|
Login to
COMMENT or POST
|
 |
|
SEARCH
|
|
|
Main Menu
|
|
|
Who's Online
|
|
|
LAVoice Archives
|
|
|
Past Articles
|
|
- Tuesday, October 28
- MadProfessah's Voting Guide For Angelenos (2)
- Wednesday, October 22
- “Muslim/Arab Coverage in News & Entertainment: Effects on the 2008 Election?" (0)
- Tuesday, October 21
- Next BREATHE LA "Green" Salon is this Thursday. RSVP Today! (0)
- Monday, October 20
- 10/22 PBI Panel on "Immigrants, Race Relations and the 2008 Elections" (0)
- Tuesday, October 14
- Coro Centers Across America Celebrate 66 Years of “Training Tomorrow’s Leaders” (0)
- Monday, October 13
- Los Angeles artist paints John McCain and Sarah Palin as Batman characters (0)
- Thursday, October 09
- Comedian Paul Rodriguez Headlines to Benefit Foster Care Kids (0)
- 2nd Annual Latinos, Faith, Culture & HIV Conference Tomorrow at the CA Endowment (1)
- BREATHE LA Salon: “Sinful Behavior: Is Pollution the 8th Deadly Sin?” (0)
- Press Club Panel Discussion: “Can a Free Press Exist in Putin’s Russia? (0)
Older articles
|
|
|
|
 Topic: DRIVEThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
A man from the San Fernando Valley triumphs over gridlock freeway traffic by kayaking to work in Long Beach — 52 miles downstream on the L.A. River.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: GeoLobo
on Thursday, October 18, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Another day where hundreds of thousands of commuters this morning got stuck in another slow grind to work on the southland freeways. Again, today’s grind was much slower because, what else, another BIG RIG accident. This morning it was a double whammy, 2 big rigs on the 210 WB in Pasadena and one on the SB 5 at Roxford. Snarling 2 of the most important arteries to downtown, wasting millions of dollars in gas, lost work hours, wear and tear on vehicles and lost wages and spewing millions of tons of poisoned air for us to breath daily.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: bdine
on Wednesday, October 03, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Starting July 2008, Californians under the age of 18 will be prohibited from using cell phones, using text messaging devices and laptop computers while driving. The cacophony of "Omigods" and unhappy face AIM emoticons is deafening. Now if we can only get the older generations to stop watching TV while driving and look behind themselves before backing up out of the driveway. To use the youth vernacular, that would be "WAY cool."
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Saturday, September 15, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
One of the latest flare-ups in the on-going immigration debate is the potential LAPD policy change for impounding cars of unlicensed drivers. It has been a big issue in the City of Maywood as well as parts of Fresno and other locales throughout the state--now Los Angeles is weighing in. The LA Civilian Policy Commission is expected to consider a possible moratorium on these types of impounds on September 18th. FYI - An estimated 47,000 cars a year belonging to unlicensed/suspended license drivers are impounded by the LAPD. Below is a provocative editorial in the Daily News.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I’ve never texted “Your Wheels” but I’ve definitely been guility of TWD—Texting While Driving. Or more accurately, TWIAILT—Texting While Inching Along In LA Traffic—although the longer abbreviation has less cachet. Images of that scene from Office Space come to mind: Peter Gibbons is driving to work, gets caught in a traffic jam and is surpassed by an old guy on the sidewalk with a walker. What are you going to do? Make a call with your earpiece in? Turn up the gangsta rap?
Perhaps it’s a function of my not wanting to let my mind idle while sitting in traffic or my growing inability to merely sit still and adopt an “Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” type of Zen. Whatever the case, it’s a hard habit to break. But as the story below suggests, there can be fatal consequences (consider this the memo). And that could give anyone a bad case of the Mondays.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Thursday, August 02, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I arrived at the MTA's public hearing on the MTA's fare proposal to find that the meeting room was already full to capacity. A representative from the MTA announced that as long as attendants filled out a speaker form by 10am they would be alllowed to speak for one minute. By the time I filled one out, 287 people had already done so, which I thought was great. Soon thereafter the lobby of the building became full and security stopped allowing people into the building all together. I left and returned several hours later, since I figured if most of the people before me who had signed up to speak followed through it would take at least 4 hours.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Monday, May 28, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
As some of you may know, the Los Angeles MTA has announced astonishing fare hikes. A day pass will increase from $3 to $5 in July and to $8 by January, 2009, and a monthly pass will go from $52 to $75 in July and to $120 in January, 2009.
Not only will these fare hikes punish poor people, the proposal presented by MTA officials works against the declared goals of our society of reducing petroleum dependence, decreasing traffic, improving air quality, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Monday, May 21, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The rankings for the top 25 cities in America for “road rage” are out and Los Angeles came in a respectable (but still slightly disappointing) fourth, behind Miami, New York, and Boston.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, May 16, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Thursday, April 12, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Friday, March 30, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I just had a run-in with one of those "friendly" people that we all encounter from time to time-- the guy in the elevator who wants to tell you about his weekend, or the person next to you on the plane who, without warning, cheerfully says, "So, what do you do?"
I was filling up at the gas station today and this guy just starts talking to me. He gave me the old, "I just can't believe how expensive gas is," and he told me that "this place is the cheapest in town" (it's not) and he mentioned that this was the third time he'd been here today but on both previous trips, the lines were too long so he figured he'd come back.
He said he'd driven all over the place to find cheap gas and this was easily 3 cents a gallon cheaper than anywhere else.
Then I noticed he was driving a sub-compact that couldn't have more than an 8 gallon tank. And I thought, if people put a fraction of the energy into economizing car trips that they do into complaining about gas prices, they'd be much better off.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Monday, March 26, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The Los Angeles Press Club (LAPC) holds monthly events for its members and invites people from various sectors of society to address issues of the day. Join us on March 29th, along with our co-sponsor, the Reason Foundation, for a scintillating discussion with three experts in the field. Click here for the video news advisory with Rory Johnston
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Wednesday, March 21, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Curbed has a really cool post about high-speed rail in California. Check it out, if only to see the You Tube video about the trains.
Bottom line, according to the video, high speed rail along existing freeway right of ways and easements can connect Sacramento and San Diego with stops in all the urban markets in between.
Two numbers jump out from the video: 220 (as in “miles per hour”! (top speed)) and 80 (as in “less than eighty minutes from San Diego to LA).
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, March 14, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Yesterday when I went to the gym, I had no less than two people ask me where my personal trainer was. With the 80-plus degree weather, he was playing hooky and had gone to the beach in the afternoon.
When my rush hour trip from West Hollywood to Century City took but fifteen minutes--instead of the budgeted forty--I figured that a good number of Los Angelenos had taken off to the beach themselves.
But Mickey Kaus offers another, more likely explanation--daylight savings time! When we "fall back" and lose an hour, traffic becomes horrible in Los Angeles. People whose timing runs on the "human clock" rather than the clock-clock now have extended the rush hour period, thus reducing the traffic crunch we would have experienced, say, last week.
Either way, I arrived in Century City with enough time to check out the not-so-new but still impressive food court, thanks to nature, Congress or human nature.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: ScottSchmidt
on Tuesday, March 13, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I’m a little late to the party on this as the Times’ Bottleneck Blog spent time on this subject Friday, but County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has resurrected the idea of turning Pico Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard into one way streets.
Under the plan, which has been floated before, Pico would be one-way heading west; Olympic would be one-way heading East. This would create two four lane thoroughfares with, possibly, a dedicated bus lane. Predictably, some merchants are balking, but on its face, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
(Of course, never underestimate the City’s ability to get the traffic signals completely out of sync, creating massive traffic snarls.)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Monday, March 12, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Phase I of LA’s light rail system from Downtown to the West Side is projected to be completed by 2010, at a cost of $640 million.
8.6 miles of track, with eight new stations along the way, will parallel the 10 Freeway along Exposition Boulevard and end in Culver City. Construction began last fall and updates are available at the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority.
Phase II is shaping up to be a little more controversial.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Friday, March 09, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
How much do you tip a valet parking attendant? This is one of the great confounding questions of life in L.A. that- as a reformed East Coaster-- I admit, I still haven’t quite figured out.
In the March issue of Los Angeles magazine Randy Clemens profiles William Aceituno, a valet at the Luxe Hotel in Bel Air and at the Grove. Aceituno states that, working the VIP section at the Grove where he typically handles 80-100 cars a day—more on the weekends, he can average $20 per car .
Aceituno also lets readers in on who the biggest tippers are among the celebrity set…
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: ScottSchmidt
on Friday, February 23, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Even if you live in a downtown loft or a planned urban community like Playa Vista, chances are you spend time on LA Freeways, where carpool lanes create a class conflict unlike any other (with the possible exception of that humiliating curtain that they used to draw between first class and coach).
You know all about the recent decision to allow (and subsequently cap) hybrids in HOV lanes but did you know about a pilot project underway on the 22 Freeway in Orange County that could change the rules on access to the coveted diamond lanes throughout the state?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, February 07, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
It was only a matter of time, but some good soul has finally stepped forward and launched a stripped-down, purpose-built blog devoted entirely to the widely-held belief - especially in L.A. - hell is the other driver.
L.A. Can't Drive is an anonymous blogger with a camera who puts voice to all our pent-up frustrations at L.A.'s worst speeders, tailgaters, drifters and lane-bargers - or at least the ones that he (she?) runs across.
The blogger posts photos of offending vehicles, ranks the behavior on both an "asshole meter" and an "idiocy meter" (marked amusingly with little VW microbuses), and then lets rip:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, January 30, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The notorious and apocryphal International Association of Armed Librarians, Mobile Assault Force took a leisurely/vigorous cruise up and down the hills of downtown, Chinatown and Elysian Park this afternoon.
About 25 riders joined IAAL-MAF'ers Will, Eric, Steve and me to tour the Victorian homes of Echo Park, the roiling streets of Chinatown and finally the rutted fire roads of Elysian Park, where you could wonder simultaneously, "Why is the water in the downtown reservoir that creepy blue?" "What are all those young men lurking around an empty trail for?" and "Who's doing bong hits at the picnic tables?"
The third IAAL-MAF invitational, the "No Surrender Monkeys" ride, was a hilly cruise, with plenty of good riders from all parts of town and walks of life. The wild array of rides really brought home the utter democracy of cycling - ranging from fixie track bikes and full-Campy Italian racers to double-sprung mountain bikes and at least one 14-inch-wheeled collapsible ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, January 28, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Some time today, the URL GetLAMoving.com will go live - filled with vision-building brilliance from the mind of transit activist Damien Goodmon.
You may remember Goodmon as the author of the heartbreakingly impossible MTA mass transit map that dreamed not only of a completed subway to the sea, but of 10 full-service MTA subway lines bracketing every neighborhood in greater L.A., including loops of the Walley and termini in places as far-flung as Santa Fe Springs and Long Beach.
Tonight, Goodmon plans to unleash his master plan (or at least more of the site) at a meeting of the Transit Coalition at Phlippe's at 6:30 p.m.. You may want to RSVP.
Here's a bit more from Goodmon on what this is all about:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you've never done Midnight Ridazz because it's at night, too big or you just don't feel cool enough, then maybe this ride is more your style;
The formidable (and totally fictitious) bicycle gang known as IAAL-MAF invites you to join us at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Echo Park for the "No Surrender Monkeys" Invitational.
We'll be cruising up into Elysian Park and through downtown, awarding special spoke cards to the fastest 4th-Street plunge and the die-hardiest Bishop Canyon climb, and generally huddling for rib-stickin' grub afterwards at Brite Spot.
Deets after the jump ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Quick - was the worst driver on your commute this morning - the idiot tailgating, swerving or driving with knees instead of hands so as to operate a cellphone - male or female?
Survey says men are more dangerous drivers - and die in car crashes far more often - than women.
Scientific, provable fact. Before emailing this post to someone and yelling, "SEEEE???" or charging off to argue about it with your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, son or daughter, you might want to play with the data engine that drew this conclusion ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, January 22, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If a bike and a car collide in Los Angeles, who makes the most noise - legally speaking?
Councilman Bill Rosendahl Ed Reyes is pushing for city support of a bill that would amend the California Motor Vehicle code to "assign responsibility of any collision between vehicles and bicycles to the motorist."
Here, (thanks to Joseph for the doc) is the resolution that heaps the blame for any bike-versus-car wreck squarely on the motorist's head. The California Bike Coalition is tracking the bill itself, AB 60, which you can read here ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 19, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Since I can remember, wanderlust has coursed violently through my veins. So it was an aggressively adventurous seventeen year old girl who stepped aboard the Paris Metro for the first time, with no particular place to go. As the spider’s web network of the Parisian metro spun itself to the farthest reaches of the city, I let it deliver me to the threshold of experiences that would become the fabric of my life - a particular favorite was disembarking at Montmartre at dusk, bottle of wine in hand, with a short meander up the hill to sit atop the steps of Sacré Cśur, and watch the sun set over Paris. But all of this was simply a bonus. Riding the metro was what I really wanted to do.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Vavine
on Tuesday, January 16, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The universe is listening. No sooner do I write about YouParkLikeAnAsshole.com than I get cause to use it. I'm headed over there to repost this in the next few minutes:
ENLARGE
We went for dim sum in Chinatown this morning with some good friends at Empress Pavilion, and parked in the restaurant's garage. As you can see, I squoze the family wagon (left) in between the scary-narrow parking lines as evenly as I could, yet still had room for us to to get out on either side because everyone else had parked sensibly, too.
