Pedestrian caught in the middle

This is another traffic item that boils the blood. CNS reports: "Two motorists who may have been arguing while speeding were arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving in connection with the death of a pedestrian killed today in North Long Beach, police said. A woman in her 50s was struck about 7:15 a.m. in the 5400 block of Paramount Boulevard, said Jason Evans of the Long Beach Police Department."

Talk -- but little action -- on Westside traffic

There was a talk about traffic at the Rand think tank last week that seems to have caught a good deal of attention. The Santa Monica Mirror highlights what was discussed and notes that a lot of people are talking about Westside traffic (and no one more that Steve Lopez, of course). But what is actually being done? Mmmm:

L.A. traffic seems to have replaced “the weather” in Mark Twain’s remark “Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.”  Last Thursday evening, July 26, over 200 people gathered for a Rand Policy Forum on “Gridlock in Los Angeles: Getting Past the Standstill” at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters.  The week before, the Westside Urban Forum assembled more than 85 for a July 20 Westwood breakfast discussion of “Does L.A. Have the Funding to End the Gridlock?” featuring SM City Councilmember Pam O’Connor, who this year chairs the Metro governing board.

Another fine 101-405 mess

Heads up on this closure on a busy freeway:

The westbound Ventura (101) Freeway connector to the northbound and southbound San Diego (405) Freeway will be closed Sunday from 6 to 11 a.m. for maintenance work, Caltrans announced. The westbound Van Nuys Boulevard onramp and the Sepulveda Boulevard offramp will also be closed, said Yessica Jovel of Caltrans. (CNS)

Could it happen here?

Caltrans officials worked to assure people that there is no known risk to bridges around the state. But The Times' Sharon Bernstein reminds us this is earthquake country, and that adds to the potential danger of bridges collapsing. Last year, Sharon created a database of state records that found 600 bridges around the state remained in need of retrofitting or replacement, with the state saying they could be damaged in the event of a major temblor. Among the bridges are the Hyperion Bridge in Silverlake, the gothic 6th Street Bridge in downtown L.A. and the La Cienega Boulevard span over Ballona Creek.

Sharon will have more on this later. Meanwhile, local officials want the county to step up inspections (see below).

Welcome! Shake off the gridlock

Drivers on the 5 know things are much better on the Orange County side of the county line. O.C. has widened and improved the freeway in a major way -- and L.A. is just getting started. That's created a bottleneck. But at least you'll have something to look at. The O.C. Register reports that Buena Park has a huge welcome sign in the works:

The city is going forward with plans to build an elaborate sign to welcome into Orange County motorists on the southbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway at the Los Angeles County border. The City Council has approved a $35,000 contract, which will be reimbursed by the Orange County Transportation Authority, for Clark & Green Associates to create the final plans and design the monument sign. The sign, on the freeway shoulder, will be surrounded by orange and palm trees and other greenery.

(Little) Big Blue Bus is rolling

Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus service has experienced so many changes lately. Now The Lookout reports that the promised Mini Blue service has arrived. Sounds similar to the DASH concept:

Bus service is expanding with a series of new Mini Blue Buses taking students, shoppers and tourists to their favorite destinations this year. Last Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved the transit services department’s Mini Blue service plan, OKing five new routes -- including one geared specifically to alleviating Santa Monica College traffic -- providing bus service to special events, and extending service on existing routes. The 30-foot, low-floor minibuses have been seen around town for several years, and the Downtown "Tide Ride," the Crosstown Ride and the farmer's market rides are community fixtures already. But July 1 was the kickoff for the Mini Blue brand, called "rides" to suggest "a more relaxed and neighborhood-oriented experience," according to Stephanie Negriff, director of transit services for the city.

Red-light warning after death

The death of that MTA bus driver brought a warning from transportation officials about red-light running:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and city Department of Transportation highlighted the dangers of running red lights as part of the national campaign "Think Ahead. Stop on Red." Last week, the driver of a sport utility vehicle ran a red light and the SUV collided with an MTA bus in Willowbrook. The bus driver was ejected and run over by the bus. "Motorists running red lights are a major risk for Metro bus and train operators and passengers," said MTA Board Chairwoman Pam O’Connor. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, said drivers need to slow down. "In 2004, over 900 people were killed and approximately 176,000 were injured nationally as a result of crashes caused by drivers not stopping at red lights," she said. "Last year, in the city of Los Angeles alone, there were 50,623 traffic collisions and of this total, 3,290 were red-light traffic collisions." (CNS)

Freeway to honor veterans

A busy freeway in the Inland Empire is getting a new name. And as with several other state highways, the honor goes to members of our military:

