Thursday, December 26, 2019

How2 Remove the Car in Commute


Car use is hugely subsidized. Because user fees are set too low, we are paying people to drive more, we have excess demand for the road system. If we priced the use of our roads to recover even the cost of maintenance, driving would be noticeably more expensive, and people would have much stronger incentives to drive less, and to use other forms of transportation, like transit and cycling. -HBS

Problem:

Researchers for Harvard Business School investigated what incentives or "nudges" would change commuter behavior to choose alternatives to driving, and how business organizations can encourage their employees to commute using alternatives to driving. The researchers found these incentives did not reduce single occupancy vehicle (SOV) use.

Nudges:
  • Matchmaking carpoolers with priority parking
  • 24/7 emergency ride-home service
  • Free transit tickets to encourage discounted commuter transit passes
  • Commuter pamphlets to save commuters time and money
Researchers found reasons why the incentives do not work:
  1. When commuters do not pay the full cost of driving ie employee free parking, free road maintenance, driving subsidies.
  2. When transit or carpooling is less convenient for an individual commuter.
  3. When approaches required change a habitual behavior: one-off events like flu shots ok, but not daily routines like exercise.

Solutions:

The researchers found our infrastructure, financial incentives, and social norms strongly favor driving alone to work. They found the nudges although easy for employers to implement are not are not enough to make a difference. To shift habitual commuting behavior the researchers recommend these improvements:

 Make the full cost of driving salient for employees: avoid subsidizing driving to work alone including free parking and infrastructure. Pay employees the monetary equivalent of driving as a bonus to pay for parking or keep as cash for alternative modes of travel.

 Make driving harder, and make other forms of commuting easier: provide remote parking lots for those who drive alone, local parking to those who share rides), you can enhance the convenience, safety, comfort, and cost-savings of other modes like carpooling.

 Stark implications for Laguna Beach Of course, drivers do not like institutions restricting choices convenience or parking. But the long-term health vitality in the Laguna village fundamentally depend on it.
 -LS

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Laguna's New Pedestrian Scrambles

The anticipated pedestrian improvements at PCH between Legion and Broadway were proposed to LB Council 17 December 2019. The main design elements are:
  • All-way pedestrian crosswalk (scramble) at Forest and PCH
  • Ocean Avenue converted to one-way
  • Longer left-turn queues for cars
  • Pedestrian curb ramps and benches
  • Decorative paving stones and landscaping
$640k was budgeted for the project, the lowest bid accepted, anticipated costs are $931,000.    Here is the plan for Forest Avenue and PCH, no further drawings were available.

Click for Staff Report Details
-LS

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Keywords FINAL Draft 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan

Here is a summary of mobility keywords found in the FINAL Draft 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan (yes that's the title, ten years to update, 177pages, 79MB): 

  • Afford housing:  14
  • Bicycle: 5
  • Bike: 1
  • Blended parking: 0
  • Bus: 4
  • Circulation: 36
  • Complete Streets:0
  • Cycling: 0
  • DownTn housing: 4
  • Flexible parking: 1
  • Housing: 85
  • Increasing density:0
  • Lightrail: 0
  • Market-rate:0
  • Multi-story:1
  • Park:102
  • Parking requirements: 11
  • Parking structure:13
  • Pedestrians: 29
  • Enhanced Mobility and Complete Streets Transition Plan:1
  • Rail: 0
  • Relaxed parking: 0
  • Scooter: 1
  • Shuttle: 5
  • Single formula: 0
  • Skateboard: 1
  • Transit Center: 7
  • Transit: 29
  • Trolley: 17
  • Walking: 3
  • Parking: 412 


The intent of our 2019 DSP is clear. Once again our Laguna Beach Planning Commission denies solutions to Laguna's mobility crisis by preserving a reliance on car transportation (circa 1950). The LBPC denies mobility planning altogether, Laguna will remain a parking lot. 
-LS

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

SUV Shame

"SUVskam" in Swedish means "SUV Shame". Most appropriate when considering these facts posted by the International Energy Agency in France.
  • Today, almost half of all cars sold in the United States and one-third of the cars sold in Europe are SUVs.
  • The global fleet of SUVs has seen its emissions growing by nearly 0.55 Gt CO2 during the last decade to roughly 0.7 Gt CO2
  • As a consequence, SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010 after the power sector (see chart)
Gt = Gigga Tonne means a Billion metric tonnes or 2,200,000,000,000 pounds.

