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The story (or joke) goes like this. When someone asked Elizabeth Taylor if she had any advice for young people in show business, she replied "Take Fountain." This is a reference to Fountain Avenue, which is (or used to be) a less congested alternative to Sunset or Santa Monica boulevards through Hollywood. But a Google search also attributes the "Take Fountain" line as Bette Davis' dying words! In any case, the Bottleneck Blog heard another funny L.A. traffic line the other day from a colleague here at The Times: When I left the city desk in downtown Los Angeles [Thursday night] at 7, I mentioned I needed to be in Santa Monica for a dinner appointment by 7:30. "You'll be lucky if you get there in time for breakfast," the paper's police reporter shouted after me.
She got there on time.
Photo from towleroad
Much of the state bond money allocated last week for transportation went to widening freeways with carpool lanes. But should we really be thinking about grade separations? California Transportation Commisson member Marion Bergeson (a former OC supervisor) tells the Register that the next big thing in the state is figuring out goods movement: One of the major issues that's not just Orange County but throughout the state ... is what we call the goods movement. That is how we move the trucks and the trains from the ports to all the various areas where they're bound for. And that impacts Orange County. Grade crossings – in other words, ways of getting the trains going through some of our communities as conveniently as possible rather than holding up traffic and, obviously, (causing) safety problems.
The massive Alameda Corridor project is attempting to do some of that in the path between the ports of L.A. and Long Beach through the Inland Empire. But many communities feel they need a lot more money to fix the gridlock being caused by goods movement from the port inland.
“We are basically running a small municipal transit agency,” said Marty Lev, Google’s director of security and safety, tells the NYT in a fascinating piece about the Internet giant's extensive shuttle bus system for employees, which runs across the Bay Area to the Mountain View headquarters: In Silicon Valley, a region known for some of the worst traffic in the nation, Google, the Internet search engine giant and online advertising behemoth, has turned itself into Google, the mass transit operator. Its aim is to make commuting painless for its pampered workers — and keep attracting new recruits in a notoriously competitive market for top engineering talent. And Google can get a couple of extra hours of work out of employees who would otherwise be behind the wheel of a car. The company now ferries about 1,200 employees to and from Google daily — nearly one-fourth of its local work force — aboard 32 shuttle buses equipped with comfortable leather seats and wireless Internet access.
Despite the efforts, the Times says the EPA ranked Intel as being most commuter friendly, by offering shuttle subsudies as well as more telecommuting opportunities.
What do you think of the Google Express? Hit COMMENT and speak your mind!
 That Topanga Canyon commute is about to get worse:
A portion of Topanga Canyon Boulevard will be closed next week for a repaving project, according to the California Department of Transportation. The two-lane road will be down to one lane between Topanga School Road and Cezanne Avenue from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Flaggers will be in place to manage traffic, but motorists should expect delays, according to Caltrans. The construction is part of a $5.5 million, 11-mile project to replace existing pavement with rubberized asphalt concrete, according to the department. (From CNS)
 
It's a radical idea for easing traffic-- but at least some like it. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky took his concept of making Olympic and Pico boulevards one-way to a Westside forum this week -- and got some props, according to the Palasadian-Post: According to the current plan, Pico would go east and Olympic west. The two streets would be wide enough to have four-lane traffic that Yaroslavsky hopes would include a designated bus lane. This plan is expected to generate opposition from merchants who expect business disruption. ....'I think the one-way Pico-Olympic circuit is a great idea,' said George Wolfberg, president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. 'To the extent that people migrate to the most free-flowing option, it will have a beneficial spillover on Sunset.'
Backers note that Beverly Hills has successful reduced gridlock with one-way streets (though they tend to be smaller ones, not major boulevards). Wonder what businesses along Olympic and Pico think? (Photo credit).
Are you sold on the one-way idea? Hit COMMENT button and speak out.
 Here's the find of the week on a Southern California freeway:
Authorities found about three tons of marijuana in a rental truck abandoned on a freeway off-ramp, officials said. A California Highway Patrol officer smelled the marijuana when he approached the truck Wednesday, CHP Sgt. Telfinues Preszler Jr. said. "To my understanding, there are no suspects," Preszler said. (from AP)
The Daily Bulletin says the find was made on the 10 Freeway in Ontario and that the pot was worth $20 million.
