Results tagged “publictransit”

The Gold Line's Eastside Extension is opening on November 15th, but how does one get to the light rail line? Other than the big connections at Union Station (Red Line, etc), what other bus lines connect to it?

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tomorrow is expected to announce his plans in building support for something he calls the "30/10" push to accelerate Measure R transit projects--the voted in half cent sales tax increase--from being completed in 30 years to 10 years.

Metro this morning finally announced the long-awaited opening of the Gold Line's Eastside Extension between downtown Los Angeles to East L.A. After the traditional inaugural ride with government officials and media in tow the day before, the six-mile line will be open to the public with free rides on Sunday, November 15th.

In a unanimous vote, the Metro Board approved the Long Range Transportation Plan this afternoon. The document will guide transit planning in Los Angeles County for the next 30 years. One amendment was introduced and ultimately approved as well. Among a number of changes it brought, the most notable is a commitment to try to open the Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Azusa before 2017.

Metro is expected to pass the Long Range Transportation Plan at this mornings meeting, which began at 9:30 a.m. As Streetsblogger Damien Newton explains, the plan "will cement the timeline for local funding from Measure R for projects and allow the agency to apply for Federal and State funds." Basically, if voted upon, the document will be the guiding force for the development of transit in L.A. for years to come.

If Metro's regional connector project is built, passengers will be able to commute between Pasadena and Long Beach without transferring from the Gold Line to the Red Line, then the Blue Line. Likewise, those traveling between East LA and Culver City (and maybe someday Santa Monica) will be able to skip a similar transfer process. That means faster travel times and more accessibility car-free.

According to a report posted on Metro's website, it appears the Gold Line Eastside Extension could be opening on Saturday, November 14th. It is listed in a powerpoint presentation (.pdf) meant for a board committee meeting this Wednesday.

A series of public meetings about the Crenshaw Corridor (you know, a train from Wilshire Blvd. to LAX) have ended, but there still plenty of planning (and dreaming) to be had for public transit in the Los Angeles region. From bicycling to bus lanes to subways, here's a wrap-up of meetings that remain this month.

Are you worn out on public transportation meetings this month? Let's recap before we get to the latest. Current and upcoming meetings soliciting public feedback include the city's draft bicyle plan, the Crenshaw Line to LAX, bus lanes on Wilshire and major improvements to the Rosa Parks Station where the Blue and Green lines cross.

The first of four public meetings about the Crenshaw Corridor project was last night, with 50 to 60 people reportedly showing up. Out of those who attended, "about a dozen spoke their two minutes — with nearly every public speaker in favor of the light rail option," wrote transit blogger LA Wad on MetroRiderLA. That included LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who paid a surprise visit to the meeting in support of the light rail option.

But don't get too excited as it's just one step in a long process that's almost completed. Although the timetable (.pdf) for the Gold Line now include eastside extension stations, they've been left blank. What a tease!

If you see the Gold Line running through the Eastside and East L.A. on a regular basis next week, don't think you can hop on board at the nearest station. Metro officials announced today that pre-revenue light rail train testing will begin Sunday, lasting at least a month before opening to the public.

October is going to be a busy month for public meetings about transportation. The city of Los Angeles is hosting a set of them on the draft master bicycle plan while Metro will gather input at a series of meetings about the Wilshire bus lanes.

As Metro works on a subway to the Westside, they are also working on peak hour bus lanes down Wilshire Boulevard to the Santa Monica city line and excluding Beverly Hills. The project aims to improve traffic flow along Wilshire Boulevard, encourage the shift from car to public transit, improve bus travel times and reliability on bus service.

The Metro board yesterday directed staff to apply for federal grants in hopes of capturing start-up money for the a subway to UCLA and a the regional connector in downtown.

The Mobility 21 transportation summit (.pdf) is wrapping up for the day, but earlier a list was released, featuring 21 "Critical Transportation Projects 'In My Backyard' to Improve Mobility throughout Southern California." The same-named six-county coalition included sexy public transit projects like subway to Westwood and high speed rail between San Diego and San Francisco, but also other important projects such as Positive Train Control for safety and added freeway lanes.

A straw poll posted within a Daily News story today is asking readers if they would use the "subway to the sea" of not. So far, with only around 200 votes as of this writing, it's a split vote. Earlier today, the poll indicated losing results for subway ridership. Posting to his Facebook page, former LA Times transportation reporter Steve Hymon notes that "if most of those readers are from the Valley (perhaps a dubious presumption), it's impressive that 48% would ride."

