Transportation

L.A. Police Commission Approves Questionable LAPD Hit-and-Run Report

Despite questionable data, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a controversial LAPD report about the city's hit-and-run crisis on Tuesday. The study now heads to the L.A. City Council's public safety committee, where Councilman Joe Buscaino will decide if LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is doing ev ... More >>

Downtown Streetcar Desire Heading For Reality In L.A.

Will the streetcars return to a revitalized downtown? Proponents claimed victory last night after the L.A. City Clerk reported that a special measure to fund the old-timey transportation was winning 73 percent in favor to 27 percent opposed with nearly 2 in 10 registered locals turning in their bal ... More >>

Los Angeles' War on Street Artists

The art world sees a vibrant movement. Metro's cops see jail fodder.

Need to Get Your Drugs Through LAX? Just Bribe a TSA Screener

Four TSA screeners were arrested for allegedly taking cash in exchange for letting suitcases full of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to pass through checkpoints. The allegations focus on two current and two former TSA screeners: Three were arrested this morning and one was arrested last nigh ... More >>

L.A. Bus Rider Passes Out, Vomits on Herself -- and No One Calls 911 for Over an Hour

Have bus riders in Los Angeles become so jaded and antisocial that no one thinks to help a passed-out woman with vomit running down her chin for almost an hour-and-a-half? The Eastsider L.A. reported yesterday that Echo Park resident Jamie Goodwin boarded one of the L.A. Department of Transportatio ... More >>

Beverly Hills Unified School District Blasts Newest Recommendations for Antonio Villaraigosa's Westside Subway

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority staffers have just released final recommendations for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's $5.6 billion vanity/legacy project -- variously known as the Westside Subway, the Subway to the Sea, or the Subway to Westwood -- and guess what? Beverly H ... More >>

Should China Own the L.A. Subway?

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting desperate. His ambitious plan to squeeze 30 years of public-transit construction into a mere 10 -- by borrowing $10 billion or so from the federal government -- has been scoffed at and dismissed by Congressmembers for a few years now. But seeing as ... More >>

Westside Subway Extension Feud

Did Metro rig a Century City fault study to move the Purple Line?

R.I.P. Continental Airlines: 800 Employees Say Goodnight to Iconic Airline at LAX 'Memorial'

The Continental crew, circa 1970s.​Like a baseball team or a Hollywood studio, an airline, in America, holds incredible cultural weight. It's a corporation, sure, but only in the way that Coca-Cola is a corporation -- ads don't feel like ads. More like cozy pop art. What little girl, at one p ... More >>

Carmageddon on the 405

Adding a lane won't ease congestion

A Father's Day Event That's Free (Parking: $150)

Best Home Page: LA Metro

Southwest 737 Makes Emergency Landing at LAX After Similar Aircraft Blew its Roof

SouthwestA Southwest Airlines 737.​Turns out we know how Southwest Airlines keeps it ticket prices so low: Old, beater airplanes. We kid. But seriously, problems continued to dog the discounter over the weekend after a Southwest flight from Oakland to San Diego had to make an emergency landin ... More >>

Japan: If You Fly From LAX to Tokyo, Will You be Exposed to Radiation in the Jet Stream?

Japan Airlines​If you fly to Japan, will you be exposed to radiation, possibly in the not-so-friendly skies? It's a possibility. But you won't hear that from U.S. officials. At least not yet. The U.S. State Department issued an alert last weekend telling Americans to avoid travel to the earth ... More >>

LAX Flight 241: Orthodox Jewish Prayer Triggers TSA 'Security Threat,' Lockdown Aboard Plane From Mexico City

newvoices.orgMini Torrah pouches: terrorist threat?​It's good to see a religious group besides Muslims profiled for suspicious behavior by a paranoid American airline -- but still, this is a little silly. The LA Daily News reported yesterday that a traditional prayer conducted by three orthod ... More >>

A Streetcar Named NFL Desire: AEG Chief Tim Leiweke Says if We Build it, They Will Come (On Taxpayer-Funded Light Rail)

A famed "red car."​This downtown NFL stadium idea isn't even at the blueprint stage, and already the folks behind it are asking taxpayers to support a downtown streetcar that would take you ... (you guessed it) .. right by the venue. "The Los Angeles streetcar will have an incredible return w ... More >>

California Bullet Train To Los Angeles Via Bakersfield: Real Or A $43 Billion Mirage?

Money is so tight, the new leg doesn't actually go into Bakersfield as pictured.​The California High-Speed Rail Authority, ridiculed for its secrecy, mismanagement, conflicts of interest and crazy overspending -- and for choosing as the California bullet train's first leg a "route to nowhere" ... More >>

Three Victims, Possibly Taggers, Dead After Amtrak Train Hits Them In Commerce

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner.​Updated throughout. Third man confirmed dead. First posted at 11:02 p.m. Monday. Three males were dead after an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train struck them in Commerce Monday night, according to reports. The pair might have been suspected taggers, and the area wher ... More >>

City Of Pasadena Set On Running 'Romantic' Trolley Around Downtown Loop

Nocturnal Perambulations via FlickrDon't worry -- only in San Francisco​Mayor Villaraigosa and the Subway-to-Sea dreamers aren't the only ones with pricey public transportation on their lists this holiday season. The Pasadena Star-News reported yesterday that city officials and Pasadena busin ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Licks Chops Over President's $50 Billion Public Works Plan