While we were at brunch, the car to our right exited, and some cretin pulled his Honda in so close - I'd estimate 5 to 6 inches max - that our mirrors are overlapping.
No, he didn't hit our mirror on the way in - it looks like he actually folded back both mirrors to get past, and then unfolded them again and crawled out his passenger door.
Backing out was ... an adventure.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, January 14, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
One concept. One site. Many voices.
You have to admire the elegant simplicity of YouParkLikeAnAsshole.com.
It's a gallery site where you can view and post photos of the worst parking offenses, and a resource for anyone who has ever needed to vent over the static idiocy of a selfishly-parked car ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 12, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
If you've followed this blog for long, you know we devote an obscene, almost foolhardy amount of time and energy to mucking about on bikes.
Sometimes, we do so with the aid and abettance of the coldblooded fictitious bike gang known as the International Association of Armed Librarians - Mobile Assault Force.
Following the success of our expeditions to the Black Dahlia corpse site and the newly-unveiled Griffith Observatory IAAL-MAF are planning a calf-punishing, hill-climbing journey on Jan. 28 to staggering views of downtown and points beyond, with the IAAL-MAF's third invitational - the "No Surrender Monkeys" ride.
Here's the invitation, penned by co-organizer Will Campbell ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 05, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Someone asked me today where to buy a good bike in Los Angeles.
Bike geek that I am, I have plenty of answers, but relatively limited experience.
But since you may have either Xmas cash burning a hole in your wallet next week - or a roll of holiday fat pushing your belt to the breaking point - here's a short, annotated list of good bike shops I've visited. Anyone have other recommendations?
New:
Wheel World Cyclery:
4051 Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230, (310) 391-5251
Solid, dependable service. Very reasonably priced rides. When my beloved mango-colored Cannondale F-1000 got ripped off from my garage six years ago, I shopped there, and found an excellent F-700 replacement - with a gnarly Lefty fork and Hayes discs, no less - for just a bit more than what the insurance company paid me.
They redid the Sturmey-Archer rear-end on my old Schwinn cruiser for a song, and always had whatever crazy part I needed, right when I needed it. Good selection of Cannondales, Konas and a few more exotic models, as well as a wide array of kids' bikes, dual-use hybrids and studly-O.G. stretch DynoCruisers. Great shop ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, December 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 It's the Christmas season, so you're probably not doing anything important at work right, now, are you?
Here's a toy/tool for anyone who's contemplated suicide in 405 gridlock, or wanted to play God of the Freeways: This Java-based traffic-jam simulator lets you explore just how badly one idiot driver or ill-timed Caltrans project can ruin the day for 100,000 commuters.
Once the applet loads, click on the "Laneclosing" button or one of the others, then move the "average density" slider up until jammage ensues. Consider - when you're playing with the simulator's numbers - that the 101/405 interchange suffers the weight of an average 530,000 vehicles per day, or more than 22,000 per hour ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you must drink, don't drive. If you must drink and drive, don't drive drunk.
If you must drive drunk, don't crash. And if you must drive drunk and crash, don't crash into a police car.
A drunk smashed his car into an LAPD cruiser in Van Nuys just before dawn this morning, sending two Foothill Division officers to the hospital with (fortunately) minor injuries. The drunk? Apparently uninjured, and busted, a few moments and blocks later by another cruiser.
But during holiday party season, it's definitely best not to drink and drive at all.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, December 14, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, December 07, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Electrum Spyder: Tesla-killer? |
If you're looking for a next-gen "green" car - or if the bloat and spectacle of the L.A. Auto Show just turns you off - you might want to check out the AltCar Expo this weekend at Santa Monica Airport.
More than 50 firms will be showing off the latest in hybrid, electric, biodiesel and alt-powered technology. The events schedule looks very promising: Among other things, there's an alt-car rally from the SM Pier to the airport, u-drive-it hydrogen fuel-cell-car demos and Left Coast Conversions' Reverend Gadget will be converting a gas-breathing Triumph from internal combustion to battery power while you watch ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, December 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The Giugiaro Mustang meets the press. ENLARGE |
Jump to PHOTOS
Now that's more like it.
The L.A. Auto Show's new early-winter time slot has pumped it full of energy that was sorely lacking in January's pathetic exercise. All the '07s are on display, plus a healthy dose of next-gen styling concepts, complete with scissor doors, billet chrome and eye-charring kandyflake skin.
I took a quick tour and plenty of photos of the latest design-shop phantasms and I'm here to tell you, So Cal car design is in full effect, and the sex is back ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, November 30, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Apparently there's nothing like spending half an hour coasting along Wilshire Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard, watching Office Space -like as senior citizens in walkers pass you on the sidewalk, to overcome the traditional fears that subways will bring "the wrong element" to town and that subway stops are for someone else, thank you very much.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: JAmussen
on Monday, November 27, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 It's that time of year again. Time for nail-chewing, white-knuckled cab rides. Time to harangue your good-Samaritan buddy about shortcuts to LaTijera while gridlock congeals around his car. Time to take another anguished call from a grounded inbound relative and wish you'd decided to dine alone this year.
Here are a couple of excellent Web tools that may help keep your Thanksgiving trip from triggering your first aneurysm:
Flight Monitor 2.0 gives real-time flight-tracking data (and little animated airplanes!) on flights coming in and out of LAX, Van Nuys, Burbank, John Wayne, Ontario and a few others including JFK ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, November 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Forget that the LADWP is burning fuel we're paying for to make a holiday display a good 30 days early, this was fun:
The LADWP lit up its Festival of Lights along Zoo Drive tonight, and closed the roads to all but bicycle traffic. The displays are old, corny, even silly (I particularly liked the animated jets landing along the strobelit "LAX" runway), and the music too damn early and old. (Feliz Navidad for the umpteenth time).
But any chilly night spent cruising blissfully through Griffith Park on two wheels among animated pin-bulb elves and cheerful, lollygagging cyclists is a good night: (More photos after the jump) ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, November 20, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Maybe it was the connection with the notorious Choppercabras Horrorcycle Gang. Maybe it was that when I phoned, the guy said he had exactly what we were looking for - a used kids mountain bike or three to check out - and cheerily invited us to come on in. Maybe it's that I had a sick childhood obsession with the L.A.-based Little Red Wagon funny car, and this guy's nifty little work-truck reminded me of it ...
But a combination of those things - coupled with our excellent experience there - prompt me to recommend Atomic Cycles if you're looking for cheap, reliable used bike and don't want to take the Bicycle Kitchen u-build-it route ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, November 20, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
MORE PHOTOS ADDED
The IAAL-MAF Take Back Griffith Observatory Invitational ride made a successful - if painful - assault on the ridges leading up to the observatory tonight, joined by more than 30 gutsy guest riders.
The air was crisp, the skies clear, and the 1,000-foot climb by turns spooky, pungent, peaceful, glorious and relentlessly steep. But everyone made it to the top, and came back with cameras full of stunning views and good friends in all their ragged, spent glory. Here are a few of mine:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, November 17, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, November 15, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The Mayor's about to hold a press-conference to announce something that should have been doing all along: Fixing traffic-light timing at the city's worst intersections.
LADOT's Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control Center (ATSAC, which hosts these terrific traffic maps) will be tweaking lights at 35 intersections to move traffic through more smoothly - and supposedly cut wait times by 22 seconds and decrease travel time by 35%.
Operation Bottleneck (hold your snickers, please, until we see how well this works) focuses mainly on downtown, the west side and the Valley. Here are the 35 intersections involved:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, November 09, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 It's done. Four years and $93 million later, the beloved Griffith Observatory is open and gorgeous inside and out.
The notorious fictitious bike gang IAAL-MAF is celebrating with our second invitational ride November 16, when we welcome L.A. cyclists to join us and Take Back Griffith Observatory. DATE: Thugsday, November 16
TIME: Gather at 6:30 p.m.; Ride at 7 p.m.
STARTS & ENDS: Crystal Street at Fletcher in Atwater Village (map)
HOW FAR: 15.5 miles (route) Just three caveats about the route ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, November 03, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you travel the 405, the 105 or anywhere within the vicinity of LAX, you may have a rotten time at the wheel starting today Saturday - and perhaps lasting through Thanksgiving weekend. God help you if you are rushing to catch a flight during that time.
The City of El Segundo has given LIve Free or Die Hard broad permission to shut down roads and boulevards surrounding the airport, including one of the main feeder roads - Imperial Highway so the producers can stage car wrecks, set off pyrotechnics and generally pepper the air with Hollywood gunfire.
Here's a general map of where the trouble started was scheduled to start this morning at 9 a.m. (according to the permits) and a complete list of all the closures that will be mucking up flight times for another, oh, three weeks or so:
UPDATE: LAObserved points out a Daily Breeze report that the fun actually begins Saturday. Unfortunately, LAWA has not bothered to update the LAX site, which still points to the Oct. 30 release ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, November 02, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Jay Leno - who clearly has a ridiculous amount of money (or at least influence) to throw away on such things - helped design a firebreathing jet car that runs on ... wait for it ... cooking oil.
The biodiesel-powered "Eco-Jet" was slapped together by NoHo-based GM Advanced Design Studio after Leno brainstormed the idea with his lead mechanic Bernard Juchli and then paper-napkined a sketch together with Ed Welburn, GM's VP of global design.
They wrapped a 650-horsepower turbojet engine and Corvette Z-06 tranny in an aluminum and magnesium frame, skinned it with badass Kevlar and carbon fiber, and rolled it out yesterday at the SEMA car-customizing show in Vegas ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, November 01, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Ride a bike in L.A., and you risk not being taken seriously - by motorists, or the police. The former can be deadly but even if you survive, the latter can be completely infuriating.
Word comes via the IAAL-MAF internal listserv tonight (and later via Spencer at blogging.la) that the LAPD was apparently dragging its feet on investigation of a hit-and-run involving a veteran cyclist.
Jen Diamond was riding home with friends along Sunset toward Echo Park in the wee hours of Sunday morning - with lights front and rear - when a car apparently veered into her lane and hit her bike. It took the LAPD a while - and a little pressure - to wake up to the fact that this might just have been a crime worthy of investigation ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, October 31, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Oh, God, the guilt: A Hummer that turns CO2 to oxygen |
Say what you like about the L.A. Auto Show - they know how to serve up the eye candy.
Last year's Design Challenge - exploring some fevered hallucination about "the L.A. lifestyle" - tried to persuade us that Los Angeles needs rolling film festivals and CNG-powered drift cars.
This year they're bypassing the nutritional value of plain nuts and going straight for the gooey nougat center - biodegradable dune buggies, oxygen-spewing plant-mobiles and nanotech-driven aqua-pods ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, October 23, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
This is his bike.
You have been warned. |
Those of us in the ruthless fictitious bike gang IAAL-MAF have long regarded co-founder and routemaster extraordinaire Will as a good friend, a doughty rider, a talented wordsmith and the one guy you'd want to have with you if it ever came down to a rumble.
He's fearless, solid and thoroughly comfortable at telling off asshole motorists in an gleefully salty fashion that the rest of us secretly envy but are too cowardly to emulate.
Whether this translates into him winning the coveted "Most Likely to Get Us All Shot" Award at the upcoming semi-annual IAAL-MAF Memorial Golden SpokeWrench Clambake-and-Pubcrawl Awards Ceremony (the "Spokies") will be entirely up to the SpokeWrench Awards Sub-Committee (that'd be the IAAL-MAF-SWASC) ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, October 20, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Junk in my trunk: Blanket, rope, bungees, balls & Frisbees |
Admit it: your car is full of crap.
Useful crap. Important crap. Cool crap. And tons of just plain crap crap: The crap you always forget to throw out, the crap you're always bringing in. The crap your passengers leave behind, and the crap you can't bear to get rid of.
So: putting aside the crap that keeps it mobile and legal (gas, oil, water, air, license, registration) what 7 things are always in your car?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, October 06, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Kind of a disturbing ride this morning:
I kick off from home in Silver Lake at 6 a.m. in near-pitch blackness. Quiet streets and a good headlamp make this a nice run - so far.
I cruise up Commonwealth Canyon, beneath trees hulking black against the blue-black pre-dawn glow, and follow my headlamp's dim tunnel of light.
The air smells of rosemary, sage, creosote, smog ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, October 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I took a beautiful, serene ride through south L.A. last night.
The flesh-and-blood members of the notorious fictitious bike gang known as the International Association of Armed Librarians - Mobile Assault Force were joined by some great folks and good riders for this, our inaugural invitational ride in honor of Elizabeth "Black Dahlia" Short.
I had a great time talking with newcomers Roger, Felipe and Michael and others, and the smooth ride bode well for future invitationals. We're probably going to start scheduling more open rides for the fourth (or is it the third?) Thursday of each month. We're talking about making the next one a full-dress ride to Musso & Frank for good steaks, martinis and more old-L.A. noir vibe ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, September 29, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Unless fuming in bumper-to-bumper traffic somehow thrills you, stay the hell away from Century Boulevard at LAX tonight, if you can.
A planned protest by the hotel workers union, labor figures and the immigrant, non-union workers they 're trying to organize - heavily publicized and almost gleefully flacked by the Times - might muss up the traffic flow just a wee bit.