They work on freeways. Now city leaders are trying to bring traffic-condition signs to surface streets. The mayor unveiled five of them in South L.A. (among 20 citywide). The Times Jean Guccione reports: The five new changeable message signs around Exposition Park should remind Robert Nubine to take a different route to work when USC’s football team is playing at the Coliseum. The signs, part of an $11-million area traffic relief project, are designed to alert motorists immediately to auto accidents, street detours and major events that might worsen their commutes. "It’s a foreshadowing kind of thing," said Nubine, 19, a supervisor at a nearby Starbucks. The signs will let him know to go another way or at least call his boss to say he’ll be late.
The city today unveiled it's latest red-light camera, this one on the corner of Broadway and Vernon Avenue.
An interesting map of red-light cameras around Southern California.
Residents of the high desert are counting on a new freeway to ease the crushing congestion of this fast-growing area. The High Desert Corridor would run east-west, connecting Highway 14 in the Antelope Valley with Interstate 15 in Victor Valley. (Eventually the $2.6 billion project could hit Interstate 5, where massive residential development is planned). Of course, at least one developer isn't waiting for the highway to be built. It's already marketing development opportunities along the route (doesn't that defeat the purpose?).
For North L.A. County residents, the corridor could make the commute south easier, according to the Daily News: One of the goals of the corridor is to allow trucks that need to cross over to I-15 to bypass the traffic-choked Los Angeles Basin. That would free up lanes for the 50 percent of Santa Clarita residents who commute outside the valley, mainly southbound, for work. Many truckers heading south through northern Los Angeles County need to cross over to the I-15 to get to Arizona or the San Diego area, said Bob Haueter, district director for U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita.
California now has the most expensive gas in the nation (surpassing Hawaii, according to the latest numbers). But the Inland Empire seems hardest hit: Tight supplies and speculators helped send Inland Empire prices upward -- with unleaded regular averaging nearly $3 a gallon -- overtaking Hawaii with the nation's most expensive gasoline, the Auto Club said Friday. The average price of a gallon of regular self-serve in Riverside and San Bernardino counties area rose 10.8 cents over the past week to $2.935 today, 37 cents more than last month and a year ago, according to the latest Auto Club survey of the region's gas stations.
Here are how the rest of Southern California is doing:
Orange County $2.763 +12.2 cents
Los Angeles -Long Beach $2.817 +12.6 cents
San Diego $2.837 +12.1 cents
How are the gas prices hitting you? Post your comments below
 San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal to make his city's mass transit system free of charge to riders is creating buzz. But The Chronicle found that the track record for free rides is decidely mixed:
In the 1970s, Trenton, N.J., and Denver tried a no-fare policy during off-peak hours. The last large transit agency to try it was Austin, 17 years ago. That project, which lasted 15 months, resulted in a 75 percent jump in ridership, but part of the increase was attributed to an expanded service area. At the same time, complaints about vandalism and drunken and rowdy riders increased.
Right now, free fares in cities like Portland and Seattle are limited to downtown minibus services. Interestingly, the City of Commerce transit line down here in L.A. doesn't charge. "Fare-free transit really benefits the public. People can just hop on and off the bus,'' said Commerce Transit Director Dan Gomez. (The Commerce transit system seems pretty extensive -- and no signs of massive vandalism!).
What do you think? Hit the COMMENT button and have your say!
 Times Staff Writer Jean Guccione covers transportation in L.A. Jean will try to answer a few of the many questions about commuting and traffic we hear at the Bottleneck Blog.
Q: What does the city do when it has a malfunctioning traffic signal?
A: One little traffic light malfunctions during the morning commute. How bad can it mess up traffic? Well, that depends on where it is and how long it’s out of service. Take Monday, for example, the blinking red lights at La Brea and West Adams boulevards backed up vehicles for several blocks, frustrating motorists. The lights began flashing at 7:35 a.m. due to a "component problem." Traffic engineers responded. By 8:25 a.m., the signal was back up. "It’s as good as new," said John Fisher, assistant general manager of the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation. But that didn’t help commuters waiting for their turn to cross the crowded intersection. When red lights are blinking, "it’s like putting up a stop sign on a busy street," Fisher said. "Everyone is stopping." By contrast, when the lights are working properly, only half the vehicles traveling through an intersection must stop. In this case, the problem should have been spotted sooner. A Saturday night power outage damaged the signal’s timer. When it was reset, the problem was not diagnosed. It worked fine all day Sunday, never letting on that another signal failure was inevitable. The problem revealed itself -- you guessed it -- during Monday’s rush hour.
