June 2007 Archives

Increased fares on Metro bus and rail lines will take effect Sunday as planned, a Los Angeles judge ruled today,
despite an attempt by advocacy groups to get an injunction blocking the higher prices.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant denied a request by the Bus Riders Union, National Resources Defense Council and Labor/Community Strategy Center for a temporary restraining order against the fare hikes.

Despite the judge’s ruling, the three groups will move forward with their lawsuit and may seek another injunction, attorney David Pettit said.

“Today doesn’t mean we’re giving up,” Pettit said. “Sure, I’m disappointed but the case isn’t over."

The advocacy groups claim agency officials did not consider the environmental effects of the higher fares when Metro's board of directors approved the increases May 24. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, an environmental review must be done before the new fares take place, Pettit argued.

However, lawyers for the MTA said the agency was not required to prepare the report because the additional revenue -- $32 million a year -- will be used to cover operating costs rather than new construction.

--City News Service

Thoughts? Tell our blog!

Stuck in the madness of the Ventura Freeway this morning?

The commute in the San Fernando Valley stretched on this morning, possibly residual effects of lanes being temporarily closed overnight for maintenance on the Ventura and San Diego freeways, the CHP reported this morning.

Traffic was backed up for several miles on the 101 this morning as Caltrans crews reopened at 5 a.m. stretches of lanes between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Parkway Calabasas and at Las Virgenes Road, said California Highway Patrol Officer Francisco Villalobos.

Southbound lanes of the 405 Freeway were reopened at 5 a.m. between the Santa Monica (10) and the Marina (90) freeways, Villalobos said.

Villalobos said Caltrans closed down the lanes before midnight last night, and reopened them at 5 this morning. He said that radio and Internet morning reports on the closures can affect which routes motorists take as alternatives, causing traffic delays.

Absent-minded slowpokes who putter along in the left lane, beware! A spitting-mad caravan of speeders is on your tail, and they're sending you a clear message: MOVE OVER.

The grass-roots group Left Lane Drivers of America is out to reclaim the left lane for true speeders and push any dawdlers to slower, right-hand lanes.

With vinyl signs stretched across the tops of their windshields reading "Move Over" - and arrows pointing to the right lanes - these drivers are taking to the streets to spread the good word.

"The idea came to me out of frustration," said J.A. Tosti, who spearheaded the movement three months ago. "Everyone has probably asked themselves, `Boy, I wish there was a way I could tell the guy in front of me to move over.' I think it's a common sentiment."

Get the story HERE.
Thoughts? Tell our blog!

Night owls take note: All lanes of the southbound 405 Freeway from Santa Monica Boulevard to the 10 Freeway will be closed from 11 p.m. on Wednesday, June 27 until 6 a.m. Thursday, June 28, Caltrans reports.

Construction is for a $50 million project to extend the carpool lane on the 405 Freeway south from Sunset Boulevard to the 10 freeway. The new lane should be finished this summer.

The intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Oxnard Street on Wednesday gets a red light camera to nab drivers blowing through the signal.

With 31 crashes at the corner in two years, it's gained a dangerous reputation that officials want to turn around.

Tickets cost $381. And unlike the old red light cameras that snapped fuzzy pictures of violators, these cameras film you with better technology for better visibility of the drivers.

This is the 20th intersection in Los Angeles to get a camera. There are 12 more to come.

A complaint challenging fare hikes -- set to go into effect July 1 -- was brought againt Metro on Tuesday by three nonprofits.

The petition was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by the National Resources Defense Council, the Labor/Community Strategy Center and its smaller operation called the Bus Riders Union.

The groups maintain Metro did not consider environmental effects of fare increases, which they contend will force many commuters back into their cars and contribute to air pollution.

The petitioners are seeking a court order blocking the fares and scheduled bus service reductions from taking effect without a complete environmental review following guidelines set by the California Environmental Quality Act.

A hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday before Judge James C. Chalfant at 111 N. Hill St., Dept. 13. in downtown Los Angeles.

Metro spokesman Marc Littman said the agency was not required to prepare an environmental impact report.

Mulholland Highway and other canyon roads have long attracted drag racers who terrorize residents with their dangerous and illegal games, but now authorities are stepping up enforcement of these thrill seekers to make the streets safe again.

Through a program unveiled Monday called Operation Safe Canyons, California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on overtime are teaming up in cars and helicopters to nab drivers who use the Santa Monica Mountains like a race track.

Have you seen this in the Santa Monica Mountains or anywhere else? Tell our blog!

In an ultimate irony, car-pool lanes created to speed traffic along have become so clogged that the federal government has stepped in and told the state to get the lanes moving again.