Credit IEA story
"SUV's are killing the planet" - StreetsBlog.
FORD's new PC Mustang is an Electric S.U.V.  plugged into the coal driven electric grid. Feel better?

-LS

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Summit Meeting Laguna Residents First

Wednesday November 13 2019 Laguna Residents First held their second Summit meeting open to invited guests. LRF objected to the blended parking requirements proposed in the newly drafted Laguna Downtown Specific Plan. The requirements presented were:

Old Requirements:
   10 spaces per 1000 square feet
   4 spaces per 1000 square feet

Blended Requirement:
   3 spaces per 1000 square feet

Here are some modern intensified parking requirements like angle-in parking, in-lieu parking, automated parking, robot valet parking and China parking.  Choose the best one for Laguna Beach and let Laguna city planners and LRF know your choice.  Website: Laguna Residents First.




 -LS



Monday, November 4, 2019

Lyft Replaces San Clemente Bus


Reimagining Transit Convenience in San Clemente

Our beach towns experience large surges in traffic due to out-of-town visitors, in San Clemente they arrive by car and train from origins far away as Fresno. When convenience is king a rideshare may fill the intervals between bus rides on a fixed schedule.

Image result for SCRIDES map lyft"
Click for Lyft Details
Lyft rideshare has done just that. In a historic move Lyft has partnered with the City of San Clemente to replace the fixed ride service previously offered by OCTA routes 191 and 193. In a new program Lyft is the City's rideshare parther offering convenience and efficiency for residents and visitors providing trips around the city on demand, quickly and affordably for carfree visitors and residents alike. Is Laguna next?


To get started download the Lyft App and enter SCRIDES in the "Payment" section. To be eligible, rides must be taken between 6 AM-6 PM, boardings are along corridors of the 191 and 193 bus routes. To make sure you’re at the right space, look for signs at participating bus stops.

-LS

Saturday, October 19, 2019

LB City Council Approves Modeling Carmageddon




How do you like Laguna's traffic congestion so far? Get ready for more because Tuesday night the Laguna Beach City Council voted 5-0 to guarantee increasing more car traffic in Laguna Beach. Agenda Item #16 Task Order for a Traffic Analysis Model says in brief:



Our City is near build-out, there are several large re-development projects that propose use intensification within the City that may increase local traffic congestion.”

Our LB Public Works department is preparing for traffic congestion caused by these re-development projects – some of them scheduled for construction simultaneously. LB Public Works relies on a consultant to embellish a computer traffic model of Laguna’s main road corridors through downtown. The consultant's traffic model is car-centric, they measure transportation success by moving more cars faster so get ready for more traffic erosion through Laguna Beach.

Reading the consultant's traffic modeling manual shows how car intensification occurs:


“saturation flow rates,” “pedestrian interference,” “Intersection Capacity Utilization (ICU),” “Level of (car) Service (LOS),” “Conforms to Highway Capacity Manual (HCM).

The keywords "transit, bus, trolley, rail, lightrail, and cyclists" don't appear in the consultant's manual.  "Pedestrians" are considered interference to car traffic; a delay in signal timing. Two arterial highways already slice through Laguna Beach, does Laguna want more of the same?

Once again our Council neglects the core problems: how to move those 6 million visitors and provide alternatives to cars. Once again Public Works overlooked the Laguna Beach mobility plan itself: the Circulation Element of the General Plan. Now is the time for the City and Developers to change traffic models otherwise Laguna Beach is modeling Carmageddon.

 
"If you do not know where you are going it does not matter which way you go" Lewis Carol
-LS

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Bike Lane Protests and Why

Here's a title from the Santa Maria Times:

 Solvang residents protest bike lane through Rancho Santa Ynez Estates neighborhood

Council adopts SYV bicycle master plan

(click) Santa Maria Times Article

And the story line that followed:

Mayor Jim Richardson joins call for more bike lanes at Mayor’s Bike Ride Cyclists of all ages and abilities gathered at Solvang City Hall just before noon Thursday to join the Mayor’s Bike Ride around several blocks…



After more than a year of community planning, isolated community members respond to bike infrastructure like this:

“If the city wants to continue to put bike path in our area you should get us involved,” said Bud McCoy, who like many of his neighbors, hadn’t heard of the bike path until construction workers were cordoning off Fjord Drive in preparation for road work. “We feel that you just ramrodded that down our throats.”

"The master plan was developed by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments over more than a year of planning, including four meetings of the Technical Advisory Committee, meetings with schools, public health and business representatives, surveys, interviews, and a series of public workshops held in October 2018 and March 2019."

