Interested in the public participation in local transportation planning?
Read our new paper! We examine local studies that are supposed to empower disadvantaged communities and help them shape their transportation system. But - do they even work?
Tldr; maybe, but at a cost.
An Italian mountain village? A Greek island? Nope! It's America's first car-free village, and I got to stay in it. A 🧵on what it's like.
TLDR; remove the parking mandate, enable livable cities.
A woman sped -likely at 80+ mph - through a quiet residential street in her Mercedes SUV, killing two brothers on a marked crosswalk. To convict her of murder, and not an accident, the prosecutors have the somehow very challenging task of proving she..knew speeding was dangerous.
New survey results confirm: Most Americans don't want car-oriented suburbs. They want walkable mixed-use neighborhoods and will pay more to live in them.
They will choose an attached home over a detached one if it means a shorter commute and walkable community.
Paris is slashing car lanes from 8 to 4 on one of its most congested, polluted thoroughfares. They're turning what was a nasty arterial into a place people will actually want to be.
Paris’ push to replace car lanes with sidewalks, bike paths and greenery steps up a gear with plans to remodel one of the city’s busiest, most polluted thoroughfares
Every year, North American communities spend, on average, per person:
$50 on sidewalks and crosswalks
$180 on public transit subsidies
$1,000 on public roads and traffic services
More than $2,000 per capita on government-mandated parking facilities
An investigation into New York City's notorious trash problem discovers the underlying obstacle to putting up dumpsters is... parking.
It's easier to let people pile trash bags on sidewalks that feed rats and vermin than to take some of NYC's 3 million curb spots from drivers.
An excellent in-depth article on any cyclist's nightmare: getting doored.
The Dutch reach should become second nature to every driver. And, of course, we need our bike infrastructure to go from sharrows to actual protection.
Firefighters are spending $$ opposing safer street infrastructure in LA.
Nationally, just 4% of fire truck runs are for actual fires. Their main job? Medical emergencies. And traffic collisions are a significant source of emergency medical care. Curious.
Yes, flying is miserable, and this article predicts we're doomed for more of the same.
What the op-ed misses is the obvious solution: just let foreign airlines offer domestic US flights.
Poster sessions are always a good time. This time, I kept having this conversation:
Planner: we need to build trust with community studies and meetings if we want to make streets safer for pedestrians.
Me: That makes sense. Do you also do that for cars?
Let's dig a bit into the LA Firefighters' ad campaign against bike/ped/transit improvements.
"In an emergency, every second counts. Don't slow us down." Convincing? 🤔
Now to the main event: Cul-de-sac. I was first struck by how beautiful the development is - colorful, clean, and all the landscaping and proximity between buildings added much-needed shade.
It seems that LA won't install concrete bollards because they're worried about getting sued by drivers that damage their cars.
But for that to happen, a driver would need to break the law to collide into a bollard to begin with.
When you build a city to store cars rather than house people, you end up storing people in cars.
The solutions are simple: remove parking mandates and regressive zoning laws. They make our cities both ugly and inhumane.
To wrap up: Cul-de-sac is great. People should move here. And I wish cities would make it easier to build more of them. Looking at you, West coast cities..
Love to see parking research hitting the NYT headlines, where they cite Shoup's latest work on pricing the curb.
If all of Manhattan's Upper West Side curbs were metered at market rate, every household would get $1,025 a year in improved public services.
It's my first time exploring Phoenix, and I was really pleasantly surprised. It's a bit of shock to the system to see so many developments popping up. There are NIMBYs here too, but the city seems to prioritize accommodating demand. Nice to see.
Something I love about the Southwest is all the artwork, and this development is no exception. Love and care in every detail. An ugly transformer transformed with a mural.
There's a restaurant and even a grocery store! It's a nice local independent grocery store, though I'd personally prefer to do my daily shopping at a more affordable chain store like Trader Joe's. It does, however, carry bike-themed wine. So there's that.
The next local housing battle to watch: Park La Brea.