Although some may be quick to pin the blame on the 85,000 hybrid cars now allowed to use the lanes because of their sky-high gas mileage, Caltrans officials say the state's burgeoning population is more likely the culprit.

After learning that the state's 1,380 miles of car-pool lanes are out of federal compliance because cars are traveling too slowly in them, the California Department of Transportation is expected to come up with a strategy by Aug. 31 to get them moving again.

Get the story HERE.

Some say families driving to soccer practices and day care are filling up these lanes, not people in carpools. What do you think? Is the idea that carpool lanes encourage carpools a mere fantasy? Would we be better off converting these lanes for regular use? Tell our blog!

Left turns during rush hour have long been forbidden on Los Angeles streets, but right turns? And on green lights? This is something new, especially to drivers on LaBrea who aren't used to the changes and are getting $159 tickets for the mistakes, reports LA Weekly.

For some at the nearby Hancock Park Senior Assisted Living building watching drivers get stopped and ticketed provides great entertainment.

Get the story HERE.

Thoughts? Tell our blog!

Freeway madness can be tracked on the California Highway Patrol's Web site under the traffic information link. The site give up-to-the minute news about the happenings on our lovely freeways. Here's a LINK.

When one man's friend was running late, he checked the CHP Web site and found out why -- ducks and her ducklings took a stroll on the freeway. It made his blog. Check out the entry HERE.

Much thanks to Dana Gabbard of the nonprofit Southern California Transit Advocates for sending this funny story our way!

What unusual traffic delays have you seen? Tell our blog!

Four new Metro Rapid and Rapid Express bus lines hit the streets next week.

Starting Sunday, the new Metro Rapid Line 704 - the Santa Monica Boulevard Rapid - and line 760 - downtown-Los Angeles-Long Beach Blvd. - debut. With these two additions, Metro now has 18 rapid bus lines operating across Los Angeles County.

Bus rides are expected to get even faster Monday, when two new Metro Rapid Express lines take off. The Wilshire Boulevard Rapid Express 920 and Hawthrone Rapid Express 940 have fewer stops than traditional Rapid lines. They operate during rush hour and run northbound in the morning and south in the afternoon.

The Wilshire Rapid Express 920 has stops at: Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue; Western Avenue; Fairfax Avenue; Beverly Boulevard; Westwood and Fourth Street in Santa Monica.

The Hawthorne Rapid Express 940 has stops at: South Bay Galleria Transit Center; Metro Green Line Hawthorne Station; La Brea Boulevard and Manchester Avenue; King and Crenshaw boulevards; King and Vermont Avenue; Broadway and Sixth Street; Union Station.

The new new Rapid Express lines are a test project to see if fewer stops can reduce travel times. If successful, Metro will bring on more of these lines this year.

What are your thoughts? Will you take it? Let us know! Tell our blog!

Hit by a Metrolink train in Covina on Father's Day, a man and his 10-year-old niece are among the most recent victims of a soaring number of deadly collisions at California railroad crossings.

Earl Brown, 53, and his niece died Sunday after a commuter train slammed into the car as it was crossing the tracks. The car was knocked 75 feet. Brown's 12-year-old daughter survived but remains in critical condition.
Witnesses and Metrolink officials ar arguing about whether the gates worked properly that day.

Whatever the outcome, last year 36 people were killed in California when their vehicles were hit by trains on the tracks - up 64 percent from the previous year.

To prevent more collisions in Southern California, Metrolink is working on a security program to keep cars away from trains along its Antelope Valley and Ventura rail lines. The only other state that has had to go to this extreme is North Carolina.

Get the story HERE.

Why do you think the rate is high in California? Time to put video cameras at the gates and ticket drivers who ignore the warnings, the same way we do at red lights? Tell our blog.

Time to dust off your soap box and speak out about Metro's $3.1 billion proposed budget at a public hearing Wednesday.

It all happens at 2:30 p.m. in the board room of Metro headquarters, 1 Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles. The building sits next to Union Station.

The transit agency earlier this month unveiled its spending plan that begins July 1 and is $85 million higher than its current budget. The board is expected to vote on the issue at its monthly meeting June 28.

Under the proposal, Metro wants to spend $1.39 billion, about 45 percent of its budget, on bus operations. Rails could receive $742 million, about 25 percent of the budget. Road construction could get $592 million.

Thoughts? Tell our blog!

Caltrans has unveiled a solar energy system producing enough power for the equivalent of more than 550 homes, reports Earth Times.org.

The company deployed a 251 kilowatt photovoltaic system at its District 10 in Stockton. The photovoltaic installation was built under a power-purchase agreement with SunEdison. Under the agreement, Caltrans benefits from solar energy with no upfront cost and saves an estimated $1.76 million in capital installation.

