November 2007 Archives

Starting Tuesday, service begins for a new luxury motor coach whisking music lovers from the Westside to performances at the LA Opera.

The LA Opera Luxury Express eliminates the stress of driving downtown and offers peaceful, air conditioned and round-trip rides for $15. Passengers listen to pre-performance talks on the coach audio system and are encouraged to bring snacks and beverages along for the ride.

The coach liner departs from the Federal Building parking lot at 11000 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood at 5:45 p.m. for most operas. It operates for all Monday through Thursday performances.

Roundtrip tickets can be reserved at (213) 972-8001.

To accommodate the bands, floats, horses and Santa himself during the Hollywood Santa Parade, some roads along the route will be closed and no parking allowed on them during the festivities.

Road closings are:
-- Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue is closed starting Saturday, Nov. 24.
-- North and southbound ramps on the Hollywood Freeway at Cahuenga Boulevard and Highland Avenue are closed from 3 -10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25.

All streets along the U-shaped parade route are also closed with no paking or stopping on Sunday. The route kicks off on Hollywood Boulevard at Orange Drive and heads east to Vine Street. From there, the celebration heads south to Sunset Boulevard and then west to Orange Drive, where the parade ends.

The parade starts at 5 p.m. This is the first year for the Hollywood Santa Parade, following in the footsteps of its predecessor the Hollywood Christmas Parade. For more information, click HERE.

Holiday revelers are encouraged to use public transportation to see the fun. Metro's Red Line stops at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Starting Saturday, visitors to Griffith Observatory on weekends can get to the famous landmark on a new shuttle bus from Metro's Red Line station at Sunset and Vermont avenues.

Running every 35 minutes, the new service -- called the Observatory Shuttle -- operates every 35 minutes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. It does not run on holidays. Passengers pay 25 cents to ride the red trolley bus, a component of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The new service replaces the DASH Los Feliz bus on weekends. The DASH for Los Feliz will no longer run on weekends starting Saturday, Nov. 24.

For more information about the Observatory Shuttle, DASH Los Feliz or other transit services, go to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's Web site HERE.

Toyota Motor Corp. has pulled an ad that likened Fresno to an outdated pit stop after Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote the car company to complain, reports the Associated Press.

The commercial depicts people driving the fuel-efficient Prius in an imagined future in which “gas stations will become nothing more than low-budget tourist stops. Like ghost towns ... or Fresno.”

That slap got no mileage with Mayor Alan Autry, who asked Feinstein to intervene. Friday, Toyota officials recalled the spot produced for auto dealers in the Southeast U.S., and edited out any mention of the word Fresno.

Officials in the San Joaquin Valley’s largest city say Fresno may not have a beach or a bay,
but it’s the best place in the state to raise a family.

The California Transportation Commission delayed a decision today about criteria on how to divvy up $2 billion toward the goods movement and trade corridors until Nov. 27.

The money comes from Proposition 1B, a $19.9 transportation bond voters approved last year. Traditionally the nine-member board has divided money by giving 60 percent to Southern California and the rest to the northern part of the state.

But regional transit officials say that split does not work when it comes to goods, because the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle 90 percent of the state's imports, and the area grapples with more than its fair share of truck traffic to accommodate cargo that's hauled across the country. They urge the governor-appointed board to reconsider its ways.

Seeking $1.7 billion for the region, transit and port officials in Los Angeles County have banded together with transportation agencies from the county of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.

The commission met in La Quinta from Nov. 7-8.

Newcomers to Los Angeles learn something real quick about the way things work here: There are the official Department of Motor Vehicles rules of the road and then there are the unofficial L.A. rules.

And if you want to survive these mean streets, you need to understand both.

One L.A. rule works like this: If you're waiting behind cars in a left-turn lane, never expect to go when the arrow turns green.

The first driver in line will almost always be distracted and fail to notice that the precious green arrow is lighted until the last few seconds before it again turns red.

Then the driver will punch the gas and get through the intersection - leaving the rest in line angrily muttering about dimwits until the next green arrow arrives.

Expect the cycle to repeat.

Get the story HERE.

What have you experienced on L.A.'s roads? Tell our reader response blog, at the end of the story! We love your commentary!

Were you caught in the traffic-snarling disaster on the Hollywood (101) Freeway Tuesday night?

Heading east on the 101 Freeway from Woodland Hills at 6 p.m., traffic crept along at less than 10 miles an hour for about 15 miles. I kept thinking there was a roadside massacre of some sort ahead.

Instead, the gridlock stemmed from a City Ride bus stuck in a lane in the Cahuenga Pass. Don't know yet what the problem was with the little bus - a specialized service for the disabled and seniors through the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

But the disabled bus turned a 45-minute commute into a two-hour ride.

How long did it take you to get home? Tell our blog!