Thankfully the Solvang Council saw through the residents uninformed protest. After staff reporting, public comment and brief council deliberation, the city council voted 4-1 to adopt the Solvang portion of the Santa Ynez Valley Bicycle Master Plan.

-LS

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

TODAY Urge Cal Governor Sign SB-127 Complete Streets

Laguna Canyon Road SR-133 and South Coast Highway Hwy-1 are under Caltrans jurisdiction. Senate Bill 127 pushes CalTRANS to build Complete Streets for SR-133 and Hwy-1 - the TRANSPORTATION part of CalTRANS.

Tell Governor Newsom to please sign this legislation, three step request here.
  1. Zipcode
  2. Name
  3. eMail
GO! 

(To call Governor Newsom staff (916) 445 2841.)

UPDATE: October 12 Governor Newsom VETOED SB-127.   
-LS

Monday, September 16, 2019

Complete Streets Bill SB-127 ready for Governor

SB-127 Applies to Laguna Canyon Road and PCH

Caltrans claims to make streets safer when they make roadway improvements, like the $39 million Caltrans improvement planned for Laguna Canyon Road beginning 2021.

Caltrans often claims to make streets safer when they repair them, but in practice they prioritize fast traffic over more livable streets. The Complete Streets for Active Living Bill will provide Caltrans stronger direction, and force the safety improvements necessary to reverse the poor safety record on SR-133.

246 Collisions 5-Killed 311 Injured, 2015-2018 

"In California from 2007-2013, nearly 1.7 million people were injured in traffic incidents, including 95,758 while walking along or across the street. In those crashes, 22,117 people were killed, with pedestrians accounting for one-fifth of the total persons killed." The problem is often concentrated around Caltrans roads that go through low-income neighborhoods where more people get around via transit, biking, and walking."

SB 127 Co-Sponsors:
California Bicycle Coalition, California Walks, American Heart Association, AARP, Safe Routes Partnership
Bill Supporting Organizations:
350 Bay Area Action, 350 Silicon Valley, Active San Gabriel Valley, American Lung Association in California , Alameda County Transportation Commission , Berkeley Climate Hub, Bike Bakersfield, Bike Concord, Bike East Bay, Bike Monterey, Bike San Diego, California Alliance for Retired Americans, California City Transportation Initiative/NACTO, California Democratic Party, California Interfaith Power & Light, California Park and Recreation Society, California ReLeaf, CALSTART Inc., CALPIRG, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Stockton, Cedars, Center for Climate Change and Health, Central California Asthma Collaborative, City of Encinitas, City of Half Moon Bay, City of Long Beach, City of Sacramento, City and County of San Francisco, City of Santa Monica, City of San Luis Obispo, Climate Action Campaign, ClimatePlan, Climate Resolve, Coalition for Clean Air, Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, Compton Unified School District, Cultiva La Salud, Davis Bike Club, Day One, East Bay Recreational Park District, Elders Climate Action (NorCal), Environment California, Fossil Free California, Inland Empire Biking Alliance, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, La Verne Bicycle Coalition, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Local Government Commission, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Los Angeles Walks, Lyft Inc., Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Napa County Bicycle Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council, Natural Resources Services Division Redwood, Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, Orange County Bicycle Coalition, Office of the Mayor, San Francisco, Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, Planning and Conservation League, PeopleforBikes, PolicyLink, Public Advocates, Redwood Community Action Agency, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Rural Counties Representative of California, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Transportation Municipal Agency, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Planning Department, SFBA Families for Safe Streets, Santa Monica Spoke, Save The Bay, Seamless Bay Area, Shasta Living Streets, Sierra Club California, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, Sunflower Alliance, Transform, Transportation Agency for Monterey County, Trust for Public Land, Walk Bike Berkeley, Walk & Bike Mendocino, Walk Sacramento, Walk San Francisco, and Walk Long Beach.
-LS

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Carfree Cities: Cinque Terre, Italy


Cinque Terre Italy located on the Italian Mediterranean has a population of roughly 6000 residents manage up to 5 million visitors per year with NO PARKING. Maybe we should ask the Italians how to do that. 

Walking paths, trains and boats connect the five villages, cars cannot reach any village from remote inland cities.

Genoa and Livorno. Day-trippers from cruise ships that stop there stream into the villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. Auto drivers park at La Spezia and take a train to reach the five villages.

A walking trail, known as Sentiero Azzurro ("Azure Trail"), connects the villages. The section from Riomaggiore to Manarola called the Via dell'Amore ("Love Walk") is temporarily closed but   alternative trails remain open.

