 80 percent of freight that moves by truck."
LaHood said he has been surprised by the response.
"It didn't seem that controversial to me," he wrote in a second blog item. "After all, I didn't say they should have the only voice. Just a voice."
At a recent House hearing, Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, suggested jokingly to a Transportation Department official that one explanation for the new policy is that the secretary's thinking has been clouded by drugs.
"Is that a typo?" LaTourette asked. "If it's not a typo, is there still mandatory drug testing at the department?"
The new policy is not a regulation and, therefore, not mandatory, Transportation undersecretary for policy Roy Kienitz responded to LaTourette.
But it's LaHood's view "that the federal government should not take the position that roads and trains are real transportation and walking and biking is not," Kienitz said. "His view is it's all real transportation, and we should consider it based on what benefits it can bring for the amount of money we spend."
That didn't satisfy LaTourette.
"So is it his thought that perhaps we're going to have, like, rickshaws carrying cargo from state to state, or people with backpacks?" asked the congressman.
Bicycling advocates have been blasting LaTourette. Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, with 300,000 affiliated members, called his comments "a little childish."
LaTourette said in an interview that he thinks bike paths, bike lanes and projects that make communities more walkable are fine but shouldn't be funded with money raised by a gasoline tax paid by motorists. The federal gas tax pays for most highway and transit aid, although lately general Treasury funds have been used to supplement the programs.
LaHood noted that LaTourette supports federal funds for a bike path in his district.
"The point is, on his Web site he's bragging about the fact that he got some money for a bike path," LaHood said. "He knows people in his district like them."
LaHood, 64, said he and his wife have biked on weekends for years. Three days before his announcement of the new policy, LaHood stood on a table to speak to a gathering of hundreds of bike enthusiasts in Washington. He drew cheers when he vowed the Obama administration will put affordable housing next to walking and biking paths.
"I'm not going to apologize for any of it," he said in the interview. "I think this is what the people want."

This article can be found here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1IO2TqfWSOq0BkSo0JPJbw2RGyAD9F2SMPG0

Prospect Park West’s two-way bike lane is on a roll

2010-04-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Brown

The Brooklyn Paper

The city is moving ahead with its long-stalled plan for a two-way protected bike lane on Prospect Park West — despite the continued opposition of Borough President Markowitz and the drivers he says he represents.

The lane, which was approved last year, will stretch from Grand Army Plaza to Bartel Pritchard Square, and will run along the eastern curb alongside a lane of parked cars that will protect cyclists from car traffic.

But the new bike lane comes at a price — one that many opponents say is too steep: one lane of southbound car traffic will be eliminated from Park Slope’s speedway, and 22 parking spaces will be lost.

“It’s going to impact traffic terribly,” Jack Nayer, a Park Slope local, said at a public hearing on the subject on Monday night. “Just a few yards away is a bike lane — it’s called Prospect Park! Why not use that?”

Nayer echoed the concerns of perhaps half in the crowd of roughly 75 people who came to the informational “open house” at Congregation Beth Elohim on Eighth Avenue to learn about the looming project.

But city officials said that the lane would alleviate a pressing problem on the street: speeding traffic.

Many drivers are using Prospect Park West as if it were the Daytona Speedway — a claim backed up by recent research. On the eve of Monday night’s meeting, Park Slope Neighbors, a civic group that supports the bike lane, released a report that showed outrageous speeding on Prospect Park.

Volunteers from the group recently clocked cars and discovered that 85 percent exceeded the speed limit, with a startling 30 percent averaging 40 miles per hour or more.

A survey by the Department of Transportation also hinted at another problem that would be alleviated by the bike lane on Prospect Park West: cyclists riding where they aren’t supposed to.

A tally of 349 cyclists last year revealed that nearly half were riding on the sidewalk — a result of having no way to legally bicycle northbound in Prospect Park.

Borough President Markowitz doesn’t think the bike lane will fix these supposed problems. In an interview with WNYC earlier on Monday, he not only said he opposed the cycle path, but also took a swipe at Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

“We just disagree on certain instances where I’m acutely aware that she wants to make it hard for those who choose to own automobiles,” Markowitz said. “I really believe that … she would like to see more people stop car usage and use their bicycles or walk.”

Markowitz later reiterated that he has supported some bike lanes in the past — including one on Ninth Street — but remains convinced that the Prospect Park West bike lane would cause traffic congestion and exacerbate the already woeful parking situation in Park Slope.

But supporters of the project sought to allay opponents’ fear over lost parking spaces, saying that the traffic-calming effect of the lane was worth the loss — an effect that drew some scoffs. Advocates also noted that the cuts proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would eliminate the B69 bus, which runs along Prospect Park West.

Eliminating the bus stops on that portion of the route should cover all of the 22 lost spaces, said Councilman Brad Lander (D–Park Slope).

“I am completely opposed to the MTA [service] cuts,” Lander said. “But that is a silver lining — if there is one.”

The Department of Transportation says that construction of the bike lane will begin in June, though it said the same thing last fall before Markowitz interceded, possibly causing the near year-long delay.

Find this article at: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/16/33_16_sb_bike_lane_meeting.html

Smart transport in South Korean transit systems

2010-04-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

South Korea and Japan streets ahead in smart transport

By Nicolai Hartvig, for CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Intelligent transport systems well developed in South Korea and Japan
GPS updates South Korea's 17 million drivers with traffic updates
Faster commute times, less accidents ands pollution has been the result

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Juwan Yoo was tired of calling up the old-school telephone hotline to find out when his bus would come -- and excited about the iPhone's arrival in South Korea.
So the 17-year-old developed the "Seoul Bus" application, which crawls public transport Web sites to give real-time updates for all bus stops in the capital and its surrounding provinces. More than 400,000 people have downloaded the free app, Yoo told CNN.

Yoo is now affectionately known as "the high school student" to South Korean traffic researchers and officials after he ventured into intelligent transport systems (ITS).

For more than a decade, South Korea and Japan have been rolling out their world-leading ITS, pouring money and political capital into ideas beyond the carpool lane.

Drivers race through expressway toll gates as their wireless wallet pays the fee, while GPS updates in half of South Korea's 17 million registered cars tell them how many minutes delay they can expect and how to take a faster route. Public buses are fitted with shrieking dashboard road-nannies that help drivers stay on schedule. Millions of passengers seamlessly transfer using the ubiquitous T-Money travel card, finding their next bus or subway train on up-to-the minute electronic schedules.

"Our transportation life in Korea has much improved -- and our quality of life as well," Kee Yeon Hwang, the director of the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI), the South Korean government's official research arm for transportation, told CNN.

By many measures, it has also saved time and money. Average speeds on the roads of Seoul has increased from around 20 to 24 kilometers per hour in the past five years. South Korea estimates the total savings of its ITS systems, including automatic toll collection, fewer accidents and less pollution, to be around $1.5 billion a year.

South Korea's ITS has always been government-led and heavily centralized, quickly pushing the country from research to national implementation. The funding continues unabated, to the tune of $230 million dollars annually until 2020.

"The government knew exactly what it had to do. It invested the money and led this as a government project," Young-jun Moon, a research fellow at KOTI's Department of Green Growth Policy and Implementation, told CNN.

"Installing fiber-optic lines along the expressways is very expensive, for just one kilometer you had to invest $100,000. We now have 3,500 kilometers of expressways, all with fiber-optic lines that are the backbone of our communications."

The construction industry helped turn South Korea from a post-civil-war wasteland into a thriving modern economy -- and since the early 1990s, has been in partnership with information technology.
"ITS costs less than one percent of the investment necessary to build a four-lane road," Moon said.
Most roads still get grid-locked and Japan knows the cost of its problem. Drivers there lose 3.5 billion potential working hours to traffic jams, at an equivalent of $109 billion a year, according to the country's Highway Industry Development Organization.

Meanwhile, commuters and transported goods in the U.S. are stuck for 4.2 billion hours a year -- a full work week per person at a total cost of $87.2 billion, according to the Department of Transport's Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
That missed productivity could be particularly costly, as economic rival China ramps up its own investment in ITS, warns a new report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITFT), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The U.S. is still stalled in the research phase and the ITIF report calls for a federal approach comparable in scale to the Interstate Highway System launched in the 1950s, with national real-time traffic information in the 100 largest cities by 2014 and a mileage-based user fee system by 2020.

It is ironic, then, that South Korea's traffic setup was adopted from the Intelligent Vehicle Highway System, an ITS forefather pushed by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration in the early 1990s.

"The majority of experts in Korea were educated in the United States," says Hwang. "We learned from the United States but we didn't see many things practiced there."

A patchwork of state and local responsibility for U.S. roads is a hurdle, something the European Union is also facing as it seeks to introduce ITS standards.

Politicians tend to favor old school road works, fixing potholes and building new roads instead of investing in unseen technology.

The U.S. is expected to spend more than $500 billion dollars on surface transport infrastructure until 2015, while the Department of Transportation's ITS strategy for 2010-2014 keeps intelligent transport funding at about $100 million per year.

Even in South Korea, some jurisdiction tussles remain. The National Police Agency controls the country's traffic lights and adapts them according to drivers' complaints rather than extensive data offered by traffic planners, Moon explained.

The government is also facing bandwidth gridlock as it attempts to switch wireless traffic communications to the world standard 5.9 GHz. In an odd coincidence, that frequency in South Korea is heavily dominated by broadcasting companies beaming mobile TV to commuters.

There's another, decidedly more low-tech issue.
"Driving behavior is very important. Our car culture has not had a long history," Hwang said, citing people running red lights.

"People often violate traffic rules but unless you keep the rules, the system cannot be workable."

South Korean planners are looking to link the upgraded transport to the country's next economic driver, green technology. Still in embryo, the ideas include data systems that allow drivers to map the fastest and most eco-friendly routes.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/08/urban.smart.transport/index.html

NBC Reports on the Misuse of Placards in Los Angeles

2010-04-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

It’s a problem that’s gotten out of control, nearly one in ten California drivers claim to be disabled and have placards, which let them park free all day at meters and on streets reserved for residents only.

But NBCLA found, many of these people are able-bodied drivers, illegally taking away parking from the rest of us. Because of our report, the Department of Motor Vehicles is going after them in a huge way.

DMV officers conducted a sting operation in Downtown LA, looking for drivers who are illegally using disabled placards. We watched as they confronted one man who parked his car using his wife’s placard, so he didn’t have to plug the meter near his clothing store.

When asked, “You didn’t know it was illegal to use your wife’s placard?”

“No, I didn’t know,” he replied.

This DMV crackdown, is in response to NBCLA’s undercover investigation, where we found 80 percent of the cars in a large section of Downtown LA were displaying disabled
Placards, that often belong to other people.

“We will actively investigate, and conduct enforcement operations,” says DMV chief Vito Scattaglia.

NBCLA also found placard abusers hogging most of the parking in other areas, like Beverly Hills, and Westwood.

We watched as one woman parked her Jaguar, day after day, on a Westwood side street, even in spots reserved for residents only. She displays a placard, which allows her to Park there all day, while she works at a nearby travel Agency.

Our investigation found she’s using a placard, issued to a 75 year old man.

She admitted she knew that what she was doing was illegal.

NBCLA also talked to LADOT traffic cops. We asked one cop, “Do you think all these people with handicapped placards are disabled?”

“Oh, no,” he replied.

He says they’re told to write parking tickets, and leave the placard cheaters alone.

NBCLA also spoke with Jimmy Price, head of LA’s parking enforcement. We asked him, “There is something you could do about this?”

“Absolutely,” Price replied.

State law allows city traffic officers to cite placard abusers and to do sting operations, just like the DMV does.

NBCLA asked Price when the last time the city did a sting on placard abuse on city streets.
He couldn’t recall but said, “We have limited resources, and yes our primary responsibility is issuing parking citations.”

So with no help from the city, the DMV is cracking down on the problem in areas we exposed.

On three recent mornings, agents spread out across a section of downtown. When they spotted drivers using placards, they questioned them.

During this one downtown sting, the DMV confiscated dozens of placards, towed cars of placard abusers and wrote 46 criminal citations for placard misuse, a record for a DMV ting of this kind.

If found guilty, these people face a maximum penalty of $3500 dollars and six months in jail.

“What we’ve found here in the last couple of days has just been unbelievable in terms of the violations,” Scattaglia tells NBCLA.

Because of the sting, there appear to be a lot more places to park in this part of downtown. Store owners tell us the word is spreading, that if you use someone else’s placard you could get busted by the DMV.

The city of LA could be doing a lot to stop placard abuse. Cities like San Francisco have teams that look for placard cheats. Last year, San Francisco confiscated 2000 placards that were being misused. The city of LA seized just 33 placards.

If you want to report a motorist who is illegally misusing a placard, you can notify the DMV by filling out this form: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/inv/inv172a.pdf

Do you have a story for us to investigate? Email us at: Joel.Grover@nbcuni.com

First Published: Mar 3, 2010 10:11 AM PDT

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/DMV-Parking-Crackdown-86245542.html

High Speed Rail

2010-04-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

Bullet train plan under fire from local officials

California's massive high-speed rail project could save up to $2 billion -- and hundreds of homes -- by expanding and sharing existing tracks through the L.A.-O.C. region, local transit leaders argue.

April 05, 2010|By Dan Weikel and Rich Connell

Transit executives from Los Angeles and Orange counties are pressing officials with the state's high-speed rail project to consider resurrecting a plan to share existing track between Anaheim and downtown L.A.'s Union Station.

The idea was considered and discarded by the California High-Speed Rail Authority in 2008, but key local leaders believe it could save up to $2 billion and avoid the need to condemn hundreds of homes and businesses. Bullet train officials have been pursuing the more costly and disruptive option of adding their own exclusive tracks and widening sections of the 34-mile route through the region's dense industrial and residential core. The existing corridor is used by Metrolink and Amtrak passenger trains as well as freight carriers.

For more information, see the Los Angeles Times

Ciclovia in Los Angeles?

