Results tagged “dot”

Surely you have noticed the cool new blue lane lights on the 110 Freeway delineating the transition lane to the 5 North (see a video embedded below). The lighted pavement markers, or Smart-stud systems, are a way to finally stop all of those jerks from sneaking into the front of the line when we have all been waiting patiently in line for the 5 North like good citizens. Plus they make your night-time drive more psychedelic, like you are at the laserium.

It's been a trying few days for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation as strong emotions from bicyclists and other complete streets activists rallied to save the elimination of bicycle lanes on Reseda Blvd. to make room for peak hour traffic. A Northridge Neighborhood Council had it as an agenda item earlier this week, prompting a huge turnout by the public to fight the measure.

A Tuesday night CBS 2 News report that featured LAist (they described as "a Web site where people vent about issues like parking tickets," and pronounced us as LA-List, hehe) exposed the hundreds of thousands of tickets that drivers have fought and won. In total, over a two and a half year period, they found that more than 124,000 tickets were overturned.

The LA County Bicycle Coalition sent out an "urgent alert" Saturday afternoon that was pretty shocking: LADOT THREATENS TO CUT THE ENTIRE BIKEWAYS DEPARTMENT!! BIKE PROJECTS WOULD BE CUT!! Los Angeles is facing a perilous budget crisis. All city departments are being asked to submit plans on how they will cut spending, and LADOT have proposed to eliminate the entire Bikeways staff. Not just lay off some people, but cut it altogether.

Mayor Antonio Villariagosa today appointed two heavyweights--Councilmember Jose Huizar and LA Department of Transportation General Manager Rita Robinson--to the Metro's Board of Directors. “With our passage of Measure R, our effort to aggressively build a modern public transportation system in Los Angeles County demands strong leadership,” Mayor Villaraigosa said in a statement.

When the state legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger signed off on this year's budget, it depleted transportation funding to countys and citys. That means transportation funds for city hall's transit lines will soon start operating in the red. We're talking about a $200 million yearly deficit. "How big is the deficit?" Damien Newton at Streetsblog asks. "It's so large that if the city cut every DASH, Commuter Express and charter bus route, the city would still have a transportation deficit in the coming years." Ouch. Yesterday, we found that DASH transfers will be eliminated beginning in April. Start saving those quarters!

The answer to that may depend where you live. If you're a UCLA student, parking on the sidewalk may not get enforced, but if you're in a different part of the city--let's say the Valley--a ticket could be there waiting for you. The inconsistent parking enforcement is now park of a lawsuit against the city. "This lack of enforcement continues even though parking on a sidewalk violates both the California Vehicle Code, Los Angeles Municipal Code and may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)," explains Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA. "The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Barden v. Sacramento sets a nationwide precedent requiring cities to make all public sidewalks accessible. As a result, cities must remove barriers that block disabled access along the length of the sidewalks."

On the upcoming March 3rd ballot, we will be voting for city councilmembers, the mayor, the city attorney and city controller candidates. The latter is one of the most unusual, but extremely important for government. The controller, who often has to take a pit bull stance, audits departments, and not just for their financial accounting but on their efficiency and productivity. Basically, are they serving the people in a timely, professional and efficient way while not going in the red?

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.

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 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 when all they needed to do was walk away," explained Daniel Mitchell, a Senior Transportation Engineer who is charged with leading the park and pay station program. "After pressing OK, the pay station allows you to select how much you would like to pay with your credit card, and the default is $0.50."

  

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.

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...

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:

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:

"You'll never believe what I'm looking at."

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.

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.

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.