Purpose
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Rose Bowl renovation was undervalued from the start, early review finds
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_22527311/rose-bowl-renovation-was-undervalued-from-start-early
By Brenda Gazzar, February 5, 2013
PASADENA - Project team
officials undervalued the Rose Bowl renovation by about $50 million from
the outset while certain decisions left the Rose Bowl Operating Co.
open to increased risk, an independent preliminary review has found.
The early review was conducted by Heery International, Inc. to
examine unanticipated costs and glean future lessons. Since the original
plan to renovate the historic stadium was approved in Oct. 2010, its
estimated price-tag has ballooned from $152 million to about $195
million.
"Deficiencies in the original project budget ... caused what
should have been recognized as an approximately $200 million project
from the outset to be undervalued as an approximately $150 million
project," the RBOC report, dated Jan. 3, stated.
Daniel Adams, Heery's project director, said the majority of
the budget gap is not the result of cost overruns but "deficiencies in
the original project budget," according to the RBOC report.
"What the report establishes is a combination of incorrect
estimating, timelines that were too aggressive, and a very complex
project caused us to have a budget that was inadequate," Councilman
Victor Gordo, who is RBOC president, said.
"If there is a silver lining, it's two things. We're getting a
very good product, and #2, these aren't overruns. This was always a
more expensive project. It simply wasn't recognized how complex a
project we were undertaking under very tight timelines that we all adopted."
The early review also found that there are enough controls and
procedures in place to ensure a project of "sound quality." It also
found the RBOC is paying fair market value for the work's planned scope.
The original project budget was deficient in that it did not
allow for adequate contingency funds to account for incomplete
construction documents, renovations to a 90-year-old historic facility
and phased construction of an occupied stadium, according to the report.
In addition, the budget did not account for maintaining a Jan.
1, 2014 completion date even after portions of the project were
delayed.
The RBOC took on additional risk when it it separately
contracted with the architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer
and used multiple prime contractors rather than contracting with a
single architect with overall design responsibility and a single
contractor, the report stated.
Heery officials recommended that more rigorous construction
reviews be conducted before actual labor, that the project team develop a
pre-construction process and procedures manual, and that two cost
estimates be obtained for all design evaluations before bidding.
"There is no question that these recommendations will be
helpful... in order to have a smoother project going forward," Gordo
said.
They also recommended "a more in-depth review" of the project.
No decision has yet been made on the latter recommendation, Gordo said.
You're getting stuck in traffic less
http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/05/news/economy/traffic-jams/index.html?source=cnn_bin
By Steve Hargreaves, February 5, 2013
It may not always seem that way, but you're spending less time snarled in traffic jams.
From 2006 to 2010, the number of hours that the average commuter spends caught in congestion each year dropped nearly 13%, according to researchers at Texas A&M's Transportation Institute.Most of the decline traces back to less driving during the recession -- out of work people tend to go out less. But even though the recession has ended and jobs have begun to trickle back, there's been no real uptick in congestion. It was flat from 2008 to 2010, and rose just 1% in 2011.
Individual traffic jams can still get extremely nasty. A Transportation Institute report released
Tuesday ranking America's most congested cities -- Washington, D.C., tops the list -- found that the time required for any specific trip is growing harder to predict. A journey that takes 30 minutes in light traffic can take nearly three hours in Washington when the roads get clogged, the reports' authors found.
Still, their data shows that the total number of hours U.S. travelers spent caught in traffic peaked in 2006, at just under 6 billion. It's stayed below that mark ever since.
Researchers say better road design, faster clearing of accidents, and wider use of technology such as GPS all play a role.
The relative speediness isn't just a convenience. Traffic jams cost real money -- an average of $818 per year for each person on the road, according to the Transportation Institute's latest estimates. Some of that money is lost on wasted gas, but mostly it's the value of lost time spent in traffic jams.
The Transportation Institute ballparks the total economic cost of congestion at $121 billion in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available. That's up $1 billion from the year before.
Keeping the roads clear: Accidents are one of the main causes of traffic tie ups, so reducing crashes is one of the best ways to keep cars moving.
Limiting the interaction between turning cars and through traffic helps, said Tim Lomax, a senior researcher at the Transportation Institute. That can be done by installing turning lanes separated by curbs, combining driveways and other entry points to roadways, and building dedicated service roads alongside major highways for local traffic only.
GPS and traffic apps are also helping, as well as electronic tolling, which cuts down on toll backups.
Related: Latest road trip technology
About 10% of cars currently on the road have GPS systems that provide real-time traffic information, said Jim Bak, a spokesman for Inrix, a provider of traffic software and data. By 2015, that number is expected to be 50%, said Bak.
"There technology and the tools are there," he said. "You don't just have to sit there and be a lemming on your commute."
To accelerate adoption, he said the country needs greater bandwidth on its cellular, satellite and wireless networks so cars can more easily communicate live traffic conditions to one another.
Inrix is also working with automakers to share data across car systems when planning routes. If the software sees the traction control or windshield wipers running on cars in a given region, it might route other cars a different way to avoid the bad weather.
Rerouting cars is tricky, though. Not all the traffic can be redirected -- especially if there are few choices for a new route -- without simply creating a new traffic jam in a different spot.
To overcome this, directions app Waze is experimenting with an incentive system for drivers. It's looking at offering drivers, say, a discount on gas if they're willing to take a different route. In return, the gas stations would get a discount on advertising space.