2010-03-03T09:24:00.001-08:00

Despite yesterday's non motorized group meeting at MTA HQ, it looks like there is a chance that CicLAvia is going to be able to fund one in the City of LA afterall.

More details can be found here

http://bikinginla.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/create-a-car-free-sunday-in-the-capital-of-car-culture-%25E2%2580%2594-without-spending-a-dime/

Obama and the Transportation Budget

2010-02-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Obama recently unveiled his budget for transportation projects.

The text below echoes these statements.

President's Budget Includes $1.82 Billion for 27 Major Transit Construction Projects Across the Nation

02-02-10
Contact: Paul Griffo
Telephone: (202) 366-4064

FTA 08-10

Request includes $834.6 million for 19 new projects

On Monday, President Obama proposed $1.82 billion in funding for 27 major transit construction projects that will create jobs and increase transportation options throughout the United States. A complete list of projects – which are located in metropolitan areas across the nation – is available here.

"These projects, planned and developed at the state and local level, are crucial investments that will boost economic vitality in cities and towns across the country," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "From New York City to Honolulu and areas in between, these projects will create jobs, diversify local transit options for consumers, and stimulate economic activity at a critical juncture in our continuing recovery."

The spending plan included in President Obama's Budget submitted to Congress yesterday announces recommendations to invest $834.6 million in 19 new transit construction projects — 10 of which are new funding recommendations in FY 2011, and 9 of which have been recommended for funding in previous years, but still await construction grant agreements. The plan also provides $924.6 million for the continued funding of eight projects already under construction in New York, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Northern Virginia.

"Projects like these are at the very heart of President Obama's agenda to clean up our environment, reduce our dependence on oil from overseas, and put people back to work" said Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff. "They will give our citizens a way out of punishing traffic jams and improve their quality of life."

FTA's Annual Report on Funding Recommendations for Fiscal Year 2011 also provides information and ratings for all projects in the New Starts and Small Starts programs.

# # #

Bullet Train Coming to US

2010-02-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

The JR Central is trying to get japanese bullet trains to America. With the $8 Billion dollar stimulus that was recently awarded to states for HSR development, this story from the WSJ further details how international players are getting involved.

WSJ Article Here

TDM in Action

2010-02-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

With regard to today's lecture about TDM and transportation planning, here are two great links that demonstrate TDM and transportation planning in action.

First, is this episode of the Amazing Race, where they required participants to get from LAX to downtown LA using only public transportation. (Shuttle to green line....)

AMAZING RACE LAX TO DOWNTOWN

Second, is a from reconnecting America, which highlights how bicycle lanes can be designed to accommodate specific types of communities and developments.

How does this relate to TDM? Well, in class there was mention about how to implement TDM in rural areas.

Design and creation or implementation of infrastructure is one of those methods. By creating the necessary infrastructure to help create a culture that embraces alternative methods of transportation, there can be an increase in mode use density.

But, lets take it a step farther, can we use design and TDM to increase density for developments that are already made for alternative methods of transportation like, TODS?

Absolutely, and the following link displays that. By creating the necessary and accomodating bike infrastructure to supplement the transit hub created by the TOD, then the TOD can potentially be even more effective because it allows for increased connectivity and mobility.

Just a little bit of food for thought.

Bicycle Connection Design

LA Port Reports 2005-2008 Air Emissions Down

2009-11-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 9, 2009

LA Port Reports 2005-2008 Air Emissions Down

The Port of Los Angeles said that total air pollution emissions from port operations were down 16 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, and down 23 percent compared to 2005.

The data was part of the port's latest annual air inventory report– covering the year 2008– that was released last week.

The report, available on the port's website, said that diesel particulate matter– often seen as tailpipe or smokestack soot– dropped 12 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year. Diesel particulate matter, according to the port, also fell 31 percent between 2005 and 2008.

The port, along with the neighboring Port of Long Beach, which issues its own air inventory reports, first began issuing annual reports in 2005. Subsequent studies use the 2005 report as a baseline of comparison.

The LA report also said that oxides of nitrogen, or NOx, a smog-forming emission, also fell in 2008 by 18 percent compared to 2007. NOx declined in 2008 by 20 percent compared to the 2005 numbers.

Emissions of oxides of sulfur, or SOx, another smog-forming component, increased in 2008 by 5 percent compared to 2007 but was down 32 percent compared to the baseline year of 2005.

All told, the Port of Los Angeles-generated emissions accounted for about 7 percent of the total Southern California air basin pollution in 2008, a 2 percent drop from 2007 according to the port figures.

It is worth noting that from 2007 to 2008, cargo volume through the port fell by 7 percent while increasing 5 percent from 2005 to 2008.

Update on Little Tokyo / Regional Connector

2009-10-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Some interesting ideas presented here. Given LT's opposition to anything transitioning to grade, this seems like it'll help win community support. I find it interesting that there's a bit of a PPP involved here, too--good to know some developers are thinking outside the box and recognizing that this "generosity" could be a good negotiating tool for their development as well as provide increased economic activity for them due to transit proximity/access.

Little Tokyo Asks Metro to Study Grade-Separated Alternatie for Regional Connector

A 5th Option?

Happy Halloween.

The End of LOS?

2009-10-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Is it too good to be true?

http://la.streetsblog.org/2009/10/26/ca-poised-to-reform-auto-centric-level-of-service-environmental-rules/#more-17371

California may drop LOS requirement in CEQA. Adding more traffic lanes at the expense of other modes may no longer be required by "environmental" laws.

Bike lanes to create jobs?

2009-10-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

People are finally starting to realize that people will only bike if there are bike lanes to safely use bicycles on.

This blog post highlights more details about this.

But it does make sense that bike lanes can create jobs and create some economic revitalization in areas that have high potential bike ridership but little to no bicycle infrastructure.

Anyone want to run a survey and find the areas with largest potential bicycle ridership in America?

In reference to Professor Kodama's Post

2009-10-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

Here is the link to the article about Santa Monica and Parking

Santa Monica to experiment with parking psychology

Don Shoup and San Fransisco can be found below

Donald Shoup on San Francisco’s Groundbreaking Parking Meter Study

and finally the last one about Green port, NY

Putting Greenwich Street Back Together

If any of these articles are incorrect lemme know.

Santa Monica, Don Shoup, San Francisco, New York

2009-10-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Anyone see the Los Angeles Times article on parking in Santa Monica? How about Don Shoup talking about San Francisco - and two other cities? How about parking in Greenport, New York?

Let me know your thoughts in class...

Parking thoughts from the other side of the world

2009-10-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

I find that when anyone discusses parking and Japan, people often think of those really cool ferris wheel-esque designs where you drop your car off in a slot and then all of the cool automatic and digital mechanisms go into place and swiftly take your car off to this amazing hidden magical place...

Well, this isn't about that.

In doing my language studies, I read an interesting article about a parking structure owner who could never fill all three stories of his lot in part because there was another structure owner who had a better location.

However, with a little creativity he decided to stratify the daily and monthly cost per floor. The top floor was the cheapest with the bottom floor being the most expensive. What is unusual about this case is he didn't raise his overall price for the bottom floor to account for charging less on the 2nd and 3rd levels. Rather he saw that he was never getting any cash flow from the upper levels and decided to "cut his losses" when in actuality he accommodated market demands and ended up making multiples of what he would have otherwise.

This presents a novel yet effective method in solving the empty roof level parking problems in many vertical parking structures since, as we all know, the higher the floor the more it costs but the less likely it is to be used.

You can pay me later for the idea :-p

Congestion Pricing and the Environment

2009-10-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

There was some hoopla about the recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claiming that congestion pricing would actually increase emissions by making driving easier. As a cyclist first, transit user second, and pedestrian third, I'm all for giving these modes advantages over driving, but increasing and/or ignoring congestion is not the way to do that. As the only person qualified to judge the value of my time, I want there to be a driving system priced appropriately that gets me where I need to go when I'm in a rush and willing to pay. Some people will always drive, but if the economics are right, that will be much less common. Giving me the freedom to choose which appropriately-priced mode of transportation I consume for any given trip is no different than any other market. I don't expect chocolate volcano lava cake for the price of grocery store ice cream and I don't expect to cruise through the heart of a major urban area at 55 mph for the price of, well, free. And as a primary user of alternative modes, making driving harder does not make my life easier. If the cost of driving is included in its price, consumers can make informed choices about their travel. It would be nice if bicycle, transit, and pedestrian infrastructure received even a fraction of the attention that our roads get.

As for the actual merits of the WSJ piece, I'll leave it to Streetsblog to point out that every city that has tried congestion pricing saw a reduction in congestion and emissions, while improving the travel times of all modes. It's amazing what good economics will do.

More Streetsblog commentary that is right on point.

George Costanza

2009-10-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Who is right? The person backing into a parallel spot or going in head first?

Schwarzenegger could end part of 710 Freeway debate

2009-10-11T17:51:00.001-07:00

The full article can be found here:

Full Article

An article from the LA Times on 10/11/2009 discusses how a bill on the Governors desk that can end any hopes of a surface level connection of the 710 to the 210.

Our favorite resource Bob Huddy is quoted at the end about the feasability of building a 4.5 mi underground tunnel that would connect the 710 without cutting South Pasadena in half.

His quote is here, "Robert Huddy, who retired last year as the Southern California Assn. of Governments' manager for regional transit planning, agreed, adding that a public-private partnership could build the tunnel as a toll road.

'This has been done in Spain, in France, in Russia, in Switzerland, in Germany, in similar conditions," Huddy said. "We have had advances in tunneling technology . . . but it's very expensive.'"

A PPP financing option for the 710 might work but what would be the incentive or capital that the South Pasadena/Glendale area be able to offer that can bring a viable private partner to the table?

Let's hope Bob Huddy will chime in.

-Alan

Congestion Awareness

2009-10-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I just joined this blog site to speak about traffic congestion and transportation issues. As a retired planner from
Caltrans and having worked with many agencies and local communities, it is distressing that congestion is still
one of major, unsolved problems in urban planning. There are many reasons for congestion, such as inadequate transit services, personal preferences to drive, urban sprawl and poor planning in where we locate homes and work sites. I don't think there is a single solution.

However, energy consumption and climate change have to be a part of the dialogue. More investments in public transit must also be in the mix. Adopting technology from the internet and wireless devices might also be used. And we should include more community involvement in our planning processes, particularly from those underserved communities who often bear the burden of noise, pollution and hazards from this congestion. I would be interested in hearing what others think about this broad topic. Thank you.

Villaraigosa's Thoughts on LA's Transit System

2009-09-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

For those who were not able to attend Mobility 21 you probably missed the keynote speech from Mayor Villaraigosa.

The Huffington Post is reporting about his thoughts.

You can read it and his thoughts on the transportation system in Los Angeles here.

My only beef with Villaraigosa's vision is that he too easily expresses his politics in his thoughts. High Speed Rail will def. be a big project for Southern California....wait...all of California in the next decade, but the Subway to the Sea? Calling Subway to the Sea one of the most important transportation projects in California...is a bit premature.

Off the top of my head I can think of several as equally important or more important infrastructure projects that should rank ahead of the Subway to the Sea. Increasing capacity for the Ports to increase international trade for example. Regional connectors and electric vehicle/hydrogen infrastructure.

Thoughts, ideas, opinions?

CA 2, Santa Monica Blvd, and Beverly Hills

2009-09-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that Beverly Hills tries to reduce the amount of outsiders coming through its city nor is it unnoticed that they make the staggering of their lights unproductive to discourage people from driving through.

However, CA 2 aka Santa Monica Blvd. is not just any street as it, to my understanding, should be under Cal Trans' jurisdiction. If this is the case, then why do the signals on the boulevard decrease traffic flow efficiency (as on other city run streets) in Beverly Hills?

Personally, I'm shocked that nothing has been done about this especially with all of the money that has been spent on that street by taxpayers and Cal Trans.

Thoughts anyone?

Donald Shoup In Action

2009-05-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

From Professor Kodama,

Putting Parking into Reverse

Professor’s Theories Influence Cities
to Reconsider Pervasive Free Parking

By Josh Stephens

Related Links

UCLA Professor Donald Shoup

The Shoupistas

SFPark Program

By some estimates, the only thing Ferraris, Hummers and Priuses have in common is that 95 percent of the time they’re all going nowhere. Though idleness would seem to be the most benign aspect of America’s automotive fleet, UCLA Planning Professor Donald Shoup has written 733 pages that say otherwise. Because when cars aren’t going, they are parked somewhere, and when they are parked in one place, an average of six spaces per car nationwide stand vacant. Shoup considers the proliferation of parking spaces to be a plague on American cities, and because the vast majority lie open for the taking, they represent the largest devaluation of real estate short of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Published in 2005, The High Cost of Free Parking has begun to influence planners and policymakers in cities across the country.

Published in 2005, Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking amounts to an unwieldy volume full of data, regressions, and intricate analysis of these most overlooked squares on the grid of American cities. If America’s streets were a Monopoly board, it would be a dull contest indeed, with almost every space “Free Parking.” Each of the country’s roughly 200 million vehicles typically demands spaces at home and work, with shares of countless spaces at the market, restaurant, post office, mall and every other imaginable destination. Eighty-seven percent of all trips are made by personal vehicle and 99 percent of those trips arrive at a free parking space.

Many of these spaces stem from carelessly planned street parking schemes and arbitrary minimum parking requirements, by which cities dictate the number of spaces that different types of land uses must provide for tenants and customers. The result is a land use that is as ubiquitous as it is vapid and that, according to Shoup, “disfigures the landscape, distorts urban form, damages the environment, and wastes money that could be spent more productively elsewhere.” Shoup estimates that the total annual subsidy of free off-street parking exceeds $300 billion per year.

Donald Shoup

Professor Donald Shoup rides his bike to work at UCLA.

“That makes parking artificially abundant and therefore cheap and does in some ways tend to subsidize auto use when people would otherwise make other choices,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation.

