The Brief

Researchers at the University of Southern California have released an interactive map to show Angelenos how pollution from diesel truck traffic affects neighborhoods and streets across the region.

The map allows users to look at the number of diesel trucks that travel regularly though their communities, heading to or from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It provides both ZIP code and street-level data.

Users can compare truck traffic in their neighborhood to other areas across L.A. County and track how it varies month to month. Most of the highest pollution areas are those closest to the ports.

“Diesel fuel can cause cancer in communities that are highly exposed to pollution, as well as higher rates of asthma, emergency department visits and heart disease,” said Jill Johnston of the USC Center for Children’s Environmental Health. “If you're near a busy freeway or roadway and you see trucks passing every day, that suggests really heightened risk for exposure.”

USC researchers say they hope the map can help L.A. residents make more informed decisions about their health.

Diesel exhaust accounts for more than two-thirds of cancer risk from air pollution in the Los Angeles basin, according to analysis by the South Coast Air Quality Management District — the region’s air quality regulator.

And despite some recent regulation and improved emissions standards for trucks going in and out of L.A.’s ports, 90% are powered by diesel fuel, according to the Port of Los Angeles.

Still, L.A. trucking professionals say their industry is getting cleaner — and argue that data collected by projects like USC’s don’t tell the full story.

“I think it's important to remember that these trucks have gotten significantly cleaner from where we started,” said Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, a group that represents trucking companies serving West Coast ports.

Understanding your exposure risk

USC’s mapping tool breaks down truck traffic by both ZIP code and street, covering 15 months of data from January 2023 through March 2024. Users can:

• Check their ZIP code's ranking among 177 county zones for port truck traffic.
• View specific street-level data across 2,600 road segments.
• Track monthly variations in truck traffic.
• Identify if they live within three blocks of heavily trafficked routes.
• Compare their neighborhood's exposure to other areas across the county.

According to the map, the 10 ZIP codes with highest exposure are concentrated near the ports and along the 110, 710, and 605 freeways, which are trucking routes to rail yards and warehouses. Areas like Long Beach, San Pedro, and Wilmington are among those facing the greatest impact.

Diesel trucks from the ports, which transport 40% of all U.S. imports, generate harmful pollutants that pose serious health risks to residents living near the ports and along major trucking routes, according to environmental experts.

“This project was really driven by community concerns that have long-documented the ports of L.A. and Long Beach as major sources of truck traffic,” Johnston said. “It shows the disproportionate impact on low-income and communities of color.”

She said the map also reflects a concerning trend in recent years: diesel trucks traveling not just on freeways, but down residential streets. For example, in the Wilmington neighborhood, just north of the L.A. and Long Beach ports, one residential street recorded more than 17,000 trucks in a single week — approximately one every 38 seconds.

To generate the map, researchers used data from a sample of trucks equipped with GPS monitors. Environmental advocates say they hope tools like this can be used to push local officials to respond to specific community public health concerns.

“I think this report is helpful to understand who's most harmed,” said Adrian Martinez, deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice, and environmental advocacy group. “People living next to these large magnets for diesel pollution are breathing some of the most toxic air in the country.”

But trucking industry professionals argue that maps like this could be misleading, because different kinds of diesel trucks vary significantly as to how much pollution they disperse, and the data doesn’t account for exactly what type of vehicles are involved.

“There's no information on its drive train, its fuel type, its age, whether or not it's meeting a certain emission standard, whether or not it's utilizing renewable fuel,” Schrap said.

The USC Center for Children’s Environmental Health also tracked all truck traffic on one busy residential street, Drumm Avenue in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles. Using an infrared camera, it was possible to record every truck during a weeklong period in October 2023.

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USC Center for Children’s Environmental Health

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Why diesel is dangerous

Experts say diesel exhaust poses particularly severe health risks, including cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, especially for those living near high-traffic corridors.