The Times lede by Joe Matthews over-reaches pretty severely ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, September 28, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
2 slick: MB's Recy Roadster
(ENLARGE) |
What car do Angelenos dream of? No, not the snappy next-gen drop-top Bentley, or a low-guilt hydrogen-powered Hummer or that cherried-out Hemi 'Cuda you've lusted after since first grade - but a dream car that makes sense. What pumps your heart and tweaks your head?
The upcoming L.A. Auto Show (Dec. 1-10) just announced the finalists for the Design Challenge, the annual dream-of-flying-cars competition for automakers who last year seemed to think we all needed rolling chill lounges and GPS-guided gourmet lunchwagons.
This year's challenge pushed designers to cough up "a vehicle that is environmentally aware of its global footprint," and the resulting nine finalists include "the vehicle with interchangeable, fully recyclable body coverings, another which runs on pedal power and a vehicle with algae-filled panels that transform harmful CO2 into pure oxygen" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, September 25, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I'm always on the fence about vanity plates.
I dream up snarky ones in the shower YRUAPUZ, HEYI8U2, ROFLMAO, POLLUTR, 1LESBIK, NORUINS, ORACEME, I8URCAT, CHP(heart)LSD.
But then think: a) do I really want that on my car and b) why should I spend up to $70 every year for a chunk of metal that costs the DMV the same amount to make and track as a vanillified randomized plate?
COOLPL8Z.com has me jonesing again ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, September 22, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Bill Lockyer can't have expected the big six automakers to take it lying down when he sued them for global warming this week.
They lashed back, accusing California's attorney general of "grandstanding" and pushing regulation with litigation.
Uh yeah? So? ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, September 22, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Perfect end to a strange odyssey. |
I finally got fingerprinted this morning.
No, I wasn't busted for a crime or fulfilling some kinky desire - just enjoying the end of one of the weirdest days of my life.
Thursday unspooled like the script of a bad indie Sundance reject, minus an actual plot ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, September 15, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What a villain left |
Two notes from my morning bike ride, about human nature:
Hero:
I'm clawing my way up Commonwealth Canyon, headed toward this little peak in Griffith Park at the top of Vista del Valle where you can catch your breath, look out over Los Angeles and feel glad to be awake and upright.
It's solid steep, maybe a 6% grade. I'm in granny gears - like, 1:4, spinning away.
Ahead there's a rider, pedaling faster, moving slower - in 1:2 by the look of him. I'll pass him at this pace, I figure, maybe say hello.
As I get closer, I realize he's missing his left leg ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, September 14, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 In the grand scheme of things, this is small news, but it gives me a chance to write the word "Enzo" again. Ooooh. Ennnzzzooooo.
On Friday at the Beverly Hilton, Christie's is going to auction off a Ferrari Enzo (only 399 were made and sold for $1-million-plus) at the celebugasmic "Runway for Life" event to benefit St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
Starting bid is $875,000, but hey, it still has all the original tools, manuals and hand-fitted luggage ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, September 13, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 This Friday, MidnightRidazz plan to storm the Santa Monica Pier with mass bike rides launched from Culver City and L.A. City College. The rides are coordinated to hit the pier at midnight.
The organizers remind everyone to wear helmets, lights and reflectors and bring tools, spares and a cellphone and watch out for your buddies: "No rida left behind."
They also urge you to get noisy:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, September 06, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
By Walter Moore - August 29, 2006
Why is traffic in L.A. so much worse than it was 20 years ago, and what, if anything, can we do about it?
Traffic is worse for at least three reasons: increased population density, rent control, and the "non-portability" of Proposition 13. We can fix all three problems, but only if L.A.'s middle-class taxpayers will stand up to special interests.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: WalterMoore
on Tuesday, August 29, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATE BELOW
Proving that its lack of continuity-sense rivals even Michael Bay's, the MTA caved in to Councilman Bernie Parks' demands and agreed the new light-rail route from USC to Culver City should be called (drumroll please) ... the Expo Line. (Or not. - Ed.)
This, after an hour of debate that had Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky grousing, "I have resented the minimal amount of time I have had to spend on this, roped in to spend on this. But it is serious in one sense, it telegraphs to the community what our worldview is about how we make decisions." Of course, the board then quickly and harmoniously voted in the colored names for the other lines: the Red Line from Union Station to Wilshire/Western is rebadged "the Purple Line", the El Monte express busway will be the Silver Line and the Harbor express busway the Bronze Line.
So what color will the MTA mapmakers give the oddball Expo Line? Black. I've got this massive box of Crayolas. Anybody got a map?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, August 25, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
If you live in the Valley and drive a late-model pickup truck, beware: They're now stealing pickup truck tailgates.
From the LAPD Blog:All five of the LAPD San Fernando Valley police divisions have experienced tailgate thefts sporadically, but Mission Division has had an unusually high number in the last week. Thirty-six tailgates have been removed from trucks so far this year; nine taken between Wednesday, August 9 and Sunday, the thirteenth.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, August 18, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Forgive my indulgence in gearheadedness here, but a couple of Autoblog items caught my eye:
First: a social-networking car geek site called Carster snapped a few photos on Ocean Boulevard of the sumptuous-looking Audi R8 coupe and immediately got told off by heavily-accented handlers who seemed to think they could drive the sex machine unmolested down a public street simply because they said so.
The cloak-and-dagger silliness surrounding new car models - spy photos, checkered bras - always cracks me up ....
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 15, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 08, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
This is not necessarily news you can use unless you're traveling today, but it's definitely news that makes you go, "Auuughh!!!":
The instrument landing system at LAX failed this morning, forcing all landings onto one runway and effectively cutting in half the number of planes that can land there. The equipment's failure forced air traffic controllers to guide airplanes into LAX on one runway, cutting landings per hour to about 28 instead of 60 You can watch the flurry of flightslive at FlightStats.com ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, August 07, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 It was bound to happen - the state alloted 75,000 special (hideously ugly) passes that allow certain extremely efficient hybrid cars to use the carpool lanes in California, and, according to today's LA Times, they're running out.
Well, good riddance ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: JAmussen
on Friday, August 04, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 This should probably go without saying, because lord knows Darwin rules our roads and will sort us all out sooner or later - but just don't bike drunk.
Bad enough to drive under the influence, you might crash into something, but as for riding a bike while plastered? How the hell are you supposed to maintain your balance, let alone carry your 12-pack and open container?
A drunk bicyclist got smacked on a southeast-downtown crosswalk Thursday evening by a semi truck, wedged between its rear tires and dragged 50 feet.
He's alive - if barely (with multiple rib fractures, a major pelvic fracture, a scapular fracture, multiple abrasions and head injuries) and under arrest.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, August 04, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 When the monthly Midnight Ridazz bicycle cruise hit an estimated 1,300 riders last month - complete with 15-minute cattle-call takeoff time, LAPD chopper "escort" and intersection after corked intersection, something snapped.
Now, some veteran Ridazz cyclists are wondering aloud in the Ridazz forums whether the sometimes brontosaurian event is - at the ripe old age of 2 - growing just too damn big to survive.
"TadpoleRider" posts some suggestions, including ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 01, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 01, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Freeway revenge is never as sweet in real life as it is between your ears.
Get cut off, and your mind races: Flip him off? Wave a snarky Road Rage card? Dial the CHP? He's gone before you can formulate a just (and safe) punishment.
But his plate number burns in your mind's eye - and with that, you can embarrass him by reporting him to PlateWire, a bulletin-board for posting bad drivers - one that screams "lawsuit magnet" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, July 31, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
That rumbling you hear is sound of Angelenos slowly waking up to their doom:
L.A.'s geography, our economy, our livelihoods are rooted in a single, inefficient, destructive, fast-obsolescing and increasingly expensive machine: the internal-combustion engine.
We always knew the end was nigh. We've just lived in the all-American state of Denial - through smog alerts, gas crises and daily gridlock - because we're stupid-in-love with our gas-chugging, space-hogging, shit-spewing cars and too cheap to build better public transit. Sure, we've built - and killed and then revived the electric car. But as Marc Haefele rightly comments, battery technology means little more than fouling our air from a different exhaust pipe while cutting down our mobility ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, July 28, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Already feeling its oats now that it's moved into the more powerful November slot (and away from direct competition with Detroit) the L.A. Auto Show just announced it's already lined up eight automakers who want to make world debuts.
Audi, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan and Volkswagen are promising new steel - but they coyly decline to say what models they'll introduce. Considering the anemic selection in January's show, L.A.'s new (solo!) time slot bodes well for a bigger, brawnier array of cars to drool over.
Unfortunately, their web site hasn't caught up with this news yet and is still listing debuts from the previous show, about which we posted some thoughts and a ridiculous number of photos here.
Press days are Nov. 29 and 30, and the public gets to drool from Dec. 1 to 10.
(via Autoblog)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, July 27, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
This is cool and useful. A fellow named Jeff Sandquist just launched the AirPower Wiki, which lists the location of power outlets in various airports.
Since it's a wiki, anyone can add information on power outlets at any airport in the world. But since it's new, the LAX info is painfully thin - so far:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, July 26, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The Tesla electric sports car will either spur a massive renaissance in non-gas car development, or it will gather dust in the utter obscurity of a few well-heeled Hollywood garages, alongside private hovercrafts and creampuff T-Birds.
The Tesla was unveiled in Santa Monica last week with much fanfare and spec-flexing: 0-60 in 4 seconds, 130mph top speed, charge range 250 miles.
Plus, its handsome-bastard good looks mimic a slipperified Lotus Elise, which should appeal to the speed freaks as well as the green geeks ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, July 25, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATE BELOW
Maybe I'm the last bicyclist in L.A. to discover this, but BikeMetro.com's bike-route-mapping tools rock. Hard.
You can generate a printable A-to-B map that follows as many approved bike paths and bikelanes as possible, factor in public-transit routes and even get an elevation gain/loss chart for your route.
Hell, the site will even estimate how many calories you'll burn, how much money you'll save on gas and how many pounds of CO2 you'll keep out of the atmosphere by biking instead of driving ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, July 19, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
This should give all the urban paranoids pause:
All it took to knock all of Southern California's radar system - and thus the entire region's airspace - out of business was a siingle car slamming into the right utility pole.
For 90 minutes this evening after a car crash apparently disrupted power to the radar center that feeds most of SoCal's airports - LAX, San Diego, Ontario and more - planes were blocked from flying into and out of those and more ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, July 18, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
If you've ever dodged idiots on the Santa Monica bike path, you can feel Sabrina Champi's pain: "The pedestrians are out of control," said Sabrina Champi, of Venice, echoing the sentiments of a large number of cyclists growing ever-more frustrated by the throngs of walkers on the pathway. "They clog up the path and it leads to trouble. I've nearly crashed into pedestrians several times. Mostly, it's people that don't realize it's a bike path. It's not the locals." Walkers. Gawkers. Goddamn tourists. Lousing up the joint ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, July 18, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Put aside for a second that it's rank election-year pandering, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said a good thing yesterday:
He publicly backed a bill to ban hands-on cellphone use while driving.
SB 1613 would slap you with a $20 fine the first time, and $50 on the second offense for driving while using a cellphone unless you have a headset or speakerphone working. But there are some iffy loopholes ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, July 13, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 You just have to wonder sometimes who's actually making the big safety decisions at the nation's airlines:
American Airlines - well-notified that it had a horrific mouse infestation on one of its Boeing 767s, gave it a cursory scrub and put it back into service.
A whistle-blower told a St. Louis TV station that American sent in its exterminators, but later put the plane back into the air to Los Angeles in April - with mice still on board.
The whole story's worth a read, if for no other reason than the queasy, paranioac thrill of the exterminator's estimate of "up to 1,000 mice" and these few paragraphs:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
This reaches beyond tragic to the realm of the truly horribly stupid:
An L.A. County Sheriff's deputy en route to work on the Riverside Freeway on Friday swerved to avoid a stove in the road. A semi rig alongside him swerved at the same time and one of the two semi-trailers it was piggy-backing toppled onto his car and crushed him to death.
If the guy hauling the stove had bothered to secure his load, then Deputy David Piquette, 32, would have arrived safely at work at the sheriff's academy in Whittier that morning, trained a few more recruits in the business of weaponless self-defense, and gone home that night to his wife and 3-year-old twins - who are now without him ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, July 09, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATE BELOW
The L.A. Business Journal is reporting that transit officials have approved paying for a major study of extending the MTA's Red Line to the ocean, and putting a light rail connector through downtown.
Problem is, the story's behind a firewall and I'm having trouble accessing the full article - the LABJ site's registration system allowing access seems to be snafu'd at the moment. More details when I can track them down online.
In any case, this news has huge implications: The original MTA went years over schedule and millions of dollars over budget, including near-disastrous collapse of Hollywood Boulevard, huge budget overruns and a couple of sandhog fatalities ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, June 29, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The L.A. Times published a massive special section this morning on SoCal car culture that has "brainworm" written all over it.
So here's the shameless LAVoice.org followup meme, the Car Obsession Survey. More questions - and my answers - after the jump:
- What was your first car?
- What do you drive now?
- What's the hottest, most badass car you ever drove?
- What do you wish you were driving now?
- What's the sweetest route in L.A.?
- What's the most hellish?