Shoup contends that many cities, hamstrung by convention, superstition and guidelines hearkening back to the halcyon days of suburban sprawl, have been giving away their most valuable real estate: parking spaces. Shoup has waged a campaign to convince cities to revolutionize their parking policies, from charging higher meter prices to allowing communal lots to reducing sacrosanct minimum parking requirements. Such efforts, he says, could speed the flow of traffic, encourage denser development, rehabilitate pedestrian environments and even make it easier to find a place to park. Now, four years after his book’s publication, cities across America are devising ways to stop parking in its tracks.

Car Culture “Ruined the City”

Because most requirements call for on-site parking, the cart often comes before the horse as developers design their sites. At restaurants, parking often takes up more space than the eateries themselves. Office buildings look like spires perched on blocks of concrete. Suburban malls look ready to signal mayday lest they spring a leak. Meanwhile, free parking affects driver behavior by making driving artificially inexpensive. At its most ironic extremes, Shoup’s research contends that drivers can circle blocks endlessly in search of cheap street parking while burning more gas money than they would save by going directly to private lots.

Dr. Shoup Prescribes . . .

• “Performance pricing” of street parking according to the “85 percent rule,” so that it is expensive enough to promote frequent turnover and keep 15 percent of spaces empty at all times.
• “Parking benefit districts” which invest meter revenues in sidewalks, street trees, repairs and other public amenities.
• Shared/community parking.
• Parking maximums, not minimums.
• More rational estimates of parking demand.
• Off-site parking for both commercial and residential.
• Use of smart technology, such as in-pavement sensors and meters with rates that vary according to demand.
• Adaptive reuse of mall and big box parking lots.
• Cooperation with employers to create incentives for employees to use alternative transportation.

At the metropolitan scale, according to Shoup, all of these requirements have caused cities to bloat according to a vicious cycle. As parking requirements facilitate the use of cars, total travel increases, public transit use decreases, buildings scoot farther away from each other, density diminishes, central cities go into tailspins and sprawl increases—all of which, in turn, increases the need for more parking. The result is pockmarked cities, wasted money and an archipelago of literally billions of spaces that, collectively, take up more land than many countries.

“They’ve ruined the city,” said Shoup, who often rides his bicycle to work at UCLA. “People don’t know why the city looks so ugly and why there are shopping centers in the middle of a giant sea of parking.”

One would think that such a massive investment on the part of homeowners, businesses and cities would depend on careful study and rational planning, which would determine precisely the amount of parking that each particular use requires and analyze the attendant costs and benefits. Instead, Shoup contends that the single biggest blight on American cities is also the least-studied and most poorly understood, even as recent planning trends have been calling for the revitalization of urban centers.

“I’m really saying that cities are doing everything wrong, when it comes to parking,” Shoup said. “I firmly believe that. For 75 years we’ve made terrible mistakes with nobody noticing.”

“I think building cities around cars is the great, unaddressed issue,” said Rick Cole, city manager for Ventura, Calif. “Parking is the most glaring example of how we have systematically subsidized an auto-driven landscape and systematically devalued the pedestrian landscape.”

How anyone managed to miss over 3 million acres of garages, lots, aprons, lanes and carports is anyone’s guess, as planners have placed as much value on studying parking as Americans have on paying for it.

“I think we’ve been more aware of the problem of moving in automobiles, traffic flow, traffic congestion . . .” said John Jakle, co-author of Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. “But we really haven’t thought seriously about storage problems.”

Origins of Free Parking Policies

What began as an amenity for businesses turned into a requirement as cities insisted that private establishments provide parking to lessen the load on city streets. Minimum parking requirements spread across the urban frontier like wildfire, and by the middle of the 20th century nearly all urban and suburban land uses fell under their sway.

The University of Minnesota Metropolitan Design Center

Parking lots tend to push neighborhoods apart, disturbing the continuity of cities and downtowns, according to Shoup.

The underlying problem, according to Shoup, is that the requirements themselves were based on a combination of poor data, mimicry and sheer whimsy. At their most scientific, they account for annual peak demand—the maximum number of cars on the busiest day of the year—rather than something that could be construed as an average. A “pseudoscience” was created out of assigning precise requirements to everything from convents to batting cages, and couching them in terms of “requirements” implied that they must be provided free of charge.

They gave planners a ready tool with which to prescribe ideal minimums for all imaginable uses and according to arcane measurements: typically, barbershops must have two spaces per barber; rectories, three spaces per four clergymen; bicycle repair, three spaces per 1,000 square feet (oh, the irony); office buildings, 2.79 for every 1,000 square feet; large shopping centers require five spaces for every 1,000 leasable square feet; and even apartments often have a minimum of two spaces. In new developments, these requirements equate to thousands of dollars of added cost, even just for surface lots. Meanwhile, fitting in parking spaces means that all other elements of the urban fabric are pushed away from each other, leading to the vicious cycle that Americans know as sprawl.

“We do things in this country and in other places because we think they make sense and then over time, they make less and less sense,” said former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, an outspoken proponent of Shoup’s ideas.

But Shoup notes that the absence of a price does not equate to an absence of cost. As “perhaps the most spatial of economic activities”—because it trades in nothing but space itself—parking imposes costs that factor into everything from rents to Big Macs. And the demand data on which planners rely reflects the demand for free parking—as opposed to parking that is priced like any other good or service.

“There is a cost for parking,” Jakle said. “We just have obscured it and passed it along in various ways under this notion that everybody ought to have a right to park, free of charge.”

Shoup contends that many parking requirements are, at best, based on the demand for free—as opposed to rationally priced—parking. Others rely on little more than tradition, myth and the sort of foolish consistency that Emerson warned of while he was strolling about the woods. The rest comes from sources such as the Institute for Transportation Engineering’s Parking Generation, which relies on parking data gathered largely from suburban, single-use sites and that is difficult to interpret for all but the savviest statisticians.

“If you take any of this data out of context . . . you’re doing somebody a disservice,” said Kevin Hooper, technical editor of Parking Generation. “Everybody has a different perspective on what this data might mean.”

“[Old parking manuals] give you numbers as if Moses wrote them,” said Jose Gomez-Ibanez, professor of planning at Harvard. “Now they give you a range and show you how many studies they came from. It’s all from [Shoup’s] criticism about how arbitrary they are.”

The result of relying on those numbers was the viral proliferation of convenient but nearly baseless parking minimums in city after city.

“It was reactive, they copied each other,” Shoup said. “Students have learned nothing in their graduate education, because the professors had nothing to teach them, and didn’t want to anyway.” Planners were doing the opposite of what the field implies—“just winging it.”

Changing Minds

Shoup’s response is a systematic collection of criticisms and policy recommendations aimed at breaking America’s addiction to free parking. He is not fighting with ideology, he said, but with hard, cold logic.

“It isn’t just opinion,” he said. “I wanted to really demolish what the current practice is and make it indefensible. I think I’ve done that.”

Donald Shoup

Shoup contends underused parking towers are a blight on cities such as Los Angeles.

Though Shoup himself gives only the occasional informational lecture and admits that his book is nearly unreadable in its entirety, it has turned into a manifesto for a growing movement of planners, public officials and other loyal revolutionaries who decry the degradation of the urban landscape. These self-styled “Shoupistas” (yes, there is a Facebook group) have created a cult of personality and rationality around Shoup and his straightforward, elegant approach to healing American cities.

It’s so simple, in fact, as to be nearly obvious. Rather than focus on the supply side of the parking equation, Shoup focuses on the demand side and on the heretical notion that, even in a consumerist society, it might be all right to implement policies that would reduce demand.

“I think what he’s doing is basically forcing us all to fundamentally change our ideas about how you deal with cities . . . and how you use public policy to make a real difference in what those cities are like,” Dukakis said.

“I credit him more than anybody else with changing planners’ attitudes towards parking standards,” Gomez-Ibanez said. “He makes them realize that parking standards may be arbitrary and perhaps unwise.”

Shoup lays out a range of ways to re-conceptualize and rationalize cities’ approach to parking policy. He recommends that real estate that costs between $10,000 and $50,000 depending on location should be neither mandated nor given away.

Discouraging Drivers by Price

Shoup describes an array of solutions that, while they would not singlehandedly replace surface lots with parks or quaint new urbanist townhouses, would express parking spaces’ true value and thereby discourage driving while potentially generating revenue for cities.

The fundamental change that cities need to make, according to Shoup, is to charge a price for metered parking that would be expensive enough to create roughly a 15 percent vacancy rate. At that rate, Shoup said, many drivers will either park in private lots or use other means of transportation, and those drivers who want to park on the street will find readily available spaces without “cruising” endlessly. Indeed, one of Shoup’s studies claimed that in a variety of high-traffic areas in Los Angeles, curb parking was always cheaper than pay parking, by as much as a factor of 10. In Westwood Village alone, this disparity leads to “cruising” that “creates enough vehicle travel to make 38 trips around the earth.”

“Once you manage the curb parking then you can really think about removing off-street parking requirements, or reducing them at the very least,” said Shoup. As for the seemingly arbitrary 85 percent, Shoup said, “When you explain this to people you ask, do you have a better rule? And they’re just speechless.”

One group likely to raise protests, though, are businesses owners who may fear that higher prices will drive away patrons. In fact, Shoup contends that higher turnover (prompted by higher rates) will benefit some businesses, and he ensures that the benefits will be more than just theoretical. Shoup proposes “parking benefit districts” by which revenue at the meters would be re-invested in the immediate neighborhood for upgrades such as sidewalk improvements, signage and other amenities that would make the areas more comfortable for pedestrians and less comfortable for cars.

“Obviously merchants are nervous about anything that costs anything that their customer is going to have to pay for, or that they’re going to have to pay for,” Cole said. “But there’s also a recognition that right now we’re giving away something of value, and by recapturing that value, if we return that value to the customers and the businesses, they’ll end up on the positive side.”

Subtleties of this sort of pricing scheme would include variable rates depending on the day of the week and time of day. With the help of sensors and the latest generation of meter technology, cities could even adjust rates according to real-time data.

Additional reforms that Shoup promotes include bundled parking, in which businesses or even residences can fulfill their parking requirements by using collective off-site lots and, ultimately, trading parking minimums for parking maximums. He recommends that cities “let the prices do the planning.”

Cities Get on Board

The Shoupista movement has already made its way into the halls of power in a number of cities. Pilot projects to reform parking are underway in a number of major cities, and still others are keeping an eye out. The Los Angeles Planning Department is rolling out “Parking Management Districts,” in which community planners can choose from a variety of strategies meant to respond to local conditions.

Chicago is auctioning off concessions to manage its 36,000 citywide parking meters, and presumably whoever wins the concession will adopt rates that will make the investment worth it. Washington, D.C., has imposed higher rates around its new baseball stadium, and a bevy of small California cities are catching on, while Pasadena used bundled parking to revive its downtown long before Shoup’s book was published.

“His ideas have been tested out in only a few areas, but where they’ve been tested out, they’ve been working quite well,” said Paul Sorenson, operations researcher at the RAND Corp. “Theoretically, they’re quite sound, so the combination of those to me suggests that he’s really on target.” Sorenson recently led a major study on alleviating traffic in Los Angeles and included Shoup-inspired tactics in his recommendations.

Leading the pack is San Francisco, where the new SFPark program has received $23 million in federal funding. SFPark takes nearly the entire suite of Shoupisms to heart and is implementing them in an 18-month pilot project that will apply to 7,000 curbside and over 11,000 off-street spaces. It will rely heavily on cutting-edge meter and data-gathering technology to adjust rates and reduce congestion.

“It delivers a whole series of benefits in helping transit operate, to improve transit speed and reliability, maintain bridges and reduce greenhouse gases,” SFPark Manager Jay Primus said. “At the same time it makes driving and parking more predictable and more convenient.”

Primus noted that SFPark might not generate any extra revenue because higher meter rates may be offset by a decrease in parking citations, but he said that the other benefits outweigh considerations of revenue.

“I think one of the exciting things in San Francisco is that this is a prepaid, empirical test of a lot of [Shoup’s] concepts,” Primus said.

The University of Minnesota Metropolitan Design Center

The massive parking lots that come along with big box stores and malls could be improved if some of their spaces were filled in with apartment complexes or townhouses, according to Shoup.

Though he focuses mainly on the revitalization of major downtowns, Shoup contends that small cities and even suburban commercial areas can benefit from the reforms he recommends. Indeed, Ventura Manager Cole is pursuing an aggressively Shoupian strategy for his city of 100,000, and Redwood City, Calif., population 79,000, is considered one of the pioneers. However, suburbs and sprawling big boxes without transit service or pedestrian links to much of anything have fewer tools to choose from.

Still, Shoup’s optimism extends even to the typology that most revels in parking excess: the big box store. Convinced that urbanism can emerge in the backwash of sprawl, Shoup contends that if big boxes, malls and even strip malls were allowed to reduce their parking and replace excess spaces with something more useful, suburbanites might embark on the greatest land reclamation scheme this side of the Netherlands. He envisions apartment buildings and townhouses sprouting on the edges of malls parking lots and thereby creating nearly fully formed neighborhoods in place of vacant asphalt.

Plans “Politically Difficult”

Shoup’s reforms may not have such an easy time in other cities as they have in famously progressive San Francisco. The very notion of raising prices or restricting supply unnerves many stakeholders who are accustomed to the traditional rules.

“I think all cities should be considering it,” Cole said. “The trouble is that it’s not a political no-brainer, it’s an economic and environmental no-brainer. But it remains politically charged, which means that smart people need to enlist, need to help communities understand the disadvantages of the current mentality and the value to be gained from moving to a more rational model.”

In Washington, D.C., the opening of a 45,000-capacity baseball stadium in a dense urban neighborhood prompted City Councilman Tommy Wells to reconsider parking policies in his ward. In doing so, he had to contend with skeptical residents and downright angry bar patrons when he implemented new pricing strategies (along with other incentives for Nationals fans to use transit and bikes).