"There's no money for new roads, no money for new bridges," said Waze spokesman Michal Habdank. "All you can do is connect people."
Speeding them through tolls also helps.
In the 15 mostly Northeast states that use the electronic toll payment system E-ZPass, 75% of all tolls are now paid using the device, said P.J. Wilkins, executive director of E-ZPass Group, the coalition of states using the technology.
In New Jersey, the system has cut wait times at toll plazas by 85%, Wilkins said. He thinks it's likely that all human toll collectors will eventually be phased out. If a driver doesn't have E-ZPass, a camera will take a photo of their license plate and they'll get a bill in the mail.
Reducing lines at toll plazas had another, unexpected benefit: The drop in pollution from all those idling cars led to an 11% reduction in premature births for mothers living within 2 kilometers of toll plazas, according to a 2009 paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
That's a benefit even better than $818 a year.
Rendering of new Gold Line Foothill Extension bridge over Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia
http://thesource.metro.net/2013/02/05/rendering-of-new-gold-line-foothill-extension-bridge-over-santa-anita-avenue-in-arcadia/
By Steve Hymon, February 5, 2013
Serious work on the bridge over Santa Anita Avenue will begin in April — and already there is a lot of work up and down the 11.5-mile alignment for the Gold Line extension between eastern Pasadena and the Azusa/Glendora border. The bridge over Santa Anita means that the Gold Line will be able to travel between the existing Del Mar station in Old Pasadena and the new Arcadia station entirely grade-separated with no street crossings. It should be a quick ride.
Here’s the latest update from the project from Habib Balian, the CEO of the Foothill Extension Construction Authority, the agency building the line that Metro will operate once it’s built:
The Construction Authority and Foothill Transit Contractors briefed Arcadia Mayor Bob Harbicht last Friday on the construction activities taking place at the Colorado Bridge, and other upcoming activities in the city. The Colorado Bridge is one of more than twenty bridges being constructed as part of the overall project, and the first of three to be built in the city of Arcadia. As part of the briefing, we discussed the residential and business community outreach effort being conducted around these activities, which will require long-term street and lane closures. Important to our efforts is promotion of local businesses affected by construction.
The Pasadena Star News published a story about the briefing and the upcoming work in Arcadia and how it will impact businesses on Santa Anita Avenue. The article (below) highlights the new grade-separated crossing to be built over Santa Anita Avenue; construction will begin following completion of the Colorado Boulevard bridge in April. FTC has been actively working with the local businesses for the last year to prepare for the Santa Anita lane closures, including finding the best way to maintain access to their businesses.
In addition, work continues to start in many areas of the corridor. Yesterday, the first of two dozen at-grade crossings went into construction. Highland Avenue, in Duarte, closed for four weeks to build the crossing. Crews began demolition, and will begin installing underground utilities and equipment next.
As construction impacts streets throughout the corridor, the Construction Authority is emailing notices to those that have signed up to receive them. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to sign up at www.foothillextension.org.One note from yours truly, who earlier today consumed a Double-Double for lunch: for those quoted in the story concerned they won’t be able to access the In-N-Out on Santa Anita, there are a couple other In-N-Outs nearby: the one at Walnut and Craig in Pasadena and another at Huntington and Atlantic in Alhambra, which is also conveniently near stops for several Metro bus lines — the 78, 79, 176, 260, 378, 485 and 762. As the Star News story notes, the In-N-Out on Santa Anita will be open during construction although traffic will que up on Colorado instead of Santa Anita.
SR-710 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Meeting
From Sylvia Plummer: Just got word that the TAC meeting will now take place next week.
Draft Meeting Agenda:
http://www.slideshare.net/peggydrouet/sr-710-northeireistacmtg9preliminaryagendafeb2013-doc-16369207
From Sylvia Plummer: Just got word that the TAC meeting will now take place next week.
Draft Meeting Agenda:
Wednesday, February 13
1pm - 3pm
CALTRANS - District 7
100 S. Main Street
Conference Room 1.040A (1st Floor)
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Reserve parking by emailing: captain_rian_gray@dot.ca.gov
-- State you would like to reserve parking
-- Give your name, meeting you are attending, with date and time
-- Captain Gray will email you back with a confirmation
The public may attend this meeting. It is not clear whether questions from the public will be permitted at this meeting.
However, at a pervious TAC meeting, the public was permitted to ask a few questions.
I am trying to arrange a few carpools for this meeting, so if you are interested in attending let me know.
Also give me your address, telephone number and if you want to drive.
Moderate Michael Rubio takes on California's environmental law
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144984/moderate-michael-rubio-takes-on.html
By Torey Van Oot, Monday, January 28, 2013
(See comments at the end of the article.)
Sen. Michael Rubio, right, wants to change a landmark 1970 state law.
State Sen. Michael Rubio says he first wondered if something were wrong with California's environmental review law during his days as a Kern County supervisor, when he saw it used to slow wind and solar projects he considered green by their very nature.Now, just more than two years into his Senate term representing a large swath of the southern Central Valley, he is taking on fellow Democrats on the issue, moving to rewrite the California Environmental Quality Act, one of the most complicated and controversial policy issues under the dome.
Making changes to "modernize" the law, a process he compares to updating an outdated iPhone app, is in Rubio's view "the most important issue facing California today."
He is quick to praise the law, signed in 1970 by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan, for bringing "tremendous good" to the environment and the state. But he said he was "shocked" to see projects that could improve the environment and public health "delayed significantly by misuses and abuses of a wonderful statute."