- Have you had sex in the car? (Details?)
- Have you thrown up in the car? (Details?)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, June 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
(image via Edmunds.com) |
If you just got suckered into purchased a Hummer, Yukon, Tahoe or other GMC bloatwagon under the idiotic we'll-buy-your-gas! promotion, you might want to bookmark this link for future reference:
When the free gas runs out about 18 months from now, you'll also wonder whether simply torching your SUV is better than finishing off the payments.
No, really, all the most progressive SoCal SUV owners are doing it!
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, June 12, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The LAPD hints coyly that they just switched on the first of the new red-light cameras, but doesn't say where.
In fact, CBS points out, the cam is sucking in pictures of the Victory and Laurel Canyon intersection in NoHo at the Arriflex rate of 30 frames per second. This means your chances of getting caught on camera are at least as good as those of any Hollywood action hero ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, June 09, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 OK, listen up. That jerk who's been chasing you from Sherman Oaks to LAX because you were going too slow in the fast lane has an honest to goodness psychological condition.
No, asshole is not a psychological condition ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: JAmussen
on Tuesday, June 06, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Last of the V8 Interceptors, mate |
Here's one for the gearheads and meme freaks: Cars.com just released its picks for Top 10 Movie Cars of all time.
I'm gonna have to quibble with a few, but first the list:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, June 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Everybody made fun of the EV-1. Well, everybody but Tom Hanks, Ed Begley, Jr. and the other California owners who held a protest/wake in Burbank last year for GM's decision to kill the revolutionary - but mileage-challenged - electric car.
The common wisdom - or at least the talking point bruited about by GM and parroted by every mainstream media outlet writing about the EV-1's demise - was that the car failed to generate enough buyers.
Not so, according to this excellent piece by Andrew Gumbel about the new documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, June 01, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Just picked up on this: A motorist killed badly injured a bicyclist named Morgan last week - in the same 9-month period that three cyclists were killed third car-vs-bike death in L.A. in 9 months, according to BiciBlog.
I'm not surprised that I have to learn this sort of thing from a blog. The mainstream L.A. media rarely make much of solo fatalities any more, much less something so "non-newsworthy" as a cyclist nearly killed by a car.
Morgan's friend, Federico was grief-struck - and wrote this manifesto:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, May 26, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I'm sorry - I mentioned despicable just now? That's not despicable.
This is despicable:
GMC is so desperate to unload its bloatwagon SUVs in California and Florida (On, Tahoe! On, Yukon! On, Escalade and Hummer!) that it's offering to subsidize your gasoline costs. Anything over $1.99 a gallon, until the end of 2007? They'll pay it ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, May 24, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Okay - regarding Bike to Work Day? Let me ditto Will Campbell's rant:
It's pointless for the MTA to try giving us all the environmentally friendly warm-and-fuzzies by promoting bicycle use with the offer of free passage to cyclists Thursday when they forbid bikes on all their trains during rush hour. Just plain, glassy-eyed, sloping-forehead, short-bus dumb.
Unless I miss my guess, this could be easily fixed - and would result in a decent jump in ridership if the MTA did just one of two things ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, May 17, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: JAmussen
on Wednesday, May 17, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 How bad is road rage in L.A.?
Well, at least we're not as bad as Miami, Phoenix and New York, which have the worst rate of road-rage incidents in the U.S. Los Angeles is - surprisingly - number four in the top 20.
I mean, it's not as though LAVoice hasn't done its part to help us beef up our average by pointing out the provocative, kill-me-now-I'm-asking-for-it helpful flipcards available at RoadRage.com.
We've also refrained from pointing out (until now) techniques for preventing escalation of road-rage situations - or suggesting soothing methods of safely venting one's anger ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, May 17, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Downtown: Before |
UPDATE BELOW
If you work downtown or along mid-Wilshire, you're going to be in one of three positions today:
Calling in "sick", marching for immigration reform or trying to carry the load for a do-or-die boss while half your colleagues are out in the streets.
This (right) is what the LADOT traffic map of downtown looks like right now. Here's a map of the downtown march route and a map of the route for the later march from MacArthur Park to Miracle Mile that some predict will be clogged with more than 500,000 people marching for immigration reform.
And here are the street closures LADOT has lined up to allow the marches to take place ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, May 01, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Man, how L.A. needs this gadget.
Inventor Demetrius Thompson has been testing a GPS system in West L.A. that pumps an alarm into your cellphone every time you come within 100 meters of a stoplight.
The Global Mobile Alert uses your phone's GPS chip (if it has one) to track your car's location, direction and speed, map it onto a traffic grid and trigger a warning chirp whenever you approach an intersection.
Can we pool our money to buy one for every cement-brained, SUV/barge-driving, lane-swerving, no-signal-using cellphone-talking driver in Los Angeles?
Here's more info:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, April 20, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
In Santa Monica today:
There oughta be a law |
Have you noticed this?
Gas prices are slowly creeping up past the imaginary boundary we all set for ourselves the last time Big Oil started milking our wallets.
$3.00 a gallon, folks. Maybe I'm some kind of idiot for buying gas in Santa Monica but when the needle hits the red, it's either that or walk home.
It's not just a west-side plague, either: LosAngelesGasPrices.com reports the regional high of $3.12 a gallon at the Shell at Olympic/Fairfax/San Vicente, and $3.09 downtown at Central and Washington. Shell again. And that's regular gas ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, April 10, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
As we mentioned in November, the city resolved a contract dispute that had kept its kept its red-light cameras shut down since last June.
They're finally due to be switched on again and doubled in number from the original 16.
Big Brother will definitely be watching you at these intersections, CBS-2 reports ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, April 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Downtown commuters - heads up:
Traffic downtown is going to be pretty dicey all morning due to a large funeral at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in honor of murdered Sheriff's Deputy Maria Cecilia Rosa.
Rosa, a native of Sinaloa Mexico, resident of Pomona, and 5-year veteran, was on loan to the homicide task force for the latter half of 2005, and recently assigned to the Inmate Reception Center. She was shot to death last Tuesday during an apparent robbery, according to the LASD site ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, April 03, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Unless you're one of those hardy souls running, watching or, like Will Campbell, biking the 21st Los Angeles Marathon you'll want to steer clear of the race course Sunday.
The area around the start (6th 'n' Figueroa) and the finish (5th 'n' Flower) should be pretty clogged most of the day, and getting through the 26-mile, 385-yard race route is always a challenge whether you're on foot or at the wheel. Check the map before making any midtown plans.
Plenty of drama this year ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, March 17, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
image via LATimes.com |
The never-ending story of the smashed Ferrari Enzo and the mysterious Dieter just got weirder:
Now it appears someone was shooting video inside the cockpit just before the 162-mph crash destroyed the $1-million exoticar, angered Ferrari-lovers and enthralled geeks everywhere.
The Times reports that owner and failed video-game exec Stefan Eriksson and the other occupant, Trevor Karney, were rolling tape when they obliterated the Enzo ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, March 16, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
image via SigAlert.com |
Man, the freeways are ugly all over this morning.
Jillian just posted at blogging.la that the 405 is a parking lot.
The traffic maps at SigAlert.com show all roads heading downtown to be badly congested.
And the 10 westbound is a big ball of suck, with a hit-and-run injury accident clogging up a road already plagued by fender-benders and stalled vehicles ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, March 15, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
So last night, I did something people never ever do (well, besides prostitute myself on Colorado Blvd.):
I rode the commuter train in Los Angeles.
Not only did I ride the train, I took it from Pasadena to Fullerton. I KNOW - that's a good distance, for sure! I totally rode that train, baybee - you know it ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Fayza
on Sunday, March 12, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What a messy, noisy, glorious, stupid thing to do. What an utter gas.
The 2nd-anniversary Midnight Ridazz cruise gathered under an ugly sky tonight in Echo Park. We were probably 300 strong, by my inexpert guess - as we rolled out through downtown, Chinatown, Boyle Heights and home again in weather that spat, howled, poured and occasionally cleared to a cold sliver of moon.
I'm soaked as I write this, waiting for the pictures to download from my camera while my fingers and toes tingle their way back from numbness ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Saturday, March 11, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The LAPD seems to be on a geek-gadget buying spree.
Hard on the heels of the James Bond tracking device story comes a Wired report that the department is testing four bleeding-edge optical-scanning systems for spotting stolen cars.
Apparently four LAPD cruisers are each mounted with two sets of cameras on the roof and rear deck wired to a set of strobes and an in-trunk computer. The systems read license plates on passing cars, run them automatically through the stolen-car database and warn in a robot voice whenever there's a hit, "Stolen vehicle. Stolen vehicle" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, March 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Sean over at blogging.la probably doesn't venture anywhere near Bellflower regularly, but he'll be happy to hear that that city's council hates the whole compact car parking issue, too. (The link is a video story, btw.) They, too, have noticed the large cars jutting out, or taking up two, of those spaces, so they are discussing banning the whole "compact car" concept, and just making all parking spaces equally tight.
And in other parking news...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: MrsPowells
on Sunday, March 05, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Good, good news for air travelers - an update on the news we broke in November that the Federal Aviation Administration was planning (foolishly) to shut down its airport inspection office at LAX:
The FAA's bright idea was to save money by closing the office - and moving inspectors a good 90-minute commute away to Van Nuys and Long Beach - which would have meant them spending up to three hours a day on the 405 commuting instead of actually inspecting aircraft, flight crews and repair/safety records.
Within days of our post, the FAA began backpedaling ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Peloton on PCH
Image by Mike Shimahara of BikeZen via the official race site |
You wouldn't know it to look at most of the mainstream media outside the back sports pages, but the homegrown California version of the Tour de France is rolling into town this weekend after a week on the road from San Francisco.
The 109-athlete Tour of California, bankrolled by L.A. megabaron Phil Anschutz, among others, is whipping down the coast from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara as you read this. Saturday's stage is a hilly, 80-mile ride from SB to Thousand Oaks, and the
final stage is 10 laps of a 7.65-mile circuit in Redondo on Sunday ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, February 24, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Pretend you've got $4.8 billion to spend but, alas, you can only spend it on mass transit for L.A.
We already know how Mayor Villaraigosa would spend it: he would pay $369 million per mile to extend the Red Line subway 13 miles, underneath Wilshire Boulevard, to the ocean. Construction, by the way, would drag on for 10 years.
That may sound good to you -- you know, if you live near the Wilshire corridor, plan to live there another 10 years, and have no fear of traveling in a tunnel surrounded by hydrocarbons in an earthquake zone ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: WalterMoore
on Wednesday, February 22, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 A memo to Curbed L.A. (which just posted inaccurately (or perhaps sarcastically) - "This post has nothing to do with Los Angeles. People don't ride bikes here yet."):
Cute. But if you're not kidding and somehow are just that clueless, please consult the BikeBoom calendar and immediately read Laura Hauther's excellent (if fact-checked) piece in L.A. Alternative on L.A.'s booming bike culture.
Laura touches on the massive Midnight Ridazz anniversary cruise (see also the comments brawl on Will Campbell's report at BiciBlog); the fixie trend; the Bicycle Kitchen collective (It's spawned East Los Angeles Bike Oven); and the proposal to paint bike lanes all over L.A. with "sharrows" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
When Mayor Villaraigosa and others tell you we need to build a "subway to the sea," remember two little words: "Gold Line." The Gold Line is an ongoing train robbery, and you, my taxpaying friend, are the victim.
It's already cost over $1 billion of YOUR money, and the price climbs daily.
Let's start with construction: our civic leaders spent $900 million of your money to build the 14-mile-long railroad two years ago. That's over $64 million PER MILE.
The fares don't cover operating expenses, however, so you pay another $125 million to subsidize the train's operating expenses EVERY YEAR.
What makes it crazy is that the cars on this rip-off railroad are essentially empty. An article in the L.A. Times on February 20, 2006, by Caitlin Liu, shows a picture of two 15-year-olds enjoying their own private railroad car -- during rush hour. Precious moments for them, a total gyp for you and me ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: WalterMoore
on Tuesday, February 21, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
OK, people. I understand that early this year it felt as if summer came early, but now it's raining. You know, that's stuff coming from the sky? No, the set is not leaking - it's rain.
Now, when it rains, the freeways get slippery, so that usually means those things that go on the freeways - cars - should go slower. And that's dependent upon on you.
This is especially important on the Pasadena Freeway, guys.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: MrsPowells
on Sunday, February 19, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Stanley on the loose.
(Image via Autoblog) |
My propeller beanie's spinning - but is it excitement or fear?
The Stanford robotics team who won the 132-mile DARPA Grand Challenge desert race last spring with a driverless VW Touareg nicknamed "Stanley" want to put another robotic car out on the road.
Without a driver, again. This time from San Francisco to Los Angeles ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, February 14, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Just stumbled across a pretty cool little Google Maps mashup with a fatal flaw:
LongCommute.com lets you calculate your commute distance and the rough amount of time, gas and money you spend getting from home to work and back every day, and it maps your route onto Google, giving you a chance - I suppose - to ponder alternate routes.
Problem is, it's based on flat-average numbers and bad assumptions that completely fall apart in the face of L.A.'s brutal road life ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, February 13, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I looked up the MTA's numbers for the Orange Line. We would have been better off buying every Orange Line commuter a Honda Civic Sedan. Let's do the math:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: WalterMoore
on Monday, February 13, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 LAX took delivery of five hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Mercedes Benzes from Daimler-Chrysler the other day.