“Dealing with parking is incredibly politically difficult,” Wells said. “I used quite a bit of political capital to change the parking rules.”

And while Shoup contends that parking’s impact on the built environment and its historical mismanagement make it perhaps the most crucial element of future reforms, others are skeptical that attention to any single element of land use can make that much difference.

“I’m always suspicious of somebody who says there’s a revealed truth because in the area of land development, there really isn’t,” said Stuart Meck, lead author of the American Planning Association’s 2002 Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook, which Shoup criticizes for paying scant attention to parking.

Meck added that he and Shoup are on good terms but that, regardless of Shoup’s data analysis, “the use of particular land use controls is a political decision, and when you cut away [his] research, the decision to require parking and how much to charge for it are political decisions.”

Once made, however, those decisions need not require the expense of a single dime or the pouring of a single bucket of concrete. By relying on the invisible infrastructure of pricing and legal fiat, the Shoupistas hope to change cities by changing behavior, seeking efficient use of existing resources rather than trying to build new ones, and removing constraints.

Josh Stephens is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

America's Scariest Roads

2009-04-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since people have posted something on here.

Everyone should keep it up, because its a great way to share information with each other.

Here's a list of the scariest drives in America.

Taking first place is California's own Big Sur and second place is Big Road in Hawaii.

Very interesting, but makes me wanna take a road trip and drive through these scariest places.

Anyone interested?

What's going on in Transportation Policy?

2009-03-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

After watching these two extensive seminars on transportation policy called "Integrating Land Use and Transportation Policy in California" and "Clean Infrastructure: Transportation Policy for the 21st Century (FULL VIDEO) - 1/14/09" I figured some of you may be interested in watching as well. Although there both over an hour, the information provided and the ideas and questions proposed serve as a possible rubric for the future.

Putting Parking into Reverse - from Professor Don Shoup

2009-03-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

Putting Parking into Reverse
Professor’s Theories Influence Citiesto Reconsider Pervasive Free Parking
By Josh Stephens
Related Stories
Blog: Shoup Shows Cities How to 'Just Say No' to Parking

Related Links
UCLA Professor Donald Shoup
The Shoupistas
SFPark Program

By some estimates, the only thing Ferraris, Hummers and Priuses have in common is that 95 percent of the time they’re all going nowhere. Though idleness would seem to be the most benign aspect of America’s automotive fleet, UCLA Planning Professor Donald Shoup has written 733 pages that say otherwise. Because when cars aren’t going, they are parked somewhere, and when they are parked in one place, an average of six spaces per car nationwide stand vacant. Shoup considers the proliferation of parking spaces to be a plague on American cities, and because the vast majority lie open for the taking, they represent the largest devaluation of real estate short of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Published in 2005, Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking amounts to an unwieldy volume full of data, regressions, and intricate analysis of these most overlooked squares on the grid of American cities. If America’s streets were a Monopoly board, it would be a dull contest indeed, with almost every space “Free Parking.” Each of the country’s roughly 200 million vehicles typically demands spaces at home and work, with shares of countless spaces at the market, restaurant, post office, mall and every other imaginable destination. Eighty-seven percent of all trips are made by personal vehicle and 99 percent of those trips arrive at a free parking space.
Many of these spaces stem from carelessly planned street parking schemes and arbitrary minimum parking requirements, by which cities dictate the number of spaces that different types of land uses must provide for tenants and customers. The result is a land use that is as ubiquitous as it is vapid and that, according to Shoup, “disfigures the landscape, distorts urban form, damages the environment, and wastes money that could be spent more productively elsewhere.” Shoup estimates that the total annual subsidy of free off-street parking exceeds $300 billion per year.

“That makes parking artificially abundant and therefore cheap and does in some ways tend to subsidize auto use when people would otherwise make other choices,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation.

Shoup contends that many cities, hamstrung by convention, superstition and guidelines hearkening back to the halcyon days of suburban sprawl, have been giving away their most valuable real estate: parking spaces. Shoup has waged a campaign to convince cities to revolutionize their parking policies, from charging higher meter prices to allowing communal lots to reducing sacrosanct minimum parking requirements. Such efforts, he says, could speed the flow of traffic, encourage denser development, rehabilitate pedestrian environments and even make it easier to find a place to park. Now, four years after his book’s publication, cities across America are devising ways to stop parking in its tracks.

Car Culture “Ruined the City”
Because most requirements call for on-site parking, the cart often comes before the horse as developers design their sites. At restaurants, parking often takes up more space than the eateries themselves. Office buildings look like spires perched on blocks of concrete. Suburban malls look ready to signal mayday lest they spring a leak. Meanwhile, free parking affects driver behavior by making driving artificially inexpensive. At its most ironic extremes, Shoup’s research contends that drivers can circle blocks endlessly in search of cheap street parking while burning more gas money than they would save by going directly to private lots.
Dr. Shoup Prescribes . . .

• “Performance pricing” of street parking according to the “85 percent rule,” so that it is expensive enough to promote frequent turnover and keep 15 percent of spaces empty at all times.• “Parking benefit districts” which invest meter revenues in sidewalks, street trees, repairs and other public amenities.• Shared/community parking.• Parking maximums, not minimums.• More rational estimates of parking demand.• Off-site parking for both commercial and residential.• Use of smart technology, such as in-pavement sensors and meters with rates that vary according to demand.• Adaptive reuse of mall and big box parking lots. • Cooperation with employers to create incentives for employees to use alternative transportation.
At the metropolitan scale, according to Shoup, all of these requirements have caused cities to bloat according to a vicious cycle. As parking requirements facilitate the use of cars, total travel increases, public transit use decreases, buildings scoot farther away from each other, density diminishes, central cities go into tailspins and sprawl increases—all of which, in turn, increases the need for more parking. The result is pockmarked cities, wasted money and an archipelago of literally billions of spaces that, collectively, take up more land than many countries.

“They’ve ruined the city,” said Shoup, who often rides his bicycle to work at UCLA. “People don’t know why the city looks so ugly and why there are shopping centers in the middle of a giant sea of parking.”

One would think that such a massive investment on the part of homeowners, businesses and cities would depend on careful study and rational planning, which would determine precisely the amount of parking that each particular use requires and analyze the attendant costs and benefits. Instead, Shoup contends that the single biggest blight on American cities is also the least-studied and most poorly understood, even as recent planning trends have been calling for the revitalization of urban centers.

“I’m really saying that cities are doing everything wrong, when it comes to parking,” Shoup said. “I firmly believe that. For 75 years we’ve made terrible mistakes with nobody noticing.”
“I think building cities around cars is the great, unaddressed issue,” said Rick Cole, city manager for Ventura, Calif. “Parking is the most glaring example of how we have systematically subsidized an auto-driven landscape and systematically devalued the pedestrian landscape.”
How anyone managed to miss over 3 million acres of garages, lots, aprons, lanes and carports is anyone’s guess, as planners have placed as much value on studying parking as Americans have on paying for it.

“I think we’ve been more aware of the problem of moving in automobiles, traffic flow, traffic congestion . . .” said John Jakle, co-author of Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. “But we really haven’t thought seriously about storage problems.”

Origins of Free Parking Policies
What began as an amenity for businesses turned into a requirement as cities insisted that private establishments provide parking to lessen the load on city streets. Minimum parking requirements spread across the urban frontier like wildfire, and by the middle of the 20th century nearly all urban and suburban land uses fell under their sway.

Parking lots tend to push neighborhoods apart, disturbing the continuity of cities and downtowns, according to Shoup.

The underlying problem, according to Shoup, is that the requirements themselves were based on a combination of poor data, mimicry and sheer whimsy. At their most scientific, they account for annual peak demand—the maximum number of cars on the busiest day of the year—rather than something that could be construed as an average. A “pseudoscience” was created out of assigning precise requirements to everything from convents to batting cages, and couching them in terms of “requirements” implied that they must be provided free of charge.

They gave planners a ready tool with which to prescribe ideal minimums for all imaginable uses and according to arcane measurements: typically, barbershops must have two spaces per barber; rectories, three spaces per four clergymen; bicycle repair, three spaces per 1,000 square feet (oh, the irony); office buildings, 2.79 for every 1,000 square feet; large shopping centers require five spaces for every 1,000 leasable square feet; and even apartments often have a minimum of two spaces. In new developments, these requirements equate to thousands of dollars of added cost, even just for surface lots. Meanwhile, fitting in parking spaces means that all other elements of the urban fabric are pushed away from each other, leading to the vicious cycle that Americans know as sprawl.

“We do things in this country and in other places because we think they make sense and then over time, they make less and less sense,” said former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, an outspoken proponent of Shoup’s ideas.

But Shoup notes that the absence of a price does not equate to an absence of cost. As “perhaps the most spatial of economic activities”—because it trades in nothing but space itself—parking imposes costs that factor into everything from rents to Big Macs. And the demand data on which planners rely reflects the demand for free parking—as opposed to parking that is priced like any other good or service.

“There is a cost for parking,” Jakle said. “We just have obscured it and passed it along in various ways under this notion that everybody ought to have a right to park, free of charge.”

Shoup contends that many parking requirements are, at best, based on the demand for free—as opposed to rationally priced—parking. Others rely on little more than tradition, myth and the sort of foolish consistency that Emerson warned of while he was strolling about the woods. The rest comes from sources such as the Institute for Transportation Engineering’s Parking Generation, which relies on parking data gathered largely from suburban, single-use sites and that is difficult to interpret for all but the savviest statisticians.

“If you take any of this data out of context . . . you’re doing somebody a disservice,” said Kevin Hooper, technical editor of Parking Generation. “Everybody has a different perspective on what this data might mean.”

“[Old parking manuals] give you numbers as if Moses wrote them,” said Jose Gomez-Ibanez, professor of planning at Harvard. “Now they give you a range and show you how many studies they came from. It’s all from [Shoup’s] criticism about how arbitrary they are.”
The result of relying on those numbers was the viral proliferation of convenient but nearly baseless parking minimums in city after city.

“It was reactive, they copied each other,” Shoup said. “Students have learned nothing in their graduate education, because the professors had nothing to teach them, and didn’t want to anyway.” Planners were doing the opposite of what the field implies—“just winging it.”

Changing Minds
Shoup’s response is a systematic collection of criticisms and policy recommendations aimed at breaking America’s addiction to free parking. He is not fighting with ideology, he said, but with hard, cold logic.

“It isn’t just opinion,” he said. “I wanted to really demolish what the current practice is and make it indefensible. I think I’ve done that.”

Shoup contends underused parking towers are a blight on cities such as Los Angeles.
Though Shoup himself gives only the occasional informational lecture and admits that his book is nearly unreadable in its entirety, it has turned into a manifesto for a growing movement of planners, public officials and other loyal revolutionaries who decry the degradation of the urban landscape. These self-styled “Shoupistas” (yes, there is a Facebook group) have created a cult of personality and rationality around Shoup and his straightforward, elegant approach to healing American cities.

It’s so simple, in fact, as to be nearly obvious. Rather than focus on the supply side of the parking equation, Shoup focuses on the demand side and on the heretical notion that, even in a consumerist society, it might be all right to implement policies that would reduce demand.
“I think what he’s doing is basically forcing us all to fundamentally change our ideas about how you deal with cities . . . and how you use public policy to make a real difference in what those cities are like,” Dukakis said.

“I credit him more than anybody else with changing planners’ attitudes towards parking standards,” Gomez-Ibanez said. “He makes them realize that parking standards may be arbitrary and perhaps unwise.”

Shoup lays out a range of ways to re-conceptualize and rationalize cities’ approach to parking policy. He recommends that real estate that costs between $10,000 and $50,000 depending on location should be neither mandated nor given away.

Discouraging Drivers by Price
Shoup describes an array of solutions that, while they would not singlehandedly replace surface lots with parks or quaint new urbanist townhouses, would express parking spaces’ true value and thereby discourage driving while potentially generating revenue for cities.

The fundamental change that cities need to make, according to Shoup, is to charge a price for metered parking that would be expensive enough to create roughly a 15 percent vacancy rate. At that rate, Shoup said, many drivers will either park in private lots or use other means of transportation, and those drivers who want to park on the street will find readily available spaces without “cruising” endlessly. Indeed, one of Shoup’s studies claimed that in a variety of high-traffic areas in Los Angeles, curb parking was always cheaper than pay parking, by as much as a factor of 10. In Westwood Village alone, this disparity leads to “cruising” that “creates enough vehicle travel to make 38 trips around the earth.”

“Once you manage the curb parking then you can really think about removing off-street parking requirements, or reducing them at the very least,” said Shoup. As for the seemingly arbitrary 85 percent, Shoup said, “When you explain this to people you ask, do you have a better rule? And they’re just speechless.”

One group likely to raise protests, though, are businesses owners who may fear that higher prices will drive away patrons. In fact, Shoup contends that higher turnover (prompted by higher rates) will benefit some businesses, and he ensures that the benefits will be more than just theoretical. Shoup proposes “parking benefit districts” by which revenue at the meters would be re-invested in the immediate neighborhood for upgrades such as sidewalk improvements, signage and other amenities that would make the areas more comfortable for pedestrians and less comfortable for cars.

“Obviously merchants are nervous about anything that costs anything that their customer is going to have to pay for, or that they’re going to have to pay for,” Cole said. “But there’s also a recognition that right now we’re giving away something of value, and by recapturing that value, if we return that value to the customers and the businesses, they’ll end up on the positive side.”
Subtleties of this sort of pricing scheme would include variable rates depending on the day of the week and time of day. With the help of sensors and the latest generation of meter technology, cities could even adjust rates according to real-time data.

Additional reforms that Shoup promotes include bundled parking, in which businesses or even residences can fulfill their parking requirements by using collective off-site lots and, ultimately, trading parking minimums for parking maximums. He recommends that cities “let the prices do the planning.”

Cities Get on Board
The Shoupista movement has already made its way into the halls of power in a number of cities. Pilot projects to reform parking are underway in a number of major cities, and still others are keeping an eye out. The Los Angeles Planning Department is rolling out “Parking Management Districts,” in which community planners can choose from a variety of strategies meant to respond to local conditions.