Since joining the Senate in 2011, Rubio has gained a reputation as one of the upper house's more moderate Democrats. The move on CEQA puts him at odds with many of his colleagues, as well as interest groups representing a key Democratic constituency: environmentalists.
It also endears him to a California business and agriculture lobby that has been pushing for regulatory changes for years.
With his party holding a bare supermajority that allows Democrats to take virtually any action without Republican support, once-in-a-while defectors such as Rubio gain leverage, both in the caucus and among business interests that can give candidates a fundraising boost.
"Someone like him, a moderate Latino Democrat representing a moderate district, has a much more elevated platform than he had before the Democrats won the two-thirds supermajority," said Ben Tulchin, a Democratic pollster. "If he becomes the go-to person for those groups, for industry in Sacramento, he's built a donor base and a profile that he couldn't have had before."
Rubio, 35, says both his upbringing and a desire to vote in ways that stay true to his moderate district influence his positions in the Legislature. He has split from his party on key votes before, including voting no on legislative Democrats' budget in June 2012.
"I was raised by a gun-slinging, spur-rearing Reaganite of a mother and they were very deep-rooted Republicans and conservatives," he said of his parents. "I guess that's where you could say I get my conservative bent."
Years of complaints
The offensive on CEQA is the culmination of years of complaints from developers and other critics who say the law is being misused to block projects for reasons other than environmental harm. Arguments that such lawsuits, and even the threat of litigation, are problematic and hurt economic development gained traction in the down economy, prompting lawmakers to approve exemptions for projects including a new football stadium in Los Angeles.Many of the law's supporters, however, say it doesn't need to be changed significantly. They point out that the percentage of projects sued under CEQA is small – about 1 percent by one analysis – and argue the law continues to provide important protections.
Efforts by Rubio and his allies to put forward CEQA legislation at the end of last year's session met with resistance. Thirty-four Democratic legislators signed a letter urging leaders to shut down what they saw as "an end-of-session power play" to gut the law. Some of the state's major environmental groups also chimed in.
Rubio shelved plans to push a bill after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg signaled it would not move forward that year. "We always have to read the dynamics of the building," he said at the time.
Just five months later, Rubio believes those dynamics have changed.
Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown called in his State of the State address for revising the law. Steinberg gave Rubio the gavel of the Environmental Quality Committee and has pledged to make reviewing possible updates to the law a priority this session. The two have held a series of meeting with people involved in the issue and are working to hash out language on which they can agree.
Rubio and his backers, including some of the state's major business coalitions and CEQA attorney and Democratic donor Tina Thomas, say they are committed to protecting the essence of the 42-year-old law, while finding fixes he says would limit uncertainty for those wishing to pursue responsible development.
Chief among their goals is limiting lawsuits over aspects of a proposal that have already met certain planning or environmental standards.
While Steinberg didn't agree with Rubio's approach on CEQA last year, he said he admired his colleague's willingness to stick his neck out on the issue. He said he expects Rubio to become a "force and an excellent policymaker as the years progress."
"He's the kind of guy who's not afraid to get right back up when he gets knocked down, and he'll get knocked down a few times," Steinberg said. "He's not afraid to take on hard stuff."
Planned on FBI career
Rubio said a career in politics wasn't his goal as he was growing up in and around Shafter, a town of 17,000 in Kern County. A dream to become an FBI agent sent Rubio, the son of a farmworker and a school secretary, across the country to study criminology at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.He said he ultimately shed the "apolitical" views he held growing up, deciding in college he was a Democrat after a deal President Bill Clinton brokered with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich allowed him to collect additional student aid and stay in school.
After graduating and serving a stint in the Peace Corps, Rubio returned to the Central Valley to work for a program focused on helping poor children. He started getting involved in local politics.
He signed on as an aide to former Democratic Sen. Dean Florez, then a member of the Assembly, in 2000. Florez said Rubio got the job by approaching him at a local parade.
Motivated by his competitive streak and a sense there were "wrongs that needed to be righted," Rubio ran for office himself in 2004.
"A supervisor at the time said, 'If you don't like the way I'm doing this, you can run against me,' " Rubio said. "I was 24 at the time, just about to be 25, and I said, 'You're on.' "
He toppled that supervisor, defeating Democrat Pete Parra, a major name in Central Valley politics, by 23 points to become the board's youngest-ever member. The leather shoes he wore thin as he knocked on 15,872 doors – twice each – during the campaign are mounted on his district office wall, a gift from Florez.
"I think he has public service in his DNA," Florez said. "I think he wants to serve people. He comes from a really, really poor area, like I did. You see so many people not being served."
Allies say the freshman senator's work ethic and demeanor raise their prospects for success this session.
"When Michael Rubio has a goal, he sets his sights on what it takes to achieve that goal," said Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino, a member of the CEQA Working Group coalition who trains for endurance races with the senator.
Even with Rubio's drive and Steinberg's involvement, however, any proposal to change CEQA is likely to face significant opposition in the Legislature. The seats on the key committee Rubio chairs have been filled with some of the chamber's most vocal environmentalists, a decision Steinberg says was intentional. Democrats outside the committee are also skeptical.
"I don't think that the so-called CEQA reform is the most urgent issue facing the state of California right now," said Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. "It's just not."
Kathryn Phillips, lead lobbyist for the Sierra Club of California, said she sees the potential for a compromise bill that would tackle some "low-hanging fruit" to make CEQA work better. But she characterized the types of changes sought by Rubio and his backers as misguided attempts by developers and other interests to use a down economy as an excuse "to go after something they haven't liked for some time."
