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Remember when they said the Alameda Corridor would transform port traffic and ease truck congestion and pollution? Well, Progressive Railroading reports traffic on the rail corridor is not great: The tail end of the fall peak didn't help drive up train traffic on California's Alameda Corridor in November. Only 1,356 trains used the key 20-mile intermodal route between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and downtown L.A. — the lowest monthly total so far in 2007 and lowest November level since 2003, the corridor's first full year of operation, when the route registered 1,243 trains. The previous low in 2007, 1,442 trains, occurred in February, according to Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority data. The last time traffic yielded a lower mark than November's: February 2005, when 1,322 trains used the corridor. The route averaged 45.2 trains per day in November compared with October's 48.4, September's 49.1, August's 49.0, July's 50.2, June's 51.3 and May's 50.6 average.
The city is making shopping a bit easier. Well, a bit might be too much. Officials are bringing the Traffic Relief Brigade to local malls: Drivers heading to 43 intersections near malls and shopping centers can expect some relief -- beginning today -- thanks to the deployment of 70 traffic control officers, Los Angeles officials announced. The Holiday Shopping Traffic Relief Brigade will be on the streets from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Dec. 24. "From Crenshaw to right here at Hollywood and Highland, we want our residents to spend more time inside stores instead of stuck in traffic around the stores," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The traffic officers will be at intersections around The Grove, Hollywood & Highland, the Westside Pavillion, the Sherman Oaks Galleria, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Northridge Fashion Center, and the Toy, Fashion and Jewelry districts in downtown Los Angeles. Officers will also be on Melrose Avenue between Highland Avenue and Gardner Street; at Larchmont and Beverly boulevards; and at Westwood and Wilshire boulevards. The Westfield Corp. donated $75,000 to the city to pay for the officers. (CNS)
Those fancy new parking meters that are already used in West Hollywood are now coming to parts of L.A.: City officials today unveiled the parking meter of the future, which takes the swipe of a credit card as well as small change. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was among the VIPs touting the Easy Park-Easy Pay machine, which was installed in a city parking lot at 11229 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is replacing 6,000 of the city’s 40,000 meters with the multi-unit machines that allow motorists to use cash, credit card, debit card or their cellphones to pay for parking. LADOT officials unveiled the first unit in a city lot in North Hollywood. "Anyone in Los Angeles who has parked on the street or in public lots knows the frustration of broken meters, unwarranted parking tickets, and the stress of scraping for spare change to cover your trip to the local store," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. City engineers plan to replace 1,000 meters in city parking lots and another 5,000 along Los Angeles streets by next spring. If the new meters are deemed a success, LADOT will replace all of the city parking meters within two years. (CNS)
Isn't the city supposed to pay for traffic signals? In Pacific Palisades, The Palisadian-Post reports that a private school attempted to raise $100,000 for a signal on Sunset -- but fell short: The Westside Waldorf School's fundraiser on Sunday fell far short of raising the nearly $100,000 needed to fund the construction of a traffic signal on Sunset Boulevard at Los Liones Drive. The total amount raised from school-sponsored raffles, auctions and donations was "somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 -- but probably closer to $10,000 -- said the K-8's Development Director Jeffrey Graham on Tuesday. That leaves the school roughly $85,000 short of what it must raise. "We're still waiting for the final estimate," Graham said. "We had a lower turnout than we had wished for, but we had a broad range of people participating. The real value [of the event] was raising awareness." L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl was one of approximately 50 people who attended the event.
Residents in Upland aren't happy about long delays for Metrolink trains going through, according to the Daily Bulletin:
Patience is a virtue for drivers traveling north and south on Euclid Avenue at A Street in Upland. Commuters are left waiting when crossing arms go down when a westbound Metrolink train approaches and again when the train leaves the station, at Second Avenue and A. Automatic sensors on the tracks trigger crossing signals to come down when a train approaches. This doesn't change when a train makes a stop. Upland resident Douglas Neely travels on the street frequently and said he has a possible solution. "Since the train is going to stop at the station, Metrolink should provide their engineers with a remote device to keep the gates open, this way the crossing arms come down once when it's ready to leave the station," Neely said.