Chicago is auctioning off concessions to manage its 36,000 citywide parking meters, and presumably whoever wins the concession will adopt rates that will make the investment worth it. Washington, D.C., has imposed higher rates around its new baseball stadium, and a bevy of small California cities are catching on, while Pasadena used bundled parking to revive its downtown long before Shoup’s book was published.

“His ideas have been tested out in only a few areas, but where they’ve been tested out, they’ve been working quite well,” said Paul Sorenson, operations researcher at the RAND Corp. “Theoretically, they’re quite sound, so the combination of those to me suggests that he’s really on target.” Sorenson recently led a major study on alleviating traffic in Los Angeles and included Shoup-inspired tactics in his recommendations.

Leading the pack is San Francisco, where the new SFPark program has received $23 million in federal funding. SFPark takes nearly the entire suite of Shoupisms to heart and is implementing them in an 18-month pilot project that will apply to 7,000 curbside and over 11,000 off-street spaces. It will rely heavily on cutting-edge meter and data-gathering technology to adjust rates and reduce congestion.

“It delivers a whole series of benefits in helping transit operate, to improve transit speed and reliability, maintain bridges and reduce greenhouse gases,” SFPark Manager Jay Primus said. “At the same time it makes driving and parking more predictable and more convenient.”
Primus noted that SFPark might not generate any extra revenue because higher meter rates may be offset by a decrease in parking citations, but he said that the other benefits outweigh considerations of revenue.

“I think one of the exciting things in San Francisco is that this is a prepaid, empirical test of a lot of [Shoup’s] concepts,” Primus said.

The massive parking lots that come along with big box stores and malls could be improved if some of their spaces were filled in with apartment complexes or townhouses, according to Shoup.
Though he focuses mainly on the revitalization of major downtowns, Shoup contends that small cities and even suburban commercial areas can benefit from the reforms he recommends. Indeed, Ventura Manager Cole is pursuing an aggressively Shoupian strategy for his city of 100,000, and Redwood City, Calif., population 79,000, is considered one of the pioneers. However, suburbs and sprawling big boxes without transit service or pedestrian links to much of anything have fewer tools to choose from.

Still, Shoup’s optimism extends even to the typology that most revels in parking excess: the big box store. Convinced that urbanism can emerge in the backwash of sprawl, Shoup contends that if big boxes, malls and even strip malls were allowed to reduce their parking and replace excess spaces with something more useful, suburbanites might embark on the greatest land reclamation scheme this side of the Netherlands. He envisions apartment buildings and townhouses sprouting on the edges of malls parking lots and thereby creating nearly fully formed neighborhoods in place of vacant asphalt.

Plans “Politically Difficult”
Shoup’s reforms may not have such an easy time in other cities as they have in famously progressive San Francisco. The very notion of raising prices or restricting supply unnerves many stakeholders who are accustomed to the traditional rules.

“I think all cities should be considering it,” Cole said. “The trouble is that it’s not a political no-brainer, it’s an economic and environmental no-brainer. But it remains politically charged, which means that smart people need to enlist, need to help communities understand the disadvantages of the current mentality and the value to be gained from moving to a more rational model.”
In Washington, D.C., the opening of a 45,000-capacity baseball stadium in a dense urban neighborhood prompted City Councilman Tommy Wells to reconsider parking policies in his ward. In doing so, he had to contend with skeptical residents and downright angry bar patrons when he implemented new pricing strategies (along with other incentives for Nationals fans to use transit and bikes).

“Dealing with parking is incredibly politically difficult,” Wells said. “I used quite a bit of political capital to change the parking rules.”

And while Shoup contends that parking’s impact on the built environment and its historical mismanagement make it perhaps the most crucial element of future reforms, others are skeptical that attention to any single element of land use can make that much difference.
“I’m always suspicious of somebody who says there’s a revealed truth because in the area of land development, there really isn’t,” said Stuart Meck, lead author of the American Planning Association’s 2002 Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook, which Shoup criticizes for paying scant attention to parking.

Meck added that he and Shoup are on good terms but that, regardless of Shoup’s data analysis, “the use of particular land use controls is a political decision, and when you cut away [his] research, the decision to require parking and how much to charge for it are political decisions.”
Once made, however, those decisions need not require the expense of a single dime or the pouring of a single bucket of concrete. By relying on the invisible infrastructure of pricing and legal fiat, the Shoupistas hope to change cities by changing behavior, seeking efficient use of existing resources rather than trying to build new ones, and removing constraints.

Josh Stephens is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

Bicycling in NYC

2009-03-08T12:23:00.001-07:00

NY Times recently published an article about bicycling in NYC.

Click here to read.

The article highlights the changes that have been adopted in NYC to accommodate bicyclists. The author offers great commentary and creates a timeline that looks at bicycling 30 years ago to present day bicyclists statistics. Even though he cites Streetsblog a lot, I'm curious if he just didn't call Bob Huddy.

The author also has four recommendations on how to increases bicycling and the relationship of the bicycle to the car and the pedestrian.

Enjoy.

Denver: Affordable housing through TOD--- will it work?

2009-03-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

City to buy real estate

Denver will spend $15 million over the next 10 years acquiring property near mass transit for affordable housing.

By Margaret Jackson
The Denver Post

Posted: 02/27/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

Over the next 10 years, Denver will spend about $15 million buying properties near mass transit in an effort to preserve and create affordable housing.

With seed money from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation totaling $2.25 million, the city has been able to leverage additional private investment into the Denver Transit-Oriented Development Fund. The city is investing $2.5 million in the fund, with $2 million coming from franchise-fee revenues from Xcel Energy.

Denver is among 12 cities and states to receive $32.5 million in funding from the foundation.

Other investors in the fund include Enterprise Community Partners, Urban Land Conservancy, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Rose Community Foundation and the Mile High Community Loan Fund.

The Urban Land Conservancy is expected to be the sole borrower from the fund and will be responsible for property acquisition and establishing partnerships for redevelopment. Formed in 2003 by a loosely affiliated group of real-estate professionals, the organization's mission is to acquire land and buildings to be developed for community needs, such as affordable housing, early-childhood programs, senior care and charter schools.

The fund is expected to preserve and create up to 3,000 affordable housing units. The focus will be on rentals, but there will be some homes for sale.

"The gap between supply and demand for affordable housing is about 12 million units across the country," said Sister Lillian Murphy, chief executive of Mercy Housing. "The preservation work is absolutely critical, particularly when there's more and more pressure because of the foreclosure situation."

A primary goal of the Transit-Oriented Development Fund is to preserve and expand affordable housing within a half-mile of existing and new rail service and a quarter-mile of frequent bus routes. Denver working families who earn between $20,000 and $50,000 annually spend 59 percent of gross income on housing and transportation costs, according to a 2006 study by the Center for Housing Policy.

"Proximity to light rail and TOD is a crucial part of this," Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said.

Planners for FasTracks made sure the lines went to places with open pieces of land so high-density housing could be developed, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said.

Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com

DMV -- HELP!

2009-03-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

Why does the DMV always have long lines?

Elimination of Parking Requirements

2009-03-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. Lowenthal seems to have known our class would be talking about parking requirements and reading Donald Shoup's book. What do you think?

(Click the title to view the original post on Streetsblog)

Monday, March 2, 2009 1 Comment

Long Beach’s State Senator Lowenthal Takes on Parking Requirements

by Damien Newton on March 2, 2009

Last week, State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) introduced legislation that takes aim at how California's municipalities think about parking and parking requirements. What S.B. 518 is missing in co-sponsors it makes up for in chutzpah. If enacted, the legislation would require that every municipality in the state earn at least "20 points" in parking reforms. These reforms range from eliminating the city's parking requirement for development which is worth 20 points to requiring that employers offer transit passes en lieu of parking worth only 2 points.

Locally, this bill would have an amazing impact on transportation planning if it were to become law. All of a sudden the city would be forced to think of building transit-oriented development without having at least two car spaces for every residential unit or setting aside part of its parking fees for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

However, getting this legislation passed and signed is going to be a heavy lift. Despite the many positive impacts that parking reform would have for transportation network and environment by reducing V.M.T., there is bound to be a lot of pro-automobile forces pushing back against the legislation and so far there has been almost sign of a campaign promoting it. As a matter of fact, the only place I found this legislation mentioned was Infosnack, a blog originating out of Washington, D.C. In other words, seeing this legislation passed into law may be a heavy lift; but then most things worth doing are.

For a full list of all the ways a municipality can earn points, read on after the jump.

MEASURE                                  |POINTS |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|PARKING REQUIREMENTS AND ZONING          |       |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Eliminate minimum parking requirements   |       |
|citywide or within the unincorporated    |       |
|county.                                  |20     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Reduce average minimum parking           |       |
|requirements for all general office,     |       |
|general retail, general commercial, and  |       |
|similar development citywide or within   |       |
|the unincorporated county to:            |       |
|Less than 3 spaces per 1,000 square feet |2      |
|Less than 2 spaces per 1,000 square feet |5      |
|Less than 1 space per 1,000 square feet  |10     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Eliminate minimum parking requirements   |       |
|for projects in transit intensive areas. |10     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish maximum parking restrictions   |       |
|for all general office, general retail,  |       |
|general commercial, and similar          |       |
|development at or below the following:   |       |
|3 spaces per 1,000 square feet           |10     |
|2 spaces per 1,000 square feet           |15     |
|1 space per 1,000 square feet            |20     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish commercial parking maximums of |       |
|2 or fewer spaces per 1,000 sq. feet     |       |
|citywide or within the unincorporated    |       |
|county.                                  |10     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish commercial parking maximums of |       |
|2 or fewer spaces per 1,000 sq. feet in  |       |
|transit intensive areas.                 |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish residential parking maximums   |       |
|of 1 or fewer spaces per unit in transit |       |
|intensive areas.                         |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish design controls requiring      |       |
|parking to be underground or ""wrapped'' |       |
|in active uses on building frontages     |       |
|facing public streets.                   |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Remove restrictions against residential  |       |
|tandem parking, including eliminating    |       |
|requirements that parking must be        |       |
|independently accessible to count toward |       |
|minimum residential parking requirement, |       |
|if any.                                  |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Remove restrictions against mechanized   |       |
|and mechanical ""lift'' parking,         |       |
|including counting mechanized spaces     |       |
|toward minimum requirement, if any.      |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish a shared parking ordinance and |       |
|requirements for interconnection of      |       |
|parking in all commercial areas.         |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Remove or increase allowable density     |       |
|limits and floor area ratios (FAR),      |       |
|allowing infill development on existing  |       |
|parking lots.                            |10     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|PARKING AND       TRANSPORTATION DEMAND  |       |
|MANAGEMENT                               |       |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to require that any   |       |
|lease for a residential dwelling unit    |       |
|within a housing development of five or  |       |
|more units, if a parking space or spaces |       |
|are provided in connection with the      |       |
|lease, include a separate unbundled      |       |
|charge for the parking space or spaces   |       |
|that reflects the full cost of the       |       |
|parking space or spaces but is not less  |       |
|than the number of parking spaces        |       |
|multiplied by the cost of a monthly      |       |
|transit pass within the city, county, or |       |
|city and county and that the lessee may  |       |
|opt out of the parking charge by         |       |
|foregoing use of the parking space or    |       |
|spaces.                                  |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to require that any   |       |
|lease for commercial space in a complex  |       |
|of five or more commercial tenants       |       |
|include a separate unbundled charge for  |       |
|the parking space or spaces that         |       |
|reflects the full cost of the parking    |       |
|space or spaces but is not less than     |       |
|the number of parking spaces multiplied  |       |
|by the cost of a monthly transit pass    |       |
|within the city, county, or city and     |       |
|county and that the lessee may opt out   |       |
|of the parking charge by foregoing use   |       |
|of the parking space or spaces.          |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to require that any   |       |
|new employment contract under which the  |       |
|employer provides a parking space within |       |
|the city, county, or city and county     |       |
|include a nonreimbursable charge to the  |       |
|employee that reflects the full cost of  |       |
|the parking space but is not less than   |       |
|the cost of a monthly transit pass       |       |
|within the city, county, or city and     |       |
|county and that the employee may opt out |       |
|of by foregoing use of the parking space.|5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to require employers  |       |
|to offer transit passes to all           |       |
|employees, including full time, part     |       |
|time, and seasonal employees, on a       |       |
|pretax basis and certify                 |       |
|compliance upon application for a new or |       |
|renewal business license.                |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|PARKING MANAGEMENT                       |       |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to set on-street      |       |
|parking meter and public parking lot and |       |
|garage rates to achieve an 85% target    |       |
|occupancy rate during hours when         |       |
|adjacent businesses are open or employ   |       |
|demand-responsive rates that vary        |       |
|throughout the day to achieve an 85%     |       |
|target occupancy rate.                   |10     |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish a Parking Benefit District,    |       |
|whereby all or a portion of new public   |       |
|parking revenues are directed toward     |       |
|improvements within the district where   |       |
|the revenue was raised.                  |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Establish a Residential Parking Benefit  |       |
|District, whereby a limited number of    |       |
|commuters may pay to park       in an    |       |
|otherwise restricted Residential Parking |       |
|Permit area, with the net revenue        |       |
|directed toward improvements within the  |       |
|district where the revenue was raised.   |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Install parking meters in areas with     |       |
|parking occupancy rates of greater than  |       |
|85% and establish meter rates such that  |       |
|parking availability improves to 85% or  |       |
|better.                                  |2      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|PARKING REVENUE                          |       |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt an ordinance to direct at least    |       |
|50% of net public parking revenues to    |       |
|programs that reduce parking demand,     |       |
|including, but not limited to, public    |       |
|transit, transportation demand           |       |
|management, or bicycle and pedestrian    |       |
|infrastructure and promotion.            |3      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt a parking sales tax or use fee     |       |
|upon parkers, with at       least 85% of |       |
|resulting net revenue directed at        |       |
|programs that reduce parking demand,     |       |
|including, but not limited to, public    |       |
|transit, transportation demand           |       |
|management, or bicycle and pedestrian    |       |
|infrastructure and promotion.            |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+
|Adopt a parking impact fee or property   |       |
|assessment on parking owners, with at    |       |
|least 85% of resulting net revenue       |       |
|directed at programs that reduce parking |       |
|demand, including, but not limited to,   |       |
|public transit, transportation demand    |       |
|management, or bicycle and pedestrian    |       |
|infrastructure and promotion.            |5      |
+-----------------------------------------+-------+

Forbes: America's Most Congested Cities and Worst Intersections

2009-03-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Forbes released their annual most congested cities and worst intersections list today.