The five F-Cells (to be refueled at the hydrogen pumps LAX installed in '04) are just a demonstration project, but they're also an encouraging baby step toward getting the oil monkey off our backs.
The Los Angeles World Airports have been sharpening the cutting edge on government use of alternative fuel: Fully half of LAX's vehicles use alternative fuel or power sources (says the press release) including the five Benzes, which burn hydrogen gas and spit only water from their tailpipes. Zero emission, folks ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, February 13, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 A big grimy handshake and virtual beers to the crew at Bicycle Kitchen, who gave me a taste of community bike culture, as well as patient, expert advice and the use of exotic tools I'd never buy for myself.
I helped load-out all the frames from the shop onto the sidewalk as they opened yesterday. I also helped remove a balky set of pedals for one customer and almost pulped one of my fingertips by smashing it into the frame when the seized pedal bolt suddenly snapped loose (I'll be losing that fingernail pretty soon) but she was extremely grateful.
And then I performed what amounts to scary, never-tried-it-before open-heart surgery on my own bike (entire chainset swap - cassette, front rings, bottom bracket and cranks) in about two hours - and didn't destroy the frame doing it ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, February 12, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you were thinking of buying a Prius so you can fly solo in the carpool lane (and, uh, oh yeah because it's better for the air, yeah, that's it) you'd better jump on it:
The HOV-permits-for-hybrids program is now so successful that the DMV might have to kill it this summer.
As of last week, the DMV had issued 42,657 stickers, says a report on the Media News Group sites. When they hit 50,000, they plan to re-evaluate the program, and by law they can only give out 75,000 ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, January 30, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Whoever is responsible for Google Maps obviously doesn't live in Los Angeles. Or if he/she does they must have a wicked sense of humor. I say this because as a frequent user of this web-service, I am often amused (which is a nice way of putting it) at the estimated drive times they provide when you request directions from point A to point B.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Wednesday, January 11, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you spent the weekend wading through the mobs at the Los Angeles Auto Show, you might have missed a couple of things.
One: all the good debuts that took place in Detroit instead (I came, I saw, I ranted).
And two: the winner of the annual pipe-dream concept car Design Los Angeles competition.
I weighed in on the 10 candidates a few weeks back, but here's the winner: Apparently the judges thought that what LA needs is a RBRV - a Really Bigass Recreational Vehicle:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, January 08, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Bugatti Veyron 16.4:
As a matter of fact, yes, it IS all that. |
See photos
I should be sweating, jumpy, too jazzed to sleep. Instead, touring the L.A. Auto Show on the first Media Day left me nonplused, irritable and mad at Detroit.
But for a few (dozen) slick concepts and gutsy factory debuts that I shot today at the Convention Center (photos galore here), this year's show put me to sleep, with row upon row of barely-retread "new models" and tired leftovers from last year's Detroit show - a pasty, weakened clone of 2004 and 2005.
Good thing L.A.'s getting its own '07 time slot this November so we can get our fair share of new steel. We are arguably the world capital of car culture - It's about time we got done being the big 3's b*tch ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, January 04, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Jeep Hurricane: In '07, no more sloppy seconds for L.A. |
Cool news for L.A. car geeks who are sick of seeing the Detroit auto show skunk Los Angeles on half the slick concepts and new model launches that we deserved to see:
The 99th annual L.A. Auto Show opens this weekend, but the 100th (and every show afterward) will happen in November, two months ahead of Detroit.
This means you no longer have to go scouring sites like AutoExtremist and Jalopnik to ogle freaky coachwork and sample torque specs on new rides that are being shown only in the nation's moribund carmaking "capital" in Michigan ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, January 03, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 We shouldn't be surprised at what non-Angelenos think about driving in Los Angeles.
After all, if a lazy, sneering Brit can decide that bike-riding in L.A. is near-suicide, then it's almost logical that some yahoo from Chicago decides to blame the Orange Line busway crashes on "road rage".
The headline says "Road Rage Revved by New Bus Route in Los Angeles" and here's the pertinent text:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, January 02, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Hey you in the car, it's me; I'm that motorcyclist that you hate. But maybe I'm not as bad as you think. Here are just a few things that you might consider the next time a motorcyclist passes you on the freeway:
- We're not all crazy. In my case, the added mobility and maneuverability are the only things that actually keep me sane in LA traffic.
- We're actually saving you time. If I was in my car instead of on the bike, I'd be adding to the congestion. More motorcycles = less cars in front of you ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: ScottReuter
on Thursday, December 29, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Attention, Valley motorists.
THIS is a "bus." ----------->
This is not an apparition. This is not a green light. This is not an empty road in front of you.
This is a 60-foot-long, 102-inch-wide, Cummins-powered transport vehicle full of people that does not come equipped with big soft cushions, electronic countermeasures or driver-stupidity-detection arrays ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, December 08, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Journalists loathe December. Generally speaking, news takes the month off, and you're left pounding out starving-tot profiles, happy holiday features or windy public-affairs thumbsuckers.
This may explain today's dueling bus-news headlines in the two major L.A. dailies, neither of which says much of importance:
The Times frets that the Orange Line buses keep attracting crashes like an energy trader draws subpoenas because they're painted the wrong color. Unfortunately, after a ridiculous amount of hemming and hawing and consulting of "experts," they never reach much of a conclusion beyond the earth-shattering importance of, "Gee, nobody can agree what color to paint 'em!" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, December 07, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I've had an epiphany, and it is called the Metro Freeway Service Patrol.
I was on my cell phone in the passenger seat while my husband drove us, in rush hour traffic, along the eastbound 210 freeway toward our church and the tutoring session we do every Monday. But it so happened we weren't going to make it - the passenger-side front tire went flat and we had to make our way from the left lane to the shoulder of the freeway about a quarter of a mile short of the Santa Anita exit ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: MrsPowells
on Tuesday, November 29, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 LA.com points us at MeterBroken.com, a site peddling red/yellow tape with the legend "Meter Broken" that you can just slap across offending parking meters.
The site says, Like many others today, METERBROKEN creator Rhonda Talbot is busy juggling multiple careers with raising kids. The last thing she wants to realize--after unloading kids and gear-- is that the meter she has parked before is broken. ”Am I allowed to park here? Should I leave a note? Do I actually have a pen, paper AND tape in my car?” Each time you park and your “meter is broken” note blows away….you get an expensive ticket.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, November 23, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, November 22, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Grab the drool bucket.
The L.A. Auto Show just released the images and descriptions for 10 entries in its annual Design Los Angeles competition, and they run the gamut from steroidal sex magnets to ludicrous bloatwagons.
Longtime users of this blog probably know by now that I am an unapologetic, incurable and degenerate car geek.
Here's more proof, along with huge photos of this year's fever-dream car design concepts, hand-tooled by a bunch of out-of-towners - some of whom actually get L.A. car culture:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, November 21, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
While reading this L.A. Times article about bus drivers being required to wear seat belts, I read one driver complain that wearing a seat belt put him at risk when he was assaulted by riders.
Besides wanting to know what bus route he drove, so that I could make sure to avoid it in the future, I really wondered what posed the greatest risk to drivers: vehicle accidents or the people they are providing transportation ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Thursday, November 17, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
UPDATE BELOW
Somebody explain this to me: The Orange Line Busway has been running officially for just five days now and already they have had three cars smash into it, including two today?
Yep, LAFD is reporting that the latest victim of the massively successful taxpayer-funded traffic-collision-generator experiment plowed into the back of the apparently hard-to-spot 60-foot-long bright silver bus in the 6000 block of Woodman Ave., leaving her in critical (just upgraded to fair) condition and injuring 10 of the 40 bus passengers, according to Channel 4 ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, November 02, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I'm shaking as I type this, so pardon any typos. As I was driving my son home from school a few minutes ago. We were inching our way along Rodeo Road, trying to cross La Cienega. We were three cars from the light when it changed. I believe the left turn green is the first in the sequence.
A US Postal Service truck -- not the cute little neighborhood one, but a small semi -- started to turn left at the same moment a motorcycle started through the intersection...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: LeeWatters
on Tuesday, November 01, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Have you slammed on your brakes recently at the sight of a cyclops-eyed camera just as you're ready to blow through a yellow light? Well, you wasted your over-heated brake pads and smoking tire rubber. For the near future, you don't have to wait nervously for one of those high-dollar citations with the series of suitable-for-framing photos of you picking, er, scratching your nose.
It seems that LA's ubiquitous red-light cameras have been turned off since June.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: LeeWatters
on Tuesday, November 01, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
It's always amazing when I discover a bit of historical Los Angeles that's been sitting beneath my nose. It happened again while I was visiting my father in Atwater, whose apartment is located alongside the Los Angeles River.
The image of the Los Angeles river is commonly one of concrete and graffiti. In the eyes of most of us living in Los Angeles, the river is more a joke rather than the powerful force of nature that often flooded large parts of Los Angeles until the mid-part of the last century. It's power only coming to the fore when the inevitable news is broadcast that someone has been caught in the rush of water caused by a severe storm. It is then that the river reminds everyone that it is truly a force of nature ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Monday, October 31, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
One of the ideas behind the concept of the automobile was that it offered us the ability to get from point A to point B in less time. Back in the day, you didn't have much of a choice. If you wanted to get somewhere you walked, rode a horse or a mule or just waited for what you needed to come to you. For those who could afford it, automobiles were a liberating device and opened our exploration of the world around to distances beyond where our own two feet could take us ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Thursday, October 27, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 We come and go through rush hour in our little steel cages, carelessly unaware that we are being watched. VERY CLOSELY.
A nifty post at BLDGBLOG reminds us that Caltrans and LADOT have massive networks of sensors, cameras and electronic doodads trained on our every lane change and Hollywood stop. Photos in the post show the video screens, traffic maps and pavement sensors that let the most intricate traffic control system on earth manage the chaos ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, October 27, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Now that the price of gasoline has ascended $3.00 per gallon, a situation which was easily predictable several months ago, the stress of having to invest an ever increasing share of one's earnings to provide basic mobility for oneself has caused waves of frustration and panic through the American populace, as evidenced by bitter accusations of price gauging aimed at oil companies and gasoline stations. The situation has even prompted lawmakers, mostly Republican, in several states to call for the temporary suspension of their state's gasoline tax in order to provide relief.However, a rational view of the situation will reveal that as long as our lifestyle and economy are based on the gratuitous consumption of gasoline, there will be no relief. The primary reason cited for escalating oil prices is rising global demand. The following statistics from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy will illuminate the situation ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Thursday, October 27, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Buying or selling a car is always an adventure, but even more so in LA. I currently find myself with an extra car, so I decided to regain automotive balance and harmony. Today's little misadventure in negotiating reminded me of a litany of weird dealings around used cars in Los Angeles since I arrived in 1993.
The hit parade includes...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: LeeWatters
on Wednesday, October 26, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 (Putting on his Crank Hat ...)
Biking in Los Angeles is no more foolish, dangerous or suicidal than in any other major American city. But here's this frothy little essay by the Times of London's man in L.A., who thinks his decision to start riding a bike here will get him killed.
Chris Ayres' column is played for what appear to be the sneering chuckles of his countrymen, bolted together from the usual shitload of asinine clichés foisted on us by out-of-towners. It's so thin, mean and wrong-headed, I hardly know where to begin:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, October 25, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Who was the scheduling genius at the White House who thought it was a good idea to time the Bush visit so that two of the most important commuting arteries would need to be shut down at the beginning of rush hour ?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Friday, October 21, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I woke up to the sound of the thunder. The loud crack was at times so violent, I could hear the windows vibrate. It was enough to send the dog on top of the bed, huddled in the comforter between my wife and me.
When I looked at the alarm clock, it was only two o'clock in the morning. Strange how I can feel so refreshed after only a couple of hours asleep yet, feel so wasted when I awake several hours later. Go figure ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Monday, October 17, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I wonder how much better those who depend on public transportation would be served if those who make the decisions used the rails and the buses. Not just for a day as they sometimes do for a photo-op, but for a month. I think that would be enough time to really sink one's teeth into what it is to get around this town without a car ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Wednesday, October 12, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Thursdays are evil. They have to be. Whether I'm driving or riding the bus, it seems the absolutely worst day for getting anywhere in Los Angeles. You would think it would be Friday, the weekend not coming soon enough for everyone. But it's not. It's Thursday, a day when it feels like sadism is some tangible gas that is floating in the air along with the smog ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Friday, October 07, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I think we all need instruction on how to multi-task while driving.
I think of this because recently while driving to church with my wife she pointed to the car alongside us. I looked over and there was a man reading a hardcover book. The book was firmly planted at the top of the steering wheel, while a cigarette was carefully fitted between the fingers or his right hand ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Monday, October 03, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATE BELOW
Three dollars a gallon. Real kick in the head, ain't it?
So why do I keep seeing smug solo drivers in blinged-out H2s and Lincoln Masturbators chugging all over town with the just-bought stink of new leather and cardboard dealer plates rolling off 'em? Not much thinking going on behind those wheels, I guess.