Diesel engine exhaust is a complex mixture of thousands of gases and fine particles that contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, according to the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard.

“These are really, really tiny dust-like particles that can not only enter into your lungs, but they can also enter into your bloodstream and into your brain and so these can have cardiovascular effects, respiratory effects, as well as impact cognitive functioning,” Johnston said.

The affects are especially concerning for vulnerable populations. Children face disproportionate risks, breathing in three times more air per pound of body weight than adults, Johnston said. Studies show pregnant women in these areas experience higher rates of infant death, low birth weight, and premature births.

Diesel fumes also contain other pollutants like nitrogen oxide, which contribute to urban smog. The Los Angeles area consistently ranks No. 1 in the country in ozone pollution in the American Lung Association’s annual State of the Air reports.

Will Barrett, the association’s national senior director for clean air advocacy, said smog can trigger a host of health emergencies and premature deaths.

In 2012, fumes from heavy duty cargo trucks caused an estimated 15,000 asthma attacks, 480 premature deaths and more than $5 billion in health-related costs in Southern California, according to researchers at UC Irvine.

Diesel particulate matter was responsible for 72% of the overall cancer risk from toxic air pollutants measured by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which looked at a one-year period spanning 2018 and 2019. The agency also noted carcinogenic emissions have been gradually decreasing in recent years because of stricter regulations and cleaner technologies.

But they also stress that there’s more to be done.

California regulators recently abandoned a plan to phase out and eventually ban diesel trucks. But there are other ongoing state efforts that seek to provide incentives for the trucking industry to switch from diesel engines to electric and hydrogen-powered fleets.

On the federal level, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated a $3 billion Clean Ports Program aimed at transitioning to zero-emission operations and reducing pollution in port-adjacent neighborhoods. And on the local level, the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach have launched clean truck programs to increase zero and low-emission vehicles in their fleets.

A chart recording all the entries and exits of trucks in the Port of Los Angeles by month from January 2023 to September 2024.

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USC Center for Children's Environmental Health

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Port of Los Angeles & Port of Long Beach

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Protecting your household

USC’s experts recommend L.A. residents concerned about diesel pollution start by reviewing the maps. If your home is within three blocks of a street with heavy truck traffic or if you live in high-traffic ZIP code, they recommend taking precautions, particularly if you have children or if you have a respiratory or heart disease.

For residents concerned about diesel exposure, USC recommends several protective measures:

• Install HEPA air filters indoors and maintain them regularly. (Learn more about them and see whether you qualify for an incentive program here.)
• Monitor daily air quality indexes and limit outdoor activities on high-pollution days.
• Regularly wet-clean and dust homes to remove settled pollutants, especially if there are young children at home who play on the ground.
• Maintain a diet high in antioxidants to help counter pollution effects.
• Choose exercise locations away from busy roads.
• If you regularly walk to work, school or public transit, rethink your routes to avoid busy streets.
• Reach out to local officials with concerns. (City councilmembers, county commissioners, air quality regulators, and members of the Board of Harbor Commissioners in Los Angeles and Long Beach.)

Need help making your own indoor air filter? USC has a guide:

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USC Environmental Health Centers

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USC Environmental Health Centers

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The traditional way of voting in Huntington Beach could be upended after a judge’s ruling this week in a case accusing the city of diluting the electoral power of its Latino residents.

What happened?

The judge ordered Surf City to adopt ranked-choice voting for the November general election. Ranked-choice voting is where voters rank all candidates in order of preference, so if your first choice is eliminated, your vote transfers to your second-choice candidate.

It’s also the type of voting that helped Zohran Mamdani seize victory in the New York City mayoral race.

Why it matters

The ruling comes in a legal challenge to the city’s at-large elections, arguing Latino voters are unfairly disadvantaged and unable to elect a candidate of their choice. Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that “racially polarized voting has regularly occurred in Huntington Beach elections.”