 We told you Times transportation writer Jean Guccione would get to the bottom of the claim by city officials that synchronizing lights in the South L.A. area (announced by the mayor today) would improve travel times by nearly a quarter. She did some research and here is her explanation:
Whenever Los Angeles city officials unveil more synchronized traffic lights, whether in the San Fernando Valley or in South L.A., they boast that those simple improvements will increase travel speeds by up to 32% and cut travel times by 24%.
How do they know?
Well, they have conducted their own studies by driving the same several blocks at least twice, measuring the difference with and without the computerized signal system in use. Those percentages represent an aggregate of those study findings. In reality, however, will a motorist encounter the same time-saving results on Ventura Boulevard during the morning rush-hour as on Vermont Avenue before a USC football game?
What do you think? Hit COMMENT and speak your mind!
The MTA Gold Line extension through Boyle Heights came under criticism from some who said the transit agency mishandled remains found during the big dig. Now, the MTA is trying to make amends:
The MTA is seeking the public's help to identify possible next-of-kin for deceased that have been identified through grave markers and headstones unearthed during construction of the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension. Human skeletal remains and artifacts dating from the late 1800's to early 1900's were discovered in June 2005.
The MTA website has amazing images of what they found. The Times' David Pierson broke this story last year, noting that the find touched a raw nerve in L.A.'s Chinese community: They could not marry, they could not own property, and they performed the most undesirable jobs: ditch diggers, canal builders, house boys. They were banned from most shops and public institutions and were the target of racist violence that went unpunished. Los Angeles was home to an estimated 10,000 Chinese in the late 19th century — almost all men who came to America to work on the railroads and ended up in desperate straits, crowded into a filthy Chinese ghetto near what is now Union Station. A recent discovery by a new generation of railway workers building the extension of the Gold Line commuter rail line through Boyle Heights has unearthed this dark but largely forgotten period in Los Angeles history.
 Malibu residents are having a tough time figuring out why traffic has suddenly gotten worse on Pacific Coast Highway. Residents say the problems are backing up traffic for a half-hour or more. Road work, messed up traffic signals and construction at the Bel-Air Bay Club have contributed, according to the Malibu Times. The paper found that it is hard to find who exactly is responsible for fixing the problems:
As far as traffic control is concerned, the area is in the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department, which rarely sends officers to the scene of such backups. According the Sheriff's Department, the LAPD is likely to respond to an injury or emergency situation, but not to a traffic tie-up. The snarl, however, did seem like a bit of an emergency for thousands of motorists...
Do you find it hard to get help for traffic problems? Hit COMMENT and tell your story.
 With gridlock talking hold in cities across the country, there has been a boom in the number of "mega highways." These are freeway exchanges with 18, 20 or more lanes. There are plans in Phoenix for a 24-lane interchange and one in Atlanta that's 23 lanes, according to USA Today. Of course, Orange County has the granddaddy of all mega highways:
An interstate highway wider than the length of a football field is not as rare as it was 10 years ago, when the El Toro interchange of Interstates 5 and 405 in Orange County, Calif., opened with 26 lanes.
The El Toro Y (where the 5 and 405 come together in Irvine) carries more than 350,000 a day and generated much transportation buzz when it opened in the mid-1990s.
Should we have more mega-freeways? Hit the comment button and have your say?
 
A few months ago, there was a string of unusual car burglaries in which thieves were making off with the third-row seats of SUVs. Now, the Breeze reports, it's a ring of thieves grabbing catalytic converters: Catalytic converters, located in the undercarriage, are easily removed by unscrewing a few bolts, authorities said. And each one can have about a tenth of an ounce of precious metal. On Wednesday, police announced the arrests of two men suspected of committing several catalytic converter thefts in El Segundo, Torrance, Long Beach and Signal Hill... According to metal trading Web sites, platinum sold Wednesday for more than $1,100 an ounce, palladium for nearly $350 and rhodium for $5,900.
