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- 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
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- Monday, October 20
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- 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
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 Topic: DRIVEThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
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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.
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Posted by: GeoLobo
on Thursday, October 18, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: bdine
on Wednesday, October 03, 2007
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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."
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Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Saturday, September 15, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Thursday, August 02, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Monday, May 28, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Monday, May 21, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Thursday, April 12, 2007
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Posted by: FranciscoFrias
on Friday, March 30, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Monday, March 26, 2007
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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
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Posted by: EdwardHeadington
on Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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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).
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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 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.
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Posted by: ScottSchmidt
on Tuesday, March 13, 2007
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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.)
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Monday, March 12, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Friday, March 09, 2007
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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…
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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Posted by: ScottSchmidt
on Friday, February 23, 2007
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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?
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Posted by: Ryan_Knoll
on Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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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:
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Tuesday, January 30, 2007
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 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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, January 28, 2007
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 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:
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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 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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Monday, January 22, 2007
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 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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 19, 2007
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 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 Cœur, 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.
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Posted by: Vavine
on Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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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.
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Sunday, January 14, 2007
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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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 12, 2007
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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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Friday, January 05, 2007
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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 ...
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Posted by: Mack_Reed
on Thursday, December 21, 2006
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