Damien Newton
Recent Posts
California Has Officially Ditched Car-Centric “Level of Service”
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Ding, dong… LOS is dead. At least as far as the state of California is concerned. Level of Service (LOS) has been the standard by which the state measures the transportation impacts of major developments and changes to streets. It is basically a measurement of how many cars can be pushed through an intersection in a […]
The Villaraigosa Interview, Part I: Building a New Transportation System
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Editor’s note: Streetsblog NYC linked to this post in our headline stack yesterday, but it’s not every day that the mayor of the nation’s second largest city sits down for an interview, so we’re bringing you the full monty. You can read more about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s attempts to expand Los Angeles’s transit system in […]
¡Viva CicLAvia!
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Watch here without subtitles. After sponsoring Streetfilms of the first two CicLAvias, the open streets festival in Los Angeles based on Bogota’s Ciclovia, Streetsblog LA faced a dilemma: How can we continue to cover this event that draws over a hundred thousand Angelenos to the streets? The answer: Make a Streetfilm that was accessible to […]
The Freeways Are Not So Nice
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The above punk rock video by L.A. band It’s Casual is well on its way toward becoming a viral hit. The song and video vent anger at conditions on Los Angeles’ freeways and depict the benefits of finding other ways to travel. Lead singer Eddie Solis screams his rage while shots of congested traffic and […]
Interview With Donald Shoup: Los Angeles Making Strides With ExpressPark
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Last week Streetsblog LA talked with UCLA Professor and parking guru Donald Shoup about ExpressPark, the new parking pricing system coming to downtown Los Angeles. Damien Newton: Los Angeles is changing the way it does parking in its downtown. They’re calling it the ExpressPark system. Let’s start with the basics — what is the program […]
Crazed Driver Plows Through Critical Mass in Brazil
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(There’s a graphic video of the actual attack available here.) A lot of critics of group bicycle rides, especially Critical Mass, like to claim that they’d like nothing more than to drive through it in their SUVs. Apparently one maniac in Brazil decided to give that a try. At last Friday’s Porto Alegre Critical Mass, […]
Antonio Villaraigosa Rebrands L.A.’s Transit Plan as a National Option
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Goodbye “30/10” and hello “Fast Forward America.” Congressman John Mica (R-FL) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) brought their road show to Los Angeles earlier this week to get feedback and elicit testimony on how to improve the federal transportation bill. While Boxer was on her “home turf,” it was Mica who sounded like a local, […]
Invisible Cyclists: Immigrants and the L.A. Bike Community
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GOOD Magazine recently examined the role that the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s City of Lights program has taken in giving voice to the overlooked and under-represented bicyclists. A program that started by handing out lights to immigrant cyclists and has become a national model for bicycle advocacy by focusing its efforts on safety to […]
CicLAvia, Let’s Go!
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For Angelenos, Sunday was a day that we’ll never forget. Our first Open Streets party was an unparalleled success. So much so that even the critics of the concept grudgingly came on board when it was obvious that they missed the boat on supporting and experiencing a groundbreaking day. The Los Angeles Times estimates that […]
Senate Requires Environmental Approval For Stimulus Projects
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NEPA oversight should prevent the Garden State Parkway from being widened using stimulus funds. The final draft of the Senate’s economic recovery bill will require all projects funded by the stimulus to have approval under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA. Sponsored by Barbara Boxer, the NEPA amendment (full text after the jump) was […]
Party Conventions May Be Bike-Friendly After All
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A couple of weeks ago, as part of the "Bike Unfriendly Place of the Week" series at Streetsblog Los Angeles, I took a look at the bike planning at the Democratic National Convention. Local press reports were dire, noting that bike racks near the Pepsi Center in Denver would be closed down as part of […]
Bicycles (Sort of) Banned From the Democratic Convention
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This is a threat to Barack Obama’s security? You can just see the planning meeting for what organizers are calling the "greenest" national political convention ever. Special perks for hybrids? Check. Biofuel powered buses? Check. Solar powered green area? Check. Bike racks? Nope. Sorry, the Secret Service says they’re too dangerous. The Colorado Independent reports […]