Intersections
Most Congested Cities

Of the top five most congested cities, in order are; LA, NYC, Chicago, Dallas, DC.

The study found that the worst hour to drive in was 5pm on Thursday for LA and 5pm Friday on Friday for NYC. The report also discusses trends about how congestion has fallen for all cities compared to the 2008 results and that a slower economy could lead to a faster commute. Keep in mind, that is not an appropriate TDM tool.

Notably some cities TDM tools have worked, Atlanta, reduced congestion by 36% with suburban park and ride initiatives funded by federal dollars.

As for intersections, the Hollywood Freeway has 11 of the top 100 worst interchanges.

Modern Parkway: Carmel, Indiana

2009-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

This post showcases a modern approach to the precursor of the modern freeway: the grade-separated parkway. In Carmel, IN, Keystone Ave. (formerly IN-431) runs just east of the Civic Center, between US-31 to the north, and I-465 to the south. A 4-lane facility, with at-grade intersections with the primary cross-streets, Keystone Avenue needs congestion relief, and dissatisfied with INDOT's solution of adding another lane to each directional flow, Mayor Jim Brainard decided to revive the old form of the urban parkway, a grade-separated road with emphases on context-sensitivity, nature, and safety. Unlike the Arroyo Seco Parkway, or the original parkways back East, Carmel is implementing roundabout interchanges so as to minimize the footprint of the grade-separations. The following link takes you to the project website, where you can find pictures, videos, renderings, and other information about this endeavor that is unique in the United States, but borrows from concepts present in Europe:

Project CarmelLink

My Thoughts

The Good:

Attention to detail, particularly with regards to aesthetics.
Grade-separation at key intersections.
Parkway depression instead of elevation transforms a series of auto-oriented, pedestrian-unfriendly intersections into potential linkages connecting eastern Carmel to the central core.
Use of compact, dual "teardrop" roundabouts instead of traditional diamond interchanges or expensive SPUIs.
Because of limited depression, on- and off-ramps are shorter, so closeness of interchanges should not be an issue (~ between 1.1 and .4 miles apart)
Bicycle-friendly
Planned hardscape improvements

The Bad:

Currently planned 40mph speed limit is a 10mph reduction over current configuration, and bears no correlation to design speeds; blatant revenue-generator.
Raised curb median is not appropriate for the intuited driving speeds.
Horizontal cross-section may be insufficient to widen in the future with adequate shoulder space.

The Unknown:

Would raised planters with landscaping surrounded by Jersey barriers (Caltrans: K-rails) improve crashworthiness?
Will adequate advanced signage of turning movements at roundabout interchanges be installed?
What about 131st St./Main St.? How will this interchange interact with the interchanges at 126th and 136th Streets? Will proximity be an issue?
Will "weave lanes" be striped between interchanges?
What about metering?

Despite these questions and criticisms, I rate this project very highly. The vision is far greater than anything any other cities in Indiana attempt to create, and the potential for this to be regarded as Mayor Brainard's legacy is high; Carmel just won the bid to host the 2011 National Roundabout Conference and has more roundabouts inside the city limits than anywhere else in the United States (40+ built, ~80 in total planned), and all were implemented by Mayor Brainard.

What are your thoughts?

Metrolink To Stop Offering Metro Rail Transfers

2009-02-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

Metrolink-to-MTA transfer policy set to change

3:49 PM | February 13, 2009

Metrolink customers who transfer to MTA buses and trains in Los Angeles County should brace for some bad news for their wallets: The days of free transfers will likely end next year.

The issue was discussed at today's special meeting of the Metrolink Board of Directors in downtown Los Angeles. The board was set to make a decision about the transfers at its regular meeting on Feb. 27, but that has been postponed.

The issue is coming to a head because of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's decision last February to install gates and turnstiles at many of its rail stations to reduce the number of passengers who ride without buying tickets. The problem for Metrolink customers is that the paper tickets Metrolink uses won't work in the turnstiles the MTA is installing.

So the onus is on Metrolink to do something. After reviewing the available technology, Metrolink staff told board members that one possible solution is to require customers to also buy a TAP card -- the electronic fare cards that the MTA is trying to adopt. Metrolink would provide the TAP card at a discount: $20 to $30 for an MTA monthly pass, which currently sells for $62.

To put it in more blunt terms, Metrolink passengers who now transfer for free would have to carry two tickets and pay $240 to $360 extra annually to transfer to MTA buses or trains. Metrolink says this would be an increase of about 11% in total cost for their average customers.

As part of the switch, Metrolink also plans to end free transfers for people traveling with one-way or round-trip tickets. Between the moves, Metrolink expects to lose about 725 passengers a day who don't want to pay the higher fares. The trains currently carry about 46,000 passengers on the average weekday.

The obvious problem here is that the two agencies have incompatible ticketing systems. That leads to the obvious question: Why not have Metrolink and MTA adopt the same ticketing system?

Not so fast. Metrolink also runs in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, and transit agencies in each of those counties have their own ticketing systems.

"We have four other counties that would have to adopt the TAP system," said Francisco Oaxaca, a spokesman for Metrolink. "We're the one that has to come up with a way to work across all five counties. The other counties are going to follow their own paths toward some sort of smart-card technology similar to TAP, but they're all on different time frames and have different needs."

At this point, the only potential out for Metrolink customers is if the MTA decides to chip in some money to further discount TAP cards for them. The chance of that happening? Probably not very good, based on past fiscal policies.

-- Steve Hymon

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/02/metrolink-trans.html

Smart Transportation

2009-02-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

The Wallstreet Journal released an article detailing how new "smart" infrastructure can reduce congestion and help America build for the future.

Article can be viewed here

The article discusses smart transportation and cites how CalTrans has been reviewing car travel speeds in the Bay Area to predict when traffic jams will occur, before they occur. Regardless, there is a large demand for more data in order to create the necessary models that will estimate arrival times. Singapore currently uses IBM technology to predict congestion blocks up to 45 minutes before they happen.

It also discusses the use of smart bridges, which can have sensors detect stress points in a bridge during high traffic times. This will allow for better maintence, and reduce incidents like the Minnesota bridge collapse.

The article also discusses the smart grid and smarter water systems.

A good article to read for anyone working in the city.

Alaskan Viaduct Replacement

2009-02-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Post put out a story today talking about the new replacement for the Seattle Viaduct.

The story discusses the new less lane tunnel as a good alternative for the present viaduct because of its integration of SOV and public transit services.

The only debate now involves the future funding of the project. Several new taxes and fees have been proposed to fund the project.

Innovative Transportation

2008-05-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this website that contains over a hundred different systems used for transportation around the world.

The systems listed here are either experimental or from Total Recall, therefore we know it has the governator's approval.

Seen to the right is the Magnetrans.

You can view it by clicking here.

History of the Port of Los Angeles

2008-04-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

This morning on AirTalk, Larry Mantle had an interview with the authors of the recent book, Port of Los Angeles: An Illustrated History 1850-1945. It sounds like an interesting book, and the interview was lively and a little gossipy.

Here’s link to the publisher's website.

Here's the interview—it’s about half an hour, and is preceded by a very brief appeal for support for NPR. Any problem with the audio, you can try going to AirTalk's site and scrolling down to this story.

GPS that finds Cheapest Gas Station!

2008-04-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Engadget just reviewed the new Dash Express GPS that can connect to Wifi and can lists gas stations and their prices. This may reroute congestion better than congestion pricing.

For the full review, click here.

Public Transportation in Ventura

2008-04-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Kodama had a story about Ventura's public transit problems.

Public transportation on the table
Cheryl Ellis

In Southern California, the concept of public transportation is beyond foreign; it is seemingly impossible, but the city of Ventura is generating public awareness to combat that belief.

Round one took place March 27, when the city welcomed Charlie Hales, a transportation industry expert, to City Hall to speak to the public about the social, economic, environmental and political landscape making transit a topic of general interest.

Hales’ visit was the latest lecture in the “Ventura on the Move: Mobility Options for Ventura’s Environment” series. Tom Mericle, the city’s traffic and transportation engineer, said the series is intended to open up discussion about implementation of a new transit plan.

Hales, a former commissioner of planning and transportation in Portland, Ore., was invited to address the realities of expanding Ventura’s public transportation system.
“We want to create a blueprint for how we resolve short-term and long-term needs,” he said. “Rather than have a normal development plan where developers pay to widen streets, we are trying to increase ‘walkability’ in the city, decreasing reliance on any single mode of transit.”

Such a goal may be difficult in a city like Ventura, Hales said.

Largely responsible for Portland’s streetcar renaissance, Hales is widely credited with sparking the modern streetcar revival. In Portland, he helped raise $58 million in bonds to improve 114 parks, was instrumental in creating the Portland Streetcar and worked on citywide light-rail projects. He has also consulted on the development of transportation plans in cities throughout the country including Boulder, Colo., and Tucson, Ariz. In all of the cities he has worked with, he admits there was a significant amount of resistance to transit, particularly from the more affluent. He also said a barrier exists in motivating middle- and upper-class people to use transit, whether it be an over-reliance on their personal vehicles or the inconsistencies in transit schedules and the time wasted waiting for a train or bus.

But Hales commended progress the city of Ventura has made in recent years, especially complementing the increased use of technology through the introduction of the “Next Bus” system, an online portal through which riders can see when the next bus will arrive at a given stop.

“Making transit easy to use is great, Hales said. “Technology is so important in making transportation easier and removing that barrier, encouraging the middle class to use transit.”

The message doesn’t seem to be resonating in Ventura, though. Gold Coast Transit, which connects Oxnard, Ojai, Ventura and Port Hueneme, saw a little more than 3 million riders last year, while the Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority, the county’s intercity bus system, saw 200,000. Although ridership has begun to increase, both systems are still recovering from massive ridership losses after a 2002 fare increase, according to statistics Mericle provided at the event.

Two key factors are generating discussion about mass transit and making it a more socially acceptable trend, he said. First, the next generation is adopting a more urban lifestyle that is more conducive to public transportation, and second, “mega trends” and “big picture issues” such as global warming and the implications of peak oil have recently become topics that are being taken more seriously.

“We are using a fossil fuel to fuel our economy, and that fuel does have a danger of running out,” Hales said. “There is now a national understanding that we are running out of the fuel that powers our system.”

Hales is full of ideas for how municipalities can invest in prolonging the seemingly inevitable by investing in transportation that is cost effective and safer for the environment. It is a heavy investment, he said, and municipalities often bear the responsibility for generating interest in transportation and finding funding. Although he said there is never a set number on the cost of developing, operating and maintaining rail systems, he quoted the light-rail project in Eugene, Ore., at roughly $6 million per mile and noted another in Ohio that cost as much as $24 million per mile.

But Hales also said cities that benefit most from transit tend to be cities with a higher density in population rather than areas that are comprised primarily of single-family homes.

“Ventura has a great walking district downtown,” Hales said. “You are a great place for getting off of the ferocious highway and a great place for circulator transit. Light rail may not be the answer for a low-density area, but transit can be used as a funnel to get people downtown and for getting them around once they are there. But it is expensive, and it may not be the best answer for the moment, unless funding starts falling from the sky.”

City officials were quick to stand up for the density of Ventura and to justify the need for continued discussion about transit.

“The most recent census showed that the majority of people that live in the city [of Ventura], work in the city,” Mericle said. “So its really an issue of changing people’s attitudes. We are in a fact-finding mode, and we plan to hold a series of meetings over the next nine months to see if this plan is feasible for our city.”

Hales encouraged this proactive stance, saying the federal government is recognizing the importance of developing transit systems and, in a switch from the trends over the past 10 to 15 years, funding has been granted recently for cities that present solid plans.

“The question really comes back to how much community support there is,” said City Manager Rick Cole. “COAST [Coalition for Sustainable Transportation] in Santa Barbara advocates more for transit in Ventura than even the people in Ventura.”

He urged those in attendance to involve other people in a dialog about the need for transportation, saying that by engaging more people, there is potential for community groups to generate more public interest.

Mericle expanded on that thought.

“If the environmentalists in our area drew the connection between preservation and transit, if the socially conscious drew the connection between a living wage and transit, if we were all able to connect up the people who care about these things we can get something done,” Mericle said. “We need to develop a plan, and that’s going to take brains, involvement and money.”

Taco Bell better not start using trucks

2008-04-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

LA Times wrote an article today about how mobile taco trucks are going to get charged heftier parking violation fines because local businesses are complaining that they drive out competition.

Attached here is the full story.

Clear Channel is evil, though....

2008-04-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

I was reminded strongly of Professor Kodama's "What's in it for me?" mantra when I heard this story on the Patt Morrison show. Apparently, the City Council, MTA and Clear Channel are engaged in a seedy menage-a-trois involving holding potential park space for south L.A. for hostage in exchange for a sweetheart deal on a gargantuan digital billboard off the 10. MTA has land at Avalon and 54th that it will sell the city for less than market value (about 2/3) and pay for rehab-ing the site to make a park and wetland. The City will re-zone a special district off the 10 near downtown to allow Clear Channel to have the giant bulletin boards. Clear Channel will drop a threatened legal action against MTA over the termination of Clear Channel's lease on several bulletin boards along the former Little Santa Monica Blvd.