Aliso Viejo down in South Orange County is blessed with wide parkways. But that's also part of the problem. City officials say excessive speed is the biggest cause of accidents in the suburb. But the city is trying to reduce the problem by making some lanes narrower, City Engineer John Whitman tells the Register: Since the city incorporated in 2001, the city has re-striped several streets to narrow down the lanes, Whitman said. By doing so, drivers tend to slow down because of the lack of space. "If you perceive you have a wider lane, you go faster," Whitman said. Because of the narrower lanes, the city has received several calls from residents who are unhappy with the change, but the smaller lanes have been effective in slowing people down, Whitman said.
Narrowing lanes of traffic has become a common "traffic calming" device.
Do you think narrow lanes work? Hit the COMMENT button and have your say!
What will it take to ease traffic on the Westside: A subway to the sea? A light-rail line linking downtown L.A. to Santa Monica? A commuter train to the airport? All of the above - if you don’t mind waiting a decade for relief. In the interim, elected officials told Brentwood-area residents at a community meeting last night that small steps would offer the only immediate relief:
--Street Parking: Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, for example, wants to abolish street parking on Lincoln Boulevard during rush hour. (First, he has to persuade the state Department of Transportation to turn over control of the street.)
--One Way: Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is studying the effects of converting Pico Boulevard into a one-way street eastbound and Olympic Boulevard one way to the west.
--Synchronize: And state Assemblyman Mike Feuer is working in Sacramento to make sure L.A. gets its share of $250 million in state bonds dedicated to synchronizing traffic lights. "It is not a panacea," Feuer warned, "but it will improve life tremendously."
-JEAN GUCCIONE
What do you think of these ideas? Hit COMMENT and speak your mind!
 
The Antonio traffic machine rolls into Exposition Park Thursday to announce completion of a project to synchronizes 176 traffic signals in the South L.A. area. Villaraigosa will also show off new traffic conditions signs and cameras. The mayor's announcement includes this boast: With this new light synchronization project completed, traffic is expected to move along faster as commuter travel times will decrease by 24% and commuter travel speeds will increase by 32%.
Jean Guccione will look at those numbers Thursday. Meanwhile, the Mid-City area might be next. According to CNS: The City Council directed the Transportation Department today to study whether synchronized traffic signals should be installed along north-south streets between Wilshire and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. The neighborhood is considered one of the more congested areas of the city, according to a motion introduced by Councilman Herb Wesson, whose 10th District includes the study area.
Some activists are trying to force federal highway officials to release data they compile on the locations of fatal accidents. They argue the public has a right to know this information, according to The Times' Ralph Vartabedian. The feds argue releasing the data would be a violation of privacy: A lot of motorists might like to know about fatal accidents at dangerous intersections and hazardous freeway segments they use. Such information is readily available, but the federal government won't let the public have it. It is part of a bigger problem with what critics call the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's culture of secrecy. The safety administration has routinely blocked access to all kinds of important safety information, including potential safety defects reported by the auto industry to the agency, according to safety advocates.
What do you think about this? Should the accident data be release to the public? Hit COMMENT and speak out!
The Big Blue Bus is holding community meetings (including one in Westwood on Thursday) to discuss it's new Mini Blue service. The Santa Monica bus service plans to operate "smaller, alternative fuel powered coaches that offer shorter routes with shorter wait times." The service describes Mini Blue this way: With new and improved routes, this service will offer more lines throughout the city, allowing residents to take short trips to popular destinations such as parks, beaches, hospitals, entertainment centers, and farmers markets. This will also allow passengers to park once and ride all day, since we will be doing the driving for you!
List of public meetings here.
Paul Chadwick thought Northern California would be different. But slowly, the cancer of congestion and sprawl spread to the Bay Area, and that seems to make everything up there -- and everyone -- miserable. Writing in the WSJ, Cadwick argues you can't build yourself out of traffic problems: During my 26 years as a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I saw this problem grow until it changed that formerly pleasant, minimally congested region into a rough facsimile of the Los Angeles/Orange County traffic nightmare I chose to avoid when I moved to California. At the same time much of the "have a nice day" civility of Northern California was transformed into "get out of my way" rudeness as frustrated workers struggled with two-hour-plus daily commutes, a transformation that extends, incidentally, to business, social and personal interactions not purely restricted to the highways. I recently fled to New Mexico, at least in part to escape this distress.