My wife and I have been looking at solutions to her crosstown commute - everything from moving east to buying a Prius - and considering the cost and risk of real estate anywhere in Los Angeles these days (the bubble's already starting to deflate out in the Inland Empire, and the house-flipping craze is cooling, realtors tell us), a hybrid with get-out-of-gridlock-free stickers for the HOV lane is starting to look pretty tasty ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, October 03, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The recent L.A. Times article on the price of commuting got me to thinking, about the cost of my commute. Though recently the cost of gasoline has played a role in my catching public transportation, I had already been doing it for over 11 months to help manage a growing sense of anxiety and frustration.
I have been making the commute for over five years now from Pasadena to Brentwood. Though I have a job that I enjoy, it was the lengthy commute navigating the concrete and asphalt jungle we call freeways that was taking its toll on me. If Dante were alive today, I am sure that he would have included the Los Angeles commute between Malebolge and Cocytus in his poetic tour guide of hell....
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Ok, so I remember reading a few years ago (back when Gray Davis was Governor!) that all California freeway exits were going to get numbered. Apparently the project was supposed to be completed by November 2004. Obviously that didn't happen. What is the status of this project? According to the Cal Trans website, "More than 23,000 signs featuring exit numbers with highly reflective sheeting and lettering will be placed at 5,940 freeway exits on 92 different routes." The project began on March 31, 2002 and is now slated to be completed in November 2008, to comply with a federal mandate.
My question is, don't the exit numbers that are visible now seem sort of haphazard and confusing? On my way home up the 110 North, the exit to Avenue 52 is labelled "Exit 28A" but neither the exit before or after it has an exit number.
What exit numbers have you seen?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: MadProfessah
on Monday, September 26, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I am almost positive that I have a sign, that is only invisible to me, that reads “Obnoxious cell phone users, please sit near me.”
It must be, because that’s the only way that I can explain that in a bus pack-full of humanity, that the person with no social skills but the income to retain a cell phone will sit near me and engage in a lengthy and loud conversation ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Ibarionex_Perello
on Monday, September 26, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
image via LATimes.com |
UPDATED. Yikes. A jet's about to land at LAX with its landing gear turned 90 degrees off the centerline.
A Jet Blue airliner with a badly tweaked nosewheel just landed safely with 145 passengers and crew members on board. The Times reports the plane landed mostly on its rear wheels before putting the nose down at the last minute and grinding to a halt on the damaged nosegear.
Somebody buy that pilot a case of Glenfiddich - he's gonna need it ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, September 21, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you're traveling a North-South path anywhere between downtown and the beach Sunday, have fun crossing the major East-West boulevards:
Some 2,500 athletes will be running and biking from the ocean to Staples Center in the L.A. Triathlon, which starts at 6:35 a.m. off Venice with a 1.5K swim.
Here's a course maps and a list of street closures, as listed in the Times:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, September 09, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 This could be a good resource for anyone who's ever been nailed by Culver City's notorious red-light cameras or an overzealous LAPD motor officer who pops you for straying into a bike lane:
BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder posts that he shot down a $190 traffic ticket with a $25 shareware document library called TicketAssassin.
The site, which bills itself as "Your Guide to Fighting California Traffic Tickets & Contesting Traffic Citations in California" contains an arsenal of forms, examples and directions for fighting your ticket by mail (Trial by Written Declaration) ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, August 25, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Yikes - this is not the sort of thing you want to read when you're contemplating a long plane trip:
The National Air Controllers Association says severe understaffing by the FAA has eroded the margin of safety keeping planes from smashing into each other.
For evidence, they point to two recent close calls that should give you pause:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 16, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Mayor Villaraigosa's recent edict <a href=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8931102/>forbidding construction on Los Angeles streets during rush hour is long overdue, but it does not go far enough to reduce the city’s pervasive commute-time clutter ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Marc_Salvatierra
on Monday, August 15, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I am not - repeat, not - going to gloat over this, though you'd be right to suspect me of it:
Apparently GTA thieves are swiping Cadillac Escalades all over Los Angeles - 23 of the gas-guzzling bloatwagons have been reported stolen since Jan. 1 in West L.A. alone.
Here's the skinny from LAPD:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, August 12, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Gather 'round, motoristas Angelenas: It's blame-layin' time again. What's that? Fresh out of places to lay blame? Here, let me help:
Gasoline is record-breakingly expensive. But you probably don't need me or the Daily News to tell you that - not when you have to open a vein every week at the pump. My neighborhood Mobil station just jacked it up to $2.89 a gallon for premium (call me an idiot, but I think it's better to spend money on high-test than new fuel injectors and rental cars). So now I'm bleeding FIFTY BUCKS just to fill up an old compact euro-wagon that gets about 25 mpg in the city.
My only consolation? That the imperious barge captains and selfish land-yacht pilots of this fair city are probably coughing up $100 bucks a tankful three times as often to fuel their 9-mile-per-gallon, solo-passenger, oh- I- bought- it- for- the- safety- but- really- I- need- the- blingin'- size- because- my- career's- in- the- crapper- and- I- have- no- other- way- to- compensate- for- my- pathetic- little- ego SUVs. But don't get me started ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 09, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 When your car bottoms out, skids and plunges into the Pacific because PCH is still a mess, you can thank the Republicans.
The Daily News reports that GOP pressure in influential Congressional panels wound up pushing huge highway-repair money towards Kern County and away from Los Angeles County.
As a result, Kern County folk are getting about 15 times as much money as we are to fix their potholes, smooth their onramps and widen their diamond lanes ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, August 02, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 As you know, LAVoice doesn't "do" press releases. But the one that came in last night - proposing to solve L.A.'s traffic problems with high-speed electric luges rocketing through a network of elevated tubes - is so delightfully ... odd that I have to pass it on.
Is this a good idea? Try to read the FAQ with a straight face, and there's your answer. I'll withhold my hooting laughter strong views for the moment and let you judge: "Hallitubes" - high-speed transit system with terrorist-resistant features proposed.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. A grassroots anti-congestion initiative headed by Attorney Greg Maizlish advocates rider-agility-based electric vehicle commuting through thin, low-elevated tubes. Twenty other referendum measures combat road delays with new technologies as part of a California Proposition plan.
Hallitubes could siphon enough commuters from highways to bring rush hour speeds back to posted limits ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, July 29, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you're Latino, you're more likely to be a thrifty, environmentally-friendly commuter than if you're white, concludes an odd new study from UCLA.
UCLA's Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture found that Latino recent immigrants are seven times more likely to ride buses or trains to work, and five times more likely to carpool than white commuters.
The study's author uses the findings to generally pat Latinos on the back for being good citizens, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - a big public-transit booster - puts a much blunter no/duh point on it: "Many of them don't have cars."
I'm not sure what the purpose of this study was, but the AP story makes a few interesting observations:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, July 20, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Ogling chrome and exotic kandyflake-pearl on old sheet steel trips some age-crusted circuit breaker in my lower brainstem - I go all hunter-gatherer glassy-eyed, strolling around and staring at hot rods and classic cars.
Moving 16 years ago from the land of rust, slush and lost hubcaps to Los Angeles, the very cradle of car culture, was like finding an abandoned bank bag packed with quarters on the floor of the video arcade. Unbridled visual joy.
L.A. is such a gearhead's delight, I've spent much of the time since then filling my lap with drool, plotting ways of bankrupting my family by caving into a lust for rims, leather, steel and projector-halogens and generally keeping my eyes off the road. It's a wonder I haven't (knock wood) totaled my totally boring station wagon while dreaming of that '67 Bonneville, '57 Cadillac or the cherried-out cobalt-blue 63 Citroen DL50 (plate: BLEULUN) I spot all over the west side every other week.
So - vicarious pleasure - I spent a happy evening last weekend fogging up the fenders on Cobra Mustang GT's and taking a stupid number of pictures at the 12th Annual Classic Cruise Night in Glendale. Here they are:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, July 18, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I fell victim to an amusing -- if annoying -- little scam at the Chevron Station and Car Wash at Jefferson and Overland in Culver City. You can pay for a car wash by going inside, or you can pay as you sit in line. If you pay by credit card, you pay exactly what the charge is: $4.95, $5.95, $6.95, etc.
But I paid cash, and...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: LeeWatters
on Wednesday, July 13, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I'm blogging this from the road right now. Yeah. No, no, I'm thumbtyping on my Treo, yeah. Because it's important. No, no, traffic's crawling, it's no problem.
What? I'm sorry, you're breaking up, what? No, wait a minute, some jerk's honking at me. YOU TOO, BUDDY! OH YEAH? Wait a minute. Gotta call you back, there's another call on the other line I ... WHAT ? Oh, hello, officer.
Just because something isn't illegal doesn't mean it's not a bad idea: California's Legislature has failed to pass laws forbidding you to use hand-held cellphones while driving. Now comes a new study saying it doesn't matter whether you use a cellphone headset or not - you're still 400% more likely to crash than if you stayed the hell off the phone at the wheel ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, July 12, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor inconvenience, but when things like this happen in civilized cities around the world, then we should expect things like this to happen in Los Angeles.
Apparently a bomb scare has shut down parts of Wilshire in Westwood at this hour, and traffic has gotten very, very ugly. The LAPD has shut down Wilshire near the Federal Building while the Bomb Squad checks out a suspicious-looking briefcase.
If you're headed to the West side tonight, you might want to consider delaying your ride home for an hour or two ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, July 11, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
On the 5 freeway near Burbank this afternoon, I saw something that freaked me out - three planks of wood flying out the back of a truck, directly at a van full of people driving behind it. The driver of the van, thank God, swerved to avoid the planks and didn't hit anyone else. But seeing near-accidents always turn my stomach and make me clutch the wheel - with both hands - even tighter.
My question for all those county/city/police/fire bureaucrats is - in the event of a freeway accident (or near accident), or seeing an object in the road (I often hear about ladders in the road, for some reason) what can other drivers do?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mrs. Powells
on Sunday, July 10, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 No Hindenburg or EV-1 jokes please: Honda has given a Redondo Beach family the world's first lease (to individuals) for a hydrogen fuel-cell car.
Sandy and Jon Spallino (and their daughters) will be riding around in the Honda FCX -- uhhhh, just as soon as Honda builds the world's first citizen-accessible hydrogen fueling station ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, July 04, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 This just screams to my inner gearhead:
Racecar fabricator Mitch Allread cooked up this evil little monster after hours in his Newhall garage: He stuffed a 4.0-liter Lexus V8 into a handbuilt tubular chassis, skinned it with the body of a '68 Toyota Corona and added - the icing on the trapezoidal visual cake - Cadillac deVille taillights.
Just $20,000 in parts, 2,000 hours in mad-genius labor, and the thing's street legal as a '68 Corona - diamond-plate firewall, silicone rubber racing buckets and all. Trick, trick, trick.
C'mon, geek out with me:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, July 03, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Unfortunately, it happened again this morning. I was headed south on Barrington Avenue in West Los Angeles with my two grade schoolers in back, when an eastbound driver in an SUV failed to make a complete stop at Montana Avenue and nearly slammed into us.
I stared daggers at this miscreant, and, yes, they were talking on their cell phone. I maintained as much decorum as I could with the kids in the back, but I was steaming.
And what do I get in return: a scowl, a "can't you see I'm talking on the phone" look and the middle finger. Excuse me, but when did it become appropriate to drive and talk at the same time, with one hand holding the phone and the other holding the wheel? Did people just wake up one morning and throw safety to the winds? ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: SteveRubin
on Wednesday, June 29, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I discovered this incredibly useful and mesmerizing website, Airport Monitor.
Need to find out the ETA for your girlfriend's flight into LAX? How about no-kidding flight location for VIP flight tracking or emergency response? Airport Monitor provides complete, independent, accurate and timely ETA's and other flight information ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: celia
on Tuesday, June 14, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I had to pick up my kid at the Culver City Library after school and noticed some cops out front handing out mucho tickets to other drivers doing likewise. According to my daughter, they had just ticketed one of our neighbors.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: DaveM
on Tuesday, June 07, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Top speed: 100 mph |
L.A. is almost infested with art cars, those motorized expressions of creative id and sheet-metal ego.
Visual viruses like Dennis Woodruff's rolling business cards pop up around town with alarming frequency, any number of tchotchke-encrusted Econolines can be seen cruising the boulevards, and I think I've spotted Angelyne's pink 'Vette at least a dozen times in 15 years.
But until I stumbled across him today on the Web, the mad genius in this picture was a complete mystery to me. His gleaming rocket-cars fashioned from jet fuel belly tanks appeared to me like mirages - on Melrose, by the beach, at the annual Blessing of the Cars - parked and driverless, tantalizingly beautiful and mysteriously abandoned.
Who the hell was this guy?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, May 31, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The airwaves and blogosphere have been thick with this no-duh bit of news today: Traffic in Los Angeles is the worst in the U.S and worse than, say, 20 years ago.
The Texas Traffic Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Study says that with the population for greater L.A./Santa Ana/Long Beach pegged at 12.5 million, we're each wasting 93 hours a year stuck in traffic (nearly twice the national average), according 2003 figures.
