In honor of Bike to Work Week, this video and graphic is for those newbies out there. If you still need more instruction, here is a thorough walk through.......

Photo by Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA via Flickr 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. Cliff Moore, who is not fond of driving, lives in Altadena, works in Sun Valley and likes it that way.......

The Westside Extension effort, commonly dubbed as the "Subway to the Sea," went social networking/Web 2.0 style a few weeks ago with a group on Facebook. This is the first time a specific project has done outreach like this and word on the transit street is that more project managers may be doing more of this in the future. Metro's Librarian, Matthew Barrett, has definitely been a leader in exploring blogging and other online tools......

A man who tried to get away from Transit Sheriff's Deputies on a Metrolink Train yesterday was shot at, but not hit. Police were checking fares in Norwalk when one man split after the train doors opened. A foot chase ensued where at one point, according to police, the suspect turned toward the officers. "Fearing the suspect was armed, one deputy fired his weapon, missing the suspect," Deputy Luis Castro of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau......

Since billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad has funded Los Angeles institutions such as LACMA's BCAM and UCLA's Stem Cell Institute, Curbed LA asked its readers what he should spend his money on next if it were to be a civic project. The "Subway to the Sea" won with overwhelming results....

There are two more meetings left (one tonight, one on Monday) for the third round of public meetings with Metro regarding the Westside Extension, often noted as the "subway to the sea." At the last set of meetings, 17 alternatives were proposed which have been honed down to five alternatives being presented this week. What survived was underground heavy rail and one robust rapid bus system. What didn't was at grade trains and aerial transit.......

Probably not the best marketing for public transit in Los Angeles, but it's quite a sight anyway. LAist Featured Photos contributor Fire Monkey Fish was riding a Metro bus last week in Hollywood when she saw this man. "I guess you can't look too happy riding the bus with your pet spider," she wrote below the photo. We can't imagine anyone else being too happy either! To join LAist Featured Photos, visit Flickr......

Oil just keeps creeping up in price everyday it seems. This morning, headlines like this read "Oil Passes $120 A Barrel For First Time Ever." But don't expect today's record breaking numbers to be the cause of any immediate increases in local gas prices. According to Jeffrey Spring of AAA of Southern California, it takes three to six weeks to see the effect of oil prices at the pump. Any price increase or decrease on......

Photo by jslander via Flickr If one popular restaurant single handedly caused enough of a parking problem that the LA Times' Burbank Leader is writing a feature article on it and it became a city council election issue, then it's time for the city of Burbank to think a little more about their poor public transportation system and walkability of the suburban Magnolia Park area in the city's westside. Since the popular Porto's Bakery......

Here's some food for thought. Last Fall, TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis told a group at a Farmlab Salon that "the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) send a request to the Governor and President to declare a state of emergency regarding the 5400 environmental/pollution related deaths a year. That equals out to be one and half 9/11's a year."...

Photo by alistairmcmillan via Flickr In response to a comment in yesterday's piece, Train to LAX Getting Closer, Metro Doesn't Want It, Kymberliegh Richards writes a good history of what happened and why. Richards runs a website called the San Fernando Valley Transit Insider as well as a Metro San Fernando Valley Governance Council member and a board of directors member at the Southern California Transit Advocates. I always love seeing people who say......

As mentioned yesterday, Eric Richardson of blogdowntown is visiting Portland on a delegation to study the city's public transit, namely the streetcar system. One of the biggest concerns is construction -- the time it takes and how it affects traffic, both auto and pedestrian. One of the biggest opponents was Mike Powell, of Powell's Books fame. But after the construction came and went, he became a fan....

A fire on a service truck near the NoHo Metro Red Line Station will cause a minimum of 10 minute delays this morning. Earlier today, the truck came in contact with electrical rails about 100 yards inside the tunnel, prompting it to catch fire. Difficult for Los Angeles Firefighters to extinguish the fire with high voltage running through the rails, Metro shut down the train system for safety reasons and prepared buses in case the......

Photo by alistairmcmillan via Flickr To connect the Metro Green Line light rail to LAX, simply put, it would take about two miles of track and some money. This week, the Senate Transportation Committee passed SB 1722 by Sen. Jenny Oropeza, a bill that would allow a separate construction authority the single-focused job of connecting rail to the airport. The bill will now make its way to the Senate floor. Metro opposes the idea,......

This photo was taken on April 6 on Alameda near Union Station by LAist Featured Photos contributor ~db~. This afternooon, The Guardian reports that "oil surged to a record high over $112 a barrel on Wednesday after a government report showed a sharp drop in U.S. inventories ahead of the summer driving season." LosAngelesGasPrices.com has a chart and if you take a look at this link you might go "whoa." The average Los Angeles gas......

