Google helps with Santa Monica parking

Black Friday is a good day to highlight this neat little piece of technology: Google maps and the city of Santa Monica have teamed up to produce a real-time Google map that helps you find parking in downtown Santa Monica.

The map debuted a while back, but I just learned about it recently from Google. Icons are used to show the different parking structures and how many open spaces are in each of them. The city of Santa Monica's parking space website doesn't seem to work as well -- when I click on different parking structures, I'm getting information from about 12:30 a.m. Friday, not 12:30 p.m.

I'm having trouble getting the Google map to load on my iPhone. If you know how to do this, please leave a comment.

-- Steve Hymon

New text message service updates for MTA! New York MTA, that is

Here's the news release out of the Big Apple. They've rigged up a system that uses text messages and e-mails to tell riders about service changes. Metrolink here has such a system using Twitter, the text-messaging service, but the Los Angeles County MTA offers only updates for rail service, and not  its buses, which carry many more people.

Caltrans District 7, which includes Los Angeles and Ventura counties, has said it's studying Metrolink's approach, but it hasn't done anything yet on providing live freeway condition updates. Caltrans does have a system that allows people to get the same travel time information displayed on overhead freeway signs.

As I've posted before, this is kind of frustrating. The MTA here could be doing the same thing. The MTA here also refuses to hand over bus and train schedules to Google for their inclusion in the Google Transit service -- something that might encourage new riders and help current ones. Caltrans desperately needs a way to tell motorists in real time about freeway closures instead of making users go to their road conditions web page and type in the road number to find out its status. This is a need vividly demonstrated during the recent wildfires, when freeways across the region were shut down.

 

Metrolink debuts on Google Transit

Metrolink schedules are now available on Google Transit. You can access the trip-planning service at the Metrolink website, Google Transit website or through the Google maps home page. You type in your starting point and ending destination and Google Transit gives you a list of trains that will get you there. The most recent 2.2 software update for the iPhone also makes it much easier to use Google Transit on the maps feature.

There remains one huge glitch with Google Transit, and it's not Metrolink's fault. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been in talks with Google Transit about providing its bus and train scheduling data, but the talks haven't gone anywhere.

So while many other large cities (New York and Chicago, to name two) are on Google Transit, we're stuck here in the technological backwater known as Los Angeles County. So if you want MTA schedules, you've got to get them through the Metro website, which is loaded with cumbersome and slow-loading pdf files for many schedules.

The net effect of this is that you can only get Metrolink schedules from Google Transit. In some cases, that may be all you need, but if you also want connections to local buses or rail, it's not there. At least not yet.

The news release from Metrolink is after the jump.

--Steve Hymon

Caltrans is looking at Twitter!

I wanted to post a quick follow-up to this morning's post about whether it's possible for Caltrans to send text messages to motorists about major road closures and road conditions. I suggested that Caltrans may want to follow Metrolink's lead and use Twitter to send text messages.

As it turns out, Caltrans has been exploring it, Caltrans District 7 chief Doug Failing told me this morning at the Metrolink meeting. "The question is whether I can have millions of people on" such a service, Failing said. "Maybe we'll find there's a way that people can sign up for a Westside group, an Eastside group and so on."

In other words, having groups would prevent the agency from having to send the same message to everybody. That could be doing motorists a favor too, unless you want to see how many text messages you're capable of receiving.

Metrolink, of course, is a much smaller agency, with about 48,000 or so riders on the average weekday. Millions of people take to the roads in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the area covered by Caltrans District 7.

Failing is going to find out more information on the matter. In the meantime, if there are any readers out there who know of other areas that offer road conditions via text message, please let me know either by e-mail or by posting a comment.

--Steve Hymon

Should Caltrans be Twittering?

I received the following email this morning from Victor Franco Jr., a lobbyist in Los Angeles. I gather that his commute on Thursday morning was most unpleasant, with the 405 being closed a spell due to the brush fire in Brentwood.

Here's what Victor had to say. I'll discuss the remedy below.

Steven

If you want to print this, I'm ok with that.

Question for the Bottleneck Blogger:

In viewing the recent fire in the Sepulveda Pass on television early Thursday, you could not avoid seeing the thousands of motorists who were stuck by the massive freeway closure. In SoCal, since we are so reliant on freeways, this happens more times than not -- including the recent "wrong way drivers" on the 118 in Chatsworth during that brush fire.

Mr. Blogger, shouldn't we create a system that alerts driver of impending trouble or large closures? How about an Emergency Broadcast System for drivers? Maybe a radio channel similar to that station at LAX or sporting venues that warns drivers? Maybe we should create a closure "response team" that say 15 miles away from the disaster, they can drop-off changeable message signs or other types of notifications to warn drivers before they enter a traffic emergency zone to take alternate freeway or street routes.

While the detours from the fire could have added possibly an hour or more to many drivers commute, it would be better than sitting in a closure area, being frustrated and angry and taking away from police or CHP resources managing thousands of stuck cars.