"It's getting him a lot of exposure, but I wish he would focus on something else that would be more productive," she said.
Rubio has already explored at least one run beyond the Senate. Considered a contender for a swing congressional district in the last election, he decided to drop his candidacy after the younger of his two daughters was diagnosed with Down syndrome.
For now, Rubio says he is focused on winning re-election to the state Senate in 2014. But he hasn't closed the door on a congressional or statewide run in 2018 or beyond. His allies don't shy from expressing support for his future political endeavors.
"If he were a stock," Guardino said, "I would highly recommend people buy as many shares as they could."
Comments:
CEQA serves a real-time purpose. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley where we had 100+ smoggy days a year, with many a smog alert...and my non-smoking mother just passed away with interstitial lung disease most probably caused by pollutants during this time period. Agreed that (as with most legislation) it may not be perfect all of the time, but I hope that when the changes are reviewed to this very important work, we don't escalate the needs of business above the impacts to people.
Why The 5.5 Billion Hours Americans Spend In Commuter Traffic Justifies More Infrastructure Spending
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/05/1540981/commuters-billions-hours-traffic/?mobile=nc
By Rebecca Leber, February 5, 2013
The 5.5 billion hours Americans sat in traffic in 2011 cost the country a whopping $121 billion, according to an Urban Mobility Report from Texas A&M. Not surprisingly, the most congested cities are also some of the most populated, including Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland, New York-Newark, Boston, Houston,
Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Seattle:
Consumers bear much of the cost in time and gas, with the wasted fuel totaling 2.9 billion gallons — enough to fill the New Orleans Superdome four times over. The total costs are up $1 billion from the year before, which translates to $818 per U.S. commuter. Commuters must shoulder the cost of time wasted, too, since many need to allot a full hour for a trip that should take 20 minutes.
There are massive pollution costs to this much traffic as well: Traffic congestion adds 56 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, or 380 pounds per commuter.
The obvious fix is more funding for infrastructure, and the researchers recommend prioritizing public transit. In the most congested cities, an increasing number of Americans rely on public transit. However, Republicans have repeatedly sought to cut mass transit funding, while public investment has plunged since the recession. The nation’s growing infrastructure deficit currently stands at $1.6 trillion.
Three Government Committees Reject Current Plans to Widen 710 Between Long Beach and East LA
http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/02/05/three-government-committees-reject-current-plans-to-widen-710-between-long-beach-and-east-la/
By Brian Addison, February 5, 2013
Environmental groups developed their own alternatives to the massive proposed widening of the I-710 between Long Beach and East Los Angeles. "Community Alternative 7" is clearly the preferred alternative of community advocates, but if Metro/Caltrans feel they just have to build something really big, there's an alternative for that. Read all about them at in this report prepared by the Coalition for Environmental Health and Justice
Following thousands of comments from leaders within community health and environmental coalitions, the State-led project to expand the 710 Freeway from eight lanes to 14 lanes for 17 miles from Long Beach to the 60 Freeway in East Los Angeles was delayed. The Project Committee, am advisory committee to Metro, Caltrans and the Southern California Association of Governments, halted the project with an astounding “no” on the proposed routes. Meanwhile, the Long Beach City Council I-710 Oversight Committee recommended that Caltrans and Metro recirculate the draft EIR, allowing for more public comment.
The proposal presented last week had problems beyond just concerns over induced traffic demand and air quality. It required moving power lines to line the banks of the Los Angeles River, interfering with service provider facilities including Shelter Partnerships, Bell Shelters, the Long Beach Multi-Service Center, and Seasons at Compton senior housing. The Gateway Cities Council of Governments (GCOG) understood this, and called for the EIR to go back out for public comment, another 90 days for the public to read, criticize and weigh-in, at a January 29th meeting.
At that meeting, two of the most exceptionally flawed alternatives–known as 5A and 6A–were recommended to be removed from the table by GCOG consultant Jerry Wood, stating that “south of the 405, we don’t need 10 general purpose lanes.”
While community and environmental advocates are desperately fighting against the proposed widening plan, they aren’t just naysayers. Aided by a group of environmental groups, they’ve developed their own alternative.
Community
organizers were forthright in their desires at the public meetings.
Despite praising state officials for abandoning two harmful
alternatives, still asked that the Oversight Committee consider their
“Community Alternative 7″ within the upcoming EIR in addition to the
other alternatives, mainly the no build, 6C (zero emission freight
corridor with 10 lanes) and 6D (zero emission freight corridor with 8
lanes).
Community Alternative 7–developed by a slew of organizations including the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Communities for a Better Environment, Legal Aid Foundation of L.A., Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, Natural Resources Defense Council, Long Beach Community Action Partnership, Coalition for Clean Air, and Physicians for Social Responsibility–proffers a committed zero-emissions design that includes a public transit element, biking/pedestrian elements, river improvements, and a public-private partnership for an employer-operated freight system which avoids the 710 expanding.
Their proposal was met with a yes (though not from CalTrans or the Southern California Association
of Governments), as a follow-up meeting on February 1 by the committee took the recommendation to include Alternative 7. With more than 120 people in attendance, chants of “¡SÃ Se Pudo!” could be heard following the support of Alternative 7 from agencies ranging from Bell to Paramount, Port of Long Beach to South Gate.