Get the story HERE.

Now if only we could use this kind of system to run our cars! What are your thoughts? Tell our blog!

COVINA — A man and a 10-year-old girl were killed Sunday afternoon when their car was struck by a Metrolink train as they drove around a crossing gate, authorities said.

A 12-year-old girl was pulled from the car at Barranca Avenue and San Bernardino Road by paramedics and then airlifted to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Covina police.

A preliminary investigation suggests that the driver, Earl Brown, drove around the gate at 1:57 p.m. when the train struck it in the rear. The force threw the car 75 feet off the tracks, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell.

None of the 137 passengers on board the train had injuries. The train was delayed more than an hour during the investigation. Train 362 left Union Station at 1:20 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Riverside at 3:30 p.m.

Hopefully you'll be blissfully sleeping in bed while this is going on, but for those of you hitting the roads at night, be aware that all lanes of the northbound 405 Freeway between Mulholland Drive and the 101 Freeway will be closed from 1-5 a.m. June 18-20.

Detour signs will be posted.

The freeway closing is part of a Caltrans $46 million project at the 101/405 interchange extending the current auxiliary lane on northbound I-405 past the Greenleaf off-ramp to the U.S. 101 connector. It permanently closes the loop on-ramp from eastbound Ventura Boulevard and constructs the Dickens Street bypass.

The project is estimated to complete in summer 2007.

A nationwide movement to wean drivers out of their beloved cars and onto public transportation takes place June 21.

The 2007 National Dump the Pump Day is a public awareness day that emphasizes the environmental benefits of using public transportation and is sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association.

The nonprofit promotes the day as a chance for people to beat the high price of gasoline and support public transportation as an important travel option that helps reduce America's dependence on oil.

U.S. public transportation systems save 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline every year, the equivalent of 108 million cars filling up in a year, according to the group.

About 2,000 owners of the belching, wheezing, sputting cars known as Trabants gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the car previously manufactured in former East Germany, reports the New York Times.

Now a symbol of an era before the Berlin Wall fell, these cars first rolled off the assembly line in 1957. Residents waited on long lists to buy one. Production stopped in 1991.

Trabants (the word means fellow traveler in German) hold a nostalgic place in the hearts of many East Germans.
Read the story HERE.

A new car is coming to town and it's smaller than anything on the road, reports Julia Scott of the Daily News.

The two-seater smart fortwo is 104 inches long, half the size of a typical SUV. It zips along up to 90 mph and parallel parking is a no-brainer.

In Europe, where gas can top $6 a gallon, the fortwos have been popular for the past decade. But will the car - so small its official spelling uses the diminutive lower case - find buyers here?

Some 12,000 people across the country have already put down $99 refundable deposits. The basic Pure goes for $12,000, the Passion starts at $14,000 and the Cabrio is $17,000. Read it all HERE.

As we shame SUV and Hummer drivers for buying unnecessarily large cars, is this little tyke the wave of the future? Would you buy one? How many circus clowns could fit into this thing? Tell our blog!

Legislation by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez to increase fees on California motorists by nearly $167 million each year to pay for cleaner air has breezed through the Assembly with little debate and even less fanfare, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The greenhouse legislation in part is Nuñez's answer to voters' defeat in November of Proposition 87, a proposed $4 billion tax on oil production over a decade that the speaker supported as a way to jump-start development of environment-friendly fuels to replace gasoline.

The bill would cost the average Californian about $3 to $4 a year. Most people would pay an extra $5 each time they renewed their driver's license, and vehicle registration fees would increase about $2 per vehicle. There would also be increases in fees for special license plates for some industrial vehicles, he said.

The bill would raise between $120 million and $130 million a year for seven years.

Read it HERE.

Now it heads to the state Senate. What do you say? Tell our blog!

So here's a weird little fact to keep in mind: Divorce attorneys can track every move of California motorists who use FasTrak electronic toll road transponders, reports Thenewspaper.com.

Records of every trip a motorist takes on an electronic toll road over a five-year period is fair game for divorce attorneys and others given access to California's FasTrak system. The device records the location, date and time that a vehicle equipped with a transponder passes a tolling checkpoint. The data is held indefinitely.

Get the whole story HERE.

Do you have any driving tidbits other motorists should know? Tell our blog!

MONTEREY PARK - A driver was shot to death Friday in a car-to-car shooting on the Long Beach Freeway that authorities say may have been the result of road rage, reports the Associated Press.

The man, whose name was not released, was found slumped over the steering wheel with a gunshot wound, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bill Brauberger. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives believe road rage may have led an unidentified driver of a dark SUV to fire at the victim's sedan, Brauberger said.

