The week in transportation, Nov. 14th edition

A bus rapid transit project opened last month in Cleveland and get this -- the local transit agency sold naming rights for the "HealthLine" for $6.25 million for 25 years to the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals.  In a review of the line published Sunday in the Plain Dealer, writer Steve Litt says the bus line has turned Euclid Avenue "the city's once-crumbling Main Street into a well-designed image of hope and renewal." The 7.1-mile line cost about $200 million and was built instead of a  light rail line. Hat tip: Streetsblog Los Angeles.

Speaking of big streets...it's hardly a secret that Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica and Los Angeles is super ugly, even when compared with some of the Southland's other wretched commercial thoroughfares. Now a group counting billboards along Lincoln have counted 85 billboards in a 4.2-mile stretch in the 11th City Council district -- a high concentration even by L.A. standards. Curbed LA

Gas prices? They keep falling, pretty much everywhere. At right is the latest chart released Monday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Some news from my hometown: voters in Cincinnati this month banned the city from installing red light enforcement or speed enforcement cameras by a 51% to 49% margin, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections. The City Council had earlier declined to install them, but this was icing on the cake for camera opponents. Two other Ohio cities are now looking at taking the issue to voters, according to the Newspaper, a site dedicated to battling the cameras.

Amtrak ridership hit a new high in California, with 5.5-million riders on the three lines in the Golden State during the 2008 fiscal year, according to Caltrans. Attentive readers will recall that the California High-Speed Rail Authority is predicting more than 65 million riders annually if the system is built.

Remember the roadless rule that President Clinton signed before leaving office in 2001? It protected 58.5 million acres of national forest from road building, but President Bush quickly reversed it. In the time since, there have been contradictory court rulings and the rule remains up in the air. Bill Schneider at New West makes the case that President-elect Obama should make the rule the "law of the land" and enumerates the reasons why.

In Texas, the insurance carrier Mile Meter recently began offering pay-as-you-drive insurance, which offers lower rates to those who drive less. Environmentalists (here's the Environmental Defense Fund's release) are pushing the idea because they see it as a major incentive to drive less. Similar policies can be bought in a few other places around the United States and pay-as-you-drive is coming to California, as this recent Times story explains.

--Steve Hymon

photo: Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

Comments

[Tom West]

"voters in Cincinnati this month banned the city from installing red light enforcement or speed enforcement cameras"
Shoud l I ever visit Cincinnati, I shall be aware the local population have no regard for road safety.