7th District Councilmember James Johnson proposed a $10 million pilot project in the Port to test a
zero-emissions catenary system, where overhead electrical wires power trucks–but ultimately failed in getting a second, in which a representative from Metro was quick to point out the process required for enacting early action projects.
Of course, the action by this committee doesn’t automatically guarantee a recirculation of the draft EIR; that is ultimately left to a vote by CalTrans and Metro.
¡SÃ Se Pudo! — or we hope.
Battery-powered intercity trains possible, says government study
Research
for Department for Transport reveals trains could travel 600 miles on
single charge if fossil fuel prices trigger demand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/03/battery-powered-intercity-trains-possible-study
By Peter Walker, February 3, 2013
Research indicated
battery-powered trains could travel up to 600 miles on a single charge
if fuel costs and environmental issues required it.
If for some an intercity express will always resemble an oversized toy then this is perhaps just one stage further towards an extravagant childhood dream: a battery-powered train capable of travelling 600 miles on a single charge.
Such a technology is now possible, if not immediately likely to pull into a local station, according to government-commissioned research. The study was ordered by the Department for Transport with the significantly more serious purpose of examining ways trains could run on difficult-to-electrify lines if fossil fuel prices and environmental worries make diesel power too expensive.
The experts, working on behalf of the Transport Research Laboratory, looked into two options, the first of which would see a relatively small battery – still weighing up to two tonnes – with a shorter range, which would be mechanically swapped at stations.
The other notion was seen as more feasible: a single, eight-tonne battery, which could propel a train service for around 600 miles at a time, using a super capacitor or flywheel for the varying power requirements of the route.
Using digital models of real, if shorter, rail trips – Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, for example – the experts were able to model how such a train could run. The conclusion – battery power is "a feasible option for providing electric traction on parts of the rail network where full route electrification is not viable".
The big caveat, one known all too well by owners of electric cars, is the lifespan of the hugely expensive battery, with the eight-tonne rail version anticipated to cost around £0.5m a piece. While a diesel train would cost around £160,000 a year to run on a daily 600-mile service, the battery version would be more than £240,000 a year, of which £150,000 alone would be set aside for battery replacement.
Diesel prices would need to more than double for battery-only trains to become viable, said John Molyneux from the rail arm of the Lloyd's Register group, who led the report.
"I don't think we'll see these trains in my lifetime," he said. "But they may eventually come, out of necessity rather than of choice. It would be because of fuel prices and the environment."
Battery technology could improve, but less quickly than some people thought, he said: "It's all relative. Lithium ion has been around for 20-odd years and there isn't much that's better than that. And it's still got its problems. With any next-generation batteries you're still limited by electro-chemistry, which is a big limitation. You can't get much better than we have now."
However, one more immediate use of the technology could be smaller batteries to propel trains through short sections of difficult-to-electrify routes.
"The problem with electrification is things like tunnels, bridges and stations," he said. "They're the killers because you've got to break the overhead and you can't have a continuous run.
"One thing we looked into was whether
we could supply enough power on a small battery just to get you through
the critical bits. Like an electric-electric hybrid. But there's got to
be an awful lot of will driving even that."
Battery-Powered Trains Feasibility Study for Energy and Propulsion on Trains pdf: http://www.trl.co.uk/downloads/bc/20110302_Battery_Powered_Trains_Report_PPR551.pdf
Battery-Powered Trains Feasibility Study for Energy and Propulsion on Trains pdf: http://www.trl.co.uk/downloads/bc/20110302_Battery_Powered_Trains_Report_PPR551.pdf
Anaheim Releases Questionable Emails
http://www.voiceofoc.org/oc_north/article_16bd092e-6f5b-11e2-846b-001a4bcf887a.html
By Adam Elmahrek, February 5, 2013
Anaheim Email Chain
Kempton Memo about Voice of OC story to OCTA Board
Anaheim officials Monday released an email chain that has raised
questions at City Hall over whether local officials planned to
misrepresent information to a federal agency in order to obtain
transportation grant funding.
The emails were released following a Voice of OC article
published last Friday that quoted Mayor Tom Tait and other City Hall
sources saying that on its face the email was “very disturbing.”
According to Tait, who has questioned the cost of the proposed streetcar system, there were two explanations for the email chain. One explanation has it being little more than confused wording, but another indicates a plan to deceive federal officials, Tait said.
City spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz said Monday that it is the former.
The email chain was first requested as part of a California Public Records Act request filed Dec. 13 at City Hall by politics blogger Cynthia Ward. City officials had for weeks postponed releasing the email to Ward, saying in multiple extension notification letters that city officials were still processing her request.
It's also part of a larger controversy involving City Attorney Cristina Talley, who was asked to resign just days before controversy erupted around the email. Talley had ruled that the correspondence, produced from a city official's personal email account, had to be made public.
City Hall sources have not indicated that Talley's directive regarding the email chain was a factor in her ouster.
Anaheim officials have a recent history of violating the Public Records Act when it comes to emails. In late 2011, managers in the city's Planning Department ordered a purge of emails after a Voice of OC request for communications among planning staff and members of the City Council.
In her email to Curt Pringle, then mayor of Anaheim and a director of the Orange County Transportation Authority, Meeks wrote that OCTA officials are insisting that $4.8 million in requested funding be restricted to environmental work and an early phase of the monorail project known as alternatives analysis, which is essentially a study of how various transit projects would improve mobility in the city.
City officials, however, were worried about securing support from the Disneyland Resort, the emails show, and the resort would participate in the project only if officials could secure funding for other work, known as preliminary engineering.