The biggest apartment community on the West Coast is considering adding ADUs on top of existing surface parking lots. The residents - all renters! - are losing their minds ("what about the parking??").
CA banned plastic bags 10 years ago. But thanks to a section in the law that allowed stores to sell heavier-weight plastic bags for a dime, plastic bag waste is at an all time high.
A reminder that seemingly small loopholes in bills can create large unintended consequences.
This was not an April Fool's joke - it is, in fact, easier to build homes for cars than homes for people.
Pretty soon we're going to give cars the legal status of persons. It's important the Lexus gets a nice oceanside view!
“Historically, California’s coastline has been sacrosanct, with most kinds of development along beaches off-limits.”
What’s the exception? Parking lots.
@TheCACoast
, an auto oriented agency, often demands they be supersized.
A woman died walking her kid to school; her kid - as far as I know - remains in critical condition. And plastic bollards is the best we can do?
The city couldn't bring themselves to install even concrete ones?
IT'S HAPPENING. LA Metro buses are getting decked out with cameras to automatically ticket cars parked in the bus lanes.
Of course, we need to give the driving public a few more tries to break the law unpunished first 🙄
A light rail station is right at the complex, though it stops at every stop light, making for a plodding ride. All the e-bikes make sense here, as does the carshare option.
Malibu City Council held a meeting about the PCH crash that killed four young women. People were enraged.
This crash was one of more than 4,000 along the PCH in the past 10 years.
CalTrans cannot be let off the hook for this.
This is exactly how a toilet comes to cost $1.7 million. Community engagement, coordinating with many agencies (including the Arts Commission..), selecting materials from the handful of states we aren't boycotting, and on..
I explored Cape Cod’s rail trail this week and it’s probably the best maintained, most scenic bike path I’ve been on. Bike tunnels, bike bridges, even a bike rotary!
Rails-to-trails, where have you been all my life?
What primarily slows down emergency vehicles? Traffic congestion. And on LA's 4-6 lane streets, that bike lane isn't the space hog you think it is.
If your fire truck can't fit in a single traffic lane, the problem isn't the street...
It even has furnished apartment options, which I wish was more common. It seems to offer valet trash pick up rather than trash chutes, but perhaps I missed them (trash chutes are great).
At DTLA Regional Connector stations “Metro widened streets that were supposed to be narrowed or left the same width. On Wilshire, city plans mandate the street should be narrowed and the sidewalks widened. But…Metro is restoring prior roadway widths.”
Munich’s beer gardens deserve all the hype.
These are the English Gardens - central, accessible on foot, by bike and transit. There’s a playground and ice cream for kids, and tasty beer for the adults. Dogs welcome. People flock here.
Earlier this week, we joined LADOT and community members from Lincoln Heights to celebrate the installation of an All Way Stop at the intersection of E Ave 31 & Griffin Ave.
When the state forces insurance companies to subsidize home ownership for people that choose to live in wildfire zones, we shouldn't be surprised when they take their business elsewhere.
California’s largest property and casualty insurer stopped issuing home, business and casualty insurance policies in the state Saturday, citing wildfire risks and rising construction costs.
Some people seem annoyed by it, but I'm finding the La Sombrita Twitter discourse refreshing -it's not devolving into a lofty debate over capitalism.
It's a policy discussion about how best to help bus riders, and the in-the-weeds regulatory obstacles involved.
LAX claims the new People Mover will eliminate 117,000 vehicle miles a day. Very curious how many people are going to add a step to their airport trip, rather than get dropped off directly at their terminal (still free, and presumably slightly faster).
If you don't want to enforce traffic laws with speed cameras because of equity issues, the alternatives are to...
1) let individual officers choose when to cite people
2) just not enforce the rules
I wrote more about this here
Taking a rideshare might make people want to buy their own cars, but renting a shared bike makes people buy their own bike! The mere-exposure effect is real!