The Metro board today voted to approve a demonstration ExpressLanes project and to support high speed rail between Union Station and Anaheim, but they failed to take action on the Long-Range Transportation Plan, the guiding transit document for the next 20 to 25 years. The board also learned that the installation of fare gates, which began appearing last week, has been delayed systemwide. Damien Newton at StreetsblogLA explains from the meeting:

As exploratory drilling for the possibility of a subway to the Westside continues to take place on city streets, Metro is gearing up for another set of community meetings for updates on the project (meeting info is below). Last Spring, public meetings gathered input on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report (DEIS/R) process that is currently underway. Next month, they will present a summary of what was heard at those meetings, provide updates to possible route alternatives and discuss the subway construction process if the project goes forward.

A survey conducted on behalf of Metro found that residents still support Measure R, which boosted LA County's sales tax up a half cent in order to raise $30 to $40 billion for transportation projects. However, it also found that people feel projects are moving too slowly to get the region out of gridlock. According to the LA Times, the poll of 605 registered county voters finds (with a plus or minus margin of 4%)...

Today a Metro committee on Measure R funds were to discuss the possibility of pushing up the opening dates of three rail projects in the county--the regional connector in downtown, the second eastside extension of the Gold Line and the Green Line to LAX. After the meeting, Foothill Gold Line Extension advocates (they want the line to run beyond Pasadena towards Ontario) announced that the acceleration of project timelines in the agenda were picked at random to study the feasibility of earlier than planned opening dates. Still, they contend that their project is shovel ready and Mayor Villaraigosa is behind the line opening as far as Azusa by 2013.

On July 1st, our taxes in LA County increased a half penny on the dollar to fund a mix of transportation projects, whether they be rail, highway or something else, thanks to Measure R, which was voted in by the public last November. This Thursday morning, Metro will hold a Measure R committee meeting (.pdf) to discuss aspects of that and part of that discussion will be the possibility of moving up the timelines of three projects.

Earlier this week, word got around that Google Transit was up and working in beta mode. Today, it became the real deal. Over 200 bus lines and five lines with more than 2.5 million data points are now on Google Transit, an option found on Google Maps.

Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Los Angeles last week and took a tour of the Gold Line Eastside Extension, which is expected to open soon (no date had been announced, though). The line will run between Union Station and East LA. "This whole rail line is way ahead what we are talking about in Washington," exclaimed LaHood. "This is what we mean by livable communities. You build it and they will come."

After much pushing and prodding by the public and media, Metro finally succumbed, quietly launching Google Transit this past weekend. Go ahead and play, it's like we're in a real big city now, catching up with most other major ones.

Starting next week and for four months after, Blue Line train service is going to be impacted as crews integrate the Expo Line, which will run between 7th/Metro station and Culver City, sharing two stations and track. Service will run every 30 minutes instead of the usual 20 on weekdays after 8 p.m. as crews work between the Washington and 7th/Metro stations. Weekend service will not be affected. The 8.5 mile line is expected to open in 2011 with the line extending to Santa Monica in the future.

Today Metro made a big step with an announcement that will give programmers a new tool to make and computer savvy commuters ecstatic. They launched a new beta developer website (and blog!) with two downloadable data sets--GIS and GTFS, or Google Transit Feed Specification, which is used in Google Transit. "This data set is a collection of tabular data describing route, stop, schedule, and fare information for Metro’s system," Metro said in a news release. "The GIS data is a collection of shapefiles for mapmakers who wish to include a layer of Metro Bus and Metro Rail lines and stops into a map."

Streetsblogger Damien Newton is not happy with the most recent Dodgers free parking promotion, which will run during the series against the Oakland A's June 16-18, saving you $15. Newton's problem is that the Dodgers earlier this year refused to fund the public transportation shuttle between the stadium and Union Station, a program that began just last year. Here are his thoughts plus math: "Well, now it's official. The Dodgers don't consider people that don't own cars part of their fan base. For the record, the Dodgers parking lot fits 16,000 cars. At $15 a pop, they are losing more revenue with this three day promotion to 'all their fans' then they would have spent funding the bus service from Union Station to Dodger Stadium for the entire season." But will the A's games fill up the parking lot?

Not owning your own property can be a bitch. And such is life when leasing from the government, one who will now be using some of the land for a transportation corridor. The Orange Line busway extension from the Warner Center up Canoga Avenue to the Chatsworth Train Station is slated to break ground this June. That means the businesses that have been leasing right-of-way property from Metro--some have for 50 years--will be booted or have their lease properties be chopped up into small ones.

The city budget crisis must be really that bad. Today, the LA Department of Transportation announced the elimination of free transfers on all of its DASH Downtown L.A. routes effective April 1. Fares will remain $0.25 per boarding and monthly passes can now be bought for $9 online or at various locations. "It will help a little bit," LADOT Bruce Gilman said of the increased revenue, which is projected to be around $130,000 annually based on an average of 10,000 transfers a week. "And we introduced a new pass that we want people to take advantage of." As for integrating with Metro's TAP fare system, Gilman said the department is "moving in that direction."