Results tagged “freeways”

A symposium held at Sci-Arc this last weekend featured winners of a recent locally-focused transit design competition. Adam Christian at his blog, Urban Insights takes note of the 2nd place winners, the Fletcher Studio, who "proposed urban agricultural villages that would convert freeway embankments into terraced hillsides. Affiliated bungalow housing would be built alongside. These developments would be a new source of 'green' jobs, employing farmers on a rotating, seasonal basis." With some 527 miles of freeway, there is about 960 acres of unused land that could be made into workable space. That's a much better iday than these bogus freeway flower advertisements. (Thanks, Streetsblog, Curbed!)

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Should the freeways signs that display amber alerts and travel times also be used for advertising to help raise money for our cash-strapped state? The Schwarzenegger administration is considering an idea from Clear Channel Outdoor that would let a billboard company upgrade the signs for free if some kind of advertising deal would be worked out.

In one sense, you know congestion pricing if you've ever traveled northbound on the 15 freeway in northern San Diego County or the 91 in Orange County and used the express lanes where pricing is variable depending on the time of day you drive it.

Yesterday the Freeway Blogger came to Los Angeles to promote peace via his easy-to-make signs placed over freeways where they get millions of impressions by passing drivers until someone comes by and takes them down. He hit at least seven spots yesterday. Did you see the signs saying "Peace" or "Peace on Earth"?

The anonymous Freewayblogger is coming back to Los Angeles on Thursday while on her West Coast tour that begins today in San Diego and ends in Portland on the 22nd.

Ever wonder who puts up those signs along freeways advocating for some cause or the other? One person is the Freeway Blogger who has hung over 4,000 signs against the war on freeways across the California and the western U.S. The above photo is from late July, but at least five went up yesterday afternoon, according to the blogger in an e-mail.

For decades, a 4.5 mile gap on the 710 Freeway between Pasadena and Alhambra has been a headache for many commuters. The freeway, which begins in Long Beach, was always planned to be finished, but lawsuits and a storied history within the city of South Pasadena stopped that. In an unexpected and maybe confusing move, the South Pasadena's city council voted to support a state bill that would allow Metro to seek private financing for a tunnel under the city. But the city's support of the bill doesn't mean support of the project, more about getting the best deal if a freeway was forced. The city may still sue over the tunnel project.

The Bottleneck Blog is reporting this afternoon that the "California Transportation Commission just unanimously approved the plan in Los Angeles County to convert the carpool lanes on parts of the 10, 110 and possibly the 210 freeways to toll lanes." But blogger and LA Times Road Sage also cautions those who drive regularly on those freeways to not panic...yet. The plan still has to make it through the state legislature before you'll be coughing up cash for your commute.

Metrolink's ridership got a shot of adrenaline yesterday as ridership jumped to an all time high of 50,232 passengers -- a 15.6% increase since Tuesday for the regional commuter train service.

"You would think that something affecting millions of voting Americans would top the list of talking points for every one of the candidates. Yet most of those stumping for the nation's highest office have offered little more than platitudes: When it comes to transportation, they're basically for it."

How many times have you seen some boneheaded driver make a stupid move on the road, only to drive up beside them and see them yapping away on their cell phones? Too many times, I'll bet you. Now a new study shows that cell phone users also drive more slowly and make poor lane-change choices, which may slow down traffic overall up to 10%. From the LA Times:

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that motorists jabbering on cellphones drive more hesitantly than undistracted drivers and, as a result, are increasing everyone's average drive time by 5% to 10%.

Continue reading "Cell Phone Use May Make Traffic Worse"

While the presidential election is the sexy supermodel on the Feb. 5 California Primary ballot, there are three important propositions asking you to say Yes or No when you walk in to that polling place or mail in your vote.

Late last week the MTA board announced plans to convert some of LA County's car-pool lanes on heavily traveled freeways to toll lanes. The Daily News reported thatUnder the plan, solo drivers could use the car-pool lanes if they pay a toll. Vehicles with two or more occupants - which currently use the lanes for free - would also pay a toll, although less than solo drivers. It's unclear how the plan would apply...

Guest Day Editor LA City Nerd will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview here and check out the nerd's blog. Everyone knows Los Angeles is the second largest City in the US, but here are some LA City Nerd facts you might not have known... 1. LA City has the largest urban forest of any City in the US. 2. LA City has the largest municipal street...

Loyal LAist reader Evan Price caught this photo of a water main of some sort (we hope that's water) shooting out of the In-N-Out over by Universal City near the Vivid building today around 1:30pm. This is where a lesser blog would make some sort of childish sexual innuendo about liquids gushing in the vicinity of the world's largest porn company, working in a punchline of "Now that's what we call Animal Style", but...

With one-third of the worst freeway junctions in this land o' freedom according to Forbes Magazine, somehow, this city still runs. It must be due to the fact that Los Angeles is economically successful: that is, if we go by the theory of economist Anthony Downs who said in the Washington Post that more economic activity equals more cars and more driving. He continues to say that "congestion will remain a fact of life...