Here is a Google Map of Cinque Terre, below a comparison of the five villages to Laguna Beach. The HD videos take you on a walking tour so use full-screen!

The table shows visitors pay for access to Cinque Terre, there is a fee for using the trains, the walking path even for using the beach. Cinque Terre shows us how to manage local tourism with public transportation and pay for it.

-LS

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Keywords DRAFT 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan

Here is a quick summary of mobility keywords found in the DRAFT 2019 LB Downtown Specific Plan (DSP  169 pages): 

  • Bicycle: 5
  • Bike: 1
  • Bus: 4
  • Complete Streets Policy: 0
  • Downtown housing: 4
  • Enhanced Mobility and Complete Streets Transition Plan: 0
  • Increasing density:0
  • Lightrail: 0
  • Market-rate:0
  • Multi-story:1
  • Park: 49
  • Parking requirements: 12
  • Parking structure: 13 
  • Pedestrians: 28
  • Rail: 0
  • Relaxed parking: 0
  • Scooter: 1 
  • Shuttle: 4
  • Single formula: 0
  • Skateboard: 1
  • Transit Center: 6
  • Transit: 26
  • Trolley: 17
  • Walking: 3

  • Parking: 411

The intent of our 2019 DSP is clear. Once again our Laguna Beach Planning Commission denies solutions to Laguna's mobility crisis by preserving 1950's parking requirements (the same as Irvine's). The LBPC denies mobility planning altogether, Laguna is a parking lot after-all.

-LS

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

LB DRAFT Downtown Specific Plan 2019


In 169 pages (80MB) of our Planning Commission's latest DRAFT Downtown Specific Plan, Complete Streets Policy is not mentioned, instead complete streets is reduced from a state transportation mandate to a paradigm. Note the mandate was specified previously in the RFP for a Downtown Parking Management Plan. Now read the strawman logic setup (DSP page 17) in this mumbo-jumbo:

Transportation changes are notable with respect to new perspectives on parking. The complete streets paradigm emphasizes designing for all modes of travel, particularly transit and pedestrians, and has resulted in a de-emphasis on requiring parking based on the assumption that every person will be driving their own car and only visiting a single establishment. In the Downtown, the increase in available trolleys and the success of demand-based pricing has changed both the behavior of and the parking availability for customers. This process is predicted to continue with the expansion of ride-sharing services and the advent of autonomous vehicles.

The claim is made that demand-based pricing and available trolleys has already changed the behavior of customers and parking availability. Further, future technological means will change roadway user behavior and parking availability, so there is no need to take actions with complete streets interventions.
  1. PC claims with no cited data are unsubstantiated
  2. Expanding ride-sharing services will benefit customers - unsubstantiated
  3. Automomous vehicles will benefit customers - unsubstantiated
  4. As if by magic a paradigm is enough to change customer behavior 
  5. As if by magic a paradigm boosts parking availability 
  6. Complete Streets Policy mandates is only a paradigm, so ignore it
  7. The Enhanced Mobility and Complete Streets Transition Plan is not referenced 
  8. The Deliverables in the Appendix are missing.
Only a corrupt city manager, paid city lackeys and revolving-door consultants could write mumbo-jumbo shiz like this.

-LS

Friday, August 9, 2019

Scooters Suck? Uh-oh

Image result for electric scooters lime
A VOX Future-Perfect story

We regret to inform you...


 

 

 Say it ain't so!   


Scooters aren't good for the environment?  Well it depends, while riding a scooter is better than driving a car the lifetime environmental costs are not. It depends how you crunch your numbers a study shows:
  • Making, deploying, transporting, Juicing them is not emission-free
  • Worse for environment than transport modes they replace
  • Calculate the emissions per mile per passenger carried over life-cycle
  • More emissions than bus with high ridership, electric moped, electric bicycle
  • More emissions than regular bicycle, or carbon-free walk.

    -LS

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Radschnellweg Munchen Deutschland (Bike Freeways)

Radschnellweg Munchen, Germany
Germany is building bicycle freeways (Radschnellweg) exclusively for bicycle commuters. CycLAvia reports the latest one is between 10 German cities, including Duisburg, Bochum, and Hamm, and planned to remove 50,000 cars from existing roads. That would work well for Laguna Beach where Laguna Canyon Road's capacity is expected to carry 56,000 (ADT) per day by 2020. Irvine to Laguna on the Old RT-185 would work so nice!

