New Biker Bar for Laguna

Check Free Trolley schedule for departures.

We wish!

Summer Parking Yard Signs

Order your sign from Jeannie

 

 

What to do before Complete Streets Policy? Get ready for bumper-cars in your neighborhood, order a yard sign like these samples or design your own. Just in time for summer crowds, call or write Jeannie now.

• 20 x 30 inches on 1/8 inch special waterproof vinyl.
• Lightweight and easily nailed to a fence or gate or stick.
• Have inventory on all signs or suggest a new design.

These signs are in development now: 

1. DO NOT PARK IN FRONT OF MY MAILBOX!       
2. MY DRIVEWAY STARTS HERE (red arrow) DO NOT CROSS
3. LEAVE NO TRACE - IF YOU BROUGHT IT HERE,  DO NOT LEAVE IT, TAKE IT HOME.  PLEASE RESPECT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND DO NOT DUMP YOUR TRASH HERE.
4. Senior sign:  I AM A SENIOR CITIZEN AND NEED EASY ACCESS TO MY HOME. PLEASE NOT PARK IN THIS SPOT.  THANK YOU!

Laguna's Forest Avenue Parklet

 
UPDATE: The Forest Ave. Parklet is no more, last day is Wednesday 3 August.

Forest Avenue's first Parklet got a re-make settling on an outdoor seating theme for the Alessa restaurant with decore finishing paint and planter boxes. Seated guests approved of the new venue. 

For more Parklet designs, see these 43 unique examples with their location map in San Francisco. 

An unencumbered Park-let

Get-Moving OC Forum Results

South OC Traffic delay will grow 167% by 2035

Get-Moving South Orange County Public Forum 20 June. Speaking to a full room in the Community Chamber of the Laguna Niguel Civic Center, five guest speakers shared their 25-year vision for the transportation system of South Orange County. Sponsored by TCA the Transportation Corridor Agency, and SCAG the South Orange County Association of Governments these are some highlights of the speaker's comments.

 

OCTA Forecasts to 2035

• OC is still growing
• Population growth: 400,000
• Job growth: 300,000
• Increase in traffic delay: 167%
• Revenue available Measure M: $36 Billion 

South OC Transport Problems

• South OC transportation grid deteriorates heading south
• Do nothing: expect traffic delay increase 243%
• Freeway bottlenecks need innovative solutions
• How to serve more building in suburbia

Transportation Improvements Planned

• 176,000 hours new bus-service
• 20 new Metro Trains
• 650 miles of bikeways
• 450 vanpools and station vans
• $9.5 Billion for arterials and local roads
• 820 new arterial freeway lane mile
• 206 carpool lane miles
• 236 tollway lane miles

Speakers Comments

• Increasing transport capacity is not a crime but ....
• ... you cannot build your way (auto infrastructure) out of congestion.
• Use multiple modes: develop them
• Underfunding: gas tax 1960 -18 cents, gas tax today -18 cents 
• Change to usage based gas tax
• Need $260 Billion to bring infrastructure up to par
• Need $556 Billion to build capacity
• Need to build smart capacity, OCTA is talking to Uber

More Information

Read the SCAG RTP/SCP Sustainable Development Plan here. sample readings:
     Chapter 2 Were we are today
     Chapter 5  The road to greater mobility and sustainable growth
     Chapter 6  Paying for the plan



To watch the live stream video again go to Get-Moving OC here. Next TCA public forum: September
-LS

Traffic and Transportation Public Forum

It's getting worse. 

Come to the PUBLIC FORUM on transportation mobility in South Orange County  RSVP SURVEY and AGENDA here.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) in collaboration with other stakeholders is holding a public forum, Get Moving Orange County, as the first part in a series of next steps to address transportation mobility concerns in South Orange County.

The public forum will be held Monday, June 20, at the Laguna Niguel Community Room from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The forum will include comprehensive transportation presentations as well as interactive discussions about transportation concerns in South Orange County. To RSVP, please visit GetMovingOrangeCounty.com.

Why Not Forest Avenue?

Time Square courtesy PBS Newshour

Before and After Complete Streets Policy used in Time Square NYC.



For seven real living examples in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco care of the PBS Newshour, look here.





Video: Jannet Sadik-Khan explains after Time Square became a pedestrian zone it became economic Blockbuster, one of the top 10 retail districts on the planet.

Note to Laguna Business owners: What's not to like?  Don't defend status-quo.     -LS

Road Diet Options for Laguna Beach

As Laguna considers major changes to road design for Laguna Canyon Road, Temple Hills Drive and Forest Avenue, these videos explain Road Diets and the value-added benefit when implementing them.

"Road Diets serve those that shop here, work here, do business here, live here, rather than privilege those who would simply drive through here fast." -Charles Gandy, Mobility Coordinator, City Long Beach

Here's a conversation between crash dummies about road-diets.