What do you think? Have L.A. traffic woes spread to Bay Area? Is more road building the answer? Hit COMMENT below and have your say!
Santa Clarita residents will meet tonight to discuss the state's much-delayed high-speed rail through the city. The plan calls of a station at the 14 Freeway and Via Princessa. Mayor Marsha McLean tells the Signal it could be a solution to traffic problems. "If we don't do something to get a really good mode of transportation to get people off the roadway, we're going to get so stuck in gridlock it's not going to be funny," . "So we have to start planning for the future."
Sadly, the future of the state's high-speed rail plan is very much in question.
 Local officials are getting tough on people who try to "beat the train." Last week, 24 motorists were ticketed during a crackdown in Glendale. Now, it's Orange County's turn, according to CNS:
Law enforcement officers across the county will be watching crossings to catch scofflaws who drive around barriers, according to Denise Tyrrell of Metrolink. Violators can be fined $300. Among the grade crossings where stepped-enforcement is planned: -- in Anaheim, State College Boulevard north of Katella Avenue; -- in Fullerton, Raymond Avenue near Valencia Drive; -- in Irvine, Jamboree Road and Edinger Avenue; -- in Orange, Taft Avenue and Glassell Street; -- in Santa Ana, 17th Street and Lincoln Avenue; -- and in Tustin, Red Hill and Edinger avenues.
 Why are gas prices again exceeding $3 a gallon around Southern California? Here are some answers:
--VENEZUELA: Larry Roberts, a Laguna Beach resident who works as supply manager for Tower Energy, an independent gasoline marketer in Torrance, said turmoil in Venezuela is partly to blame for the recent rise in gasoline prices. (Register)
--POPULATION: "California's high gasoline prices generally reflect huge increases in population and fuel consumption without similar growth in refining capacity." (Times)
--ANIMALS: Officials said Monday that two animals separately set off electrical power disruptions at two Los Angeles-area refineries on Sunday night, adding to the recent rise in West Coast gasoline prices. (L.A. Biz Journal). --FIRES: Also contributing to the local price spike are a couple of refinery fires in recent months. One, at Chevron's refinery in Richmond, has reduced the supply of California's special formula for gasoline, the cleanest-burning in the world. (Register)
What do you think? Hit the COMMENT button below and have your say!
Will San Francisco be first? There is a whole movement out there that argues the best way to reduce traffic congestion is to make public transportation free. Now, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has asked that the idea be studies: He told The Chronicle that when all the costs associated with collecting the fares are factored in, the idea of letting people board for free may not be a big financial stretch. "When you add everything up, this idea certainly deserves consideration,'' he said. ...The city hopes to collect a projected $138 million in fares in the upcoming fiscal year. And while that may seem like a lot of money, it accounts for about 22 percent of the annual Municipal Railway budget -- below the average national fare-box collection rate.
In The Times recently, D. Malcolm Carson made the case for free mass transit rides, aruging it gives motorists a true incentive to get out of their cars: Eliminating transit fares is the logical flip side to the anti-congestion pricing schemes so favored by economists. London, for instance, charges a daily fee equal to about $15.60 to drive in the traffic-chocked central city between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. Just as such fees on cars supposedly discourage driving, eliminating fares could encourage public transit use.
What do you think? Do free rides make sense? Will they get folks out of their cars? Hit the COMMENT button and join the dialogue.
 Some of the biggest parking crunches occur in neighborhoods with apartment complexes. As the region's population rises, more people are cramming into the apartments -- and with them come more cars. At the same time, some parking spaces are used for storage (many older apartments have just one space per unit, as opposed two that is now required). But The Register reports that the city of Anaheim is about to embark on a new effort to improve the parking standoff:
Anaheim is trying out a new plan. This month, the City Council is set to consider lifting its four-year-old ban on most new permits, but only after city officials attack the root of the problem – garages being used for storage, illegal fees for parking spots, inoperable cars. "This is a grand experiment," said John Lower, Anaheim's traffic and transportation manager.
You might recall that The Times' Martha Groves recently found that Westside residents (many apartment dwellers) were up in arms because their very precious parking places were being taken up by diners at high-end eateries.
