Car dependency leads to war on Islam #waronislam #autosprawl

Summary: US has $Trillions in auto, oil, and sprawl infrastructure. There is a lot of cheap oil left in northern Iraq. The US is betting on the KRG to deliver the oil, but debts are piling up. The local Sunni Muslims are fighting to keep it from being stolen. The US is bombing them and calling them terrorists.

U.S. Voters Approve Billions for Transit and Green Space

Urban Land Magazine: "The largest ballot measures were in California, where San Francisco Bay area voters approved $3.5 billion for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) regional transit system, while Los Angeles voters approved Measure M, a 0.5 percent sales tax increase that will generate an estimated $100 billion over 40 years, including $860 million a year for a big expansion of bus and rail transit."

70% vote for #publictransit measure in Los Angeles

Measure M: Angelenos vote to tax themselves for better public transit - Curbed LA: "A large majority of Los Angeles voters approved a permanent sales tax increase to fund a major expansion of the county’s public transit system.

Measure M required two-thirds of voters to approve it, and handily achieved this goal, with almost 70 percent voting yes."

UCSD cancels free buses, gets choked by cars

Transporting UCSD to A Better Future | UCSD Guardian: "Long forgotten by many is the university’s once-cherished Bus Zone program, which provided bus passes to UCSD students and staff free of charge for 45 years. The university used the money from parking passes, citations and visitor tickets to finance annual bus passes for faculty and staff, prompting many university employees to use public transportation rather than commuting to campus by car. In November 2014, however, Chancellor Khosla allowed for the cancellation of the Bus Zone program in a bid to save money. By bringing back the Bus Zone program, many university workers would return to riding public transportation as they had before the program’s end. This would, in turn, decrease demand for “A” and “B” parking permits, which would allow the parking office to increase the number of “S” spots, or at the very least return those that have been painted over to their original designations."

San Diego heating up. Why not stop using cars?

GreenBiz: "Hotter temperatures will negatively affect San Diego’s heat-exposed industries — including construction, agriculture and transportation — threatening $32 billion and 220,000 workers in the local economy, according to two new reports on health (PDF) and water (PDF) by The San Diego Foundation, in partnership with Climate Education Partners."

Ventura oil spill - one of the hidden costs of #autosprawl

LA Times: "The cause of the spill is under investigation by a team of state and federal agencies, according to Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Mike Lindbery. Investigators with the state Office of Spill Prevention also arrived to assess the site, an agency spokeswoman said.

Owned by Colorado-based Crimson Pipeline LLC, the 10-inch underground pipeline was installed in 1941 and is up to date on state and federal inspections, according to Kendall Klingler, a spokeswoman for the company."

Chris Campbell: LA needs reliable public transportation, not emphasis on rail lines | Daily Bruin

Daily Bruin: "Case in point: Santa Clarita Valley residents recently voiced concerns about the returns their community would receive under the current iteration of Measure R2. San Fernando Valley leaders have shared similar sentiments about the attention their communities would receive. Lower density suburban communities like these would benefit more from bicycle and pedestrian paths and improved bus infrastructure. These projects would be faster, easier and cheaper to implement than rail and would have a wider reach."

San Diego Needs Transit More Than Ever — and SANDAG's Plan Doesn't Have Enough

Voice of San Diego: "Some may argue that the best way to alleviate traffic and congestion is to build more highways. But even the state’s own transportation agency admits that building more roads only increases traffic since it causes more people to drive, plus drive longer distances. This harms economic growth and business attraction. A clear example is the stifling of high-tech campus growth in Sorrento Valley that SANDAG’s sales tax extension a decade ago failed to address."

Chris Campbell: LA Metro should focus on millennials in expanding public transit

Daily Bruin : "So Metro has a vast potential market, but only if the system can ensure a fast, reliable trip. In the 2013 American Public Transportation Association “Millennials and Mobility” study, young adults consistently chose public transit as the more affordable and preferred option, but driving as faster and more convenient. Millennials who drive don’t necessarily want to drive, but see it as the only pragmatic option in their situations."

The war on cars -- cars are still winning, people are dying

Investing in Place and LACBC: "People walking and biking represent 19 percent of all trips in Los Angeles County, yet make up 39 percent of those killed in traffic collisions. In low-income communities of color, people walk and bike at higher rates and are at even greater risk of being hit and killed due to lack of investment in safe streets."

Activists call for #freetransit for Community College students

The Corsair: "This is a meeting of the Community College Association for Student Advocacy (CCASA), a brand new voice in the LA County student government scene only recently incorporated on February 1. Their “master plan?” To make public transportation on LA Metro buses free for college students across the county.
“We’ve been [petitioning] for about four days, and we have somewhere around 300 to 350 signatures,” said Filipp Krasovsky, founding member of CCASA and Santa Monica College student, to the gathered crowd at the second ever meeting for the group. Krasovsky was updating two dozen CCASA members about the beginning of their efforts to support Move LA, the public transit political organization currently preparing bills for local and state legislatures to make fares for students using the LA Metro system either free or subsidized to the point of negligible cost."

Activists take another hill in the #war_on_cars

Shuttle Service Will Expand Throughout Griffith Park: LAist: "Per the plan, the city will vastly expand shuttle service within the park, will begin charging for parking close to the observatory, and will (crucially!) keep Mt. Hollywood Drive free from both cars and shuttles."

(Photo by Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

Ban Cars - @awalkerinLA

Ban Cars: "If you don’t think that one car will make a difference, consider this. Right now, about three percent of all trips globally are taken by bike. A big study by UC Davis and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy says that reducing car use enough to double that figure to six percent by 2050 could make a game-changing impact. Cities would save $24 trillion and the planet would reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 11 percent. That’s enough to prevent the increase in transportation-related emissions that the UN predicts. And the world would be happier and healthier for it."

Public transit a good investment - letter to editor of Ventura Star

Public transit: "Re: George Runner’s guest column Feb. 21, “Time to rethink spending on public transportation”:

The column was rather disappointing. As a student in Sacramento, I took public transportation the entire length of my study and loved it. When I moved to Oahu for graduate school, I continued to enjoy public transit. When I lived in Los Angeles, I took the bus to my place of employment.

Runner’s idea that riders face “long delays and wait times” appears to be an argument in favor of greater funding for public transportation. Barbed remarks that riding the bus is “unclean and unsafe” are nothing more than thinly veiled fear-mongering.

Suggesting that Uber is an “affordable” alternative is an insult to my disabled mother and aunt, who rely on the accessibility of the bus system with its convenient wheelchair lifts. A company like Uber is also not a suitable choice for anyone who values properly vetted drivers. Gold Coast Transit employees are drug-tested and undergo vigorous background checks, which feels particularly important in light of the recent Kalamazoo killings by an Uber driver.

Public transportation is a vital part of any thriving community. Advocating for larger highways can be considered detrimental to our county, known for its open space and access to nature. Creating opportunities for clean-energy transit would be a much wiser investment of our transportation dollars.

Elisabeth Lamar,
Oxnard"



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2016 Car Free Experience

Santa Barbara Car Free: "2016 Take the Train and Show Your Ticket for the Santa Barbara Car Free Experience

Show your current Amtrak ticket (traditional paper, e-ticket, or mobile device) to Santa Barbara and enjoy special experiences through December 31, 2016."