Photo by stevendamron via Flickr The US Dept. of Transportation released its report (.pdf) on miles driven in the country for June 2008. It found that Californians drove more than billion fewer miles this year when we drove 28.8 billion miles than June 2007. That's a 3.7 % drop. Still, California topped the nation in miles driven. But as Dan Walters at SacBee's California by the Numbers The Numbers blog notes, "we're more than......

Photo by iboy_daniel via Flickr It's the usual story about the Department of Transportation. It's either lack of community relations, or lack of something else. Today, it's a lack of efficiency when compared to all other departments that review applications for projects. "The lack of an expedited program in the DOT [Department of Transportation] renders the programs in other departments ineffective," Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said today in a statement. She's talking about when developers......

Joy and happiness surround the new park and pay stations in this photo of a citizen with a park and pay ambassador | Photo provided by the City of LA The Department of Transportation caught wind of yesterday's confusion at the Park and Pay Machines in Silver Lake and decided to take a stab at explaining what happened. "What occurred in this case is that after inserting their quarter, the customer pressed 'OK' twice......

LAist Featured Photos contributor discarted submits these two below photos and asks "Can anyone figure out the whims of the Parking Enforcement these days? For months, years even, they’ve ignored this “grey” space, but then all of the sudden they decided it’s illegal to park here, citing it as a “red zone.” This is not even close to a red zone – am I missing something?" No discarted, you did not miss anything. Our best......

Last December, I embarked on a mission to find a solution to a problem in my immediate neighborhood. Trying to cross Moorpark St. on foot (or left turns in a car) during rush hour is a nightmare. There is just too much constant flow and you really have to have a brave moment to cross at the unmarked crosswalk because as we all know, there is about .001% of drivers in the city who......

Usually we hear doubting and negative comments about city offices such as the Department of Transportation (DOT) or Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE). But the Department of Water & Power (DWP) somehow skids by the public and never become a hot button issue. That is, of course, until the day after the crisis strikes. What? You don't pick up hot dates by dropping some IBEW regs? The closest electrical power will ever come close to being......

When a celebrity moves next door, so does the parking and traffic problems caused by paparazzi. So who do you call to solve the problem? Well, the city of course. And in this town, local politicians are no stranger to loving or hating celebs, whether it be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and most recently, City Councilman Jack Weiss: An embattled city councilman who has been accused of making the gut-wrenching Los......

After last week's back and forth on fighting parking tickets and whether or not parking at a FAILED meter will warrant a ticket or not, we decided to call the Department of Transportation (DOT). However, DOT has taught us in the past that when you call as "press," they freak out, send you in loops and you might get a call back or you might not. So this time, we just called the city......

Maybe it wasn't cool in the South to go to the record store to get the new Dixie Chicks cd, but on the internet nobody can judge you. The Chicks were boycotted by Country radio and their fans said that they shouldn't have said what they said about President Bush, but when it came down to picking up their new cd, the people let their fingers do the buying. And if you ask us,......

If you have ever tried to travel the 405 or 5 northward the day before Thanksgiving, or southbound on the Sunday after, just walk -- it's faster. When you drive this weekend, you must think like life on a Hollywood set: hurry up and wait. Except CalTrans has adopted the didactic "leave early and anticipate delays" slogan. Here are some tips and facts for traveling this weekend: HAR (Highway Advisory Radio): When in LA,......

We wrote this press release for DOT: The City of L.A. has begun replacing the conventional hard plastic benches used for DASH stops with plush sofas. "We decided that we needed to 'up' the image of public transportation. And why not do it with some Hollywood flair?" said a DOT spokesman. The pilot program kicked off at the corner of Moorpark & Allott Ave. on the Van Nuys/Studio City Clockwise Route. Unfortunately, the program......

LACityNerd comments on LA Curbed's commentary on Daily Bruin's article about DOT's proactive enforcement of cars in driveway aprons at sidewalks. We've had our own parking problems in Westwood, but as to parking in aprons, you deserve a ticket -- it gets in the way of our bikes. As one commenter on Curbed said, "Living in the City 101: YOU CANNOT PARK ON THE SIDEWALK." NPR reports that in Los Angeles, 67.8 percent of......

Meet Nick Vautier. He's the man behind 100parkingtickets.com. Nick's initials happen to be the same as the abbreviation for "not visible," which happens to be commonly used when Parking Officers cannot see the license plate or it's missing. Too bad for Nick, who scored the license plate, NV, got a delinquency notice everytime it was written on a ticket that went unpaid: "I started to get random parking tickets from Los Angeles," wrote the......

Last night Council District 2's Wendy Greuel held a community forum, The Intersection of Planning and Transportation, in discussion with Director of Planning, Gail Goldberg and Gloria Jeff, General Manager of DOT. If we were better hackers, we would have live blogged, but LA Valley College protects their WiFi. Nevertheless, some highlights from last night: Buzz Word of the Night: Mobility New Phrase to Learn: Envelope Entitlement Goldberg: Maybe The Unofficial MTA Prez In......

"You'll never believe what I'm looking at." That was the comment of one downtown commuter, speaking into her cell phone, as she walked by the corner of 7th and Hope St. at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday evening. The source of her incredulity? A Los Angeles DOT bus had plowed into a Rite Aid store after an untimely run-in with a speeding BMW, said bystanders. There were apparently no passengers on the bus. By the time......

Tucked into an industrial neighborhood north of downtown, spitting distance from two freeways, a megachurch, a DOT parking lot and a fantastic thrift store lies the California Nigth Club. Or perhaps we should say the Ca_ifornia Nigth Club. The sign has remained unchanged for years, but as yet we've never ventured inside. Instead we drive by thinking about what the TV show In the Heat of the Nigth might have been, or the song......

History often proves unkind to ideas and plans once touted as the wave of the future. Take much of Downtown LA, such as the elevated walkways and segregated vehicular/pedestrian zones. And then there’s the Civic Center Mall. LAist found ourselves strolling through this partially subterranean development located northeast of City Hall that contains a subterranean parking, restaurants, mix of retail operations, miscellaneous amenities (e.g. shoe shine booth), and City operations (DOT). Plus lots of......

Ever nearly rear end someone while staring at those Blade Runner-esque dynamic digital billboards that dazzle and daze passing motorists at numerous intersections around town? Those same devices that might push drivers to dangerous distraction are now urging us to mind the road. Go figure. LAist is skeptical about the logic behind the DOT�s $2 million, multilingual campaign that hopes to curb careless, aggressive, and/or reckless behavior. Despite good intentions (urging people to use......