Here's another one of those gross things that seem to only happen on SoCal freeways: Four suspects carjacked a man and his girlfriend at knifepoint early Tuesday and forced the pair to withdraw money from several ATM machines before abandoning them naked on the side of a freeway, authorities said. The couple, both in their early 20s, were found by California Highway Patrol officers who spotted them standing along Interstate 15 in Corona, a suburb about 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The woman was sexually assaulted during the crime spree and was taken to a hospital for treatment, said San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire. Her boyfriend was not injured. (from AP)
Will L.A. traffic gridlock ruin the city's chance to host the Olympics in 2016? That's a looming questions in L.A.'s competition with Chicago. Reuters reports that the Olympic committee is concerned: Members of the evaluation committee said another knock on Los Angeles was that its facilities were spread across sprawling Southern California, which famously lacks public transportation and has some of the worst traffic problems of any major U.S. city. Ctvrtlik said the Southern California committee assured them such problems could be overcome.
How exactly? Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has cited the 1984 Olympics -- which to the surprise of everyone, traffic was fine. Boosters have also talked about concentrating the games in a smaller geographical space: Los Angeles' 2016 plan is considerably more compact than what was used in 1984. That is significant, given Southern California's substantial growth in population and traffic. According to a UCLA study, the population of Los Angeles County is expected to increase by 50 percent, to 12.8 million, in the three decades between 1990 and 2020. Those 4 million additional people may be using almost as many additional cars. The 2016 L.A. plan calls for one primary Olympic Village, on the campus of either USC or UCLA, rather than the two of 1984; venues in two counties rather than four; and many venues on or near the rail transit system built after 1984.
What do you think? Can L.A.'s streets and freeways handle the Olympics? Hit the COMMENT button below and speak out.
 
Here's a very retro addition to L.A.'s streetscape. Remember all those 1984 Olympic light pole banners? Now, according to CNS, L.A. is getting banners for the 2016 Olympics: Banners will soon be affixed to street light poles, touting Los Angeles as a bid city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, under a plan approved today by the City Council. The United States Olympic Committee will announce on April 14 whether Los Angeles or Chicago will be selected as a U.S. bid city to host the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will select a host city from a pool of worldwide candidates in 2009. USOC officials toured sports venues in Los Angeles last week to determine whether the city is equipped to host the Summer Olympics for a third time.
L.A.'s popular DASH mini bus serving is moving into East L.A. But in the fine print, we learn it replaces a cancelled regular bus route: The city-operated DASH bus system will extend its route by three miles through Boyle Heights and the Eastside under a plan approved today by the Los Angeles City Council. For now, the 5 1/2-mile route ends at Rowan Avenue and Cesar Chavez Avenue, but service will be extended to the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and Herbert Avenue in East Los Angeles, according to a Los Angeles Transportation Department report. The expanded DASH line replaces the Metro Line 255 bus route scheduled for cancellation. (from CNS).
We told you that driving OC's toll roads can be expensive ($9 or more during rush hour). But The Times' Dana Parsons tells us about one couple who got a $90,000 bill from the OCTA! Yes, $90,000. The couple says it all has to do with a misunderstanding when they stopped using their transponder during cancer treatment. The OCTA, however, shows 175 violations on the toll roads: Come now the Wilsons of Riverside County — Willie and Cynthia — described by their attorney as "working-class folks like you and me." With one key difference, I would suggest. You and I aren't on the hook for $90,000 to the Orange County Transportation Authority for using the 91 Express Lanes with expired transponders. Sometime today, the Wilsons may find out whether Orange County Superior Court Judge Frederick Horn has a sense of humor about that sort of thing. The Wilsons are asking him to dismiss OCTA's demand for payment.
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Main Street in Huntington Beach will close at 5 p.m. today for a street festival. The closure also marks an experiment: City officials are considering closing the main drag through downtown permanently, making it a pedestrian shopping district similar to Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. CNS says merchants will be watch closely how business does: City officials contemplated permanently closing Main Street to create a promenade, similar to the one in Santa Monica. Some business owners, however, worried that reducing parking by closing the street would hurt them in the long run, but they agreed to test the waters with a series of evening events (and street closures). A rotating lineup of musicians are scheduled for each Tuesday evening through May 22.
