A few thoughts on getting around the Southland and elsewhere...
1. Someone needs to create a simple real-time Web page that immediately posts freeway closures. If I wanted to find out that the 57 was closed this weekend due to the brush fires, I would have had to go to the Caltrans road condition website and type in a road number to see its status. As I posted recently, Caltrans District 7 Director Doug Failing said the agency was looking at using Twitter updates to tell motorists about road closures. That's a fine idea, but a real-time Web page accessible to everyone would be great too.
2. I think it was a good call to cancel the Pasadena marathon due to the fires on Sunday. The air went from bad in the morning to worse by sunset on Sunday in Pasadena and temperatures were about 80 degrees by 9 a.m., when a lot of people would have still been running. The course was a tough one, too, with 1,009 feet of elevation gain.
3. Attentive readers may recall all those photos I posted over the summer of gas prices at the Chevron station at the corner of Hill and Colorado in Pasadena. Something I should have mentioned, but didn't: just across Colorado, the Pasadena Ford dealership also closed a few months ago. I had thought they moved. Turns out they were bought out by the parent company and closed, according to the Star News. A couple of Chrysler dealerships in the San Gabriel Valley have also gone under.
4. I think Pasadena will never get around to fixing the traffic signal at Chester and Del Mar. It frequently turns red even when there's no cross-traffic or pedestrians present. It's been that way for years.
5. iBART is the best transportation-related iPhone application I've seen. It provides maps, schedules and service updates for the BART rail system in the Bay Area. It's a freebie too.
6. From the Department of Reader Complaints, two criticisms:
a. Complaint: I have yet to write a comprehensive story for the paper and website on the disputed safety issues along the Expo Line in South L.A. With my docket a little more clear now, I'm working on it.
b. Complaint: I should have explained why public officials sought a sales tax hike in Los Angeles County for transportation needs instead of other types of funding. Answer: That's fair enough. As I explained often, state and federal funding is in short supply. The sales tax was sought because the other common alternative -- selling bonds -- runs up big-time debt that the Metropolitan Transit Authority would have had to pay back.
7. I think since I threw a major snit last week, the comment board is shaping up to be a better read now.
8. That was a very provocative editorial in The Times last week calling for Gov. Schwarzenegger to raise registration fees on vehicles. Also worth reading is an opinion piece by editorial board member Robert Greene, who last year wrote about Sacramento's shenanigans with the car tax.
9. I wish those dudes I saw racing on the 210 last week could go for a nice leisurely skate with the Kings' Dustin Brown. Here's some video.
10. Circling back to item #1, I think a freeway and road closure website would also be very useful for motorists heading into the mountains each winter. A few too many uncertain trips up and over Donner Pass in my 1993 Toyota Tercel is the exact reason I now own a Subaru Outback.
-- Steve Hymon
Happy Monday. Lots of transportation news recently and I thought it might be a good time to post 10 things I'm currently thinking about:
1. If Measure R fails -- it's not likely, but they're still counting ballots -- I think the Gold Line Foothill Extension is pretty much a dead project for the near future. At this point, there's no Plan B for funding. I don't think businesses in the Foothill cities will allow them to pass their own sales tax increase. I don't think the Legislature is going to let the San Gabriel Valley withdraw from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and I think there's zero chance the MTA will give them seed money for the project after the cities made such a stand against Measure R. I know officials in the San Gabriel Valley think they won't see the Measure R funds and they say that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised them the seed money (Villaraigosa disagrees). But I think trying to tank Measure R was a big gamble that may have gained them political revenge but could have cost them (and more importantly, their constituents) the project for years. All that said, I think the best way for the MTA board to show good faith to voters is to fund the project ASAP.
1a. I do think that the Gold Line may gain some leverage in a future countywide sales tax hike on the off-chance that Measure R loses, but the problem is getting two-thirds vote for a sales tax increase is difficult and may not happen in any upcoming election cycle. See item 6.
2. If you live in Alhambra, South Pasadena or Pasadena, you may have realized that Measure R has more than $700 million in funding for the 710 tunnel project. It's a multibillion-dollar project nowhere near going forward, but it has something it never had before -- money. So, if you're against the project, you may now officially begin worrying.