This system could even have daily usage on heavy or Sig-alerted freeway incidents.

Lastly, traffic reporters need to be more proactive, not just telling us about an incident, but suggesting alternate routes on their radio and television broadcasts or even the internet if you surf before you leave home.

Our commute hassle should be handled before you turn the car on.

Victor Franco Jr

Traffic-hating Lobbyist

Information is still king.

Victor is absolutely correct that getting good real-time information here is a bear. Motorists, for example, could go on the Caltrans road condition website and type in a road number to see if it's closed, but should you really have to type in several freeways each morning? And, besides, that website often doesn't provide information about accidents.

There are also the real-time traffic maps that can be seen on the Caltrans website, as well as the privately-run Sigalert website. But it's the same problem -- you have to go to the information and glean from it what you need. Wouldn't it be great if the information came to you?

This is where Caltrans and municipal transportation agencies could take a quick lesson from Metrolink, the commuter rail carrier, or the Los Angeles Fire Department, which has a service to automatically call residents to alert them of red flag warnings. A few months back, Metrolink began sending text messages to commuters using Twitter, the popular text messaging service. It's extremely simple (and free) and the messages go straight to your phone. The service allows you to sign up to receive other people's "tweets" -- short messages of 140 characters or less.

On Thursday morning, I turned on my cellphone and found this message from Metrolink:

Metrolink: Inl. Empire-OC Line train 803 delayed 30 min. into San Clem. stn. due to meeting late OC Line train 607

The obvious question here is if Metrolink can do this, why not a giant agency such as Caltrans? What if Victor awoke Thursday to this message:

Caltrans: 405 closed due to brush fire in Brentwood. Avoid at all costs. Alternates: 101 or 5. If possible, delay your morning commute.

Caltrans does offer a text messaging service that provides travel times. But that's different -- you can choose to have the same information that is displayed on its freeway signs sent to your cellphone (for example, a sign on the 101 northbound in the SFV may read minutes to 126...45).

I'll talk to the Caltrans folks and see if this is possible. The agency maintains a 24-7 operations center in the Glendale area -- basically it looks like mission control -- and it seems as if there should be one person available to send text messages, at least about major closures. And there are a lot of transit agencies around the world that send service alerts either via text messages or emails, although the quality of the alert greatly differs.

Any thoughts, readers?

After the jump, you'll find a story I wrote in February about a large experiment in the Bay Area, where researchers are trying to both collect traffic data and distribute traffic alerts via cell phones. It's some very cool stuff and gets back to the main question Victor broaches up above.

-- Steve Hymon

Are you ready for tubular rail?

I receive a steady diet of e-mail about future mass transit devices. Most are diverted straight to the trash bin, but some are provocative enough -- by that I mean strange -- that they're worth posting.

Hence, the above photo of tubular rail, the dream of Robert Pulliam and several others of Texas. It's not quite a monorail or train because there is no guideway and there are no rails. Essentially, the big concrete donuts act as the guide for the train and the wheels that keep the train moving are inside the donuts.

I'm no wiz at predicting the future, so I'll refrain from expressing further skepticism, other than saying I think we'll see Tubular Rail in Southern California about the same time that I can purchase a personal rocket pack at Vons. Attentive readers, in fact, will recall that this is a region that takes years to install bike racks.

Questions about tubular rail? The Tubular Rail website attempts to erase your doubts.

-- Steve Hymon

Image: Tubular Rail

Q & A with L.A. traffic guru

Chances are you’ve never heard his name. But if you live in L.A., Benjamin Chan controls your day. He can make your commute a nightmare or a walk in the park.

The engineer oversees the city’s Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system four floors below City Hall East. In this futuristic hideaway, computers spit out information about 3,300 intersections while huge monitors display traffic snarls beamed instantaneously from overhead cameras and underground sensors. It’s up to Chan, 49, to make sure traffic flows 365 days a year. It’s no easy job:

Can you give us an idiot’s guide to Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control?

We receive signal information from the field. We filter it. We analyze it. And if we need to, we make the changes. It’s the control center.

How does it feel to control the movements of 4 million people?

Great. I love it. There are not many engineers in the country who have the power that not only I have but the people around here have. You can actually make changes instantaneously.

What are the fastest-moving east-west streets in the city?

Adams Boulevard. Or Venice Boulevard. If you drive around 25 to 30 miles an hour, you should hit a lot of the signals.

What’s the worst intersection in L.A.?

I would say Wilshire-Sepulveda, Wilshire-Veteran — the Westwood area.

When a traffic jam pops up on your screen, what do you do?

We determine the cause and swing into action. We change signal timing or deploy traffic officers to stop people from clogging up intersections.

Even with this ATSAC system, as sophisticated as it is, can you solve traffic problems?

We’re getting to a point of diminishing returns. Maybe by 2050 or 2060, we’ll have to automate the vehicle itself. Each lane would have more and more cars. Cars would follow each other much, much closer.