The backstory

The case was brought to court more than two years ago by the nonprofit group Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and Victor Valladares, a Huntington Beach resident and local Democratic activist.

They argued that the city’s predominantly Latino neighborhood of Oak View had suffered decades of neglect, in part because residents there lacked the voting power to get representation in city government.

The bigger picture

Dozens of cities across Orange County and elsewhere in California have faced similar challenges to at-large elections over the past decade. Most have settled out of court by adopting district elections, whereby voters elect a candidate to represent their area, rather than citywide.

The change has coincided with an increase in Latino city council members in some Orange County cities.

Why ranked-choice voting?

Judge Griffin wrote that ordering the city to adopt ranked-choice voting was a “less drastic remedy” to bolster Latinos’ voting power than district elections. Currently in Huntington Beach, all residents vote citywide for city council seats, and the top vote-getters win.

With district elections, only people within a particular district can vote for a particular seat, which advocates say helps ensure districts see themselves represented in their local government bodies.

Among the advantages of a ranked-choice system, advocates say, is that it gives voters more freedom to vote for their favorite candidate, even if they think that person won’t ultimately win.

What does the ruling say, exactly?

The ruling orders Huntington Beach to implement ranked-choice voting for the November 2026 general election, if the Orange County Registrar of Voters can support the quick switch. The ruling also calls for the city to elect all seven councilmembers at once, rather than staggering the elections, as it currently does per the city’s charter.

Judge Griffin had delayed his ruling earlier this year to consider the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which ruled that race cannot play a role in the drawing of voting districts. Griffin ultimately determined that “nothing in Callais alters this Court’s decision” in the Huntington Beach case.

What’s next?

Both sides have two weeks to raise objections to the tentative ruling. Kevin Shenkman, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he would not be surprised if the city appeals. City Attorney Mike Vigliotta told LAist in an email that his office is “reviewing the decision with outside counsel that litigated the case and determining next steps.”

We reached out to the Orange County Registrar of Voters for comment, and did not hear back before publication. If and when that changes, we will update this story.

How to attend Huntington Beach City Council meetings

• Huntington Beach holds City Council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.
• You can also watch City Council meetings remotely on HBTV via Channel 3 or online, or via the city’s website. (You can also find videos of previous council meetings there.)
• The public comment period happens toward the beginning of meetings.
• The city generally posts agendas for City Council meetings on the previous Friday. You can find the agenda on the city’s calendar or sign up there to have agendas sent to your inbox.

LAist staff writer Sammy Marvin also contributed to this report.

A judge has ruled that a Metro bus project in a congested area of Los Angeles can go forward, for now, without incorporating bike lanes that street safety advocates argue are required by city law.

The $400 million project will add dedicated bus lanes along a more than 12-mile-long stretch of Vermont Avenue between 120th Street and Sunset Boulevard. The stretch of road has among the highest rates of pedestrian deaths and injuries in the city.

The ruling from June 15 is a preliminary decision on an injunction request that’s part of a lawsuit brought by Joe Linton, who argues that L.A.’s role in the design and permitting process of the project triggers Measure HLA street safety improvements. The L.A. City Attorney and Metro have rejected that interpretation of the law.

Linton filed the lawsuit in April 2025. He is the editor of the transportation publication Streetsblog LA. Linton is filing the suit as a resident of L.A., not in his capacity as an editor for Streetsblog.

What is Measure HLA?

In 2015, the L.A. City Council adopted Mobility Plan 2035, which identified networks of streets to improve with protected bike lanes, pedestrian signal improvements, bus lanes and other enhancements.

Seven years later, frustrated with a lack of progress on the plan, the local nonprofit Streets for All began campaigning for Measure HLA. The ballot measure, which was passed by voters in 2024, legally requires the city to implement Mobility Plan upgrades when it repaves at least one-eighth of a mile of a street located in one of the networks.

What are the key issues at stake in the lawsuit? 