-LS

Monday, August 5, 2019

Fremont's Tesla to Test Solar Roof

Click CNBC Story
The Fremont plant will begin testing of Tesla's Solar City architectural roof tiles, one leg of the solar economy triad (collection-distribution-storage) for a fleet of electric cars. Will Laguna Beach ignore the possibilities and deny municipal power? 


-LS

Monday, July 8, 2019

LB City Agenda Bill for SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT

In the Agenda Bill for Tuesday July 9 2019 are two agenda items affecting significant development, parking and traffic in Laguna Beach. See Items 7,19. 

ITEM 19: REVIEW PROCESS FOR SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND CONSIDERATION OF A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.

In the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between a Laguna Beach Corporation and the City of Laguna Beach are these beauties:

      11. The Parties agree to explore whether a housing development on a vacant parcel at the intersection of Laguna Canyon Road and Canyon Acres is feasible and in the best interest of the City.

      12. The Parties agree to pursue projects and programs that will provide all of the necessary parking for guests, patrons, visitors, and employees, to prevent traffic congestion and detrimental impacts to nearby neighborhoods.

Traffic count measurements, origin-destination studies, compliance with Complete Streets Policy mandates are not specified. Looks like Laguna Beach City is shooting from the hip again.

     Read the full Agenda Bill here.
     Item 19 Staff report here. 

-LS

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Can Parking Poison Laguna Beach?

If a UCLA distinguished professor of urban planning says excess parking poisons cities, shouldn't Laguna's planners and residents pay attention?

Shoup podcast: Parking Poison

From Professor Shoup's Podcast in brief:
  • P-districts should reinvest parking revenues into local neighborhoods
  • Mandated minimum parking is a disease masquerading as cure
  • Off-street parking discourages a vibrant urban landscape
  • For more housing and less traffic:
  • STOP promoting parking everywhere
  • START promoting housing to build community
-LS

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Take ACTION: Senate Bill 127 for Complete Streets

NATCO Performance Measures
This is an urgent call to action. The Cal Senate votes 8 July 2019.

 The California Legislature found that pedestrians cyclists and other non-motorized roadway users are disproportionately injured or killed in relation to motorized roadway users. SB-127 seeks to enforce provisions to improve non-motorized roadway user safety. Encourage your district assemblyman to vote YES on SB-127. To find your assemblyman simply insert your address and click-to-send your support - takes 30 seconds. 
Calbike vote YES page for support email is here. 
The California Legislature found (abbreviated) that:
a) A household survey finds that walking and bicycling trips have doubled between 2000 and 2012 and constitute nearly 20 percent of all California trips.
(b) People walking and bicycling are killed or seriously injured in California at much higher rates than car drivers or passengers.
(c) An update in 2014 now requires The Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to consider complete streets in all phases of design, delivery, construction, and rehabilitation on all projects.
(d) Caltrans adopted Strategic Management Plan 2015-2020, 2015–2020, which includes goals to triple bicycling and double walking by 2020, which cannot be achieved without significant improvements to infrastructure and safety on major roadways and highways.
(e) The SMP also includes goals to include “complete streets” improvements on an increasing number of projects between 2015 and 2020.
The objectives of the Bill are set in requirements (abbreviated) that:
  1. This bill would require a process for community input and complete streets implementation to prioritize safety and accessibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users on all proects, as specified. 
  2. The bill would require that projects starting in 2020 2022 meet specified requirements set forth as part of the State Highway Operation and Protection Program.
  3. The bill would require the California Transportation Commission, to adopt performance measures that include conditions of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, accessibility and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users, and vehicle miles traveled on the state highway system. 
  4. The bill would require that the State Highway Operation and Protection Program projects include capital improvements relative to accessibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. 
  5. The bill would require that each project include in its budget the cost of pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
  6. The bill would require the department, commencing with the 2022 State Highway Operation and Protection Program, when undertaking any a specified capital improvement project on a state highway ... to include or improve new pedestrian and bicycle facilities. 
Full Bill Text here.    UPDATE: SB 127 Result: PASS   (10:3 vote)
-LS 

Sunday, June 16, 2019

The LB Traffic Time-BOMB

Laguna's parking demand and traffic congestion grows exponentially, so what does exponential growth of congestion look like?  Let's use rice on a chessboard with 8x8=64 squares to demonstrate exponential growth.