More on the pedestrian-only effort from Huntington Beach.
What do you think? Should Main Street go pedestrian only? Hit COMMENT and speak out!
There was a scary accident on the 10 Freeway overnight that points up the dangers that come when you break down. According to CNS: Two men were killed in Rosemead while inspecting a flat tire on their disabled car in the carpool lane of the eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway, authorities said today. The accident occurred on the 10 at Rosemead Boulevard around 11 p.m. yesterday, said California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter....Both men were pronounced dead at the scene, he said. A third man at the scene was uninjured but became distraught and highly agitated after the accident and was restrained by officers, a camera crew reported. The driver of the Nissan pickup, a 69-year-old Montclair man, was questioned at the scene and released, Porter said.
Here are some freeway breakdown safety tips from the AAA.
Times Staff Writer Jean Guccione covers transportation in L.A. Beginning this week, Jean will try to answer a few of the many questions about commuting and traffic we hear at the Bottleneck Blog.
Q: How does the loss of property with the 405 widening through the Sepulveda Pass compare to other widening projects.
A: Property along this Westside stretch is very expensive, and Caltrans is trying to minimize costs and disruptions. A proposed widening of the 101 freeway through the Valley would have taken up to 700 homes and 250 businesses (the plan was rejected). The widening of the I-5 through Downey, Norwalk, La Mirada and vicinity would take 200 homes and 350 businesses. By contrast, the 405 Westside work would at most take away 30 properties.
Post your thoughts by hitting the COMMENT button.
 It turns out the amount of energy we get from filling up at the gas station depends on the temperature. According to AP, "Pumps currently measure fuel based on an assumption that its temperature is 60 degrees. When its temperature increases, gasoline and diesel expand, giving motorists less energy per gallon." Some groups feel California drivers are being cheated, and state officials this January approved the use of special gas pumps that check the temperature. But it's been tough going:
A consumer group urged California's attorney general Monday to investigate a North Carolina company's decision not to sell a gasoline pump that allows the amount of fuel sold to be adjusted based on its temperature. The Campaign for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said motorists in warm-weather states such as California can be shortchanged when they fill up without the type of gas pump made by the company. The Santa Monica-based group suggested that Gilbarco Veeder-Root decided not to market the fuel pump and a retrofit device to upgrade existing pumps because of pressure from the oil industry.
A spokeswoman for Gilbarco told the Kansas City Star that the company made a "business decisions" not to sell the pumps in the United States. The Star found that "the average year-round temperature of gasoline and diesel in service station tanks is 64.7 degrees. That means motorists are paying an extra $1.7 billion a year for fuel."
Should California get these special pumps? Are we being cheated? Hit the COMMENT button below and have your say!
Is this a good catch by an amateur video guy or an example of You Tube marketing? The video shows some cars crashing off an L.A. Freeway -- part of filming for an action movie (rumored to be the latest "Die Hard"). Check it out -- it's quite a sight.
We all know finding a parking spot during that shopping excursion to Old Town Pasadena can be trying. Now, Pasadena officials are talking about ways to improve traffic flow and parking issues throughout the city. One idea from a consultant's report is staggering the price of metered parking, "having a nominal price for the first hour or two of parking, and increasing the price sharply for longer terms," according to the Sierra Madre Weekly. (Some shop owners are not happy). There is also talk of parking meters on some residential streets.
The Times' Steve Harvey noted that past efforts to mess with parking in L.A. have been problematic.
Also in Pasadena, the CHP is looking whether road improvements are needed after a series of truck accidents on the 210.
A study by the Sacramento Bee found a disturbing "suicide cluster" involving California Highway Patrol officers. AP summaries:
The California Highway Patrol has a higher average suicide rate than other police agencies, a newspaper reported. Fifteen workers have taken their lives since September 2003, including 13 men and two women. The suicides ranged from the North Coast to the Inland Empire and included five in the Sacramento area, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. Last month an officer was found dead in his Folsom home. Experts say police suicides often are related to job pressures and the availability of guns.... But the CHP’s suicide rate is much higher than the average, either for a police agency or the population at large. "I’m taken aback," said Robert Douglas, executive director of the National Police Suicide Foundation. "I haven’t seen a cluster like that."
