Results tagged “commute”

Face it, throughout much of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region, walking is not always a pleasant experience. And although we already know this, it's also not that safe either, finds a new report, released by two transportation groups with the help of other organizations like AARP. Here are a few statistics:

Carpool lanes added to the Southbound 405 Freeway as part of a $167 million project were opened up this weekend, in the hopes this will relieve some congestion on the road. "Caltrans workers Saturday took out barricades on the southbound 405 freeway's carpool lanes from the Interstate 10 Freeway interchange south to the 90 Freeway," explains CBS2, adding that the last step was to replace the surfacing material in the center divider.

Books on tape? Podcasts? Daydreaming? Favorite albums? Drivers who commute out of the Inland Empire have the most time on their hands to fill while making long treks to their workplace, according to recent census data. "The data said the commute is almost 42 minutes for workers from Lake Elsinore. For Riverside County, the commute is 31.6 minutes...

A bomb threat called in at around 4 o'clock this morning indicated there was a pipe bomb at the Pershing Square Metro station. The call led "sheriff's deputies and police to shut down the facility," at 5th and Hill in Downtown, according to the Press-Telegram. Although Metro's Red Line trains were operational this morning they were "bypassing the Pershing Square stop," up until around 5:42, when "Bomb squad investigators and police dogs [who had] rushed to the scene to investigate the threat" determined it was a false alarm. A similar false alarm occurred at the Pershing Square station in March of 2007.

This morning, the city launched its Tiger Team V to focus on patrolling, citing and towing illegally parked vehicles in the city's top 25 "hotspots" where said vehicles slow down traffic. We asked for the complete list and they provided. These locations were selected by the number of citations issued from June 2008 through August 2008. Check below to see if any of these streets and block numbers are part of your commute.

A Metrolink train collided head on with a freight train in Chatsworth just before 4:30 this afternoon, causing one of the cars on the Metrolink train to turn over on its side. The train was heading west at the time. According to a live report on KCBS there are 20-25 people who are injured, and of them 10 are critically injured and 3 require extrication. Emergency personnel are on the scene right now.

       

It's not every morning that we have clear skies. And depending where you live, today might not be so different. But it's Friday. Relax. Take a deep breath and enjoy these wonderful sunrise photos from the past, some of them from our LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr.

Metro's Chair and City of Santa Monica Councilwoman Pam O'Connor held one of her monthly online chats with residents yesterday. StreetsblogLA was there and noted that she personally thinks transit planning needs to stop just counting cars and start counting people. You know, bicycles, walkers, people on busses -- all those aspects that make up street use. The current mainstream models mainly focus on cars, cars, cars.

Here's a sign of the times. This bike rack at the Variety/E Channel Meridian Club building on Wilshire normally has three or four bikes on it. This day, bikes (including mine) had to be locked to parking meters because the rack was full.

The rising price of gas is nothing new, but these past seven days, a gallon of gas has jumped up 27 cents. Prices have not increased at this pace since August 2003.

LAist Featured Photos contributor Marshall Astor titled this photo "Holy Fuck Part Deux! Thrifty Gas in San Pedro Goes for Broke."

As part of Sundance Channel's green programming, tonight's episode of Big Ideas For A Small Planet features cities tackling transit with green solutions. No, Los Angeles is not featured (save for a couple stock shots of an orange Metro bus), but the ideas presented in the episode are all something the region could or is already looking into.

On July 1st, after a two year warning, driving while talking on your cell phone, unless it is with a hands free device, will be illegal. There's some confusion, however, on how it all plays out and it depends on whether you are a teen or adult.

• In an attempt to avoid the voter confusion rampant in the state during this year's Super Tuesday balloting, LA County officials are doing their best to educate the public about the InkaVote Plus system, including the audio options for disabled and multilingual voters.
• It seems "fire season" in the Southland is now a year-round thing. After yesterday's Griffith Park fire comes news of another fire, this one in Pomona, which is burning over 25-acres and near to homes.
• LA's flat track Derby team, the Angel City Deby Girls have an intra-leaue bout tomorrow night at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo. See the photos from their last game.
• Metrolink riders commuting through Placentia this morning may have arrived to work late with a unique excuse: Their rides were delayed due to a despondent 18-year-old man's wish to commit suicide by laying down on the tracks.
• An accident this afternoon in North Hills involving a Metro bus and another vehicle sent three people to the hospital with injuries.
• Two men behind the illegal selling of body parts through UCLA's Willed Body Program have been indicted for their crimes, including "conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft and grand theft of personal property."
• Residents of Monrovia angered over recently erected billboards as "part of a campaign by the Monrovia Police Officers' Association to gain support for its position during contract negotiations with the city" plan to rally in protest tonight at the police station.
• A toast to you, Mister Mondavi. Legendary California vintner Robert Mondavi died today at the age of 94.
• And for you fashionistas, today was day one of a three-day preview of designer Rogan Gregory's new line for the exclusive, upscale, sophisticated mecca of haute couture known as Target, hitting the racks at Barney's. Fashion Intelligentsia has the pics of the duds.

