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For those who like heavy construction (literally) here’s a pic from earlier this month of a substation being lifted into place for the Expo Line. The substations supply voltage to the overhead wires that, in turn, deliver power to the trains. The substations were manufactured in Virginia and traveled a week cross-country to the Westside.
Are toll lanes elitist or progressive? (L.A. Times)
With Orange County officials still considering toll lanes for the 405 freeway, the Times’ editorial board publishes its very interesting internal discussion on whether to back congestion pricing lanes or not. The fascinating part: they can’t reach agreement while writers on both sides of the debate make some very good points. Kerry Cavanaugh has this to say:
Also, when we looked at Metro’s fare increase a few months ago, we urged the agency to consider more tolling. So who should be bearing the burden if not riders? To start, Metro should look at ways to shift some transit system costs onto drivers, which may sound unfair until you consider that they’re getting a heavily subsidized ride on publicly built and maintained roads. If added fees make it less appealing for people to drive, that’s a good thing; fewer cars on the road reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. Metro should lobby for higher fuel taxes to fund mass transit, look at expanding tolling or congestion pricing to help pay for bus and rail rides, and charge for Metro parking lots.
One of the other points debated is whether it’s best to toll just some lanes — as Metro does on the ExpressLanes on the 10 and 110 (the HOV lanes to be exact) — or all the lanes. In some places such as Chicago and New York, everyone pays tolls to travel certain parts of the freeway. Does it raise money? Yes. Does it cut down on traffic? Hard to say, as traffic can be pretty hideous but possibly it would be more hideous without the tolls. The other part of the question: what if the tolls were dynamic and reflected supply-and-demand?
What the latest Census data says about L.A. city bicycle commuting (Streetsblog LA)
With an assist from Jeff Jacobberger, the latest American Community Survey numbers get crunched, leading to the conclusion that about 1.2 percent of commuters in the city of L.A. are biking to work, 3.6 percent are walking, 10.8 percent are riding transit, 67.1 percent are driving alone and 9.9 percent are carpooling.
As Jeff and Streetsblog point out, these are work trips only — so the numbers aren’t fulluy capturing the folks who ride their bikes to transit or those who may use their cars for work trips but are using their bikes to run errands and such.
All that said, the number of those people biking to work appears to be up in L.A. in recent years, but many more men are willing to ride than women.
Very interesting post and it’s worth noting that a higher percentage of commuters take transit in the city of L.A. than across the entire county. That’s not a huge surprise, given that a lot of Metro’s existing service is within the boundaries of Los Angeles. That said, the numbers probably also reflect that the city has the kind of population density and geographical layout that best supports transit at this time.
Don’t count out L.A. as transit-friendly choice (Boston Globe)
This letter to the editor is about Boston’s purported transit advantage over Los Angeles when it come to bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Not so fast, says the reader — having Olympic venues in Long Beach would work because of the Metro Blue Line, she says, and there are plans underway to make our region more walker, biker and river friendly.
Nice to see L.A. getting some love on the East Coast. Of the other cities interested in the 2024 Games, I do think Boston is the most formidable opponent, given their transit system, many existing sports facilities (thanks to all their colleges) and the fact they’ve never hosted an Olympics and the region isn’t as spread out as here. On the plus side for us, there remains a decent chance no one will be able to understand anything Boston reps say when arguing for the games :)
Finally, a big welcome back aboard, Kings fans! This one — from Monday night’s pre-season game — is about as pretty as it gets:
I couldn’t care less about the phone used to film the above video. But the scenery is great, not silly far from L.A. and sort of involves transportation. If nothing else, some nice eye candy to get you past Wednesday.