Why do we need to involve the evil megacorporamonopologarchy Clear Channel in a simple deal of taking under-utilized MTA land and creating much-needed open space for south L.A.?
Why do we need any more of those horrible, hazardous digital billboards near our freeways?

Here's a link to the radio interview with Jan Perry and Jack Weiss discussing the issue...scroll down to Tues Apr 8th for the story...
http://www.scpr.org/programs/pattmorrison/

Ventura Freeway Cap - Public Design Workshop

2008-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

If you noticed, I wasn't in class last night. I took a trip up to Ventura to attend a public design workshop on capping the 101 freeway.

This workshop was presented by Glen Bolen from Fregonese Associates , an Oregon based planning firm. According to the City of Ventura's press release of the event, the workshop was, "part of a six-month Compass Blueprint Demonstration Project by the City of Ventura in partnership with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and consultants from Fregonese Associates and Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., to determine feasibility, estimate costs, measure benefits, propose possible economic paybacks and identify challenges of freeway capping options. " It was designed to gain an understanding of the broad scope of issues that would affect the members of the community in the development of the freeway cap to connect downtown with the beach.

The participants were split into groups of about 8 - 10 people and each team was given a large map to draw out and design their vision for the freeway cap. They were given three initial feasibility options to choose from and then had to come up with a development plan to help offset the costs associated with their chosen project. It seemed a large number of groups choose a medium sized cap and understood there would necessarily have to be higher density of both retail and housing in the future. By providing the community members with information about the options, issues and having them discuss the trade-offs between costs and development options, participants were able to bring their own opinions and visions for the city into the development plan.

I enjoyed myself and thought it was a wonderful way to encourage participation in the community.

Queens Council Members Sticking it the Man!

2008-04-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Members of the Queens Chamber of Commerce are protesting Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. Claiming that the plan is not about reducing traffic but about increasing revenue by charging 8 dollars to enter Manhattan. Joined by many other citizens they protested under the Queensboro Bridge.

To read the whole store click here to read it from the Queens Ledger.

Awww...CARB wants to make Jeffrey sad…

2008-03-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

The California Air Resources Board voted last week to reduce the PZEV (Pure Zero Emissions Vehicle) requirement by 90%, but raised the requirement for hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Their reasoning is that the development and production costs of PZEV’s – battery or fuel cell cars – is still prohibitively high, while Low and Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles are here today. There are reasonable arguments on all sides, but I must say that the very fact that we don’t have a clear winner in the race to solve the emissions problem indicates a need to encourage innovation and experimentation which CARB’s decision will tend rather to stifle. Not that I don’t smile to think of all the new hordes of “Prii” deliberately driving exactly 55 in front of Jeffrey…

Listen to NPR’s story on CARB’s vote here.

San Fransisco Bike Lanes

2008-03-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Click here for full story

San Fransisco will be adding 34 miles of new bike lanes and getting rid of on street parking in some areas to do so. SF claims that it will be a new bike friendly city with these revisions. But let's be serious unless they get rid of those hills, I will not be riding my bike to work anytime soon.

Seattle Transportation Fund

2008-03-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

The Washington Herald just reported Gov. Chris Gregoire has drastically revised the Transportation budget. It can be read here.

Here is a brief look at the budget changes.

U.S. 2: $10 million for safety projects between Gold Bar and Monroe; $4 million in county and federal money included for centerline rumble strips between Monroe and Sultan; six state troopers assigned to patrol the highway.

Ferries: $85 million for three vessels with up to 100-car capacity to replace Steel Electric-class on Keystone-Port Townsend route; $283 million for up to three 144-car vessels; $15 million to refurbish the ferry Hyak; $355,000 for added summer runs on Keystone-Port Townsend route.

Old boats: By July 1, the Department of Transportation must prepare a plan for disposing or selling off four Steel Electric-class vessels.

Ferry terminals: Unspecified amounts available to remove Unocal pier at Edmonds and lease land for added car waiting area at Mukilteo.

Barriers: $26.9 million to install concrete median barriers in place of existing cable barriers on I-5 between Marysville and Arlington.

Trains: $100,000 to study the potential of commuter service between Snohomish and Redmond.

UW Bothell: $47 million to build offramp from Highway 522 to the campus this year.

Other items: $18.5 million for higher fuel costs; $3.25 million to cover increased snow and ice removal expenses; $19.7 million to remove barriers for fish passage into streams.

Charlie Hales discussing public transportation at City of Ventura

2008-03-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

Professor Kodama notified us about Charlie Hales coming to speak at the City of Ventura.

City of Ventura will let national expert Charlie Hales discuss public transportation systems and viable options for Ventura's public transit.

Thursday - March 27, 2008 - 7pm - Free Admission

Community Meeting Room
Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli Street

The Issue With Earmarks

2008-03-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Professor Kodama sent an article from the Republic Washington Bureau about the effects of pork barreling in politics, using Arizona as a prime example.

Ariz. last in pork-barrel cash, lawmakers say it's a waste
Key lawmakers say earmark process wastes taxpayer money

Diana Marrero
Republic Washington Bureau
Mar. 22, 2008 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Arizona has some powerful lawmakers in Washington, including Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

But when it comes to pork-barrel spending, otherwise known as earmarks, the state isn't very powerful. In fact, it ranks last.

That's mostly because three of the state's 10 lawmakers in Washington, McCain and House Republicans Jeff Flake and John Shadegg, refuse to ask for any federal money for local projects. Another Arizona Republican, Sen. Jon Kyl, strictly limits his earmark requests. They all say the earmark process wastes taxpayer money and desperately needs reform. But other Arizona lawmakers counter that their colleagues' stance hurts the state.

Click Here

Arizona, one of the fastest growing states in the nation, will receive $18.70 per capita in federal earmarks this fiscal year. By comparison, Alaska, with roughly a 10th of Arizona's population, is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that tracks earmarks.

Alaska receives about three times as much as Arizona in actual dollars, $346 million to $119 million. That means Arizona gets less money for water projects, bridge repairs, road construction and rural clinics.

"When you have reformers and purists, you end up not getting a reasonable share of money coming out, which hurts the state," said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. "When you're holier than thou, you don't get much of the money."

Much of the work done by lawmakers in Washington centers on how to spend about $3 trillion in taxpayer money each year. For many members of Congress, securing money for projects back home can be the most tangible product of the complicated budget process.

But earmarks have gotten a bad name after public corruption scandals involving former high-profile lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who went to prison for accepting millions in bribes from defense contractors to steer government money their way.

Lawmakers still secured about $18.3 billion for nearly 13,000 projects last year. Only 18 lawmakers declined to seek any earmarks. They often work together on earmarks that can benefit multiple states or districts. But the bulk of their requests is for projects in their home districts or states.

Efforts to place a one-year moratorium on earmarks have failed in both chambers, but a growing number of House Republicans have signed a pledge to abstain from seeking them.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Glendale, helped secure about $29.2 million worth of earmarks last year but has vowed not to ask for any special-project money this year. Franks' recent pledge would mean that only half of the state's congressional delegation plans to actively seek earmarks.

"We have members of our delegation who feel their job is not to bring equitable resources back to the state," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson. "The fact remains we are shortchanging our taxpayers by not bringing more resources into the state."
Political power counts

Alaska is home to Sen. Ted Stevens, a senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which largely controls how money is doled out in Washington. Arizona has just one appropriator in the House, Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix, where rank-and-file members have less clout than do members in the Senate.

"It's one of the illustrations of what's wrong with the system," said Ryan Alexander, president of the taxpayer group. "Earmark dollars are not distributed based on need or merit or anything else as far as we can tell other than by power."

Shadegg, one of the Arizona lawmakers who rejects earmarks, agrees.

"I would argue that if all of us sought earmarks, Arizona would still get shortchanged," the Phoenix lawmaker said.

That doesn't mean they're shortchanged in the overall federal budget. The state receives more federal funding than state taxpayers put in, according to the Northeast-Midwest Institute, which found that Arizona got $1.19 for every dollar taxpayers spent in 2005.

Others say that earmarks increase government spending at a time when the national debt continues to climb.

"We simply can't afford it in the country," said Flake, of Mesa. "I just can't, in good conscience, just play the game."

Kyl, who helped secure about $92.7 million in earmarks last year, does not think lawmakers should eliminate them altogether. But he argues that the system should be more transparent and that funding be distributed based on the merits of projects.
Earmark disclosure

Recent reforms have forced lawmakers to disclose the earmarks they secure but don't make them identify all their requests. So far, only three Arizona lawmakers, Kyl and freshmen Democratic Reps. Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords, have vowed to disclose all their requests.

"I'm willing to defend what I ask for because I ask for so little," Kyl said.

Pastor won't release all his requests because he says it would violate the privacy of groups asking for money. But he defends all the projects he supports and notes that earmarks make up 1 percent of the federal budget. If it doesn't get spent on Arizona projects, the funding will be spent elsewhere, he said.

"All the money Arizona doesn't take goes to Alaska," said Pastor, who secured more earmark funding than any other member of the state's delegation: $57.7 million.

Pastor also teamed with Mitchell, D-Tempe, to get nearly $700,000 for a restoration project for the Salt River, which sometimes floods, washing out roads. The project is a big priority for Mesa, which is represented by Mitchell and Flake.

India Monorail System

2008-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Once again from Professor Kodama.

Bombardier shortlisted for major India project

A consortium led by Bombardier of Canada is one of three groups that have been short-listed to supply a $1.6 billion, four-corridor monorail system for Mumbai, India, a city of about 15 million. The other bidders on the list include India’s Larsen & Toubro, with Malaysian partner Sconi Engineering, and Japan’s Hitachi Group. What’s at stake is 30-year build-operate-transfer contract, with final bids due in May and construction scheduled to start in June and be completed by mid-2010.

5 Ways to Get a Job

2008-03-25T19:37:00.001-07:00

Article Professor Kodama sent forth about how to get the job as a college graduate at a career fair.

Click here to read it

Don Shoup and Parking in DC

2008-03-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

Professor Kodama has found some interesting stories from DC and how they are using parking funds to make the streets more livable now that there is a new baseball stadium being built.

It can be read about here

These parking techniques come from Donald Shoup, and you can learn more about his ideas here, on another streets blog entry.

This entry shows Don Shoup explaining parking with matchbox cars.

I'd rather be sitting in traffic than...

2008-03-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's cutting it a little close to the wire--But here's my news story of interest today:
A new study commissioned by AAA has reported that the cost of car accidents exceeds that of congestion. I'm kind of curious about the rhetoric in this story, because it implies that there is some sort of either/or. Are they implying that there are fewer accidents when there is more congestion? That would make this study another piece of evidence of why congestion is a good thing...

Here's the story

Crashes: What's the Cost to Society?

2008-03-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

Today AAA released a report (click here to read) detailing the cost of crashes to American society. The study reported that crashes cost American society 164.2 billion dollars a year, more than 2.5x than the cost of congestion, which is $67.2 billion.

In Southern California alone the cost of crashes is estimated to be 11 billion while the cost of congestion is 9.3 billion.

The report proves that there is a cause to be concerned about traffic safety and the emphasis that needs to be put on the issue for congress and the upcoming presidential race.

The report is over 56 pages long, and state newspapers everywhere are reporting about the impact traffic crashes have on their states or cities.

Midterm Study Guide

2008-03-05T17:06:00.001-08:00

Click Here for Study Guide

Professor Kodama has posted our study guide for the midterm.

-Alan

Frozen at Grand Central Station

2008-02-28T23:15:00.000-08:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vk-5C9PsoLM

Joel Sandberg Podcast

2008-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Some people had a hard time locating it...so it's getting a repost.

Listen Here!

Joel Sandberg, one of the key staff at the Expo Line Authority, recently came to Professor Woo's PPD-227 class and gave a lecture concerning the relationship between the Expo Line and the USC campus. It's around 40 minutes long and can be downloaded to your iPod or MP3 Player, Here.

Obama's Transportation Plan

2008-02-27T17:19:00.001-08:00

Street heat recently posted the link for President Obama's transportation plan.

You can directly download his transportation plan here.

His plan emphasizes government funding to increase transportation security, Amtrack lines and bicycle and pedestrian traffic. While the idea is nice he also wants to increase rail mass transit options and reduce or eliminate congestion in small to medium cities.

I think Obama needs to read Brian Taylor's Rethinking Congestion paper. I would think medium cities would most likely want controlled congestion rather that less congestion.

Also, Obama's desire to rebuild the walkable city by emphasizing bicycles would be new. After looking at the Bogata BRT system, however, one would think emphasizing a BRT program would make more sense with bicycles.

While Obama's plan has some shortcomings, the emphasis on having citizens use bikes and walking as modes of transportation is refreshing to hear, and a victory for Smart Growth advocates.

Honolulu Transit

2008-02-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

Professor Kodama sent me an interesting article to put on the blog.

Residents of Honolulu will be getting a new mass transit system. On February 22, the city of Honolulu was recommended by experts to install a rail system. While only one other official objected the rail system, instead preferring a BRT system. It's interesting that the city would think a rail system would be better for them than a BRT system. With all the enthusiasm for the rail line it seems like the BRT system will not be properly thought out. You can read more about the article here.

The article is also featured on youTube and can be seen here.

RTKL, LA Live, and Parking PODCAST

2008-02-27T01:49:00.000-08:00

Listen Here

Yesterday the developers of LA Live, RTKL design firm came to USC and spoke about LA Live. They spoke briefly about the parking situation and how they will widen the roads to increase pedestrian traffic.

Click here to listen or download it

It's pretty long, but there are some worthwhile things to hear and listen too.

Pasadena TMC Tour - Important for PPD 360 Class!!

2008-02-27T01:13:00.001-08:00

We'll be having our Pasadena TMC Tour with Judi Masuda and Joaquin T. Siques, a transportation engineer, on Friday, April 18.

If we plan on using the red line lets use the comment option to set up when and where we'll meet.