What's interesting is that this is less than the average delay of 98 hours seen in 2002 and 113 hours seen in 1993 - a fact essentially glossed over by the L.A. Times article. I'm not sure what was gained by omitting that fact, but it's encouraging to see that carpooling, new roads and staggered office shifts appear to be having some effect ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, May 09, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Currently, the federal government taxes gasoline at 18.4 cents per gallon and the state of California at 18 cents per gallon. This is considerably less than what other industrialized societies tax gasoline. I propose that increasing the gasoline tax and using the funds to directly fund mass transit will improve traffic congestion, reduce pollution, and improve the economy, while moderating gas prices. This will be a broad discussion concerning the current status of these issues in California ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Monday, April 25, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I wanted to combine several errands on my lunch break, not become roadkill. It seemed like a good idea: Leave the car at the oil change/car wash combo mart and walk exactly one block to a Chinese restaurant for carryout. Then I could eat while waiting for the routine maintenance on my car – so efficient.
But the walk wasn’t the simple affair I thought it would be. In order to get to the restaurant, I had to go under a 101-Freeway overpass. There was construction going on, and the sidewalk there was obliterated except for a pedestrian path that went along and inside the outer lane, separated from busy weekday traffic only by flimsy orange-striped sawhorse barriers. Not only that, but the on-ramp to the freeway had an alleged crosswalk that was barely marked at all. Drivers anxious to navigate off of the busy road and onto the busier freeway were unlikely to notice it.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: danalandry
on Wednesday, April 06, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The propaganda that lines the bus stops of our LA city streets would have one believe that the stress of driving a car far outweighs the daily routine of riding the bus. I am here to say that the Metro experience in Los Angeles is enough to make a poor gal go postal.
Since the strike over a year ago, I've seen no changes in the attitudes and general chaos of riding the Metro, except that the www.mta.net website seems to have been updated. I waited today for a Metro bus for 20 minutes today and when one finally arrived, the bus pulled suddenly away from the curb skipping my regular stop. Myself and 10 other passengers were forced to board the next bus, which was so packed that I stood parallel to the driver, blocking her view of the side mirror.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Sakena
on Thursday, March 24, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I want to talk about SUVs and gas prices but don't get me started.
SUVs represent an obscene waste of fuel, space and ... no, no, don't get me started.
SUV owners are insecure, selfish, naive, pigheaded ... no, really, I'm not going there. My loathing for sport utility vehicles and disdain for 95% of the reasons people drive them could fill an entire book, er, blog.
No, what got me thinking was this burly, fuzzy mystery beast on the billboards along the 405:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Wednesday, March 23, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Before you unwrap your breakfast sandwich, Nutri-grain bar or whatever it is that you chose to partake of somewhere between your exit from the bus and just before you clock into work--freeze! Don't let one iota of your meal touches your hands. This is where you should insert hand sanitizer into your day. As one of the oh-so fortunate people who daily commute to work by way of Metro there are some things we simply shouldn’t skip out on: like making the effort to disinfect our you-know-whats. No big deal? Digest this: "Health experts estimate that 80% of infectious diseases are spread by hand contact," according to Healthy Hands USA.
Every time I ride the bus I see some older man coughing on the back of some unsuspecting woman’s head. Or some stuffy nosed, itching throat person sneezing then putting their hands on the poles ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Karen_Gilmore
on Wednesday, March 23, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Everyone complains about traffic, and everyone complains about gasoline prices. And everyone knows what the answer should be: take public transportation. But everyone knows what the response is: middle class Angelenos will never get out of their cars.
But maybe that's just a failure of imagination. If we think about the problem another way, we might just find the solution to the city's transportation crisis.
Here's the theory: Angelenos do not hate taking the bus. They hate WAITING for the bus. You sit out on a barren bench, breathing diesel exhaust, unable to do anything, at the mercy of the heat or the rain. No one will do that unless they have to, and the middle class doesn't have to, so it doesn't.
So here's the solution:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: JZasloff
on Friday, March 18, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Once again, Detroit tried to re-think the American car, and botched the job. This isn't news, but (IMHO) the devotion of a handful of volt-heads is.
The General Motors EV-1 hit the streets with a hushed whine about 8-1/2 years ago. Damned by weak batteries, a 60-80-mile range and lukewarm audience acceptance for the $35,000 lease price, the car is no longer even on life support, despite the way die-hard fans keep rhythmically massaging its chest.
More than a year after GM recalled all the lease-only cars, a handful of EV-1 devotees has been standing vigil 24/7 in Burbank at the GM training center for two weeks now. They're trying to persuade the firm to save not just this slippery-looking electric car but also the commitment to electric vehicles in the future ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, February 28, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 We sit in traffic every day, just crawling along, fuming: Why the hell doesn't Los Angeles have better public transit? I could be home by now.
After all the empty talk by mayoral candidates - including Councilmen Antonio Villaraigosa and Bernard Parks - somebody finally stepped up: The MTA - prodded by Councilman Tom LaBonge is considering building more subways.
About damn time. In the seven years since the MTA quit building after overspending on the Red Line, and pissed-off voters banned spending sales taxes on subway construction, traffic congestion has hardened L.A.'s major arteries and turned its "freeways" more often (Sepulveda Pass, anyone?) into 2-mph parking lots.
According to the Los Angeles Almanac, "Approximately 2,882,784 vehicle trips are taken on L.A.'s 650 miles of freeways and 22,000 miles of surface streets each day between 7-8 a.m. on weekdays. This is the equivalent of the entire population of Dallas, Texas ..."
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, February 25, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Yyyyyikes. Remind me to stay the hell out of British Airways jets:
It seems a BA pilot realized just 100 feet off the runway upon takeoff from LAX that his engine was shooting out sparks, but decided to keep flying all the way to a low-on-fuel emergency landing in England to avoid costing the airline money.
Apparently, European airlines must pay compensation to passengers who suffer delays or cancellations, and the tally for making a 747 full of passengers wait at LAX for repairs would have been more than ÂŁ100,000. So he just kept going.
Here are some queasy-making details from Saturday's incident:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, February 24, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Just like this, only a lot faster |
Good morning, my fellow commuters: Please - slow the #@$% down.
My life (and my young daughter's) flashed before my eyes this morning. We had just pulled up at a stoplight, en route to school, southbound on Sepulveda at Exposition.
From the oncoming lane, this huge old white Bronco on offroad tires blows the light at about 50, comes booming through the intersection and suddenly swerves into a left turn across our bow to narrowly avoid demolishing a Saturn that had taken the green on Exposition ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, February 07, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 As we've pointed out here before, the "Ultimate L.A. Machine" competition at the L.A. Auto show wrought a fleet of freakish dream-cars. The idea was to squeeze exquisite pearls of automotive design and futurist thinking from the world's top 15 auto design houses (many of them SoCal-based) and crown the best design. That was a week ago.
As the show draws to a close, the Auto Show finally got off its duff and put out a press release (okay, I had to pester them by email to get them to even acknowledge that they were bothering with one a full week after the competition ended): The best designs were a yin-yang choice: the laid-back VW Mobile Lounge and my personal favorite, the ADD poster-car (thumbnail seen here), the Dodge Superbee:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, January 13, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 (Hours and ticket info below)
Everyone walks into the L.A. Auto Show with a different lust:
Tire-kickers pick their next car. Gearheads stare under the hood. Eye-candy addicts fondle the coachwork. Geeks ponder the wonder (and wisdom) of DVD headrests.
Me? I drag my chin around the Convention Center floor, take a ridiculous number of photos of cars I think are cool, and try to guess whether Detroit, Tokyo, Munich and Trollhattan have the faintest oilspot of a clue as to what Los Angeles drivers really need. The pix of the trick, blingin' and just-plain-dumb entries in the "Ultimate L.A. Machine" design contest are at the bottom. But first, a couple dozen vehicles that tweaked my fancy:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, January 06, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Hyundai NTT - The roof is a detachable surfboard. |
Pushpinned to my corkboard hangs a Media Days pass to the 2005 L.A. Auto Show for Wednesday - my ticket to diabetic shock for the eyes.
After perusing the list of concept cars, I've shelved my garden-variety drool bucket, in favor of a 55-gallon drum. The Convention Center lights will be baking some green dreams and freakish-looking sheet metal, ranging from Carroll Shelby's next-gen Cobra to BMW's hydrogen-powered hard-on, the H2R. Non-believers step back, here's the gearhead rundown:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, January 04, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, December 16, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Don't lie. At least once, you've screamed something like this at the top of your lungs on the 405.
Dream accessories for vein-poppingly pissed L.A. commuters usually include: loudspeaker (illegal), hood-mounted Gatling guns (very illegal), and instant-message board for times when flipping the bird just isn't enough (still legal!)
Road Rage Cards are likely to make someone very rich, and more than a few people slightly dead ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, December 07, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The Venturi Fetish |
There are two types of car people in Los Angeles:
Those who tolerate their cars, hate driving and loathe the L.A. Auto Show in all its bloated, overhyped, wrap-new-coachwork-on-the- same-old-smoke-belching-crap glory. And those who f*cking live for it.
Park me in the latter camp. I'm a drooling sucker around carbon fiber, turbochargers, fine Corinthian leather, coffee-can exhausts, alloys the size of washing-machine drums and glitz - especially kandy-colored tangerine-flake streamlined glitz on rotating mirrored turntables. With video mirrors. And onboard wetbars. And dash-mounted ethernet ports. I'm a moron around concept cars, all right? I sweat. I stare. I develop adjective diarrhea.
So it's with no small twinge of amusement that I point you to the 12 world debuts due to be uncloaked by automakers next month at the Convention Center:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, November 30, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATED
Look! A live wireless traffic map of L.A. Freeways right in the palm of your hand! TrafficGauge.com sells it for just eighty (80) dollars!
Why bother with heavily detailed, free traffic reports from your car radio or full-color live maps on the internet, when you can pay to use this handheld monochrome gadget?
Think of the time you'll save - once you figure out where to put your donut and your mascara brush so you can explain to the CHP officer how you were keeping one knee on the wheel while digging it out of your purse to check whether the Sepulveda Pass is moving at 5 m.p.h. or 6 m.p.h.
Okay, so it's a little distracting. And expensive ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, November 29, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDATE BELOW
Current traffic (shudder)
The Goodyear Blimp roared over my head tonight on the drive home, cruising for a captive audience:
I was on surface streets coming up through Culver City heading north, it was bumbling southward, blinky-blinking messages of joy and commerce to the tens of thousands of poor slobs imprisoned on the gridlocked 405. We passed each other, ships in the night.
Just another holiday eve-eve in Los Angeles, the only world-class city where the annual Christmas mouth-breathing ritual lasts for six solid weeks (Thanksgiving eve-eve to Jan. 2); where some think it's actually easier eating in the car than on the train; where even at 11 p.m. two nights before Thanksgiving, the traffic map still looks like hell ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Pop quiz for the New Age of Paranoia: Are you willing to save 18 cents a gallon by letting the California DMV spy on you?
Gov. Schwarzenegger has named a new Department of Motor Vehicles director who wants to plant black boxes in our cars so she can tax drivers based on their mileage.
The idea is to replace the state's 18-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax with a tax-per-mile by installing satellite transponders in every motor vehicle registered in California. The hope is to make up for the highways budget shortfall that has left our roads a pockmarked ruin. The plan has so many flaws it's hard to know where to begin ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, November 18, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 This may or may not be the wave of the multimedia future - or even a good idea: A pair of Santa Monica-based studios has spent the past few weeks getting ready to raise Steve McQueen from the dead - where he's been since 1980.
The gimmicky "Field of Dreams" commercial for Ford shows McQueen-as-Bullitt (digitally resurrected from that film) walking out of a cornfield to grab a farmer's set of keys and jump into the new 2005 Mustang GT, which he then takes for a rip-roaring cruise around a LeMans-style track carved out of the cornstalks.
The "magic" for the J. Walter Thompson spot apparently comes from digital post house R!0T and sound factory POP Studios, which worked to blend footage from McQueen's performance - behind the wheel of that bitchin' dark-green 'Stang in the 1968 cop-action film - with new footage shot at a Willow Springs-sized racetrack built in British Columbia:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Sunday, November 14, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: Marc_Salvatierra
on Sunday, November 07, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Recent wreck on Overland |
In the realm of heavyhanded governance under a democracy, there's no phrase quite so dreaded as "eminent domain."
On Overland Avenue in West L.A., homeowners are vigorously fighting (for numerous reasons) an LADOT proposal that would use that principle to widen a chunk of the already-too-fast-for-comfort street from two lanes to four.
Bottom line: The little 2-lane street is the northernmost end of a major route between the 10 freeway and Santa Monica Boulevard. Bad enough that huge trucks violate the 6,000-pound limit and commuters routinely speed along upper Overland, between Santa Monica and Pico, where a tightly-packed residential neighborhood full of mostly-unfenced yards butts up against the large Westwood Charter Elementary School ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, November 01, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I wish I could duck tickets by flirting with traffic cops, really I do. But they're not my type. Besides, they never seem to understand how fast I need to drive.
 Cybele poses this week's L.A. Insights questions over at LABlogs, my answers are below.
1. Have you ever been ticketed for a moving violation?
2. Have you ever been able to talk your way out of a ticket (just getting a warning)?
3. Have you ever fought a traffic ticket?
4. How did you fulfill your traffic school requirement?
5. Have you ever gotten a parking ticket? Did you fight it?
6. How much do you think you’ve spent in your lifetime on tickets? (Or, if that’s too personal: Where to you advise people to avoid getting a ticketed (parking or moving violation)?)
