Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Car Culture

Homeowners Rail Against 405 Expansion

By Damien Newton | Mar 5, 2009 | 25 Comments

A bi-partisan collection of officials celebrate the destruction of air quality around Encino The Daily News printed a rare opinion piece yesterday that dared challenge the orthodoxy that adding lane capacity to the 405 is somehow going to improve quality of life for the people living near the widening area in Encino. The I-405 widening […]

Fantasy Football: Design the New Stadium’s Transportation Plan

By Damien Newton | Feb 27, 2009 | 13 Comments

Yesterday, news broke that the City of Industry City Council unanimously voted to approve a plan to construct a new stadium to try and entice the Bills from Buffallo or the Raiders from Oakland. Putting aside any arguments about whether this is a good idea, because it clearly isnt’, I thought it could create a […]

LA, the Most Congested City in America, Holds the Key to Less Crowded Highways

By Damien Newton | Feb 25, 2009 | 5 Comments

INRIX, a company that provides technology to help municipalities do better traffic planning, has completed its yearly ranking of America’s most congested cities and found, for the second year in a row, that Los Angeles has the highest level of automobile congestion in the country. On top of holding this ignominious mark for the second […]

Obama: America “Cannot Walk Away” From the Automobile

By Brad Aaron | Feb 25, 2009 | 7 Comments

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama last night emphasized his administration’s commitment to keeping the domestic auto industry afloat, while offering only a passing mention to the nation’s mass transit systems. Said Obama: As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global […]

Mercedes: Reckless Driving Is Smarter

By Brad Aaron | Feb 23, 2009 | 3 Comments

Here’s a particularly egregious bit of "open road" propaganda from Mercedes. In this ad, currently airing in US markets, a new Benz GLK whips through the narrow streets of what appears to be a small European village, the inhabitants of which are reduced to slo-mo scenery. As the narrator talks up the GLK’s "smarter" performance […]

Americans, David Brooks, and “The Dutch Option”

By Alex Marshall | Feb 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

Denver’s FasTracks transit expansion will add more than 100 miles of rail and BRT service. Ben Fried got it exactly right about the errors that riddled Tuesday’s David Brooks column. Brooks was so far off the mark, though, that it’s worth another look at the ways he misled readers. The core of his argument that […]

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