I am torn about being on Bike Twitter. It's one of the few places to vent about how terrifying our roads are, and find bike community. But every post about deranged drivers, near-misses, and tragic deaths make me that much less enthusiastic about getting on my bike.
I just had THREE very close calls with turning drivers in a 15-minute bike ride.
I was on my way home from getting a rear-view mirror installed on my handlebar so I can be more aware of drivers on the road around me.
If only drivers cared about seeing me.
Cities are willing to regulate e-scooters in all the ways they won't - but should! - regulate cars. They'll limit where users can ride them with geofencing, how fast they can go with speed governors, and now at least one operator will price users by distance traveled.
The visuals they picked - dirty bike lanes, homeless encampments on sidewalks - seem to imply that wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes aren't for you.
Did the state really think insurance companies would eat any and every cost?
Now the chickens are coming to roost, so to speak. State caps on insurance rates are leading to shortages.
"Americans die in rising numbers even when they drive less. They die in rising numbers even as roads around the world grow safer. American foreign service officers leave war zones, only to die on roads around the nation’s capital."
This past year I evaluated some of California's transportation community studies/engagement. I've spent a lot of time reading and writing about needs assessments. And I've come to the conclusion that they are, for the most part, needless.
In podcast on accelerating infrastructure for Olympics, LA Metro Chief Innovation Officer Seleta Reynolds says building bus/bike lanes without extensive community engagement and consent would make them no better than planners that bulldozed homes for freeways, would be arrogant.
All to say: support safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists. Other places have figured out how to have narrow streets and maintain fire access.
See, for example, my new favorite development - Cul-de-sac:
And, of course, street improvements will drain the city of money. The figure they cite has already been debunked. I will briefly note that even apart from their hyperbolic cost claim, the status quo is also expensive. Dangerous streets cost lives and limbs (and lawsuits).
My neighborhood just got these adorable fire trucks and I'm 😍
The complex was built in the 1940s; many units aren't street facing and would be tough for a modern fire truck to access. But instead of tearing everything down and covering the area in concrete, they got creative:
Sen. Portantino’s evolution on safe street policies is one of those rare uplifting stories. Once he started biking around LA, he was radicalized. It’s a common trajectory for a lot of cyclists.
More electeds should try to get around by bike and transit more of the time.
Senator Portantino’s Bike Conversion Is Paying Off for All: The legislation Portantino has written and championed since his recent conversion reflect what he's learned about safety and priorities on the streets.
The gondola fight is a perfect mix of crazy LA politics, old Dodger beefs, and random nonprofit NIMBYism (California Endowment for the Arts - what are you doing?).
The majority of metro residents drive *because they don't have other options.*
The lucky few who live in walkable places are more satisfied with their quality of life.
"We can all just drive less" doesn't have to mean not driving ever. What might driving less look like? Results from an e-bike pilot show:
<1 mi: people prefer to walk
1-4 mi: people prefer e-bikes
4+ mi: they hop in the car
And the energy savings follow:
We partnered with Mastercard to look at how pedestrianizing 11 blocks of 5th Avenue last holiday season impacted the local economy. Guess what? It drove an estimated $3M in additional spending with merchants seeing a 6.6% increase in sales.
Update on my request for a red light camera at a school intersection where drivers routinely blow past the light with no regard for kids crossing:
@LADOTofficial
rejected it. Their response, in full:
Red light cameras are legal in Los Angeles. Yet, when I requested one for this intersection, my city council staffer informed me that
@LADOTofficial
no longer installs them.
What gives?
This intersection by the elementary school is just a few feet from where a mom was killed by a driver walking her kid to school. Drivers ignore the light nearly every cycle.
We needed cameras here years ago. Gov. Newsom, please sign AB 645
Gov. Newsom, please try biking on your state's streets some time. You would understand why when Google Maps directs a cyclist onto Pico, she might shift to the sidewalk.
You wouldn't brag about that state's active transportation budget. You'd quadruple it.
It's the end of an era for block parties. What was once an American tradition, a way to get to know your neighbors over a burger without worrying that your kid will get run over, is now a nightmare of red tape and fees.