  Here's another milestone in the effort to improve flow at the big Inland Empire freeway junction:
A marching band and low-flying airplanes will be part of tomorrow’s scheduled ceremony to celebrate the opening of connector bridges that are expected to ease congestion at the busy 60/91/215 freeway interchange in Riverside. Two freeway “flyover” ramps -- one connecting northbound Interstate 215 to the westbound Riverside (91) Freeway, and the other connecting the southbound 215 to the eastbound Moreno Valley (60) Freeway -- will be dedicated during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by local and state officials, according to Caltrans. The ramps, one a mile long, have been under construction since February 2004 and replace the cloverleaf connector lanes that concentrated traffic flow in one area, Caltrans spokeswoman Terese Lagana said. (CNS)
Not sure how many people this will affect, but the LADOT (which runs the popular DASH bus lines in downtown L.A. and elsewhere) will no longer take METRO passes: Los Angeles (Dec 6) - Transit Services operated by the city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) will no longer accept Metro passes for the payment of Commuter Express or DASH bus fares as of Jan. 1, 2008. LADOT was informed by Metro earlier this year that it will no longer reimburse the department for riders who use Metro passes to pay their fares on LADOT buses. LADOT General Manager Rita L. Robinson said that the department regretted having to take this action because, “there are many Metro pass holders riding on Commuter Express and DASH buses. We share the same service area, so pass acceptance had enabled riders to shift freely between the two systems.”
More details here
Claremont's downtown has been booming in recent years with the addition of new developments (including movie theaters). Now the city is talking about a trolley line to get visitors around: A 1.5-mile trolley-like route that would connect the Village Expansion, Village and Metrolink parking lot was approved Monday night by the city Traffic and Transportation Commission. The system includes a 25-foot, 23-seat trolley-shaped bus that would complete its four-stop circular route in less than 15 minutes, said Scott Carroll, director of community services. The system is planned to run for a three-year trial period, with the trolley-like bus being leased by the city. (From the Daily Bulletin)
 The plan to build a Gold Line rail extension from Pasadena to San Bernardino County remains a long shot at this point. But local officials keep pushing, and got some good news in the form of some seed money:
Officials have secured millions of dollars in local funding for the proposed Gold Line extension to Montclair. The five cities along the first phase of the planned 24-mile light-rail extension - Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale and Azusa - have pledged $1 million each in writing, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority. Six more cities along the remainder of the proposed route agreed in principle to contribute $1 million each. The $11 million could be used to help fulfill a matching fund requirement that would release hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money, Balian said. Local congressional representatives inserted language in a federal transportation bill that gives the project an 80 percent matching grant - as long as state and local sources can make up the remaining 20 percent. For the first phase of the project to the Azusa/Glendora border, officials would need to come up with $80 million to get $320 million from the federal government.
Remember the much-discussed plan to build a freeway in a tunnel under the Santa Ana Mountains? The PE reports that despite some very preliminary testing, money problems are already cropping up for the Corona-to-Irvine route: Just weeks before drilling into the Santa Ana Mountains to begin determining if a tunnel is the answer to worsening traffic on Highway 91, a new and more strict interpretation of federal funding rules threatens to scuttle the process. At issue is whether Riverside and Orange counties will be able to use $15.8 million in previously approved federal funds to complete soil and groundwater tests to determine the feasibility of the proposed Irvine-Corona Expressway. Transportation officials expect a permit from the U.S. Forest Service in early 2008 that will allow them to start tests.
Cool graphic on what the tunnel would look like here.
