Oil drilling, Angels Flight and HOV lanes: Ramping up, Aug. 1

Californians want it both ways

Fifty-one percent support of Californians support more offshore oil drilling but 52% of Californians are concerned about the effects of global warming, so says a new poll released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California. That's a 10-point jump in support for more drilling since the PPIC asked residents the same question last July.

The question I have, which I don't believe the poll answered, is how many people out there understand that burning fossil fuels is a chief cause of climate change.

Sales tax news

A quick follow-up to yesterday's Ramping Up item about the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' impending vote Tuesday to put the sales tax on the ballot. While it appears there is a majority to vote for the proposal, Metro could sue the Board of Supervisors should they refuse to put the initiative on the ballot. The premise of such a suit is that a no vote from the board would be rejecting the will of the people represented by the larger Metro board.

On the subject of the sales tax, here's an excerpt of yesterday's Blowback piece on The Times' opinion website. It's by Eric Mann, director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, and Manuel Criollo, lead organizer of the Bus Riders Union, and they think the sales tax would wrongly direct too much money to new rail projects:

The bus system is the only viable 24/7, countywide system that can get people out of their cars. The MTA has 2,200 buses fueled by compressed natural gas on the streets -- the product of 12 years of struggle by the Bus Riders Union that forced the MTA to get rid of dilapidated diesel buses and invest $2.7 billion in bus improvements.

If the MTA doubled its fleet from the present 2,200 buses to 4,400, added bus-only lanes and ran more bus lines on freeways, it could dramatically reduce auto ridership, get affluent "choice riders" out of their cars, reduce bus overcrowding and create a seamless set of bus connections.

Taxi, taxi!

As of yesterday, it's now legal to hail a cab in most parts of downtown and Hollywood. If the test program is successful, the City Council may decide to expand the new rules to other parts of the city, allowing cabbies to do such things as -- gasp! -- double-park to pick up and drop off fares. Progress, as they say, is a slow thing sometimes.

Transit is on Jan Perry's mind

I dined with Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry yesterday and she said that a new DASH route is scheduled to start in the fall to serve the eastern part of downtown, including the Toy District.

Perry, by the way, is also keeping a close eye on the sales tax proposal for L.A. County. Her view is that downtown remains one of the few places where there's plenty of room to build and that new transit lines will serve both downtown residents and commuters well.

A few other items Perry mentioned:

-- She's tiring of the delays reopening the Angels Flight funicular on Bunker Hill and said the nonprofit that oversees the railway should step aside and let someone else take over if it can't get the line up and running. It has been shut down since a 2001 accident.

-- She doesn't believe the Expo Line's at-grade crossing will be a danger to the community, saying that rail lines run along streets in many cities without causing problems. "I think people will learn how to cross the street," Perry said.

-- In Expo-related news, Perry is downright stoked about the impact the rail line will have between the South Park neighborhood of downtown and the USC campus. She thinks new development will bring some life back to both Flower -- which the line will operate on -- and neighboring Figueroa.

USDOT has a plan

On Tuesday -- just three months and change until Election Day -- U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled a new plan to fund federal decisions on transportation funding. It is, of course, hard to say whether Peters will be around long enough to implement it, but there are a couple of interesting nuggets.

Namely, Peters says the plan would make it easier for cities to build mass transit instead of highways and proposes to streamline environmental review of projects to help get them built faster. More notable, the plan would also lift any federal limits on congestion pricing projects in cities and urban areas.

Peters previously worked for a firm that built toll roads.

Connecting HOV lanes in Newhall Pass

Caltrans says it's going to construct new ramps to connect the carpool lanes on the 5 and 14 freeways where the two roads meet in the Newhall Pass, reports the Signal. The 105 and 110 interchange has a similar set-up and it works great -- no need for carpoolers to enter the regular lanes to switch freeways. More of these please! 

One way to get people to drive less

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels this week announced that the city is going to start closing roads for six hours on Sunday afternoons as part of his plan to persuade citizens to drive 1,000 miles less each year, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The plan starts with three roads this summer and could increase if proven popular.

As of yesterday, readers had left over 300 comments on the P-I's website and not too many were positive. To wit:

"It would appear, there is no limit to the stupidity we may expect from our elected officials. They will not be happy until either we all live in cages or Seattle is a ghost town. What fools."

I kind of dig the idea. Any local officials out there in the Southland up for giving it a try? C'mon San Dimas -- this is your moment to shine! My email is steve.hymon@latimes.com.

