Too Many Toasters? Hail a Car-share

Is Telephony a commodity or a service?  You wouldn't fill your garage with smart-phones or toasters, instead you pay for telephone communication as a service. So why buy a car with insurance fuel and maintenance, why not buy private transportation as a service?

In Laguna cars are like Mariobros Toasters.

Several start-ups have re-defined automotive transportation that way, Fair offers personal transportation at the App Store. Flexdrive offers different car models in a subscription. Carmacar offers roadside assistance maintenance and insurance from a subscription.  Car share is projected to grow globally from 5.8 million users in 2015 to 35 million by 2021 - Boston Consulting Group (Wired).            -LS

Amsterdam Was Once Car-centric

Slowly, change began to happen. “None of this happened overnight,” says Dinca. “You can trace a lot of these reforms to the 1970s, but even then, if you look at photos of Amsterdam 10 to 15 years ago, it was still very car-centric compared to what you have today. I would actually argue that really it was only in the late ’90s that the city started reaping the benefits. -Fast Company

More before and after slides from FastCompany (click)

Laguna can benefit too, so start already.

-LS

Costa Mesa Completes Multi-Use Path

On Friday May 18 in time for Bike-to-Work Week the city of Costa Mesa celebrated completion of roadway refurbishment along Arlington Drive that included roadway resurfacing, landscaping and irrigation and (drum roll) a multi-use path about 0.71 miles long along Arlington Drive. The project cost $4.7 million that's $6.62 million per mile folks, that's called design by committee. Whatever.

City Manager pursued by Council members (click LA Times)

Active Transportation Plan poster

Skateboard park on Arlington Drive

MultiUse connector trail

Costa Mesa Council, Staff and City Manager ribbon cutting (click LA Times)

Back in Laguna the City began refurbishing a 1910 farmer's burn dump in 2011, by 2015 the project costing $4.6 million was not complete, the final costs remain unknown.

Excavated ravine at Sun Valley LB burn dump

A multi-use path from Canyon Acres Drive to Forest Avenue could serve residents of Laguna Canyon at a fraction of these project costs.      -LS

The Transit X Pod

 

Pod People Video

Transit X Street View

Transit X technical data sheet here. 

Compare Transit-X mobility pod with a common bicycle. 

Transit X Compared to Bicycle

Mobility solutions should remain simple.    -LS

The LB Underground Power Agenda

Dear Laguna,
Power utilities are more than buried copper wire, "clean coal" and nukes.

PowerWall by Tesla. Installations: Santa Ana, San Jose, American Samoa.  Laguna Beach?

STOP Members,

Learn the facts about the City's undergrounding agenda and its relentless advertising campaign using YOUR taxpayer dollars to sell FEAR, not FACTS.

Please join us:

When:   May 7, 2018, 5-6:00 p.m.

Where:  412 N. Coast Highway 

                 (Zeytoon Cafe, upstairs patio)

Bring your questions, get educated and get involved!

Stop Taxing Our Property - S.T.O.P.

Massive 405 Freeway Expansion

Not Enough?

Are they insane?

The massive 405 freeway expansion began in January, it will add a lane and create two express lanes in each direction of the 405, from the 73 to the 605.

• 16 miles of 405 freeway affected
• $1.9 billion price tag
• $118.9 million per mile 

 "the project cannot provide enough additional lanes to eliminate congestion." -OCTA (source here).  

Alternatively this expansion project could pay for seventeen independent lightrail lines, from Laguna's Rock Martin Jewelry to Irvine's Barranca Metro Station.   -LS

Bike Month 2018

Click for British Medical Journal

Do you know where your bike is?

Cycle commuting was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all cause mortality. - 2017 study, BMJ

Win a TREK FX 2 bike, helmets and more just take the bike ride pledge at OCTA here (60 seconds).  -LS