The problem is entering the preliminary engineering phase without “certain approvals” would disqualify the project from federal funding, an email from Meeks to Pringle states.
After a conversation with OCTA Deputy CEO Darrell Johnson, Meeks proposed a solution that involved “some creative semantics,” according to the correspondence.
“The $5 million will give us enough money to basically do PE [preliminary engineering], we just can't call it that,” Meeks wrote in a Feb. 14 email to Pringle. “We will need to craft our language carefully with any agreement with Disney, but I think we can meet everyone's needs and stay eligible for federal funding.”
Pringle replied, “Sounds good — thanks.”
City and OCTA officials are hoping that the transit project, which would connect the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center to Disneyland with stops at the Platinum Triangle and convention center, will qualify for funding under the Federal Transit Authority's New Starts program, which provides transportation funds for local projects.
Local officials plan to obtain at least half the funding for the $319-million streetcar project from the New Starts program.
The New Starts program requires FTA's approval to move into the preliminary engineering phase, according to an FTA fact sheet.
Meeks was not made available for comment. Ruiz said, however, that city and FTA officials at that time had different wording for the same project phase. “The city was using preliminary engineering to describe early studies of the fixed guideway project, whereas New Starts used the same term for a different phase of the analysis,” Ruiz said.
Johnson, who will be CEO of OCTA effective at the end of this month, said there was no wrongdoing despite what some have said the emails might indicate.
“Insinuating that anything was done improperly in my opinion is entirely false,” he said.
Current OCTA CEO Will Kempton also sent a memo to board directors late Monday, saying that the Voice of OC article contained an accusation that was “entirely without merit and completely false.”
Johnson said he wouldn't speculate on what Meeks was saying in her email. But he did say that Anaheim officials, along with officials in other county cities, are inexperienced with these types of FTA-funded projects and that the agency's terminology can be confusing.
He pointed to the agreement and the completed alternatives analysis report, which Anaheim City Council appoved last October, as evidence that city officials had not misspent the money. But he acknowledged that an audit of the grant expenditures had not been done.
In September 2008, OCTA's board approved a $5.9-million funding agreement with Anaheim for “detailed planning, alternatives analysis, conceptual engineering, and state and federal environmental engineering,” according to a meeting agenda.
“The conversation in this email doesn't seem to be consistent with what we actually did,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that FTA officials have been closely involved with the project's early phases. “You can't do these projects without working closely with them. They're there all the time,” he said.
Preliminary engineering was not part of that agreement, Johnson said.
On Oct. 23, Tait and former Councilwoman Lorri Galloway were on the losing end of a 3-2 vote to move the streetcar project forward. Among other things, Tait questioned whether alternatives had been fully explored.
OCTA board members last week approved $1.5 million in additional funding for the alternatives analysis, because the project, first planned as a monorail system, was changed to include study of the streetcar, according to a staff report. The addition of the streetcar option required more funds, the report states.
At that meeting, some board directors questioned the nearly $100 million per mile the project would cost.
How Virtual Traffic Lights Could Cut Down on Congestion
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/02/virtual-traffic-lights-real-traffic-reduction/4594/
By Eric Jaffe, February 5, 2013
Every new glimpse at the future of urban transport seems to be missing something pretty big. A car without, you know, human drivers. A trains of cars commuting on the highway with human drivers who aren't, you know, actually driving. The next peek ahead, according to computer scientist Ozan Tonguz of Carnegie Mellon University, gets rid of all the traffic lights.
At least the physical ones. Tonguz and colleagues are designing a road-efficiency system, based on emerging-vehicle-to-vehicle technology, called Virtual Traffic Lights. The idea is to shift traffic control from fixed street signals to the moving cars themselves. The result, says Tonguz, is an optimized traffic flow that should greatly reduce city congestion.
"To do this means that we can improve the life quality of New Yorkers, people in L.A., Boston, Atlanta, and other major cities tremendously," he says. "If you really want to take major stride in solving traffic congestion problems, for the life of me I don't know how else traffic congestion can be mitigated."
The basic world of Virtual Traffic Lights operates like this: as you approach an intersection, your car transmits data, such as location and speed, to other nearby cars. The virtual system processes this information for all the cars in the area, with the help of a lead car that changes every cycle, and determines your individual traffic signal. Instead of seeing a red or green light hanging in the intersection, you see it on your windshield and stop or go accordingly.
The first advantage to Virtual Traffic Lights is that every intersection with a car now automatically has a traffic light. That may not seem like much, but fewer intersections are equipped with signals than many people realize. In New York City, for instance, only about 24 percent of intersections have a four-way signal. As traffic lights become ubiquitous, road safety should dramatically improve.
The second benefit is a much better traffic flow. The algorithm that governs the virtual system can be written for total efficiency. If the system recognizes that no cars are coming from another direction, it can extend a green signal indefinitely. Likewise, at heavy intersections, it can give preference to the longest line of cars. Using similar technology to Google's driverless car, the system can also recognize the presence of pedestrians and bicyclists, and orchestrate traffic to suit their needs.
"This technology essentially buys you universal traffic control at every intersection," says Tonguz. "It makes traffic lights smart in the sense that it takes into consideration how many vehicles are there in each approach and in that way adjusts the cycle duration."