Recent items on the Blog that you may find as fascinating as I did

Santa Monica's traffic woes

Update on seismic retrofit of California bridges

--Steve Hymon

Oil platform photo: David McNew / Getty Images

Jan Perry photo: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Greg Nickels photo: Elaine Thompson / Associated Press

Comments

[John H. Welborne]

Thank you, Dana Gabbard. Bricks and mortar help. Brickbats do not. The reason the historic Angels Flight Railway is being restored – and safely – is because of the many supporters whose positive contributions are getting us close to finishing this (big) job.

Bottleneck Blog readers and others should remember that all the Angels Flight restoration work completed to date and underway is being financed through predominately private community fundraising and support. From the 1995 onset of the modern era of the Railway, the nonprofit Angels Flight Railway Foundation annually needed to raise less than $100,000 to subsidize the Railway's nominal fare of 25 cents per ride. The Foundation and its directors certainly had not expected to be raising millions of dollars.

However, the tragic accident in 2001 changed that, and the directors redirected their efforts - ultimately raising nearly all of the $3.3 million unexpectedly needed for the near-total rebuilding of the funicular's operating systems. Angelenos and visitors should salute the 50-plus community leaders on the Foundation's board and Restoration Campaign Committee for their great success in this effort.

Although the new Drive's manufacturer had expected to have the machinery completed and installed here in Los Angeles in late August of 2007, that installation did not take place until late November of last year. Additional work on wiring and related matters was further delayed for many months and only got underway last month. Our Foundation's directors share the frustration of our neighbors and visitors (and our local Councilmember) who wish to see the Railway back in operation. However, we said we would not reopen the Railway until it is completely safe to do so.

We should not forget that the reason there has been so much progress since all the litigation finally was resolved in September of 2006 is because generous donors have made this progress possible. Hundreds of generous people who care, through their individual, foundation, endowment, and corporate donations, are the people who are getting Angels Flight back on track. My fellow directors and I and all those working on the design, manufacture, and installation appreciate these enthusiasts' generous -- and positive -- support!

Although funicular technology from the nineteenth century is simple, rebuilding an historic funicular in the middle of an urban area in the twenty-first century is quite complicated. When this last work, now underway, is finished and the tests and inspections have been completed and we are ready to reopen -- which we hope will be soon -- we at the Angels Flight Railway Foundation will celebrate just as much as other Angelenos and the visitors to our town from around the world.

John H. Welborne
President, Angels Flight Railway
angels-flight@sbcglobal.net

[Darrell Clarke]

Simple common sense about the Expo Line from Councilmember Jan Perry is refreshing!

[Dana Gabbard]

I've posted extensive comments on the BRU blowback piece on Damien Newton's Streetsblog LA site, so there is no need to repeat myself on their usual stale propaganda:

http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/07/31/bru-blowsback-at-metros-sales-tax-proposal/#comment-1794

BTW, does the Times condone the obvious ballot-stuffing like approach the BRU took to the comments section for the piece? Kymberleigh Richards has pointed out most of the comments were posted in the wee hours, and read like cut and paste BRU talking points. It reflects poorly on them to be trying to mislead people about the response to the piece by trying to make it look like the masses are in lockstep.

John Welborne, who heads the Angels Flight non-profit, has had an uphill fight to fund the re-opening of Angels Flight in the wake of the tragic events that shut it down. My reading of the NTSB report on what happened is CRA, engineering consultants etc. failed miserably in doing their jobs and now Welborne has to pick up the pieces in the wake of their incompetence. You can read the report at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2003/RAR0303.pdf

And if Jan Perry wants Angels Flight to reopen sooner rather than later, one would hope she is willing to do something positive to make it happen instead of just throwing unfair brickbats at Welborne via the media. How about it, Councilwoman Perry--will you headline a fundraiser or sign a letter on behalf of the non-profit soliciting contributions?
.

[Morgan Wick]

RE: BRU: From what I've heard, less than 50% of New Yorkers drive to where they want to go, and quite a few don't even have driver's licences. I forget, what form of transit is responsible for creating that circumstance?

[Michael Ballard]

Live in cages? Yes, they are called AUTOMOBILES! People spend too much time in them, when other modes are either faster, better, or just plain cheaper. I commute by bicycle every day, and it only takes a few minutes more than if I drove. Yet, I also love to drive. Some just need to learn there is life outside of cars (or more acurately - internal combustion engines).