UEPI News and Commentary

The Chicken and Egg Story – Park[ing] Day L.A.-- Park Poor, But Parking Rich

Los Angeles is one of the most park poor but parking rich cities in the country. Endowed with a Mediterranean climate, and mountains and ocean that span the region, what often passes for open space in areas like downtown L.A., are large open air parking lots.  It is not only that parking lots, wide streets, and rows of parking metered parking spaces are unattractive; they also have major impacts on quality of life and the environment by contributing to beach and ocean pollution, raising the temperature on already hot days, and increasing housing costs due to parking requirements imposed on developers.

moving slower in the car pool lane

As the number of hybrid cars sold in California reach 75,000 and the stickers available to drive solo in the car pool lane reach their max, angry car poolers in conventional cars may well try to block the program's renewal. They have a point: hybrids are going to continue to be sold at a fast clip regardless of car pool lane sticker availability, and there is a danger that the overall value of the car pool lane could diminish as more solo driver hybrids enter the lane. That would weaken one of the few incentives to reduce the huge number of those single occupied vehicles. But some of the angry car poolers also complain that hybrids go too slow -- 65 or even 70 mph instead of 80 and faster. They do that (I know from personal experience) because they're conscious of stretching their mileage. But that's a good thing, even good policy if we ever took seriously the idea that speed limits have a purpose. Slowing down to the speed limit on the freeway not only stretches gas mileage but could create less congestion with steadier traffic and fewer accidents. Traffic calming on the freeway -- an unintended consequence of the Prius moment?

Double decker highways and additional highway lanes on the 710 Freeway..do we really need more?

It's unfortunate, but buried within the legislative package of infrastructure projects that the Legislature passed last week, and that otherwise includes important goals such as affordable housing and education, will be a big chunk of change that will go to freeway building, particularly for increasing the ability to expand the movement of goods that flows through -- and pollutes -- the Southern California region. Translated: more freeway lanes or even a double decker of that most notorious of Southern California freeways, the 710.