"Who would go out with you, you Dummy!"

Road Diets are applicable to Laguna's current roadway projects under evaluation today. Here are before and after views how road-diets are accomplished.

Humble Credit to Jeff Speck: Four Road Diets from Cupola Media on Vimeo.

Value added benefit of Road Diets (coined 1996):

• Where implemented property values go up
• Businesses improve after road-diet. - Dan Burden

• Allows the street to be used more efficiently
• Cost efficient $50k per mile
• One traffic signal costs $300-400k.  - Mike Sallaberry, Trans Engineer, SF MTA

 -LS

SF Apartments Offer $100 to use Uber

The Parkmerced apartments of San Francisco is offering $100/month for tenants not to drive, use the incentive for Uber, Lyft and Clipper instead. What if communities offered cash (party money) to residents on summer weekends, like those 10,000 visitors from Altura Laguna. Future plans for Parkmerced include a public bike-share and car-share.

"I think what we're really trying to do is create a comprehensive alternative to private car ownership and really incentivize multimodal transportation -grounded in the real world, not in a fairy-tale land," -Parkmerced spokesperson.  For more information on Parkmerced see the story at Co-Exist here.      -LS

LB RideShare Electrics 2-3 or 4 Wheels

3R-C Honda
iROAD Toyota
C-1 Lit Motors
Twizy Renault
WaterCar Panther (gas)
Polaris Slingshot (gas)

Hyperloop LA to SF in 30 Minutes

Hyperloop concept Los Angeles to San Francisco

Hyperloop is a high-speed ground transport system planned as a less costly alternative to the California High-Speed Rail system currently under construction through the California central corridor, and a transport system to improve safety cost speed and sustainability of conventional ground transport . Pictured is a concept rendering of the elevated system for Los Angeles to San Francisco under development at the SpaceX campus in Hawthorne California. Hyperloop is an invitation for corporate and university participation, and a design competition for university students to build a functional prototype, both are invited by SpaceX of Hawthorne California.

If Laguna Beach was ambitious as SpaceX and Hyperloop high-speed ground transport plan for LA-SF, what might they accomplish with new mobility plan for Laguna?

Mr. Elon Musk is the inspiration for many revolutionary start-up ventures among them Tesla Motors, SpaceX and PayPal and five predictions for future tech. Mr Musk known for out-of-the-box thinking is credited for these recent developments:

• 2017 - delivery of an electric folks-vagon priced at $35,000
• 2016 - SpaceX historic first lands reusable rocket for ISS at sea
• 2013 - Releases sketch of Hyperloop concept in 2013, whitepaper
• 2012 - delivers the all-electric Tesla Model-S 

Hyperloop testing under construction

Hyperloop on elevated pedestals spaced 100'

           

Fifth-place entry UCI vehicle

First-place entry MIT

Second-place entry TU Delft Netherlands

In  an engineering design competition for the Hyperloop, thirty teams compete for best concept vehicle judged by academia and technical experts.  The deadline for submissions was January 20 2016, winners were announced January 30. In winning order:

1. Best Overall Design Award: MIT Hyperloop Team, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. Pod Innovation Award: Delft Hyperloop, Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)
3. Pod Technical Excellence Award: Badgerloop, University of Wisconsin-Madison
4. Pod Technical Excellence Award: Hyperloop at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech
5. Pod Technical Excellence Award: HyperXite, University of California Irvine

Why does Hyperloop deserve serious consideration? Two individuals give insight:

'What I really intended to do with the Hyperloop was spur interest in new forms of transportation.'   -Elon Musk

'Given how much pressure there is on the current system of roads and highways and rail lines, we can't afford to take any options off the table.'   -US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx

Frozen in Los Angeles freeway traffic (while driving a Tesla) the experience inspired Mr. Musk for a better way to travel. He estimates (2013) the cost for the California High-Speed Rail at $68 billion, the estimate for Hyperloop $6 billion, or one-tenth the construction costs of Cal HSR. Both estimates will likely double but you get the idea. Mr. Musk is an expert at reducing development costs of conventional transport having won a $1.6 billion contract from NASA for a commercial launch vehicle to resupply of the International Space Station (ISS).

The engineering team entry from UC Irvine is developing a prototype half-scale vehicle named HYPERXITE (Facebook, Twitter) for testing at the Hyperloop site near the Space-X facility in Hawthorne California. Rather than ride on rails like the California high-speed rail system, the HYPERXITE design is a passenger pod riding on a cushion of air similar to a hockey-puck sliding on ice.          

Why is Hyperloop so exciting?  One reason is the amount of energy required to move freight and passengers in such a system over distances like the California corridor.  This chart shows the amount of energy required per passenger per journey using conventional transport versus Hyperloop. And of course, Hyperloop is solar powered. 

UPDATE 11/3/22

-LS