Most Americans live in cities, and, according to this Washington Post ranking, many of us live in places "deficient in nature." Density doesn't necessarily predict limited nature access - e.g. NYC.
Los Angeles, we can do so much better. What if we lined our highways with trees?
This intersection by the elementary school is just a few feet from where a mom was killed by a driver walking her kid to school. Drivers ignore the light nearly every cycle.
We needed cameras here years ago. Gov. Newsom, please sign AB 645
Auto insurance rate hikes confirm: people really are driving more recklessly. Increased medical and car repair claims, plus higher car costs, are all making car ownership that much more expensive.
Also a strange argument, since if the city really cared about cars not getting damaged, they would also repair LA's horrendously potholed streets.
I guess one policy requires resources to improve streets and the other requires nothing except complacency and risk-aversion.
This reader has the correct take: no, we don’t need to wait around for a people mover to make the LAX horseshoe less of a traffic hell pit. We can just price it.
Hot take: what if Carrillo beats Kevin De Leon (who shouldn't even be in office), is forced to get around LA without driving herself, gets radicalized, and advocates for safe streets and better transit?
I see drivers run red lights nearly every time I leave the house. Cameras can fix that, and cities should use them (even if they burn all the revenue).
Read about my quest to get a camera installed at a dangerous intersection. Spoiler: it didn't work.
"Speed traps" are easier and easier to evade thanks to a world of apps that notify drivers about nearby traffic enforcement. Waze, for example, can point out where speed cameras are.
That's not necessarily a bad thing - drivers slow down to avoid the ticket. Which is the point.
The hellscape that is the Hollywood Bowl parking lot will, finally, improve, at least a bit.
Very impressed that the LA Phil bit the bullet and is now going to both transform 350 parking spots into a drop off zone for rideshare and transit, *and* raise parking rates.
A traffic expert from London visits Los Angeles in 1917. "In London, they actually regulate traffic, instead of allowing traffic to regulate everything else."
He recommends banning parking.
Waymo got the green light to operate in LA! 🥳
I say this as a former AV skeptic: it is a radicalizing experience riding in a car that follows every traffic law. You immediately notice how accustomed we are to ignoring and bending traffic rules.
Downtown LA has all sorts of walkable, bike-friendly pockets. But they’re segmented by enormous, noisy arterials that make walking between them unpleasant.
(All this to say, flying is far too cheap. We are ruining the planet with all this flying. But flying could do with some innovation and better service.)
LA has to pass a law to make sure we actually follow through with a safe streets plan the City *already approved.*
These are all improvements outlined in the City's mobility plan. No new taxes/fees needed. You would think this would be a totally unobjectionable bill..
NYC: let's do everything we can to accelerate a film studio building boom.
My neighbors in LA's Fairfax district: we will do *everything in our power* to block a studio expansion that will.. checks notes.. create jobs.
A follow-up on LA’s response to the woman killed by a driver walking her kid to school:
The city had a zoom meeting, and congratulated themselves for adding some paint and some human and plastic bollards.
Turns out the school has been asking for “major changes” for *years.*
Since LADOT denied my request for a red light camera at this dangerous school intersection, I asked for a speed camera, which recently became legal across the state. Another flat-out rejection.
I'm not optimistic about this speed camera pilot program getting implemented..
Update on my request for a red light camera at a school intersection where drivers routinely blow past the light with no regard for kids crossing:
@LADOTofficial
rejected it. Their response, in full:
New Orleans, you're my latest favorite city.
It's just a pleasure to walk here. The architecture is a wonderful mix of Spanish, Caribbean, French, and Victorian influences. But it's the narrow streets and sidewalk-abutting fronts that make them so pleasant to walk around.
Sigh. City Council approved a residential parking permit district near a very popular hike in the middle of LA, Runyon Canyon.
If parking is an issue, don't prevent people who aren't residents from driving there. Meter the street. It's that simple.