A.M. Greenlist: Villaraigosa's short-term traffic reduction plan

Traffic >> L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council discussed a plan to reduce traffic in some of the city's most congested areas yesterday. Villaraigosa said we'll see more traffic light synchronization, diagonal crosswalks, and smart parking meters. There will also be tougher penalties for people who are caught blocking intersections and tougher enforcement of parking laws by a "Gridlock Tiger Team."

>> Most of all, Villaraigosa urged Angelenos to go Metro; for his own part, Villaraigosa pledged to ride a bus, subway or light-rail line at least once a week. He also publicly announced that he is considering backing the proposal to raise the sales tax by a half-cent to raise money for public transportation.

>> The L.A. blogosphere is abuzz with that traffic news; MetroRiderLA provides a handy roundup of the commentary.

>> O.C. tollway must be built following California environmental laws, since it lost its bid for an exemption. The original plan would have cut across the popular San Onofre State Beach.

>> Will Anaheim get a monorail? The city's mayor, Curt Pringle, "proposed a way to fund such a monorail to connect the tourist area with a planned transportation hub." (via Bottleneck Blog)

>> A U.S. Coast Guard study reports on the aftermath of the San Francisco Bay oil spill last November. The verdict: Poor initial response, but an aggressive mop-up of a fast-spreading spill was conducted. The ship apparently spilled 53,569 gallons of fuel oil, nearly 5,000 gallons less than first estimated. Earlier: The Bay Area gets tainted with thick oil.

>> We may see steep fishing restrictions to save California's Central Valley chinook salmon population, which has been down. Possible reasons: ocean conditions linked to global warming, and/or water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Decisions about restrictions is expected to be made in April.

>> A "clean coal" plant in Missouri loses funding. Although "clean coal" is often touted by the coal industry as a cheap energy source, the Department of Energy found that building this plant was anything but cheap.

Photo by andropolis via Flickr