The victim swerved his car toward a center divider and struck a parked California Department of Transportation van, causing minor injuries to at least one Caltrans worker, said California Highway Patrol Officer Terry Liu.

It was the second slaying on that stretch of road in less than a week.

Michael Miller, 25, was shot on the Long Beach Freeway Tuesday while trying to help his girlfriend change a flat tire. Police said Miller was next to the car when another man drove up and asked if he needed help. When Miller said no, the suspect shot him and fled.

Los Angeles drivers are 45 percent more prone to collisions than the nation's average motorist. And we can expect fender benders to happen about every seven years, according to an annual report from Allstate Insurance released Thursday.

Safest place in the country to drive is Sioux Falls, S.D., where motorists can expect to crash every 13.7 years and are 27 percent less likely to have accidents than drivers in other cities.

For the past three years, Allstate has studied company claim data to determine the likelihood of drivers in America's 200 largest cities to experience a car crash compared to the national average. Allstate's auto policies represent about 12 percent of the U.S. population.

Read the report HERE.

What are your thoughts? Is Allstate's report an accurate reflection of your driving history? Tell our blog!

So it's been a few weeks since we've had sticker shock at the pump, but the word is out that prices are on the rise again...So how do you deal?

Seems some of us become gas scouts and drive around to find more reasonable prices to fill up. Here's one way to do that without putting so many miles on your car.

GASBUDDY.COM lists cheap prices in your neighborhood, near your work, your mom's house, wherever....

What are your tricks to saving money at the pump? Care to share them? Tell our blog!

Don't get too comfortable with today's so-called cheaper gas prices. Costs at the pump are expected to rise again in the next few weeks, reports the Associated Press.

Gasoline futures have risen sharply in the wake of a government report on Wednesday that shocked traders by showing gasoline inventories remained flat as refineries used less of their capacity than they had the week before.

Also boosting prices on Friday was a lower-than-expected core inflation figure, which encouraged investors to move money from fixed income investments to commodities. Get the story HERE.

What are your thoughts? Did you think the worst was over after Memorial Day, a time notoriously tied to sky-rocketing as prices? What's to come? Tell us your thoughts!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that a lawsuit to force the federal government to permit California to move forward with its tough vehicle emissions standards is now "inevitable," reports the Contra Costa Times.

California is the only state permitted to have tougher laws than the federal government to control air pollution under the Clean Air Act, but to do so it must have a waiver. Once issued, other states are free to adopt the California standard. At least 13 other states have enacted, or soon will enact, laws following California's lead on greenhouse gas emissions.

The state's waiver application has been pending since 2005. The state gave notice in April that it would file a lawsuit in October unless the agency made a determination on the waiver by then. Get the whole story HERE.

What do you think? Do these standards go far enough? Tell our blog.

Skip the 405 Freeway drama when heading to the airport, because for $4 you can hop aboard the FlyAway bus service that began today between Los Angeles International Airport and UCLA.

To kick off the new service, passengers ride for free from June 14 to 30.

The FlyAway stop is located on Kinross Avenue, about two blocks west of Westwood Boulevard. Buses will depart every 30 minutes between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m.

The city Airport Commission voted in May to pay $65,000 to the University of California Board of Regents to operate the shuttle service for one year between LAX and the Westwood campus, with two additional one-year options.

A 71-year-old man was injured Thursday after his car collided with a Metro Blue Line train near downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.

The accident happened at 8:38 a.m. near Venice Boulevard and S. Flower Street.

The man was treated at the scene for minor arm pains, said Ron Myers, Los Angeles City Fire Dept.

-- City News Service

A Fresno County dairy became the first to win approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to produce natural gas from animal waste, reports the Fresno Bee.

Methane from the Vintage Dairy near Riverdale will be used to deliver renewable electricity to homes, authorities said. The PUC granted Bakersfield-based BioEnergy Solutions approval for the project late last month.

Officials estimate the dairy will produce up to 3 billion cubic feet per year of methane gas.

BioEnergy Solutions President David Albers said dairy operators throughout the San Joaquin Valley have expressed interest in the project, which he expects can cut methane emissions from a dairy by as much as 70 percent. Get the story HERE.

Seems no one can get enough of this Orange Line!

Ridership numbers from Metro show boardings at an all-time high in May with 23,826 people getting off and on the bus during the week.

Weekend boarding also increased for the bus line that shuttles residents between North Hollywood and Woodland Hills.

On Saturdays, boardings increased from 13,301 in April to 13,630 in May. Sundays fared well too, with about 547 more getting going for a ride in May versus April.