In recent simulations the system has performed quite well. The flow of cars in Porto — the second-largest city in Portugal, with 16 percent signal coverage at intersections — improved by 60 percent during a rush-hour scenario of one test [PDF]. The Virtual Traffic Lights system has even beaten congestion pricing models "hands down," Tonguz says.
Tonguz drew inspiration for the virtual system from nature. His idea was to capture the basic rules of self-organization practiced by biological species and engineer cars to cooperate in a similar manner. If a "colony of vehicles" can act more like a colony of ants, he says, "the lump sum behavior will be much better than we have right now."
The basic technology for Virtual Traffic Lights is already here. Car-to-car conversations can operate over Dedicated Short Range Communication at 5.9 Gigahertz — a radio system being tested and refined by the federal government. Tonguz expects D.S.R.C. to become mandatory for new cars soon, and he's working on a prototype to retrofit older models. (His work is being sponsored by the Department of Transportation, and Tonguz says he's also received funding from General Motors throughout his career.)
The biggest obstacle, says Tonguz, is getting the government to test the system in a real-world setting.
"In my mind the argument here is so compelling, the benefits so compelling, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," he says.
In-N-Out Arcadia drive-thru could be clogged by Gold Line construction
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_22518715/n-out-arcadia-drive-thru-could-be-clogged
By Brenda Gazzar, February 5, 2013
During work on the Gold Line's Santa Anita Avenue bridge this spring, In-N-Out Burger customers will be asked to line up their cars on Colorado Boulevard rather than on Santa Anita Ave for the duration of the bridge's construction Monday.
ARCADIA - Once the Gold Line Construction Authority's five-month
closure of a portion of Colorado Boulevard ends in April, commuters and
businesses including In-N-Out Burger will endure major construction on
Santa Anita Avenue for another bridge at the railroad tracks.
The Colorado Boulevard and Santa Anita Avenue bridges are
among the more than 20 being built or modified to make way for the $735
million, 11.5-mile Foothill extension from Pasadena to Azusa.
For six months starting in April, Santa Anita Avenue will be reduced to one lane of traffic in each direction, officials said.
"It will be a challenging time because Santa Anita is a pretty
busy street," said Kevin Goodman, a segment manager for Foothill
Transit Constructors, a Kiewit-Parsons joint venture.
As for the popular In-N-Out Burger, a plan is to get vehicles
to enter and queue down onto the Colorado Boulevard entrance only rather
than on Santa Anita, where cars are often lined up on the street, said
Dan Kulka, FTC's community relations liaison.
"The plan is to sort of detour the queue down onto Colorado so they'll be westbound on Colorado kind of waiting in the middle there because it's a
wide enough street and we're going to try to retrain them to queue that
way," Kulka said. "We'll start a month ahead and they'll actually hand
them out flyers as they come through the window since they have a lot of
repeat customers. We'll give them a map and they'll be signs out
there."
Gold Line officials are coordinating with In-N-Out and other businesses in the area that will be affected.
"All businesses will be accessible during this time; a little
difficult to get there but accessible," Kulka said. "We'll have `Open
during Construction' signs, and we'll work with them ... We'll just have
to make it through these four months."
But some In-N-Out customers Monday said the temporary changes might prompt them to go elsewhere.
"I probably won't come here anymore; it's too much
inconvenience for me," said Denise Keys, an Altadena resident who was
queued up for a burger Monday on Santa Anita. "It's going to be backed
up if you're entering from one side."
Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development of
In-N-Out Burger, said they are familiar with the Gold Line project and
are working with the Foothill Transit team "to make sure we cooperate
with them while maintaining convenience for our customers."
Michael Goldstein, owner of Goldstein's Bagel Bakery, said the
southernmost entrance of his business on Santa Anita, which is used for
drive-thru traffic, will be fully closed for several months, forcing
all vehicles to enter from the restaurant's northern entrance on Santa
Anita.
About one third of the bakery's business comes from the
drive-thru window. While that will remain open during construction,
Goldstein said he feared business might be reduced so much that he might
have to lay off employees.
"People will be discouraged to go through this right turn
(into his business) because there will be a whole lot of stuff, a whole
lot of distracting ... and also people won't want to go out on Santa
Anita because it's double the traffic," he said.
Following the Santa Anita bridge completion and the 2013
Breeders' Cup on Nov. 2 and 3, FTC crews will begin expanding the
existing bridge on Huntington Drive at Second Street. While Huntington
will stay at two lanes, drivers will not be allowed to turn left from
Second Avenue, Goodman said.
Despite recent rain, FTC officials are still on schedule to
complete the Colorado Boulevard bridge in April. That work is requiring a
full, 24-hour closure of Colorado Boulevard between San Antonio Road
and Santa Anita Avenue through April 30.
"From what I've seen, it's going pretty well," said Arcadia
City Engineer Phil Wray. "We haven't seen any substantial backups from
traffic."
The Construction Authority has opened a new Arcadia community
office at 400 North Santa Anita, Suite 101B that is open Mondays and
Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to address questions and concerns.
Residents can also call the Foothill extension's project hotline at
626-324-7098.
Roadshow: In tally of worst U.S. traffic, Bay Area now matches Los Angeles
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/breakingnews/ci_22517339/congestion-san-francisco-oakland-area-now-matches-delays
By Gary Richards, February 5, 2103
Q
Something has puzzled me. I read your column almost every day, and it
amazes me how much time is spent griping on traffic conditions in the
Bay Area. As someone who grew up in other parts of this country, I have
seen new highways and privately funded toll roads developed at a much
faster rate than here.