There’s been a longstanding disagreement over whether Measure HLA applies to Metro’s work in city projects. Metro and the city of L.A. say the ordinance only applies to projects the city leads. Streets for All and Linton say the question of who leads a project is a technicality and that the city is obligated to follow Measure HLA because it’s responsible for approving certain elements of the project’s designs and permits.

The Mobility Plan calls for bike lanes along the same stretch of Vermont Avenue that Metro is working on.

Linton’s lawsuit says the city didn’t implement the bike lanes in accordance with Measure HLA when it resurfaced Vermont Avenue service roads in the past and that it should implement the improvements as part of the Vermont Transit Corridor project.

What are the details of the injunction? 

As the lawsuit plays out in court, Linton requested an injunction that sought to prevent the city from approving final design plans for the project without the bike lanes that Measure HLA calls for.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Kristin Escalante denied the request on June 15. Escalante wrote in her decision that the city neither initiated the project nor selected Vermont Avenue for resurfacing and won’t be constructing the project itself.

“Metro’s coordination with the city does not transform the project into one made by or undertaken by the city,” Escalante wrote in her decision.

In April and June, Escalante denied Linton’s requests for pre-trial judgement on two other issues in his lawsuit, including deciding if resurfacing work on Vermont Avenue service roads triggered HLA-mandated upgrades and determining whether the city’s HLA ordinance represents an “impermissible amendment” of the ordinance.

What happens next?

The ruling is a preliminary decision. Linton said his legal team is preparing for the case to go to trial.

 “We didn’t lose at the end of the day,” Linton told LAist. “It’s a setback, but it’s a skirmish and not the outcome of the battle.”

Metro said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

LAist reached out to the L.A. City Attorney and did not hear back.

Are other legal battles taking place? 

Yes, there are two additional ongoing lawsuits that are related.

Linton filed a second lawsuit saying L.A. is using loopholes, like “large asphalt repairs,” to skirt Measure HLA requirements.

Separate from Measure HLA, Metro is working on another bus rapid transit project to connect North Hollywood and Pasadena with construction set to begin this summer. Metro filed a lawsuit in May saying Burbank is, without authority, refusing to grant the transit agency construction permits. On June 18, Metro filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to get the necessary permits so it can begin construction in July and ensure the bus project is ready for the 2028 Olympics.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

A series of Fourth of July events scheduled across Council District 14 have been postponed due to the ongoing impact of a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that blanketed surrounding neighborhoods in smoke for days. 

The fire at the 500,000-square-foot Lineage cold storage facility was knocked down Wednesday evening, but many residents say they are still feeling the effects of the smoke and have questions about the short- and long-term impacts of exposure, as well as what exactly they have been breathing. 

Jurado announced Thursday that out of an abundance of caution, the four Fourth of July events that were scheduled to take place from Friday to Sunday at various parks across her district have been postponed to allow the community and her office to focus on “recovery, connecting residents with resources and getting people the answers they deserve.” The free events were set to include live entertainment, community resources booths and a drone show. 

The postponed events include:

• Friday at Eagle Rock Recreation Center
• Saturday at El Sereno Recreation Center
• Sunday at Hollenbeck Recreation Center
• Sunday at Lincoln Park Recreation Center

“While air quality regulators have not ordered the cancelation of outdoor events, the fire response remains active, residents are still seeking clear information and support, and many families in the impacted area continue to have concerns about smoke, ash, odors, and possible exposure,” Jurado said. 

In the wake of the fire, Jurado has been asking agencies and the companies responsible for transparency. On Monday, the councilmember introduced a motion calling for the public release of air quality and environmental testing information in a way residents can actually understand.

While no independent testing has been commissioned by her office, Jurado told Boyle Heights Beat that the motion, “is intended to bring that information into the open so residents can get clear answers instead of rumors, speculation, or incomplete information.”

According to CD14, the rescheduled event dates will be shared as soon as they are available.