​At least some people in Los Angeles were happy we laid out the red carpet for President Obama last month (despite the traffic his motorcade created). The prez over the weekend announced a $50 billion economic stimulus plan aimed mainly at transportation improvements. Few regions of the coun ... More >>

Hammer Museum Exhibit

Plane Crashes At Catalina Island After Pilot Reports He May Be Suffering From Heart Attack ***Updated

Santa Catalina​ A small plane crashed short of the runway on Santa Catalina Island Thursday afternoon. The pilot had radioed in, saying that he was suffering chest pains and possibly having a heart attack. The plane crashed about two miles away in heavy mountain terrain near Echo Lake, Lt. Je ... More >>

Los Angeles Traffic Congestion Is Worst In America, But Doesn't Have A Thing On Beijing

​Big surprise. According to a recent study by IBM, Los Angeles ranks the worst in "commuter pain" among American cities. On an international scale, however-- it could be worse. The survey interviewed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents. Beijing ranks number one in commuter pain, f ... More >>

Obama Administration Expresses Support For Putting L.A. Rail Projects On Fast Track

The Villaraigosa line.​The Obama administration on Friday expressed some support for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's fast-tracking of regional light rail and transportation plans that could see his favored "subway to the sea" down Wilshire Boulevard running by the dawn of the next decade. "I sha ... More >>

LAX Security Workers Fired For Drug Use, According To Report

​A number of LAX security workers were fired in December after they were allegedly discovered to have been using drugs, CBS 2's David Goldstein reported Tuesday night. On a day when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was calling the airport's security "ahead of the curve" in the wake of the attempted ... More >>

Los Angeles' Red-Light Ticket Ripoff

Cameras capture motorists and huge fines follow. Streets may not be safer

Mayor V. Bows To The Westside As He Dedicates Eastside Rail

Eastside son Antonio Villaraigosa beamed Saturday as he helped to dedicate the Metro Gold Line extension train that runs from downtown to East Los Angeles. Free rides are being offered Sunday to celebrate the opening and to lure the bus-riding masses. And while a vast majority of county transit user ... More >>

BART Officer's Shooting Trial Could Come To L.A.

The trial of a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer accused of murdering an arrestee could come to Los Angeles after a state's Administrative Office of the Courts suggested the move following a judge's ruling that the suspect probably can't get a fair jury in Alameda County.BART​ Johannes Me ... More >>

Villaraigosa Rail Car Deal A 'Fail'

A rail-car-manufacturing deal that was touted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a major job-maker for recession-ravaged L.A. fell through over the weekend, sending his go-go transportation agenda a little off track. The plan was to have Italian rail-car maker AnsaldoBreda build a 650-job factory in ... More >>

Riled Over California's High-Speed Rail

It sounded like such a good idea. But the highly disruptive routes anger many

Somers Town: Truth in Advertising

Shane Meadows’ latest gets at the heart of working-class London

New Transit Routes Win Cheers and Boos

One popular bus line broke ground for an extension today, while a troubled light-rail track picked up new opponents earlier this week. The Orange Line will soon begin work extending its dedicated bus route four miles, from Canoga Park to Chatsworth, thanks to passage, last November, of  Measure ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Teacher's Holiday Nearly 160 L.A. teachers are paid $10 million dollars not to work while their performance fitness is evaluated. Meanwhile, the school district is seeking an injunction against a one-day strike by the teachers union planned for May 15. L.A. Times, L.A. Daily NewsCable Guy Crime A ca ... More >>

USC Hit & Run Arrest

See updated report here.The L.A. Times reports that Los Angeles police have arrested a woman in connection with the hit and run accident outside USC that killed 18-year-old Adrianna Bachan and seriously injured a 19-year-old companion, Marcus Garfinkle. The two students were crossing Jefferson Boule ... More >>

County's Public Transportation Will Survive State Budget Cuts

Now that the dust from California's epic budget battle is starting to settle, Curbed L.A. has done some quick analysis and found that despite the seeming loss of $136 million in operating funds, L.A.'s transit system will not be as hard hit as first thought. That's partly because of anticipated mone ... More >>

Metrolink Death Train Operators Accused

Attorneys have leveled sensational charges against the operators of the Metrolink train that crashed in Chatsworth killing 25 people last September. At a packed news conference held today at the Silver Lake offices of Hildebrand, McCleod and Nelson, firm lawyers claimed that engineer Robert Sanchez ... More >>

Advocacy Group Criticizes Plan to Advertise on Amber Alerts

Metro Sales-Tax Shell Game

A $40 billion promise fuels suspicion of an agency that has lied large before

"Go Metro" at Highways Performance Space

Jamie Benson and Andrae Gonzalo's ticket to ride

Gross Political Negligence

Letters

Lines in the Sand

Strikes threaten two local industries

Letters

Back in the Room

Exposing the power play that had silenced four labor-friendly MTA members

I’m Linda, Fly Me

The real reason Tom Daschle didn’t run for president

Boarding Games

People-watching at LAX security checkpoints

Letters

Money for a Whistle Blower

MTA reaches out-of-court settlement with fired worker who alleged kickback

No Fun To Stay at the MTA

The price of truth-telling

Upgrades on the Gravy Train

We got laws for jokers like these