 The MTA proposal to put up gates and turnstiles at some rail stations doesn't sit well with The Times' Christopher Hawthorne, who likes the open feel:
The subway station is one of the newest building types in Greater Los Angeles. It is also one of the most thoroughly under-examined. When was the last time you thought, even fleetingly, about the design of L.A.'s subway and light-rail stops? One reason the stations have remained relatively anonymous, architecturally speaking, is that most have settled comfortably into the city's landscape. Particularly on the Gold Line -- where above-ground stops in Chinatown, Highland Park, South Pasadena and elsewhere have an open, airy feel and real urban charisma -- these designs successfully reflect the energy and spirit of Southern California. That's no small accomplishment when you consider that for many Americans the very idea of a rail line is synonymous with older, vertical cities, dank, underground spaces and creaking infrastructure.
 The Times' Greg Griggs reports that two Ventura County cities are considering a new -- and radical -- attempt to reduce gridlock. The rules would limit new commercial and residential development near busy intersections until existing traffic problems could be resolved:
Concerned that their suburban lifestyle is being threatened, residents in Ventura County's two largest cities are hoping to put the brakes on traffic generated by future development with two separate ballot initiatives. Oxnard activists turned in petitions last week for a proposed measure that would limit new commercial and residential development near busy intersections until existing traffic problems could be resolved. "Our roadways simply can't handle the number of people on them," said Councilman Tim Flynn, one of the architects of the Oxnard Traffic Initiative. "The public is totally frustrated." In Thousand Oaks, professional petition gatherers are collecting signatures for an initiative that would subject a second Home Depot store and any new retail project of 75,000 square feet or more to a public vote if the project would increase traffic -- despite road improvements. The campaign is largely driven by a competitor of the retail giant but is garnering support from some residents and city officials.
Do you feel like hiking through Griffith Park while slogging in traffic aboard an MTA bus? Well, now you can do both. Sort of. New posters highlighting the attractions of Griffith Park will be be plastered on MTA buses and rail cars. According to CNS: A poster celebrating Griffith Park will be on display on Metro buses and rail cars through January, transit officials announced today. The poster, by artist Bob Zoell, uses bright colors and playful illustrations to depict several attractions in the 4,000-acre park, such as hiking, trains and horseback riding. The poster is the 17th to be commissioned by Metro Art as part of its Metro Neighborhoods poster series.
-- Ruben Vives
Heads-up on this from CNS: A crane has overturned and is blocking the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway south of Rinaldi Street in Mission Hills, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. One person has been injured, says Brian Humphrey of the LAFD.
 The death of a Caltrans worker in the line of duty last week is going to create some traffic tie-ups on Monday, according to CBS2:
A funeral procession for a Caltrans worker killed in the line of duty will mean lane closures midday Monday on three Inland Empire freeways. The procession for John Knabenbauer will enter the eastbound Riverside (91) Freeway at Adams Avenue in Riverside just after 11 a.m. Freeway traffic may be stopped for the procession to enter the 91 Freeway, and lanes will be closed as it passes through Riverside east on Highway 91 and north on Interstate 215. In San Bernardino, the procession will merge right and then head west on the San Bernardino (10) Freeway to the Waterman Avenue exit in Colton, where it will leave the freeway.
We know rain equals traffic accidents. But consider the stats from Friday's storm, as relayed by The Times' Hector Becerra: There were 423 accidents from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in L.A. County. During the same period a day before, there were only 98, said California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball. In San Diego, the CHP reported 283 traffic collisions in the first 16 hours of Friday, up from an average of 75. "I've never seen such a disproportional amount," Kimball said. "I double-checked three times; I couldn't believe it."
The BB took a little break, but we're back. Heads-up on this freeway headache:
The northbound Golden State (5) Freeway off-ramp at Griffith Park Drive in Los Angeles will be closed from 6 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Caltrans announced. Also, the northbound Hollywood (101) Freeway off-ramp at Glendale Boulevard/Echo Park Avenue will be closed Sunday during the same time period. (CNS)
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