ansoncfit

Google Transit for LA Metro

The Los Angeles County MTA finally launched Google Transit, or at least a “data test” for it.  Too bad SEPTA beat them by a week.

Read Full Post | July 06 2009 | Transportation |

Picture of Mayor Villaraigosa

Photo I shot of Mayor Villaraigosa talking with members of the Bus Riders Union

As part of my work for greenRELAY, I went to a special meeting of the MTA Board today.  Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came an hour late and seemed a bit out of it, but he took a couple of minutes after the meeting to chat with members of the Bus Riders Union.

Read Full Post | June 11 2009 | Anson and Swarthmore |

Singing Bus Drivers

Los Angeles MTA Metro Local Bus

A few weeks ago, I moved up to Los Angeles to start work on greenRELAY, my Lang Opportunity Scholarship project.  On my rainy commute last week, my bus driver was singing “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” incessantly.  It was amusing, but nowhere near as good as the New York MTA’s Christopher Dolan.

Read Full Post | June 08 2009 | Anson |

Congestion Pricing and Anti-Sprawl Legislation

The California Legislature recently passed two awesome bills.  I’m especially excited about them in light of the Urban Economics course I took last year at Swarthmore.

SB 1422: High Occupancy-Toll Lanes

This bill authorizes LA Metro to proceed with its congestion pricing plan.  Metro plans to charge a toll for single occupancy vehicles to drive in the HOV lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways, and, as the Botttleneck Blog reports, potentially the 210 (which my Urban Economics final paper covered).  The funding for this project comes from the Federal grant that was going to fund congestion pricing in Manhattan before Albany killed it.

SB 375: Transportation Planning

According to Streetsblog, this bill is the first of its kind that

ties land use patterns to emissions and penalizes cities and municipalities that encourage development that leads to sprawl.

Now if they could just pass a budget, maybe some of this would actually become law…

Read Full Post | September 03 2008 | Swarthmore and Transportation |

Switching to Public Transit

A fun article entitled “A couple of easy fixes and we’ll take the bus to work”

I think it has some pretty realistic and helpful suggestions for transit in Southern California.  And, anecdotes like the following:

Hector Barbosa, 41, whom I encountered twice during the week as he traveled to and from his home in Pacific Palisades and his job in Beverly Hills, said local bus lines take some getting used to.

“The problems are especially huge when it comes to the homeless and the mentally ill,” he said. “Sometimes you see people getting violent, sometimes defecating.”

Or in my case, there was the elderly gentleman who sang what sounded like pirate chanteys for about 15 minutes.

Nice…

Read Full Post | June 18 2008 | Transportation |

Metro Rail – The Future is Now

Pretty funny video from 1985:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=FkFoW5lr-tU[/youtube]

Read Full Post | June 17 2008 | Transportation |

Spike in Transit Ridership

There’s been a lot of coverage lately about the recent increase in transit use due to high gas prices.  SEPTA Regional Rail is seeing 11% more passengers than last year.  Ridership on LA’s Gold Line has jumped 19% over last year.  The BBC recently covered the LA subway’s rising popularity.  Even Garrison Keillor is making fun of new bus riders.

Read Full Post | May 29 2008 | Transportation |

Props to Metro Rapid

New York actually looks up to part of LA’s public transit system? Way to go, Metro Rapid. From the NY Times:

After watching New York City bus speeds struggle to the point where some Manhattan buses crawl at 4 miles per hour — only slightly faster than the average human walks — transportation planners now think that if they can make buses move even 10 percent faster, they can revolutionize travel in the five boroughs.

That’s right, just 10 percent.

In early May, a group of New York planners will visit Los Angeles to observe a program that has sped up buses there by 22 to 25 percent. The changes include designated bus lanes, straighter routes, easy-to-board low-floor buses, specially marked stations, far fewer stops, the elimination of schedules, and computerized signaling that gives buses priority at intersections.

[Full Article]

New York seriously needs to think about this…not that I’ve ever gotten screwed over sitting on a stationary bus in Manhattan…

Read Full Post | May 17 2008 | Transportation |