Whoa now. If a Metro Blue Line vs. pedestrian incident early this morning downtown at Grand Avenue and Washington Boulevard leaving a 19-year-old man in critical condition was not enough, then hear this. A few hours later at 1:00 p.m., a Blue Line train was involved in a crash with a vehicle at Third Street and Long Beach Boulevard in the harbor city. "Investigators said the woman, who was driving a Ford Focus, turned in......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist A local state assemblyman has proposed a bill that could end up adding a fee to driver registrations or gas at the pumps in Los Angeles County. The West Hollywood based Mike Feuer, who sits on the state's Transportation committee, has put in AB2558 that would either add $90 to annual registrations or 9-cents per gallon of gas. It would raise $400 million a year for public transit projects. It's......

One politician won't give up on his mission to get the Green Line moving directly to LAX. And Metro won't give up on saying "no" to that idea. It's not that Metro is trying to destroy any hopes of public transportation in Los Angeles, it's just the conservative and realistic tones they put out there when it comes future projects and funding. They say they want a connection to LAX and that possibility comes via......

With government budget's dwindling (so bad, the Mayor took a furlough day yesterday), Southern California leaders met yesterday to discuss transit funding for the 25 million residents in the area. And they expect millions more to move in over the next 30 years. So how to pay for it? Here are some their ideas as reported by the Daily News: State transportation bills, if passed, could allow for bonds to be passed on the......

You can download the full 26-page plan here Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which was just released this morning, takes a look ahead about 20-25 years down the road to determine what the county’s residents will need in terms of transportation options to get around the county. It covers public transportation, some biking, highways and goods movement. The above map is the shows a basic highway and public transportation vision, funded and unfunded......

UPDATE!!! The event has moved to in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Check Facebook for updated details.Coming on the heels of the announcement for Los Angeles' participation in World Pillow Fight Day scheduled for Saturday March 22 downtown, there's yet another spectacle of an event planned for the night before at Hollywood and Highland, sans bouncers and lines to wait in (h/t again to Bored-LA). According to the Facebook page, at 10:00 p.m. on Friday......

Governor Schwarzenegger announced today where some of the Proposition 1B, the $20 billion infrastructure bond approved by us voters in 2006, will go... right here in Los Angeles: 12 miles of bus lane on Wilshire Blvd. ($5 million) Expo Line ($73.5 million unevenly split between Phase I and II) 95 new natural gas busses ($50 million) Bus rehab ($27.5 million)......

The MTA says it's time to cut the lines--20 bus lines, that is. Because of low ridership and operating costs, the city's transit system is looking to trim the fat from their service. The current proposal being voted on consists of the elimination of 20 bus lines and reduced service on 24 other lines, for a total of 375,000 service hours cut altogether. The Bus Riders Union is vehemently opposing the proposed cuts, with spokesman......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

Photo by JeremyRyan via Flickr No more are the days where Mayor Villaraigosa is a rock star celebrity who stood as a symbol of change for Los Angeles. The LA Times this weekend, along with LAist late last week, questioned the Mayor's time on the road with the Hillary Clinton campaign. The Mayor says the trip scheduled to end Wednesday comes to an end today because a lot was already accomplished, but the Daily......

Photo by Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA via Flickr It was originally reported back in December that Metro was looking into gates and turnstyles for railways at the cost of $30 million. Today, in an opinion piece by LA City Beat, they say it's now $80 million and that there is no need to spend money on this project: This morning (Thursday, February 28), the Metro board is scheduled to give final approval to an......

Averaging more than one incident a week so far in 2008, there have been nine incidents between people/cars, or in one case, a fire hydrant, and mainly Metro busses, except for one incident involving a Big Blue Bus, Santa Monica's transit agency and another with an unknown transit agency at this time. According to Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) records, there have been a total of forty-three injuries, ranging from minor to critical (some......

Now here's the quote of the day via the Daily News: ""I think if there were laws that required mayors to take transit, you'd see transit systems improve remarkably." That's Ted Balaker, a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation who spoke to transit beat writer Sue Doyle, who wrote a piece on Mayors across the country and their public transit use. Locally, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed to take public transit once a week last month......

Update, 5:05 P.M.: One of the patients is in critical condition according to ABC7 on air news. The Los Angeles Fire Department reports that the all patients are from the bus including the driver. Yesterday it was a close call with the Blue Line, but today is the real deal. An Orange Line Metroliner bus has collided with an automobile on the 12700 block of Chandler Blvd. between Coldwater Cyn. and Whitsett. No further details......

In yesterday's LAist interview with Hillary Clinton, we had to ask about public transportation. Clinton said she would increase federal funding for public transit by $1.5 billion per year, link funding to local land use policies that encourage mixed-use and transit-oriented development (discouraging sprawl) and invest $1 billion into intercity passenger rail (think high speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, or more locally, the MagLev concept from Orange County to Las Vegas). Speaking......