Atlanta may have received top honors this time around, but Los Angeles and San Francisco linger at the back of the top ten list for worst commutes in the country, according to a report released by Forbes. And to that, they compare some LA vs. SF statistics:

Today's edition of Steve Hymon's weekly Road Sage column explores one Altadena man's story of de-caring for five years, but unwillingly giving back into car culture after Metro changed some lines, ultimately forcing his four hour daily roundtrip to be a little longer and more unpredictable.

For over a year now, the plan to make both Olympic and Pico one-way(ish) streets has been thought and fought, presented and resented. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Councilman Jack Weiss, the major city backers of the project, were set to go forth with the project this week. That is, until Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Torribio said "not so fast."

You just finished filling up your tank at the gas station, but the next thing you do is not grab your keys to leave, it's to take an extra twenty seconds to note some statistics by inputting into Twitter the miles since your last fill up, the price per gallon and how many gallons you put in.

An Urban & Environmental Planner friend of mine in New York City believes that when you build bigger and beefier streets, all you do is build increased traffic congestion. "Build it and they will come," he would say. Today, Steve Hymon in his weekly Road Sage column explores the subject by extension of the Pico/Olympic plan, where city officials are planning to begin adjusting the two busy arteries to act like one-way streets starting March 8.

It sounds really boring: California Health and Safety Code Sections 43845. However, within that state code is a something pretty neat: if your place of work has 50 persons or more employed for them and subsidizes leased parking for your and your fellow employees, then they must participate in the Parking Cash-Out program offering you a cash allowance in lieu of a parking space.

Don't forget that umbrella on the way out the door today -- it's gonna rain (yes, that is an intentional Steve Reich reference). Right now, surfers should be enjoying the best swells of the week and skiers can look forward to a nice snowpack of "about 6 inches of snow at elevations of about 6,000 feet," according to the LA Times. As always, with the good, comes the bad. Among the more strenuous commute and...

I have to confess something: despite living in the NoHo Arts District, despite working on Sunset and Vine, despite writing for one of the most public-transit-friendly blogs in the city, I have remained hesitant about taking the Metro to work every morning. I mean, it makes sense: the station in NoHo is about a 10-15 minute walk away, it's a quick 10 minute trip to the Hollywood and Vine station, which drops me conveniently...

Green LA Girl is walking every street in Santa Monica and she just discovered this Web 2.0 gem: Walk Score. It calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. to help people find walkable places to live. Pretty awesome, right? I've always prided myself on my part of Sherman Oaks and it's walkability. Within a 10-minute walk radius I can walk to two bars, four restaurant bars (including...

A Memorial Weekend BBQ in East Hollywood was my destination yesterday. And since my recent habit has been to use public transit mixed with the bike, that's what I set out to do from my Sherman Oaks flat. First, I was off to Ralphs Fresh Fare at Ventura and Coldwater to pick up some food. I shop, exit and head to my bike. Right then, an escalade pulls up and parks in the fire...

It is a shame that it took us a year and some months after the Orange Line's opening to bike it from end to end. So we braved the chilly weather today and did it. We even did it from the Clybourn St. Burbank border on the Chandler Bike Path that connects to the City of Burbank's 4-mile bike path. One way, the Orange Line ride is 14 miles (add 1.2 miles for the...

Not to dwell on traffic stuff but:Just because i cut this woman off, and then flipped her the middle finger after she honked at me for cutting her off, she starts following me and riding my bumper so close that i can't even see her front license plate in my mirrors.She is in her 40's and driving an Infinity SUV, and i can't stop wondering what she plans on doing once i park my car......

Oops! CNN puts "Where's Obama" where it should have been "Where's Osama." Wha? You don' know who Obama is? You Should. Need inspiration to bike commute in Los Angeles? Meet Monica Howe. "In an unusual match-up, Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas will face four challengers, including three candidates from the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, in the March 6 election." "L-A-X hasn't had a major overhaul since the 1984 Summer Olympics and the Tom...

LACityNerd comments on LA Curbed's commentary on Daily Bruin's article about DOT's proactive enforcement of cars in driveway aprons at sidewalks. We've had our own parking problems in Westwood, but as to parking in aprons, you deserve a ticket -- it gets in the way of our bikes. As one commenter on Curbed said, "Living in the City 101: YOU CANNOT PARK ON THE SIDEWALK." NPR reports that in Los Angeles, 67.8 percent of...

You see these everyday. The little dashed lines that tell you the lane is going somewhere else. Well, those are called Elephant Tracks. Not officially, but that's the CalTrans lingo. The official term is somewhat pedantic: dashed white channelizing lines. According to CalTrans spokesperson, Jeanne Bonfilio, Elephant Tracks are there to communicate to you that your lane will be "channeling" off your current path onto an exit or an interchange. On city streets, these...

J'aime Oberlander is a Castaic native and a commuting UCLA senior, which is a not so small demographic. A product of home-schooling, she became aware of her social ineptitude in high school. This interviewer is happy to report that she's obviously gotten passed that. Her first name is "J'aime", French for "I love"; her second name is "Rachel", which is biblical Hebrew for "lamb of God". When put together the names state, "I love...