Summer is here and the electronic hum of scooters is filling city sidewalks all over the world. From L.A. to D.C., many American downtowns have hit their one-year anniversary with scooters, and European capitals have begun to allow them. The benefit is obvious: Scooters provide on-demand, affordable mobility to any able-bodied smartphone user. As the […]
California’s infrastructure, from highways to levees to water systems, received an overall grade of “C-” from the American Society of Civil Engineers in its annual evaluation. The Golden State’s airports, wastewater systems and ports received the highest grade at “C+,” while energy came in at a near-failing “D-” in the report released last week. “Recent […]
There’s a reason your Amazon orders are taking longer to arrive and retailers are charging you more for your usual selections. There’s a critical shortage of truck drivers in the US right now, and it’s only getting worse. The US was short some 36,500 drivers in 2016, according to a 2017 report by the American […]
Over the past three years, the nation’s largest transit systems have endured a broad and unprecedented ridership decline. By far the largest drop has been in Los Angeles and this has resulted in justifiable consternation. Metro, the largest transit system in Los Angeles County, has seen its passenger counts (boardings, see Note 1) drop from […]
The human response to possible takeover by robot overlords is off to a troubling start. Of six crash reports involving robot cars filed in California so far this year, two involved a human approaching the car and attacking it. On Jan. 2, a Chevy Bolt EV operated by General Motors’ Cruise driverless car division in […]
Ridership of all modes of public transportation declined 1.3% last year from 2014, when transit use reached the highest level since 1958, according to new data from the American Public Transportation Association. The average price of a gallon of gasoline fell 27% in 2015 from a year earlier.
So cities need to keep in mind that if they build a rail system, they not only have to pay to build it, they pretty much have to pay to rebuild it every 40 years. This is a challenge because as we see it’s easier to muster the will to build something new than to maintain something you already have. . . The problem comes in for cities that aren’t NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC, and San Francisco. Once you get below that group, the value starts becoming more debatable.
In 2013, the alliance filed a lawsuit against CARB seeking to have the Truck and Bus Rule thrown out. Truck owners, operators, mechanics and an automotive engineering expert explained how the diesel particulate filters damaged engines by exposing them to high heat and backpressure, leading to dangerous fires. . . But now CARB is proposing a new regulation for the sale of aftermarket parts to repair the costly filters, and the agency has just released documents acknowledging what the alliance has been saying all along: Even when working as designed, the filters generate excessive heat, damaging both the filters and the engines, and sometimes causing explosive fires.
In 23 metropolitan areas that have built new rail systems since 1970, transit’s share of commuting — including all forms, such as buses and ferries — has actually slipped a bit, from an average of 5.0 percent before the rail systems opened to 4.6 percent in 2013. The ranks of those driving alone continue to grow, having increased 14.4 million daily one-way trips since 2000, nearly double transit’s overall daily total of 7.6 million, according to Census Bureau data.
The California state auditor has criticized the Department of Transportation’s approach to highway maintenance, saying Caltrans has “weak cost controls” that “create opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse.”
Los Angeles transit ridership has fallen even more than a recent Los Angeles Times front page story indicated, according to Thomas A. Rubin, who served as Chief Financial Officer (auditor/controller) of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD) from 1989 until 1993,
While gas taxes raked in 18 cents on the gallon in the recent past, the Times added, last year receipts plunged to 12 cents a gallon — with analysts predicting another drop this summer to just 10 cents.
An expanding economy and dramatically cheaper gas prices have lured Americans back onto the roads, where they’re racking up record mileage, new data shows.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the region’s largest carrier, lost more than 10% of its boardings from 2006 to 2015, a decline that appears to be accelerating. Despite a $9-billion investment in new light rail and subway lines, Metro now has fewer boardings than it did three decades ago, when buses were the county’s only transit option.