The time elapsed for Laguna's car population to double is called the doubling period. Imagine each grain of rice on the chessboard is a car and each square represents the doubling period in years. The sequence goes 1,2,4,8,16,32 years and so on. For a growth rate at 6-percent the doubling period is 12 years. If the first horse and buggy arrived in 1900 and cars followed, the car population doubled in 1912, 1924, 1936 and so on.  Watch what happens to the population of cars.



Exponential growth means the number of cars using our streets will double and so must the spaces needed to park them, the condition when all the public space for cars is occupied is called saturation.  Urban consultants (RBF, MIG) have told us the demand for parking grows at 4.5-percent per year while Caltrans tells us in 2015 peak traffic volume growth was 13.5%.*

It should be clear Laguna Beach cannot build enough roads or parking to accommodate the exponential growth of cars nor faster than Japan/Germany/Detroit can build them. Lagunatics need to use alternatives to the car and both the city of Laguna Beach and Caltrans should provide the infrastructure.

*Caltrans SR-133 Peak traffic growth factors from base year 2015 are 2023: 13.5% and 2043: 6.25%  

-LS 

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Councilman of Amsterdam: Remove 10,000 Parking Spaces




"When you take a boat trip in Amsterdam canals the first thing you see are the fronts of cars. " - Zeeger Ernsting Member of City Council Amsterdam.  Councilman Ernsting promised Amsterdam if elected he would remove 10,000 parking spaces downtown. He Won. As promised the Councilman of Amsterdam is removing parking spaces. To see why watch the video. (Credit Streetfilms)

-LS

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Housing Transportation and Budget Gov. Newsom

Highlights from Governor Newsom's budget presentation made today:
  • $2 Billion for homeless and housing initiatives
  • Creation of housing targets for all California regions 
  • Withdraw transportation revenue from regions not building enough
  • Proponents say tie transportation funds to housing goals
  • Coupling transportation and housing gives local governments incentive
  • Middle class squeezed by housing costs
  • Unaffordable housing demands increasing density multi-use buildings
  • Democratic super majority will determine budget spending

For more summary or full interview see KPCC AirTalk interview here.  

-LS

Monday, May 6, 2019

May is Bike Month in Laguna

OCTA Bike to Work Month

It's the start of visitor season in Laguna Beach. With parking lots 10 and 11 under construction* now would be a good time to consider biking instead of driving. Pledge bike-to-work one day in May and you can win a bike from OCTA. To celebrate Bike Month OCTA is hosting a Bike Rally in Orange. Friday May 17 is National Bike to Work Day, here are tips to plan your bike commute.


Here is the Bike Rally RSVP.

Here is some Bike Safety Awareness.

Here is more information about the OCTA bike-on-bus, track your bike-miles with STRAVA.

*P-Lot 11 opens May 6, ready for oil stains.

-LS

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Laguna Canyon Road SR-133 Realignment for Approval Tonight

The Laguna Canyon Road segment favored for Canyon Acres to El Toro Road.

Click for city Agenda, Item #12

Features of this design
  • Four new traffic lights
  • Underground utility power
  • On-road Class II Class IV bike lanes
  • Reversible HOV Lane for cars
  • Lane width reduction
  • Total Cost Estimated: $122 Million

Missing from disclosure
  • Compliance with Caltrans roadway safety Directive-64
  • Measure for traffic speed reduction
  • Driving criteria for traffic model success (roadway user counts)
  • Specification for Complete Streets Policy 
  • Transit and rail
-LS

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Urban Renewal Paris and Laguna

Major urban developments are anticipated for Laguna Beach, the planners could really mess this up or they could develop liveable streets.

Frontage road along Seine river, Paris France

Cleo Street development: hidden from view 3-level parking for 223 cars, and red Martians.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Parking Minimum Requirements Removed

These US cities have modified their minimum parking requirements, Mo-Town should do the same.

Credit: Strong Towns
Legend:
  • Green pins = parking minimums ended
  • Blue pins = parking minimums lowered or removed
  • Orange pins = currently discussing their parking minimum laws
Some cities pay people (35 cents/mile) to lure them out of their cars, no parking required.

-LS

Friday, February 15, 2019

A Laguna Creek Opportunity

In October 2011 the resort city of Cinque Terre Italy flooded, the city rebuilt placing flood control measures underground with pedestrian access on top.




December 23 2010 Laguna Beach flooded, Laguna Creek was cleared.



February 14 2019 the Laguna Creek culvert collapsed into itself. What will replace it?




Photo of 1.5-mile ADA approved ped and bike path atop flood control, San Antonio TX. 
Credit: HDR Design Group
-LS