3. If the 710 tunnel does happen, I think the 210-134-710 interchange in Pasadena will truly be something to behold. In a bad way.
4. Feels to me like it's getting harder to avoid parking tickets in Los Angeles these days. I can't quantify it, but in the past I never worried about my meter expiring when in L.A., figuring the meter maid wouldn't come around. These days, I assume if my meter expires I'll get a ticket -- or they'll find something else to cite me for. Any thoughts on this, Bottleneckers? Could make for a good newspaper story if I'm right.
5. I think I'm never taking the Santa Monica Freeway westbound before 10 a.m. again. If coming from the San Gabe Valley, I recommend the 134 to Forest Lawn to Barham to Cahuenga to Sunset. I made it from Pasadena to Westwood in just 75 minutes Wednesday, leaving Pasadena at 8:15 a.m. Not bad! But I also made it a point to avoid liquids after 7 a.m.
Read on »
I was up at Mammoth over the weekend, arriving a few days after the wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane was found in the backcountry. The plane was discovered in the area near Minaret Lake, which sits below the craggy Minarets, seen in the above right side of the photo.
This is the part of the Fossett story that I think is most fascinating: His plane took off in Nevada at 9 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2007, a popular time of the year to visit Mammoth and the Sierra high country. Fossett presumably crashed sometime that morning. What I find astonishing is that no one saw the plane go down. Less than a mile from Mammoth Mountain ski resort is the popular Minaret Vista overlook, which provides dramatic views of the Minarets and the San Joaquin River valley and almost always has visitors during daylight hours (at least in the many times I've visited over the past 13 years).
While the Minarets are off in the distance (the photo, taken with my iPhone, flattens the scenery), the vista is still a place that affords a great view of the area. Obviously, a small plane in the distance could go down in the blink of an eye and things happen all the time that are unseen or unheard by witnesses. I'm in no way suggesting a conspiracy -- some people on the Internet have speculated the crash was faked. By coincidence or bad luck, Fossett appears to have lost his life in a landscape where people are often watching.
-- Steve Hymon
Photo credit: Steve Hymon / Los Angeles Times
 Continuing this weekend's tour around transportation-related issues....
Sen. John McCain has said that Teddy Roosevelt is his kind of Republican president, in part because of Roosevelt's record on conservation. High Country News, the environmental newspaper, takes a look at McCain's record and finds early promise in McCain's legislative record when it comes to the environment, but little to praise of late, and his score from the League of Conservation Voters is a 24 out of 100. HCN notes that McCain deserves credit for helping two wilderness bills through Congress that helped set aside thousands of acres in Arizona for roads and other threats and he helped reduce flyovers of tourist aircraft from popular trails in the Grand Canyon (at right), but he's taken to task for not curbing uranium mining and helping protect a threatened river. One issue the article largely skirts is that McCain has -- at least in his public statements -- taken climate change more seriously than many of his Republican counterparts in Congress. Still, the article is worth reading, given that McCain represents a Western state with a diverse geography and vast public lands, the same attributes that make the Western U.S. such a unique place.
The first presidential debate on Friday night focused on the economy and national security. The word transportation wasn't used, according to the transcript, although the word infrastructure came up once, when Sen. Barack Obama quickly mentioned the need to rebuild roads and bridges.
One of the fresher reads on the campaign comes from the Australian, an online newspaper that takes the view that both McCain and Obama are touting their fair share of bad ideas. They criticize Obama for his statements in support of ethanol -- which the paper says is basically pandering to Midwestern corn growers -- and McCain gets criticized for trying to drill the nation's way out of high oil prices.
El Paso joins the list of cities that want a streetcar, reports KVIA. It's seen as an economic development tool, officials say. L.A. is also on the list of cities suffering streetcar envy, courtesy of Portland, Ore.
Read on »
Hope you're having a good weekend, Bottleneckers. A few things that caught my eye recently...