A resolution to name a stretch of Interstate 215 the "Armed Forces Freeway" in honor of the nation’s military veterans passed its final hurdle, an Inland Empire lawmaker announced today. The highway dedication proposal for the section of I-215 between State Route 60 and the Ramona Expressway was passed by the Assembly on a 78-0 vote, according to Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Palm Desert). According to Benoit, that portion of the highway runs past March Air Reserve Base, March Field Air Museum and Riverside National Cemetery, the largest military burial ground west of the Mississippi. (CNS)

Bad horsies

Are people who drive Mustangs more likely to be bad drivers? The folks over at lacantdrive.com believe so. (Escalade drivers aren't much better, they say.) The site, which chronicles bad driving habits around L.A., offers this incident as proof:

So I'm following up with my last post with an example of yet another horrible Mustang driver who is clueless as to proper car light operation. Again, I must say that there is something intrinsically wrong with most drivers of Mustangs and Escalades. Odd how that's the case, isn't it? Anyway, don't be fooled by the sky in the photo -- it is not as light as it seems (camera auto exposure effects). Rather, notice how every other car on the road in this photo has its headlights (not driving lights) on. At this point, I'm thinking here's another clueless idiot reinforcing the negative stereotype of bad L.A. driving. As I'm thinking this, ditzoid proceeds to slam on his/her brakes for seemingly no apparent reason. After I hit my brakes to avoid rear-ending this idiot, and about a second before I tap my horn to encourage this driver to keep moving (almost like dangling a carrot in front of a dumb donkey), he/she makes a right turn off of La Brea into a parking lot.

Rural charm lost on Ortega Highway?

There is general agreement that the Ortega Highway has safety issues. But Caltrans' effort to make improvements to the narrow canyon road have raised some concerns from those who fear losing the rural charm. The Times' David Reyes reports that San Juan Capistrano is concerned about trees being removed, among other thing.

Along tree-lined Ortega Highway in front of Susan Merchant's San Juan Capistrano home, life unfolds both peacefully and fitfully. Residents stroll and some clomp down the road on horseback in pastoral moments interrupted only by the traffic's roar. "This morning I tried crossing on my horse and I needed help because no one would stop," Merchant said. She is among those in town who fear that what little bucolic lifestyle is left in San Juan is now in jeopardy. Caltrans has plans to remove old sycamore and pepper trees, install sound walls and medians and widen a short segment of Highway 74, a proposal that has some residents and city officials concerned that the town's historic charm hangs in the balance. After all, the city is home to Mission San Juan Capistrano. In addition, San Juan touts its rancho lineage on its website: "Equestrian Capital of the West Coast."

Dodgers subway: Why not?

Finding money to finish the Expo Line (let alone the Wilshire subway to the sea) is becoming increasingly hard. But that hasn't stopped some mass-transit backers from dreaming. The latest is a concept for a "Dodger Blue Line subway" running from downtown to Dodger Stadium, then through Silverlake, Hollywood, West Hollywood. From there it would drop down and return east via the Mid-City area. Says LAist: "While we do not like the idea of supplementing the Expo Line or some variation of the Purple Line, we do like a transit-friendly baseball stadium!" (LAist map shows proposed route in blue.)

MTA bus scare

  Here's a scary situation involving an MTA bus, a boy with a BB gun and a chain-reaction crash:

A boy was taken into custody tonight after allegedly shooting an MTA bus driver with a BB gun, causing the bus to collide with two cars, authorities said. At 8:38 p.m., a Line 33 bus was eastbound on Venice Boulevard at Vermont Avenue, said Dave Sotero, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Four boys on the bus apparently got into an argument with the driver, said Sgt. Ed Solomon of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division. One boy brandished a BB gun or pellet gun and shot the driver in the left arm, Sotero said. The bus collided with two vehicles before coming to a stop, he said, adding that the suspects fled. (CNS)

Road rage at the strip club

A bizarre incident overnight in the Valley reads like a scene out of "The Sopranos":

A man crashed a van into a North Hills strip club today, then led police on a chase -- injuring two LAPD officers by intentionally backing into their squad cars -- before he was arrested, authorities said. The van slammed into the structure housing the Valley Ball Cabaret at 8532 Sepulveda Blvd. at 12:39 a.m., said a public service representative at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mission Station. The suspect then unsuccessfully attempted to run over pedestrians and patrons of the cabaret, said Sgt. Kim Kempton of the Mission Station. His motive was not immediately clear. (CNS)

Red-light running

Who need cameras? Pasadena is tackling red-light runners the old-fashioned way:

Pasadena police will conduct a daylong red-light enforcement program Friday. The operation, which will run from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be held throughout the city, said Sgt. Chris Gutierrez of the Pasadena Police Department’s Traffic Section. "The program is an effective tool for achieving the Pasadena Police Department’s goal of reducing the number of traffic collisions in intersections resulting from red-light violations," Gutierrez said. (CNS)