7. Have you been ticketed in other cities/states/countries? How does that experience compare?
8. If you had it to do all over again, what’s the one thing you would have done differently when it came to a run in with The Man
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, October 29, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 As busy as Gov. Schwarzenegger has been cranking out the populace-pleasing legislation lately, one of his more prominent feel-good laws just T-boned a Jersey barrier has a teeny-tiny built-in flaw:
Schwarzenegger's bill to allow solo hybrid vehicle drivers in the carpool lanes seems to violate federal law. Without a waiver from Congress, you'll only be able to drive your spiffy little Prius in the speedy diamond lane when someone's riding shotgun.
According to the article from the American International Automobile Dealers, the HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes are built with federal tax money, and thus, governed by federal law ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, October 22, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 UPDAT BELOW
In the realm of reality TV makeover shows, MTV's "Pimp My Ride" is right up there with, well, "The Swan."
When you let them facelift your beater, you can count on the results being ... dramatic. Looks like the Yorba Linda owner of this freshly-pimped VW beetle decided she'd rather take the $18,000 she figures it's worth and buy a Cooper Mini than be caught dead in the blingin' green kandyflake embarrassment that West Coast Customs made of her car.
She put it up on eBay, and the ad's worth a giggle or two:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, October 21, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 FreewayBlogger must feel like a grass-roots Tim Berners-Lee right about now: His little invention - a nationwide network of guerilla banner-posters - has <a href="http://www.freewayblogger.com/aboutpictures.htm"">taken off with a vengeance.
The FWB organized National Freeway Free Speech Day, which claimed to have organized 1,000 people to post banners in 220 cities and 48 states, protesting the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. A good number of them are now online:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, October 15, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 FreewayBlogger has posted the Web equivalent of Howard Beale's network rant, I want you to get up right now and go the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
He's recruiting footsoldiers in the swing states with a final pre-election plea for people to post anti-Bush banners across America.
FWB's already getting help 155 cities and 40 states, according to his site, with banners bitter, witty and mad:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, October 07, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Raw-eyed, you scan the red sea of tail-lights on the 405 for signs of movement, any break in the logjam between you and the Getty Center exit. Sweet escape, teasingly out of reach. It's hot, and the exhaust fumes are putting you to sleep. If you lived here, you'd be home by now.
This week's Los Angeles Insight questions at LABlogs probe that most peculiarly Los Angeles habit: surviving the commute. My answers below.
1. How many hours a week are you stuck in your car?
2. What music is in your car, right now?
3. What do you do while stuck in traffic? Eat? Sing? Primal scream?
4. If you could give citations to other drivers for bad behavior, who/ what
would you ticket?
5. What's your favorite place/freeway to drive in LA?
6. What's your least favorite?
7. What's the craziest thing you've ever seen another driver do?
8. What's the craziest thing you've ever seen left on the side of the road?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, September 17, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Seems the Freeway Blogger has been busy during the long, hot summer inking protest signs for his latest "post":
You may remember his eastbound 10 stunt from last June, or caught a few more posters in his trenchant, DIY signage campaign against the Iraq War, such as this one or this one or perhaps the coverage in Le Monde.
On Tuesday, FB (who signs his emails only "The Scarlet Pimpernel" tells us he's planning on posting 100 of these (see picture) around Los Angeles ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Sunday, September 05, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 If you're planning on gassing up the RV (or SUV, SUT, UAV (urban assault vehicle) or IBDT (ittybitty death trap)) to blow outta town on Labor Day, you might want to do a little research on gas prices - especially with crude oil prices jacked up to an all-time high . Prices do not suck at every single station in Los Angeles (yet).
Pumped gas in Downey lately? How about Van Nuys? There's a difference of about 90 cents a gallon between them, according to LosAngelesGasPrices.com, that reliable watchdog of the oil industry's tradition of screwing us on 3-day weekends ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Wednesday, August 18, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Remember those 100 worst intersections Jim Hahn's been making safer? A year after proclaiming many of them fixed, at least one appears to be untouched:
Bob Hertzberg points out in the Hertz-blog that there is no left-turn lane from Beaudry onto Temple - an improvement promised in Phase 1 two years ago, and proclaimed completed at Hahn's city web site.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Wednesday, August 04, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, August 03, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
It was only a matter of time:
Today, three days before the one-year statute of limitations ends, families of victims in last July 16th's Santa Monica Farmer's Market massacre have sued 88-year-old motorist George Russell Weller and - predictably - the City of Santa Monica.
The 11 suits also target a grab-bag of the potentially liable - the organizations that operate, oversee and sanction the popular Wednesday/Saturday market, which, we should note, was back in operation not too long after Weller's fatal detour through it killed 10 people and injured 63 more ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, July 13, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Who needs another Kahuna? |
Here's a daffy idea straight outta what one local columnist often calls the Department of Redundancy Department:
With much fanfare, the L.A. Auto Show just announced its 2005 theme: "Design Los Angeles!" (Cue dramatic drumroll loop that runs until your speakers blow out or the guy in the next cubicle shoots you.)
That's right, commute-slaves. The show that world-premiered the never-built Volkswagen Dune and 2004's unavailable Dodge Kahuna wants to push Los Angeles car design as the global model for automotive cool, and they're challenging SoCal designers to come up with the "Ultimate L.A. Machine" ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, July 13, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
A moment of silence, please, for the inventor of the SigAlert. Loyd Sigmon died yesterday at 95, leaving behind a lasting legacy - a word and a concept with as much regional pungency for Los Angeles as "gaper block" is for Philadelphia, or "Big Dig" for Boston.
Please pull over to the right - what, you're stuck in traffic and can't? No matter. Close your eyes - you won't hit anything, as you're not moving - hang up your cellphone (PLEASE) and sit quietly for 60 seconds:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Thursday, June 03, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 The best traffic-control device ever devised is the speed bump - particularly the tall, nasty ones in certain parts of Santa Monica.
Nothing slows you down quicker than the screech of a six-inch-high mound of hardened asphalt ripping off your oil pan. But my favorite speed-killer was the joke sign posted in a residential neighborhood in Simi Valley not long ago - official-looking black block letters on a big yellow diamond. It said - and this is a direct quote: "SLOW THE #@*% DOWN!"
Now comes Jim Hahn's much-bannered Watch the Road campaign - an 18-month excursion into feel-good finger-wagging that I guarantee will do absolutely nothing to rid L.A.'s freeways and streets of smashed fenders and spilled blood. Here's why:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Monday, May 31, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I'd thought I'd seen it all in L.A. freeway chases. I've watched as a cornered suspect got shot live on television; I've seen a suspect lead a convoy of 20 police cars to his own home and collapse into his mother's arms; I've seen entire neighborhoods take to the streets to cheer on a fleeing felon. But the recent chase beginning in Simi Valley and ending in Beverly Hills takes the cake.
On Friday, May 21, a "narcotics suspect" led cops from Simi through the San Fernando Valley, onto the 405 at speeds over 100 mph, through Brentwood and Beverly Hills, before crashing his car into a wall at the Beverly Center and apparently disappearing into the mall. Which is amazing - someone able to find parking that fast at the Beverly Center on a Friday afternoon.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Brad_Dickson
on Saturday, May 22, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 Slogging through bumper-to-bumper traffic on the eastbound 10 this morning to pick up press creds for E3, I got a refreshing reminder of the brute broadcast power wielded by the Freeway Blogger.
He (she?) or one of his followers had posted a new protest banner on the western face of an overpass near Crenshaw, visible to more than 175,000 motorists a day. Like his other work, it was a brutally simple slab of irony:
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Tuesday, May 11, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 I am salivating at the upcoming LA mayoral election.
I can't wait to strut into the voting booth and cast my vote (too bad this isn't Florida, I'd give anything to vote more than once) to hopefully oust the most incompetent, impotent and clueless mayor of my hometown.
Let's be honest: James Hahn's miserable governance of Los Angeles even beats Gray Davis' ruination of California and that’s one helluva feat ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: YSwerdlow
on Wednesday, May 05, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I read this article on the Associated Press wires today and it outraged me. It seems that the California Highway Patrol has now turned into our "big brother" and is undertaking a Stalinesque intimidation campaign against our fellow citizens.
The situation involves the CHP's new greed-driven snitch offensive against erstwhile residents who, supposedly, drive illegally with out-of-state license plates -- thereby avoiding California's excessive vehicle registration costs.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Marc_Salvatierra
on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Please note: the following rant contains many, many cynical and sarcastic references to our public servants and their work, made in the great tradition of anti-government protest upon which our country was built. This rant is NOT, however, an invitation or urging to carry out, or espousal or advocacy of, violence or harassment of any city employee or official – and it should not be taken as such by anyone. In other words, best to be patient and stay well within the law when you’re fighting city hall.
Parking tickets are among our city’s worst and most immoral forms of de facto taxation and injustice: there is little or no representation or due process involved, and the scale of the government’s enforcement efforts is sweeping. What it comes down to is that it remains the burden of the (already busy) citizen to prove he or she was not parked illegally.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Marc_Salvatierra
on Sunday, March 14, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I am stomping mad.
I just maxed out my Optima card paying $2.15 a fricken gallon for the privilege of taking my place in the daily gridlock that curses anywhere you drive in LA County. That's over $30 bucks to fill up a fifteen gallon tank. Let me say that again: over $30 dollars, and I drive a reasonably economical car, not some guzzling SUV like most of the losers either in denial or just demented at the gas pumps next to me.
But I'm not gonna just bi tch: I'm going to do my own protest march.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: YSwerdlow
on Thursday, March 04, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
From my 9th floor office today, looking down on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey I could hear a siren fighting its way through light but stupid traffic.
The LAPD cruiser - red/blue strobes flashing, sirens flipping back and forth from chirp to wail in about as loud and obvious a fashion as mechanically possible - couldn't persuade a few cars crawling up to the intersection to rethink their stately rush-hour progress and pull over to the shoulder.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, February 27, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Proof positive that LAvoice has jumped the shark (I'm declaring it early here and now, just to get it out of the way), you are now reading a post about vanity plates.
I'll attempt to defuse the jaded sneers with some great sample plates, with arch, self-deprecating style, maybe break it up with bullets - after all, it's only a post on an L.A. blog, not an attempt at high culture. But as I go, the dorsal fin will pass beneath my wheels as surely as rust eats a Chevy Vega, and you'll know that even vanity plates this cool can't save a fledgling site from circling the meme drain.
This morning, I saw a plate that distilled the phenomenon and my obsession with it - the plate that crystalized years of loving, hating and being completely powerless to ignore even a single vanity plate or refrain from dreaming up its owner's thumbnail bio - down to a single, deathless visual-syntactical feedback-loop: The plate on the Jaguar VandenPlas I saw southbound on Veteran Ave. said ...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Sunday, February 22, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Brazen displays of free speech are peppering the freeways these days, doing a better job than seldom-seen blogs ever could at reaching a broad captive audience - SoCal commuters.
FreewayBlogger.com points to the growing culture-jamming practice of slapping up signs on freeway overpasses from San Diego to Santa Barbara with anti-war slogans like: "QUAGMIRE ACCOMPLISHED" and "32,000 DEAD AND I'M STILL PAYING $2.29 FOR UNLEADED".
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Wednesday, February 11, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I’ve HAD IT with the skyrocketing price of a social life in LA.
The cost of valet parking at any mostly west of Highland terminally trendy eateries now equals the total (including tip) of a succulent three course feast at Cactus#2, located on Beverly Blvd and Kinsley, offering a fully stocked freshly made salsa bar, cute redwood bench patio with actual dividing wall between your tacos and the sidewalk, unlike those teetering dangerously closetothecurb, pathetically crowded Sunset Plaza joints; or Pho #9, (Vermont a few blocks south of 8th, where else can you savor an authentic avocado Boba smoothie?)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: YSwerdlow
on Friday, January 30, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Hails and farewells at LAX are a little easier these days, thanks to a change in the U.S. Paranoia Index - excuse me, the Homeland Security Advisory System.
You no longer have to park Outside the Blast Radius and take a time-sucking shuttle to pick up or drop off friends. Big relief for those of us who had to make that trip dragging huge non-wheely bags packed with deadly clothes and weapons of mass deodorant.
Still, you should plan for a longer-than-average trip. When I made an obligatory drove the United counter to pick up frequent-flyer tix for a friend today, here's how it worked.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, January 30, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The L.A. Auto Show is an exercise in pent-up lust and stymied id.
If you weren't drooling on the chrome or ogling the bizarro bodywork of the mescaline-influenced concept vehicles, you were probably tirekicking some hallucinatory dream that you never could, and never will be able to afford. Because it's not about bended metal or horsepower or cupholders or any of that trivia. It's about who that car would let you become.
 As Lou Reed sang, "Does anybody need a $60,000 car?" Or as Hazel Motes says in Wise Blood as his POS deSoto is showering the pavement with smoking parts seconds after after he drives it off the used-car lot, "A man with a good car don't need no justification."
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: mack_reed
on Friday, January 16, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
I don't live in West Hollywood. Not by choice per se, just never moved there. But my inlaws do, and for the past two years, they lived in fear - What fresh hell would the morning commute down Santa Monica Boulevard bring?
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Posted by: Admin
on Wednesday, November 27, 2002
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements
|
|
|
Blogs Beyond
|
|
|
|
RSS
|
|
|
|
|
OK, leave the AK47s at home and bring a camera - the 