Seven people were injured, two critically, in a collision today between a Foothill Transit bus and another vehicle in Pomona, according to CNS.
Walking. You don't hear this idea used too much as a way of solving L.A.'s traffic woes. Walter Moore at the L.A. Policy Institute suggests changes to tax, zoning and rent-control laws that would encourage people to move closer to where they work: Property taxes currently penalize homeowners who move closer to work: their taxes can skyrocket even if the new home is smaller than the old. To fix this, we need to make Proposition 13 "portable" for anyone who is moving to a home within a mile of his or her job. This will get those people off the streets, as it were, without reducing the taxes they pay.
Moore believe these ideas are cheap than spending billions on a Subway to the Sea.
The 405 widening through the Sepuveda Pass could get messy. The freeway widening will swallow up homes (and perhaps all of Brentwood's Church Lane). And Caltrans may close freeway ramps at Montana Avenue in Westwood, Moraga Drive in Bel-Air Estates and Valley Vista Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, according to The Times Jean Guccione: With state funds now in hand, transportation officials are dusting off plans to widen the San Diego Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass, a $950-million project that could level homes and businesses in some of the region's most affluent neighborhoods. The most controversial option among the proposals would have the California Department of Transportation tearing down dozens of houses and a Lutheran church in Brentwood. A second, more palatable proposal calls for razing fewer homes, mostly as the freeway is widened through the San Fernando Valley.
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Are Westside homeowner groups divided over the Expo Line? The Times Steve Hymon reports: Two websites have emerged on the issue. Four homeowner groups — including Westwood Gardens — are behind http://www.smartrail.org , which advocates pushing the Expo Line onto Venice and Sepulveda boulevards, where the neighborhoods are denser. Some Cheviot Hills homeowners also have a website, http://www.lightrailforcheviot.org , that pushes using the right-of-way, which travels for 0.4 miles through Cheviot Hills in a trench below about 20 homes.
Steve also reports that the the longtime president of the Westwood Gardens Civic Assn. has resigned because she felt the group was going to prematurely come out against the Expo Line extension.
Bus riders complain about overcrowded buses and long waits. Commuter complain about a, how shall we say, limited selection of subway routes. And those people who stepped in mercury aren't too happy either. But the MTA is getting some props from Fast Company magazine, which praised a "redesign" that has brought designer buses and artsy subway stations to L.A.. It says the MTA is trying to channel a BMW-loving culture: Who needs a car in L.A.?" says Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as he hops onto a 1947 Pacific Electric streetcar. "We got the best public-transportation system in the world!" For Valiant's L.A., that was true; the Pacific Electric once maintained an efficient electric railway with more than 1,000 miles of track. But public transit here is about to enter another golden age. A focus on design has created a smart new system gorgeous enough to wean even the most addicted driver off the high-test. The change began in 2002, when the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority consolidated its ambitious public-art program and its in-house design studio into one creative-services department, attracting top design talent from local firms. At their urging, the MTA was nicknamed Metro, and a countywide campaign began to shift public perception. One of the first tasks was to rebrand the buses, and when the fleet began to roll out in eye-popping California Poppy, Rapid Red, and Business Blue, awareness skyrocketed. The kicker: These weren't even new buses, just better decals and a good coat of paint.
By the way, bigger buses are coming to the high-designed Orange Line.
Here's the scene as captured by Times reporters as L.A. marathoners made the subway trek to the starting line: At the Civic Center station a little after 6 a.m., about 20 runners touched up their sunscreen, taped up their ankles and laced up their running shoes as they waited for the Red Line. Trains leaving the downtown station were crowded -- sometimes packed shoulder-to-shoulder -- but most runners seemed pleased with the park-at-the-finish, commute-to-the-start arrangement. "It's fantastic," said Will Lennertz, 42, an English professor at Santiago Canyon College in Orange who was running his second Los Angeles marathon. "It's so much better than driving around and looking for parking." Some bleary-eyed runners dozed fitfully on the train or zoned out to iPods, but others chatted cheerfully with their fellow marathoners, swapping jokes or commiserating over the travail ahead. "I think I've gone to the bathroom 40 times in the past two days, I've been trying to hydrate so much," one man observed as the runners around him nodded sympathetically.
As of 3 p.m., the city's traffic map still shows a lot of red in downtown.
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