Hit-and-run reward

Officials are hoping a reward might help solve a hit-and-run crash involving a motorcyclist on the 10 Freeway.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $10,000 reward today for information that leads to the apprehension and conviction of a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a motorcyclist in West Covina. The July 20 crash, which occurred at 3:39 a.m. on the westbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway near Pacific Avenue, claimed the life of 55-year-old Ralph Charles Granado. According to authorities, Granado’s Harley-Davidson was struck by a Toyota Yaris, and Granado was thrown from the bike. The driver of the Yaris stopped, but Granado was then struck by an SUV, whose driver fled the scene. The SUV is believed to be a Cadillac Escalade or Chevrolet Tahoe.

Taking up two spaces

Do you HATE people who take up two parking spaces when they don't have to? Well, check out this photo with this comment at Metroblogging: "Someone got themselves a brand-spanking-new van (oooooh) and wanted to make sure no one dinged it while they stopped to celebrate with a Subway sandwich."

Saving L.A. rail history

  It looks like the effort to rehab the historic Lankershim train depot -- bulit in 1895 by Southern Pacific Railroad on Lankershim Boulevard and one of L.A.'s last remaining pieces of railroad history -- is moving forward (slowly):

A request to provide $1.1 million for the rehabilitation of the Lankershim Depot Transit Center in North Hollywood was forwarded to the Los Angeles City Council today without a recommendation. The city’s Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee was expected to vote on the proposal this morning but could not act because it lacked a quorum. The city and Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan is to rehabilitate the depot and eventually turn it into a customer service center, with a concession stand, public restrooms, bicycle services and MTA offices. The MTA Board of Directors approved a $3.6-million budget for the project last October, contingent upon the city’s approval of its share. Los Angeles officials had expected to pay just $364,000 for the project. However, costs increased due to delays associated with the construction of the Metro Orange Line and changes in building plans. (CNS)

More on the history of the building at americansuburb.com, where the photo is from.

Gas prices keep tumbling

Speaking of gasoline.... It's strange for California not to have the highest gas prices. Gas dropped another 5.8 cents to $3.06 last week:

Pump prices are the lowest since mid-April, following an increase in gasoline supplies after more oil refineries came back online from maintenance and boosted production. Retail prices often fall in the middle of the summer before ticking higher again around Labor Day. "We're in that kind of midsummer swoon," said Kevin Saville, managing editor of the Americas energy desk at Platts, the energy research unit of McGraw-Hill Cos. (L.A. Times)

Driving too far for cheap gas

Here's a question: Does it make sense to drive miles out of your way to save a few pennies for gas? The Long Beach Press-Telegram poses the question and finds too much extra driving can make the journey counterproductive:

Gas prices may be off historic highs, but they've still got motorists making risky U-turns and driving across town to save a penny or two a gallon. But is saving a total of 13 cents -- even 26 cents or 39 cents -- on a 13-gallon tank really worth all that effort? "I would probably drive 10 miles to save 15 cents a gallon," said Lambert Cheung, a driver for Gold Star Modeling, an adult modeling agency in Canoga Park. Dustin Coupal, co-founder of GasBuddy.com, which lists California's cheapest stations, defines that tipping point as 25 cents per gallon and up. "That's where it becomes beneficial and it's worth your while," Coupal said.

$1 ride? Maybe not

There's a new coach service hoping to take on Greyhound as well as airlines for short trips. Megabus promises fares as low as $1 a day. But The Times' Alana Semuels reports the firm faces an uphill battle:

A new nonstop line will roll into Los Angeles next week, serving seven cities with a handful of fares as low as $1. Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, will carry passengers from L.A. to San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Las Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix. The fleet will follow routes well served by airlines and Greyhound buses and well traveled by motorists. Another express bus company based in a city that loves to drive has found it's not easy to get people on board. "We are still struggling," said Kazuhiro Nakagawa, a partner in California Shuttle Bus, a 4-year-old concern that runs buses once a day to San Francisco and charges $45 per ticket ($60 for "luxury" accommodations, guaranteeing the seat next to yours will be empty). Some days, he said, there are only two or three passengers on board. "The people who are in L.A. are not accustomed to using public transportation like buses," Nakagawa said.