The New Yorker had a wonderfully long story about Herrenknecht AG, the German firm that specializes in tunneling for highways, railroads and utilities. The firm is currently involved in some epic projects, including a tunnel under the Alps and some big digs in Barcelona for a subway expansion. There's also a local angle, as Herrenknecht AG dug the twin tunnels under Boyle Heights for the Gold Line expansion to the Eastside (one is shown above). Besides the engineering audacity involved in some of these projects, the article left me impressed with the willingness of some countries and cities to support infrastructure projects. Unfortunately only the abstract of the story is online at the New Yorker website, so try to beg the Sept. 15 issue off a friend.
If you're headed on a road trip to Arizona anytime soon, be warned: the state is going ahead with Gov. Janet Napolitano's plan to greatly expand the use of speed enforcement cameras. The deployment is rolling out, reports the Associated Press, and many of the cameras are installed in vehicles, so they can be moved around the state. Speed cameras have been rebuffed several times by the Legislature in California, but I suspect it's just a matter of time -- and a big enough deficit -- until someone here decides there's a mountain of revenue to be had.
Damien Newton, of Streetsblog Los Angeles, dropped by City Hall the other day to hear the City Council talk about implementing a bike sharing plan -- the kind that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel thought was neat at the Dems' convention in Denver. From the looks of things, nothing really happened other than a discussion. I covered City Hall for three years, and that's usually how it goes: pols meet, pols talk, pols adjourn meeting.
While on the subject of Mr. Newton, he did a fine post on the little-known fact that you need to license your bike to ride in both L.A. and Santa Monica -- and you can get ticketed if you don't have one. So, let me get this straight. In L.A., a city that has completely dropped the ball in so many ways when it comes to providing biking facilities, they're making people get licenses? I didn't know this and have now moved several city officials into the top 10 of my call list on Monday morning. I look forward to their explanation for this outrage.
Google Transit expanded to New York City, reports the NYT. We're still waiting for the MTA and Google to reach some type of peace accord here. Tick tick tick....
Washington state was the first to ban text messaging, but the Seattle P-I reports that just two tickets have been reported in Seattle courts. There's only been a few dozen on a statewide level. As for Californians like you and me -- the law that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this past week takes effect Jan. 1. Put down your phones and do what we did in the old days and play with your radio instead.
--Steve Hymon
Freeway tear-downs?: I usually don't like lists, but I do think this one from the Congress for the New Urbanism is pretty good -- it's their top 10 lists of freeways that should be torn down to make way for more people-friendly streets. No L.A. freeway made the cut, however.
The top five:
1. Seattle , WA . – The Alaskan Way Viaduct (shown above)
2. Bronx , NY – Sheridan Expressway
3. Buffalo, NY – The Skyway and Route 5
4. New Haven, CT – Route 34
5. New Orleans, LA – Claiborne Expressway
Metrolink: The Board of Directors meets today in L.A. to consider the long list of safety recommendations offered to them by the MTA Board. On the list are adding a second engineer, installing anti-collision technology and possibly installing seatbelts. My colleague Jeff Gottlieb is covering the meeting; a full online story on yesterday's MTA meeting is on The Times' California page.
State budget: MTA CEO Roger Snoble said at yesterday's MTA meeting that the state budget cut about $130 million from transportation programs around L.A. County. Only $130 million? The boys and girls in the Leg must have been off their game this year.
Blog schedule: I'm off today, back Monday. Light posting in the meantime.
--Steve Hymon
photo: Cheryl Hatch / AP
Rail safety: The Metro (a.k.a. MTA) Board is set today to discuss a broad motion calling for several upgrades to Metrolink, including faster installation of anti-collision devices and an extra camera in the cab of locomotives. The U.S. House of Representatives also approved a rail safety bill Wednesday that requires anti-collision devices to be installed by 2015 and provides more than $12 billion in funding for Amtrak over the next five years.
Today in Measure R: The Coalition for Clean Air is the latest group to support the half-cent sales tax increase proposal in Los Angeles County. Of course, the election is still not official until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs a bill, AB 2321, authorizing it.
Speaking of Measure R: The campaign for Measure R has set up shop in Century City and the website will soon debut, says Mather Martin, the campaign manager. The fundraising committee is called "Yes on Measure R Los Angeles" but no donations are yet showing on the Cal-Access website. Ace Smith, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's go-to guy on election strategy, is running the Measure R campaign, and Denny Zane, the former Santa Monica mayor who is exec director of the Subway-to-the-Sea Coalition, is also working for the campaign.
