Angelenos Against Gridlock

Mar 18

CEQA, the Expo Line, and High Speed Rail -

The California Economic Summit website has a roundup of some effects of CEQA on important rail projects for LA & the California (and we quote):

• Transit lines in Los Angeles: The CEQA Working Group released another case study this week featuring how CEQA has been used to stop the building of a transit line that will relieve congestion on a major Los Angeles freeway. A neighborhood group has locked the project up in a CEQA suit since 2010 while they push for an alternative route. Barring further delays, the project is finally underway—and is now scheduled to be completed eight years after the approval process began.
• High-speed rail: The governor’s favorite reason for reforming CEQA got a boost this month when a judge dismissed a CEQA suit that threatened to disrupt high-speed rail’s route through the Bay Area. The suit, brought by the peninsula cities of Menlo Park and Atherton, had long been criticized for having more to do with the way the rail system will look than with any concern over its impact on the environment. “This lawsuit is a reminder that some sort of CEQA reform is badly needed,” writes Robert Cruickshank of the California High Speed Rail Blog. The Atherton City Council recently sent $10,000 to the lawyers representing the Central Valley farmers whose CEQA suit is high-speed rail’s next major hurdle. That case will be heard beginning in April.

Great LA Times Op-Ed on L.A.'s Deficit of Civic Consciousness -

This Los Angeles Times op-ed by Harold Meyerson addresses an important deeper issue that speaks to one of the reasons we’re in the gridlocked mess we are in Los Angeles. Here at Angelenos Against Gridlock we’ve seen what we’d term a pretty big failure by those you might expect to be civic elites to actually be involved in the local issues around them. And our cities and region suffer mightily for it. 

Good for Harold Meyerson for calling out this problem. Now we just need some arm twisting by this generation’s equivalent of Dorothy Chandler to get more people to step up to the plate and meet their responsibilities to be involved. The question is, who will take that role?

Mar 13

The face of public transit? The new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, rode the bus instead of a  limo.

Mar 12

Air // Rail 2013 Conference: April 16-17 in Salt Lake City

With all of the questions about whether the future LAX airport rail connections will be done right, it’s worth noting that the International Air Rail Organisation is hosting its 21st conference next month. We certainly hope Metro & LAX leaders will be well represented among the attendance, to be reminded how things are done right in other cities around the world.

Air//Rail 2013 Conference:

Mar 05

AAG Commends Metro for Launching Bike Safety Campaign

Angelenos Against Gridlock is thrilled Metro is launching a bike safety campaign. You can read more about it here.

Let’s face it: the state of bike safety in Los Angeles County has been pretty abysmal. “I’ve been hit and had my bike ‘totaled’ multiple times,” said David Murphy, President of Angelenos Against Gridlock. “I feel lucky to be alive. Bike safety issues are not some abstract low-priority issue. It’s incredibly important we make the Los Angeles region safer for residents and commuters on bikes.”

When meeting with Metro bike staff in the past, one of the things we encouraged them to do was to use Metro buses for an ad campaign for bike safety, just like Santa Monica Big Blue Bus had done, and which we believe Metro had been considering. We’re thrilled that they’re doing so. 

Feb 21

Don't Miss Our Updates at Faster405.com, too! -

Have you visited our Faster 405 Campaign website lately? Be sure to check Faster405.com frequently for our updates about the latest on the delays on the 405 construction project.

Feb 20

Lest we forget how far we have to go: here’s Tokyo’s subway map. LA’s just a little bit behind.

Jan 31

Link: California Bike Coalition Sets Ambitious Reform Agenda for 2013 -

(Click the headline to read more on Streetsblog LA.)

Jan 24

The Santa Monica Chamber’s excellent Santa Monica State of the City event is going on now. Angelenos Against Gridlock is proud to have moved our offices to Santa Monica last month, and we appreciate Its bike and transit friendliness. (And yes, that’s our own president, David Murphy pictured in the blue shirt on the slide, giving the thumbs up biking to the Santa Monica Bike Center’s grand opening!)

Jan 23

Don't Dismiss the Merits of Connecting the 710 -

The Alternatives Analysis for the 710 has been released, and while we’re all for greater transit connections all across the region, we also think it’s a damn shame the 710 is cut off from itself so abruptly. Despite the controversy  finishing the connection deserves consideration.