Underestimating traffic

The is big: L.A.'s own planning director questioning the accuracy of the city's own traffic counts for new development. The Times' Sharon Bernstein says the city uses projections that are a measure of national traffic patterns, not L.A. patterns:

The city Planning Department uses a national model that takes into account traffic patterns in several cities, including New York, San Francisco and Miami, to predict how much traffic a project would generate. Developers are then required to pay for left-turn signals, freeway offramps and other roadway improvements meant to lessen congestion caused by people going to and from new structures. But Planning Director Gail Goldberg on Monday said the national standards might not work in Los Angeles, which has an unusual amount of urban sprawl and a limited mass-transit system. Rather than rely on information from cities with better transportation systems or less sprawl, Los Angeles should develop its own system of estimating traffic based on the way people here drive and where they live, she said. "We are seriously underestimating the cumulative impact of the growth in a community," Goldberg said.

Bottleneck alert: Pomona Freeway

Heads up on this serious accident on the 60 in Pomona:

A fiery multi-vehicle crash today involving a California Highway Patrol car left four people injured and forced the closure of a stretch of the Pomona (60) Freeway in Pomona, authorities said. The accident was reported about 11:50 a.m. on the eastbound 60, west of the Chino Valley (71) Freeway, and one vehicle caught fire, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mike Brown. The freeway was closed in both directions in the area while an investigation was conducted, said CHP Officer John Seumanutafa. (CNS)

Sepulveda road project advances

We've been telling you about the major project to widen Sepulveda Boulevard in the Westchester area. Well, it looks like a second big project is about to get underway on Sepulveda between Wilshire and Mullholland. Some residents have opposed this project, which calls for a (relatively rare) reversible lane:

A plan to construct a reversible traffic lane, bike lanes and make other improvements to reduce congestion on Sepulveda Boulevard was adopted today by the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. The proposal will be forwarded to the Los Angeles City Council for approval. The Board of Public Works plans to convert the existing southbound center lane on a six-mile segment of Sepulveda Boulevard -- between Wilshire Boulevard and Mulholland Drive -- into a reversible lane that would allow traffic to operate in the northbound direction between 4 and 7 p.m. Public Works also plans to add north- and southbound right-turn pockets on Wilshire Boulevard; lengthen the northbound left-turn pocket at Moraga Drive; install bike lanes from Skirball Center Drive to Bel-Air Crest Road; and add a northbound right-turn lane at Skirball Center Drive. (CNS)

Filler up?

Gas prices are going down, but here's a new reason for gas station rage. Consumer Affairs reports that some stations are now capping how much gas you can buy on your credit card (to prevent fraud, they say):

With gasoline prices hanging close to the $3-per-gallon mark, some customers paying at the pump with big-name credit cards are finding themselves cut off at either $50 or $75, depending on the card or the gas station. Gas stations put the limits in place to stop credit card fraud and they shut off the pumps because of the limited protection available to them from credit card companies. Many credit card companies only protect gas stations up to $75 in the event of a purchase with a stolen card, and Visa and Discover cards offer station owners only $50 of protection per transaction.

Learning Vegas' monorail lesson

The continuing woes of Las Vegas' monorail system might offer L.A. some lessons. The system handles only a fraction of the riders that backers estimated it would. Now there's word that at least one consultant raised warning flags as far back as 2000 about overestimating ridership:

A draft analysis prepared in 2000 predicted the Las Vegas Monorail would carry about as many riders as it does today -- far fewer than those touted by the original planners. The report was prepared by Wendell Cox, an Illinois-based consultant hired by monorail foes to counter the claims of its backers, four years before the monorail’s first paying passenger hopped on board. Back then, planners expected more than 54,000 riders per day, projections that Cox’s report called "among the most aggressive in U.S. transit history and could emerge as the least accurate." Cox noted that the Las Vegas Monorail was "projected to carry more passengers per route mile than the New York subway, the London Underground and the Stockholm Metro, and more than double that of the most heavily used new rail systems in the United States." "It is not likely that such an intensity of ridership would be attracted," Cox wrote. (AP)

Nightmare on the 101

The tragic chain-reaction accident that left an LAPD officer dead on the 101 also caused a traffic nightmare of epic proportions. The 101 south was closed for more than 11 hours. The Times' Ari Bloomekatz and Scott Glover report that "the 3:20 a.m. accident, captured on video by a nearby photographer, resulted in a 13-vehicle pileup that spread debris over 2,000 feet and shut down the freeway for 11 hours."

-- Amazing video of the chain-reaction crash, which is already being replayed on a.m. network news shows.

-- How bad was the traffic backup? The Daily News says: "One report had it stretched all the way to Reseda Boulevard some 15 miles away. Others more conservatively estimated the backup to a few miles past the 101/134 split. Either way, the herd inched along at a slow jog of 4 mph, CHP Officer Patrick Kimball said. "This is significantly worse than typical Los Angeles traffic," he said.

-- A witness was quoted on ABC-7 as saying one reason the accident was so bad was that it occurred at a crest of the freeway where visibility was an issue.