So when will this popular ride become a rail and move even faster? Do you want it to? Tell our blog!

A San Bernardino Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that Metro should receive $39.4 million from the Department of Water and Power -- part of a $224-million verdict the utility company was ordered to pay to government agencies for overbilling them for nearly 20 years.

Judge John P. Wade ruled that the agency and the city since 1988 intentionally ignored California law and failed to determine how much it should legally charge.

California Law (government code sec. 54999) established limits on rates that municipal utilities can charge school districts, community colleges and other public agencies.

Aside from Metro, other civic agencies participated in the lawsuit, including LAUSD, which stands to net $94.7 million from the ruling. The trial lasted six weeks.

City officials plan to appeal the decision.

So we all know that getting around Los Angeles can be downright rotten, but spending more than 623.7 million hours annually stuck in traffic has given many commuters plenty of time to think how they would improve the system.

From building monorails to zinging bad drivers with hefty fines, ideas are flowing.

So what do you have to say? What drives you crazy about traveling around Los Angeles and how could it be solved? Where should transit agencies spend their money and why?

We want to publish your ideas in an upcoming column and build a conversation based on commuters' needs. So this is your chance to sound off. Read what others say HERE.

Please tell our blog what you think. Or send your ideas to the Daily News, c/o Sue Doyle, 21221 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills, 91367. Or email them to sue.doyle@dailynews.com.

Caltrans will close all lanes of the northbound 405 from Ventura Boulevard to the 101 Freeway for four nights starting Thursday, June 7.

Here's the schedule:
-- Thurs., June 7, 1- 5 a.m.
-- Fri., June 8, 2 - 5 a.m.
-- Sat., June 9, 3 - 5 a.m.
-- Sun., June 10, 2 -7 a.m.

The closings are part of a $46 million project at the 101/405 Interchange extending the current auxiliary lane on northbound I-405 past the Greenleaf off-ramp to the U.S. 101 connector, permanently closing the loop on-ramp from eastbound Ventura Boulevard and constructing the Dickens Street bypass.

The project is planned to be finished this summer.

How much it costs to fill up the tank depends on where you are.

Over the past five months, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has soared almost 50% to $3.16 a gallon. But prices have climbed faster in some places than in others. People in Chicago have seen prices go up 64% to $3.61. But people in San Francisco, who have long paid some of the highest fuel prices, saw a 32% rise to $3.57, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Get the story HERE.

Had enough with unpredictable prices at the pump? Are you gritting your teeth and paying these prices or changing your driving habits to save some money? Tell our blog!

Residents can get creative when it comes to warning speeders to slow down through their neighborhoods. From yelling "slow down" at passing drivers to standing on street corners with police radar guns, concerned moms and dads will try anything.

But in Hancock Park, the warnings to lead-foot drivers are very blunt, as Franklin Avenue blog reports.

Check it out HERE.

Do motorists race through your neighborhood like its the Indy 500? How do you handle it? Tell our blog!

Under a $3.12 billion budget unveiled Monday, Metro promises more hours of bus service, more rail cars and more highway construction.

The 2007-08 proposal is $85 million more than the current budget, which officials said covers salary increases, higher operating costs and construction of the Metro Gold Line extension to East Los Angeles and the rail line from downtown to Culver City.

Plans include spending $1.392 billion on bus operations. Rails could get $742 million. Road construction is slated for $592 million. Check out the budget HERE.

A public hearing happens at 2:30 p.m. June 20 at Metro Headquarters, One Gateway Plaza. Metro's board could vote on the proposal at it's monthly meeting June 28.

Thoughts? Tell our blog!

Lessons learned from Los Angeles' public transportation are being watched by others, including those up north that like the Orange Line and want to replicate it to serve the East Bay, reports the Tri-Valley Herald.

Get the story HERE.

What are your thoughts on the Orange Line? Love it? Hate it? Could it work in other areas of Los Angeles? Tell our blog!

Capacity and congestion problems at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are slowing down goods coming in from Asia and have led importers and ocean carriers to seek alternatives -- alternatives railroads and other ports are eager to provide, writes DC Velocity.

Get the story HERE.

What does this say about the state of bottlenecks in Los Angeles? Has it reached a point that we're losing money because of traffic snarls? Tell our blog!

While some Los Angeles residents dream of a railway to serve the clogged Westside and are starting to mobilize to lobby for money to make it happen, San Gabriel Valley public officials are also lining up for a piece of the pie to extend the Gold Line to Montclair and eventually to Ontario International Airport, reports the Daily Bulletin.

Get the story HERE.

What are your thoughts? Is a showdown brewing? Tell our blog!!