--Steve Hymon
Chrysler goes electric: The year 2010 is shaping up to be an interesting one on the clean car front. Chevrolet formally introduced its Volt electric car last week, indicating at least some of the plug-in electric cars will be on the market in two years. On Tuesday, Chrysler -- which has been silent on the issue of electric cars -- unveiled three of them (shown above) and said it will have one on the market by 2010, too. Funny what a little competition will do, eh? The vehicles have small gasoline engines that are used to generate more electricity to power the car. Chrysler, you may recall, is one of the companies seeking $25 billion in federal loans -- go ahead, call it a bailout -- to help create more efficient cars after years of producing gas guzzlers. The Times' Up to Speed blog has all the details.
Rail safety: The House and Senate have agreed on a compromise rail safety bill that would require railroads to install anti-braking devices by 2015 and would curtail the number of hours an engineer could work each month to 276 hours. The House may vote today. This month's Metrolink crash spurred action on the bill, which had been stalled.
On the subject of Metrolink: The Twitter updates the agency sends to commuters are fascinating -- it allows you to see how often the trains break down. And yesterday was not a good day. The early afternoon train to Ventura County was terminated in Burbank for mechanical reasons and a later train to O.C. was also canceled for similar reasons.
--Steve Hymon
photo: Chrysler
Streets are for bikes: Mexico City (above) has taken to closing one of its main thoroughfares on Sundays so cyclists can enjoy them. New York City closed Park Avenue for the same reason over the summer. Los Angeles? A big no show in that department. Surprised?
Lists are usually dumb: SustainLane released its list of sustainable cities recently. Portland, San Francisco and Seattle came in 1-2-3 and Los Angeles nabbed 28th and, of course, a lot of media folk covered it because, well, it's a list. And who finished in the two positions ahead of L.A.? San Diego and New Orleans, respectively. Hmm. One of those (hint: San Diego) won't expand its rinky-dink airport, sending everyone on a long drive to LAX, and for years has had to get a federal waiver from the Clean Water Act because its Point Loma sewage plant doesn't do secondary treatment of the nasty stuff before releasing it in the ocean. The other (hint: New Orleans) is increasingly vulnerable to flooding because of the eroding Mississippi River Delta, which helps protect it from storms.
Gas prices: The average price for a gallon of regular in California was down to $3.74 on Monday -- a big tumble from its price of $4.61 on June 19. The Chevron I've been watching in Pasadena is down to $3.799, a drop of 93 cents from in late June. Gas prices were about $3.20 for a gallon of regular this past winter when they started spiking, so there's still a ways to go before reaching the good ol' days of cheap gas.
--Steve Hymon
photo: Sarah Meghan Lee / For The Times
Positive train control systems: My colleague Dan Weikel takes a look at places where the anti-collision technology has been implemented and seems to be working. Metrolink officials say there isn't yet such a system that would work in Southern California. Here's an excerpt: "Positive train control is not a new concept, nor a new technology," said George Gavalla, the former head of the Federal Railroad Administration's safety office, where he worked from 1995 to 2004. "That accident would not have happened had they invested in a system that can detect a train going through a signal," he said, referring to Metrolink.
Francisco Oaxaca, a spokesman for Metrolink, said the only part of the agency's 388 miles of track that has automatic braking is a stretch in south Orange County that was equipped with the system by another railroad before Metrolink began operation in 1992. Oaxaca said Metrolink officials were not prepared Friday to say anything more about rail safety measures.
Signal synchronization: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to unveil some traffic signal timing improvements at a news conference this morning. I'm going — to ask him about the Metrolink crash.
Measure R: With the state budget apparently settled, this could be the week that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the state bill authorizing the Measure R half-cent sales tax hike election on Nov. 4 in L.A. County. If the bill isn't signed by the end of the month, the election is kaput. I spoke on Friday to Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the bill, AB 2321, and he said that he's spoken to the governor, is optimistic and has been speaking about the bill with community groups for a few weeks now. The groups, Feuer said, seem to support the sales tax hike.
— Steve Hymon
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