I have a simple
question for your readers: Do you want to continue griping about traffic
issues you control? Each and every one of us has the power to elect
representatives who do what we want! If local officials won't listen to
the needs of their citizens, vote for someone else. If you aren't
willing to vote out the current folks, then stop griping!
Please, please, please publish this and see what type of response you get back.
Manjul Gupta
San Jose
A
This is a fitting day to do so, as the Texas Transportation Institute
has released its annual congestion report. For 2011, it ranks the
Oakland-San Francisco area as the second most congested in the nation
based on hours commuters were delayed in traffic -- 61 per year,
matching the delay drivers in Los Angeles face each year. Got that? Many
of us now face L.A.-style traffic.
The
Washington, D.C., area is the worst in the nation at 67 hours of delay
per driver, and New York is third at 59. The South Bay is 29th (out of
80 of the nation's largest urban areas) at 38 wasted hours.
Over
the past three decades, Bay Area governmental leaders and voters have
approved more than 500 miles of new highway lanes in the region, allowed
solo drivers on two freeways to use carpool lanes for a toll, installed
hundreds of metering lights and extended BART to the San Francisco
Airport, with work ongoing to extend BART to the South Bay.
So, Manjul and anyone else, what other improvements would you favor?
Q
Our school enrollment has recently gone through a dramatic increase,
which is causing a traffic NIGHTMARE. I understand police are
understaffed in San Jose, which is why they refused to help our
elementary school combat overcrowded, unsafe traffic conditions in the
morning and afternoon. We've met with the DOT, Safe Paths to School, the
district superintendent, etc., and have done everything in our power to
help the flow of traffic and provide a safer environment for kids as
they arrive at school.
But there are many
parents who refuse to listen to reason, become impatient and allow
their small children to cross crowded streets while they double park,
park on the wrong side of the street, block drop-off zones, etc.
I
stand out at one of our drop-off zones each morning to help parents
understand how the drop-off works (no parking, no double parking! Pull
FORWARD!) and it's the same people every time who are putting their kids
in danger. Recently my daughter and I were almost hit in a crosswalk
because of a driver who didn't want to wait their turn.
My
question (finally): If I get video or pictures of cars and their license
plates while they are doing things they should be getting tickets for,
will the police issue them a ticket? When I see 7-year-olds climb out of
their car as their mom waves them across a drop-off zone with cars
coming and going, it's all I can do to keep from screaming at them. Any
suggestions? It's beyond frustrating.
Gina Ashe
San Jose
A
Indeed it is. Police will tell you that parents are the worst drivers
in school zones and do all kinds of stupid things. But police must
witness an infraction to issue a ticket, so it won't do any good to take
video of bad driving moves. I suggest doing what my kids' elementary
school did -- form a committee to address your concerns and send home to
each parent a "rules of the road" brochure.
This
week police throughout Santa Clara County will be participating in
Operation Safe Passage -- the annual crackdown around schools. This will
include monitoring children walking and riding their bikes to school.
Q
When will the new Highway 101 lanes between the San Antonio and
Embarcadero exits in Palo Alto be completed? Do you think it will help
rush-hour traffic?
Michael DeNeffe
A
The road widening -- auxiliary lanes between interchanges and a second
carpool lane each way -- should be done this summer. And it has to
improve conditions. Traffic can't get any worse, can it?
Have a gripe, minor annoyance or major problem with transportation? Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5335. The fax number is 408-288-8060.
Reminder: Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD), District 7 Candidate Forum, February 6, 2013
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Unions use CEQA extensively to block projects throughout the state until the owners give them labor agreements. For energy projects, a law firm called Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo works for the unions.
Adams Broadwell objected to draft EIRs for Recurrent Energy solar projects in Kern County on behalf of California Union for Reliable Energy (CURE).Senator Rubio has managed to avoid talking about unions as a major obstacle to CEQA reform.
Thank you; so many here were quick to embrace the "act of change", without any knowledge of what it might even entail. Many of our laws need to be updated/revised, but many times the end result winds up being worse than what it replaced, and quite frankly while I support agriculture, especially local agriculture, I'm especially leary of someone from the central valley ag group. For all we know he could introduce a bill that makes conversion of land near impossible, but gives copious subsidies to steal water from one area and transport it to another (because Ag has never done anything like this)...
Here's how it really works Mr Rubio. Entrepreneur A sees a business opportunity, might be green, might be growing something, who knows? "A" digs his way through the regulatory thicket, gets to his final hearing before the last board or comission and some guy or gal representing an acronym nobody ever heard of stands up and objects to the project "We at "ABCDEFG" feel that the project might adversly .. etc etc. "A" goes back to the drawing board, answers the concerns of "ABCDEFG" and goes back thru the process. At the final hearing another person representing another acronym stands up and says "HIJKLMN" objects ... etc. Mr "A" gets the picture, goes to the acronym and says "How Much?" They tell him, he pays up. It's a tax deductable contribution and "A" gets to be a gold circle donor. Acronym give some of the money to the Democrats, and it's all legal. Because the contribution is "voluntary" Now here's the worst part, Entrepreneur "A" talks to people, one of them is Entrepreneur "B" who says to himself "why do I need this" and starts his company elsewhere. Happened pretty much just as I described to a farmer I knew.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144984/moderate-michael-rubio-takes-on.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144984/moderate-michael-rubio-takes-on.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144984/moderate-michael-rubio-takes-on.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/28/5144984/moderate-michael-rubio-takes-on.html#storylink=cpy