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About LinkBacksI just wish Measure R included more transportation within the San Fernando Valley. The valley and beyond into Ventura County gets royally screwed when it comes to public transportation. Especially for those folks who don't work a 9-5 job M-F.
Load of crap. If it fails, they can try again with a Measure next year or the year after. What a jerkwad, trying to scare people like that.Originally Posted by CaliforniaAdventurer
Adding to the state gas tax would be more effective in both raising funds AND/OR cutting down on gasoline use -- i.e. people resorting to pub-trans or carpooling.
One problem with more people using pub-trans is that they don't pay for themselves. So, someone has to pay.
"Here You Leave the World of California Today and Enter the World of, um, er, California Today."
I hope 1A and R pass, and we move another step closer to having truly efficient high speed rail to the Disneyland Resort.
I'm in a "No on Everything with BOND in the title" mood on this - we already have the highest sales tax in the state and they spend the money on stupid things. The schools are "Going Broke" and they start the Lottery to raise school money - but they just cut that amount from the General Fund.
They have already put through a half-dozen bonds for schools, and public buildings, and such in the last 10 years. They usually do about half of what they promise.
We are not under-taxed, the government is over-spending, and spending what they have very poorly. The buses and trains now go ALMOST where you need to go, and ALMOST at the right times, and that isn't going to change much.
And the bus you are riding is stuck in the same trafffic jam that your car would be stuck in if you drove - you need the transit network to be grade seperated so it isn't held up. But they keep thinking of Monorails and Personal Rapid Transit as "Amusement Park Rides", and Subway is way too expensive, so it isn't going to change.
--<< Bruce >>--
There's No Place Like 127.0.0.1
Re: Mass Transit to Disneyland Resort Pols take their victory lap for Measure R
Pols take their victory lap for Measure R | Bottleneck Blog | Los Angeles Times...[Such] was the scene this morning at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue above the current terminus of the Purple Line subway. "Current" is the key word there. During the news conference about Measure R's passage, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Roger Snoble said it may now be possible to extend the line to Fairfax Avenue within six or seven years and the line could get to Westwood in 20 years.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heard that, and super-super-quickly stepped to the mike and promised to be "aggressive" about securing federal dollars to speed that up. (Villaraigosa is flanked in the above photo by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, behind him to the left, and Assemblyman Mike Feuer,far right, both of whom played key roles in getting Measure R on the ballot.)
All this means that someone has a lot of work to do. Nonetheless, and as you might expect, the mood among the local pols at the news conference ranged between ebullience and unspeakable amounts of joy. Remember the spring of 2007 when Villaraigosa and Yaroslavsky were having a, shall we say, spirited discussion over MTA fare increases? Well, the two men lavished praise upon one another Wednesday morning, with the mayor suggesting that he and Yaroslavsky were now "joined at the hip."
With just two hours' sleep on election night, followed by a long drive to the Westside from the San Gabe Valley, the Road Sage couldn't even begin to tackle the merging of two such political organisms.
On a more serious note: Whether you voted for Measure R or not, the MTA expects to receive up to $40 billion in sales tax revenue over the 30 year life of the sales tax. That's about $40 billion more than the MTA otherwise would have had for new projects, the reason for the celebratory mood. Villaraigosa oversaw the campaign for Measure R, which captured 67.4% of the vote.
To put that achievement in perspective, the last half-cent sales tax increase for transportation in 1990 in L.A. County barely passed with 50.4% of the vote, back when the threshold was a simple majority. Villaraigosa told me later that he had a Plan B if Measure R failed -- going back to voters at a future date -- but that the high turnout for the presidential election basically made the 2008 election an all-or-nothing proposition because it was the best way to secure the needed two-thirds approval.
"That's why we had to win," he said.
A few other highlights from the news conference:
-- Snoble indicated that the Expo Line and Gold Line extensions are likely to be the first two rail projects to break ground with Measure R dollars. The Gold Line, he said, could begin as early as 2010. I know there are readers out there who don't believe that and I'm not saying you should. But that's what public officials are saying on the record. So, hit the print button.
-- Snoble also said that he thinks that new tunneling technology should make it easier to tunnel under Wilshire Boulevard without causing as many street disruptions as there were during construction of the existing subway. He indicated that some property will have to be acquired near Wilshire and Western to get tunneling machines into the ground.
I'm working on a story for tomorrow's editions of The Times looking at the votes on both Measure R and Prop 1A, indicating voters in California were in the mood on Tuesday to invest big-time in mass transit.
Measure R projects won't get rolling soon
[COLOR=#333333! important]New rail lines are likely several years away under plan..[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#333333! important]Don't expect new roads or rails to start appearing across Los Angeles County now that Measure R has passed; transportation officials say the first in a long list of projects is still several years from opening.
Early work is likely to include an extension of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica, an extension of the Gold Line from Pasadena to Azusa and placement of a busway or light-rail line along Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles, planners say. A fare hike set for next summer will also be postponed until 2010, with some special fares for seniors, the disabled and students delayed until 2013.
But approval of a half-cent sales tax delivered a more immediate victory to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who came into office more than three years ago pledging to finally start the city's so-called Subway to the Sea. Now, money to begin such a subterranean route -- probably along the Wilshire corridor -- is assured by the Measure R plan.
"The commuters of L.A. were fed up with traffic and gas prices, and they responded by making a historic investment that will change the face of transportation in the region forever," Villaraigosa said....
article continues at:
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[COLOR=#333333! important]Measure R projects won't get rolling soon - Los Angeles Times[/COLOR]
California propositions: Proposition 8, county-by-county map, margin of victory - Los Angeles Times
The high speed rail measure seems to have just barely passed. 52.1% to 47.9%.
Original post, from October 2005:
Here we are 3 years later, and it looks like pieces of the puzzle are going into place.
I haven't read any of the replies cause there over a thousand and I don't know where the conversation is but...
I'm like the idea of a petition
"To All Who Come To This Happy Place Welcome" - Walt Disney
So I am guessing that the $10B is not really going to create one mile of high speed rail line. It is going to be used for engineering studies, right of way purchases, train design and prototype testing, infrastructure relocation, route planing, and public input meetings. And after the $10B is spent they will get around to asking for serious money to build the system that is going to cost another $40-60B.
Re: Mass Transit to Disneyland Resort Sweet! With Measure Q [my neck'a the woods] and Prop 1 passed, it will make traveling to the DLR much easier!
That is if I can convince my mom to actually use it...
Even if you were born just yesterday you will probably be close to an adult before any train gets rolling.
Well, the stretch of track near me is only going to be like 70 miles, not all the way from SF to LA...
Rome wasn't built in a day, my friend!
Yeah, it was cranked out the night before.
The Mickey audience is not made up of people; it has no racial, national, political, religious or social differences or affiliations; the Mickey audience is made up of parts of people, of that deathless, precious, ageless, absolutely primitive remnant of something in every world-wracked human being which makes us play with children’s toys and laugh without self-consciousness at silly things, and sing in bathtubs, and dream and believe that our babies are uniquely beautiful. You know…the Mickey in us.
-Walt Disney
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