Here's the info.

Pasadena TMC tour, Friday, April 18, 10:30 a.m.
Meet you on the steps of City Hall/Garfield side at that time.

Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide

2008-02-27T01:05:00.000-08:00

From Professor Kodama!

The Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide is the most comprehensive resource for planning a bus rapid transit (BRT) system, beginning with project preparation all the way through to implementation.

Click here for online purchase

It is the culmination of over five years of efforts to document and improve the state of the art in cost-effective public transport solutions for cities. This edition, expanded to over 850 pages, includes contributions from a wide range of professionals and practitioners with direct experience in designing and implementing BRT systems all over the world. It is currently only available in English, but it is being translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Download it below or purchase a printed copy by clicking here.

Beginning with an overview of BRT, the Planning Guide proceeds to give a step-by-step description of the planning process, including operational design, financial modeling, physical design, multi-modal and land use integration, business plan development, communications and marketing, contracting, vehicle and fare collection technology, evaluation, and implementation.

The BRT Planning Guide is intended as a guidance document mainly for planning and engineering professionals. However, others, such as non-governmental organizations, national and regional policymakers, and business groups, will find it a valuable resource as well, when advocating for their issues and finding solutions to the problems that they are addressing.

BRT systems have proven to be catalysts in transforming cities into more livable and human-friendly environments. The appeal of BRT is the ability to deliver a high-quality mass transit system within the budgets of most municipalities, even in low-income cities. Planning and implementing a good BRT system is not easy. This guide aims to make the task a little easier.

BRT Planning Guide - June 2007

Click on the chapter title to download the PDF document:

* Introduction (2.5 MB PDF)
* Part I, Project Preparation (13.5 MB PDF)
* Part II, Operational Design (11.4 MB PDF)
* Part III, Physical Design (12.6 MB PDF)
* Part IV, Integration (9.3 MB PDF)
* Part V, Business Plan (9.6 MB PDF)
* Part VI, Evaluation and Implementation (4.9 MB PDF)
* Resources, Annexes and References (788 KB PDF)

Complete Guide (55.7 MB PDF)

Additional Resources

* Annex 1, BRT System Comparisons (224 KB PDF)
* Annex 2, BRT Consultant Directory (116 KB PDF)
* Sample operator contract (1.5 MB Word file)
* BRT Infrastructure Cost Calculator (40 KB Excel file)

The Bus Rapid Transit Planning Guide is copyrighted by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). It is intended for technical and educational use only and may not be used for commercial purposes. It may not be reprinted or modified without the explicit authorization of ITDP.

The BRT Planning Guide is co-edited by Lloyd Wright, Executive Director of Viva; and Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). It was developed through support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Global Environment Facility/United Nations Environment Programme, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH.

For more information, please contact brtguide@itdp.org

Pounding the Pavement (Deborah's Post for 2/27)

2008-02-26T12:24:00.000-08:00

I want to talk this week about sidewalks, and the sidewalk in front of your house as a microcosm of transportation infrastructure. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council are proposing that homeowners should be responsible for the repair of damaged sidewalks in front of their property, regardless of the age, extent or origin of the damage.

Here is an LA Times article, and here is an LA Times blog poll.

The main points:

-It could cost the homeowner $15 per sq ft to replace damaged sidewalks

-Homeowners are already responsible for certain other upkeep expenses when their property changes hands, namely gas shut-off valves and low-flow toilets.

-The City’s current rate of sidewalk repair will not complete its backlog until 2091.

-Homeowners are not allowed to make decisions regarding planting or removing trees in the public right of way which may be causing damage or posing slip-and-fall hazards.

-Homeowners are not allowed to remove the sidewalks and make them part of their own private landscaping.

My beef and what this has to do with transportation planning:

A major theme in contemporary urban planning is the need to create more walkability, more compact developments that are pedestrian friendly. Putting the responsibility for the pedestrian infrastructure in the hands of potentially un-informed, poorly motivated individuals is as unwise as it is unfair. Our city sidewalks form an integral part of both the multi-modal transportation infrastructure and the stormwater management infrastructure. We should be looking for new innovations in the design and materials, and perhaps finding costs-savings by converting to pervious pavements where appropriate. We should not be looking for costs-savings by merely abdicating responsibility.

Joel Sandberg Expo Line Podcast

2008-02-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

Listen Here!

Joel Sandberg, one of the key staff at the Expo Line Authority, recently came to Professor Woo's PPD-227 class and gave a lecture concerning the relationship between the Expo Line and the USC campus. It's around 40 minutes long and can be downloaded to your iPod or MP3 Player, Here.

Update on Carmel, Indiana Roundabout Interchanges

2008-02-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs, The Urbanophile, just added an entry detailing the roundabout interchanges Carmel, IN is implementing, including renderings. Read this excellent blog entry here.

Congestion Pricing in New York

2008-02-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

Click here for the Congestion Pricing

The Queens Gazette reported on a recent meeting for the Community Board 2 meeting in Queens, NY where two different citizen expressed their viewpoints on Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan.

The plan would reduce vehicle miles traveled by 6.1 percent and an estimated 38.6 percent reduction in the most congested areas.

61% of the citizens at this meeting approve of this plan and 36% would approve the plan even if the money does not go towards improving mass transit.

Other residents at the meeting expressed different opinions about congestion pricing calling it a regressive tax using the London model where the prices have increased by 150% since the programs founding. They also claim that the majority of the congestion comes from taxis and limos therefore they suggest an alternative method to relieve congestion by specifically targeting those vehicles.

Mayor Orders Implementation of Pico-Olympic Plan Despite Opposition

2008-02-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

As posted today in the LA Times, Mayor Villaraigosa has ordered transportation officials to implement "mostly" one-way traffic flows on Pico and Olympic Boulevards. This is achieved by removing one parking lane during rush hour in the designated direction as well as adding new striping. Area residents, councilmembers and other officials have expressed concerns over how pedestrian-unfriendly the design is, and several councilmembers have threatened to remove their districts from the proposal. At this point, Villaraigosa is calling for implementation without consulting city planners. Ouch.

Some choice quotations from the article:

It's unfortunate that the planning department is not going to be engaged. Planning and transportation should be joined at the hip. . . . You just don't bowl over the community like that. You have to appreciate who's there. It's disrespectful to my constituents, and it's an insult to my constituents.
-Bill Rosendahl

We were promised answers to our questions. We have not gotten those answers. There has been no meaningful input, and now the plan is happening anyway.
-Mike Eveloff, President of Tract 7260

So what do I think? First of all, I firmly believe that any action taken on Pico/Olympic should first involve input by transportation planners. There is no excuse for this to be railroaded to the point that councilmembers are wanting to bail out.

Secondly, the distance between Pico and Olympic in many parts of the route raise concerns on the viability of these two streets to be a legitimate freeway-alternate corridor. Residents on side streets most likely will see an influx of cut-through traffic.

Thirdly, the elimination of streetside parking to accomodate more auto traffic just demonstrates Los Angeles' lack of cohesion. Some parts of the city government have pedestrian-friendly initiatives, but Mayor Villaraigosa seems content to further the auto-centric status quo.

Finally, I think this plan is that it is a stinker and will lead to far more problems than it solves. Improving the signal timing or using lane control to add a reversible lane down the center are all much better alternatives than eliminating parking to create a virtual freeway. Business will drop on Olympic and Pico, but unlike the merchant in the article, I don't think it will be because of a lack of street parking, but rather because no one wants to walk alongside a virtual freeway.

More importantly, what do YOU think?

Men and Traffic do MIX!

2008-02-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Reuters today reported an odd story, indirectly related to transportation planning.

A group of 10 bodybuilders in Berlin helped lift a car out of a six foot ditch. The driver, a 38 year old man, lost control and flew into a meadow near the men's gym. It only took the men a couple of minutes to pull the car out of the ditch.

What can we learn from this? In the future when planning highways, we should always put gyms near curvy high speed paths.

Click here for full story

£25 SUV Congestion Charge

2008-02-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

London Mayor Ken Livingstone will be passing a plan to charge £25 for cars that emits 225g per km of CO2 when entering congestion zones. Cars that emit less than 120g per km will be omitted and cars in between will be charged £8 for entering.

Two questions, where will the money collected from these funds go and how will delivery businesses respond?

Also, if Bloomberg successfully added a congestion zone in NYC do you think a fee like this would eventually be added as well?

To read the full article click here

Los Angeles ranks exactly ranks in the middle for Sustainability

2008-02-08T23:04:00.000-08:00

The GoingGreenDC blog recently posted an article showing a list of sustainable cities as reviewed by SustainLane.com

Sustainlane, is an independent online media company that offers peer reviews, where you can quickly find over 20,000 green products and great local businesses.

They recently listed the 50 most sustainable cities in the US and Los Angeles ranked at 25. Right in the middle of the pack. For all the details click here.

While they praise Los Angeles' SustainLA program, their study showed that we ranked 49 overall for metro congestion. On the bright side, LA was ranked 8th overall for mass transit.

Overall, an interesting read for anyone curious about how much progress Los Angeles has made the past few years.

All About Roundabouts

2008-02-08T22:51:00.001-08:00

I was surfing on the City of Carmel, Indiana, website and came across this page explaining the safety and environmental benefits of roundabouts. For those unfamiliar with roundabouts, it's a nice little primer that includes both a presentation and an animation on "How to Negotiate a Roundabout" (sourced from the City of Clive).

As an Indianapolis native, I've frequently encountered the roundabouts in Carmel (they currently have over 40 with dozens more planned) and I've got to say they work really well! Traffic flows much better through these European-style intersections than more traditional stop signs and traffic signals.

They've worked so well that Carmel is converting an expressway with signalized intersections into a sunken expressway with roundabout interchanges for exiting/cross-street traffic, with construction starting this year and continuing throughout the next few construction seasons. Project site is located here.

Anybody else have experiences with roundabouts? Any places you think Los Angeles could use some more (PCH has one in Long Beach)?

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Bogotá

2008-02-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Professor Kodama found an interesting post about the Bus Rapid System in Bogota. The post comes from Streetsblog and offers a great 7 minute video talking about the BRT system in Bogota.
The Bogota BRT line travels at amazing speeds and runs like a subway. With stations located in the middle of large roads and smaller buses that bring people to their destinations to the smaller areas. Plus those smaller buses are free. With this "hive" sort of system the BRT line has bicycle use become an integral part of their BRT system and found a great balance for most commuters. Lastly their BRT system is monitored like air traffic. Maybe the MTA can change the road use on Wilshire to something like this.

You decide.

Congestion Combine: USC PPD-360: Traffic Blog

10 Best Cities for Public Transportation

California Roads Are Massively Subsidized

Chinese BRT system wins sustainability award

Tim Papandreou: Sustainable Transportation Lecture

Curitiba, Brazil is Seen as a Model for Bus Rapid Transit

Phoenix Public Transportation Campaign

How a Tourist Traveled in Los Angeles for $100 a day Entirely by Bike

Los Angeles on $100 a Day

High Speed Rail Ethics

blog posting

Villaraigosa "Give Me 3" PSA- a Road Safety Approach to Cycling

Please add this link to the blog

USC Bans Bicycles on Bike Lane, More Restrictions to Come

No Bikes in the Bike Lane

Pushing Bikes to the Periphery

Bikes on Campus – What's the Real Problem?

The Problem – Recontextualized

Education

Infrastructure

Bicycle Parking

Going Forward

With 10,000 to 15,000 Bicycles a Day on USC's Campus, Calls for a Beefier Bicycle Plan

FTA Gets Ready to Play a Larger Role in Safety

San Fransisco Loves Don Shoup

DOT Livability Program

Senator questions whether DOT livability program will hurt financial support for roads

4th Street In Motion Festival

Garmin-Asus Android-powered A10 ready for almost all transportation needs

Transportation's bicycle policy hits potholes

Prospect Park West’s two-way bike lane is on a roll

Smart transport in South Korean transit systems

South Korea and Japan streets ahead in smart transport

NBC Reports on the Misuse of Placards in Los Angeles

First Published: Mar 3, 2010 10:11 AM PDT

High Speed Rail

Bullet train plan under fire from local officials

California's massive high-speed rail project could save up to $2 billion -- and hundreds of homes -- by expanding and sharing existing tracks through the L.A.-O.C. region, local transit leaders argue.

Ciclovia in Los Angeles?

Obama and the Transportation Budget

President's Budget Includes $1.82 Billion for 27 Major Transit Construction Projects Across the Nation

Request includes $834.6 million for 19 new projects

Bullet Train Coming to US

TDM in Action

LA Port Reports 2005-2008 Air Emissions Down

Monday, November 9, 2009

LA Port Reports 2005-2008 Air Emissions Down

Update on Little Tokyo / Regional Connector

blogdowntown: Home Page for the Downtown Click.

http://blogdowntown.com

The End of LOS?

Bike lanes to create jobs?

In reference to Professor Kodama's Post

Santa Monica, Don Shoup, San Francisco, New York

Parking thoughts from the other side of the world

Congestion Pricing and the Environment

George Costanza

Schwarzenegger could end part of 710 Freeway debate

Congestion Awareness

Villaraigosa's Thoughts on LA's Transit System

CA 2, Santa Monica Blvd, and Beverly Hills

Donald Shoup In Action

America's Scariest Roads

What's going on in Transportation Policy?

Putting Parking into Reverse - from Professor Don Shoup

Bicycling in NYC

Denver: Affordable housing through TOD--- will it work?

City to buy real estate

DMV -- HELP!

Elimination of Parking Requirements

Long Beach’s State Senator Lowenthal Takes on Parking Requirements

Forbes: America's Most Congested Cities and Worst Intersections

Modern Parkway: Carmel, Indiana

Metrolink To Stop Offering Metro Rail Transfers

Metrolink-to-MTA transfer policy set to change

Smart Transportation

Alaskan Viaduct Replacement

Innovative Transportation

History of the Port of Los Angeles

GPS that finds Cheapest Gas Station!