Podcast appearances and mentions of damien newton

(Note: this week's SGV Connect podcast is being broken into two parts. Part 2, which is a series of interview about The People's Cafe in El Monte, will be broadcast tomorrow.) Last week, news broke that bids for the next extension of the Foothill Gold Line - from Pomona to Montclair - would be delayed because the only bid to design and build the project was hundreds of millions of dollars higher than anticipated. Earlier today, Damien Newton sat down with Gold Line Foothill Construction Authority CEO Habib Balian to discuss the causes of the delay and how it impacts the timeline of providing rail service to Montclair. Meanwhile, major construction on the extension from Glendora to Pomona wrapped up earlier this year. Bialin anticipates that Metro will announce next month the exact date that extension of the Gold Line will open to the public - probably sometime later this summer. During the podcast, Bialin uses the terms “design build” and “construction manager at risk“ to discuss the different processes that agencies and contractors can use when making agreements on how a project will proceed and who carries which liabilities. For those interested, the links on the terms above explain what those processes are. A transcript of this podcast is available after the embed of the broadcast.   Streetsblog's San Gabriel Valley coverage is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the A Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places. Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays, and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, or Overcast. Transcript: This transcript is lightly edited for clarity. Damien NewtonSince the last time we've checked in, there's been a lot of good news, and then last week we had a little bit of concerning news. So let's get the "bad stuff" out of the way, and then we can talk about where we are with the project going forward. Last week, we heard that the next phase of the extension -not the one where the construction is completed, but the next phase - is going to be delayed at least a little bit because bids did not come in as low as hoped. Can you explain what happened there and what the next steps are for the Construction Authority? Habib Balian Over the last three years, in preparation to go out to bid for the next phase of the project from Pomona to Montclair, we did our own independent cost estimate. We brought in outside estimators - people that are very well known in the industry - to look at the project, look at our design, look at the specifications, and help us foresee what a potential bidder might bid on the job. We went about this process, as any owner would, whether you're building a billion dollar light rail or remodeling the bathroom of putting some feelers out there what you think the job is going to cost. We went after it three times over the last three years. We even had Metro look over our shoulder and look at our estimates to come up with a validation of that number. And we rounded out with these estimators and Metro of a range of bids of what we thought the project was going to cost. We then started this procurement. We got some feedback during the procurement that our process to build the project using "design build" was not favorably received by the industry anymore. They don't want to take on that risk. We, as the owners, want to shove that risk off on the contractors. And that's worked very well for us over the last 20 years and the three phases of the project using design-build. But that model was getting some resistance in the building community. We also understood that a lot of potential bidders for the job would not be interested in competing with Kiewit (who had been the incumbent contractor for three consecutive projects that we built on the job from Union Station to Pasadena, Pasadena to Azusa/Glendora, and then the Azusa/Glendora border all the way to Pomona). Bidders were saying, 'Kiewit, seems to know the job so well, we may not be interested in bidding a job and competing with them, since they know it so well and probably could outbid us or underbid us.' So we were very nervous about this. Going into it, we took what we thought were very conservative precautions. We did a lot of outreach to the contracting community. We hosted these forums available for people to ask questions. And we also incentivized potential bidders with $9 million worth of recuperance of the potential bid that any work that they put into it - the design that went into this, the cost of them bidding the job, they would, as a course of a participant, be able to receive a four, three and $2 million payment for the work that they perform. Any design that they had done in furtherance of a bid that they would be able to give that to us, we would buy it from them, essentially based on their submitting a good bid that was responsive to the procurement. So even with all those incentives, Bid Day rolled around and, going into it, we knew we were only gonna have one participant. Which made us very nervous that there would be no other bids coming in. We knew that through the RFP process, and basically held our breath for a couple months until the bid came in. The bid came in, it was substantially higher than we expected, I believe, 54% higher than what our estimators and Metro thought the project would cost. We talked to them, went through a best and final offer and were not able to reach... achieve any substantial reduction in it. Then I took it to the board with the recommendation that we cancel that procurement and instead go out and re-procure through a different contracting method - CMAR (construction manager at risk, as it's known in the industry) - and proceed ahead with the project. It will be a bit of a delay, but it is a plan to get the project built, which is our mandate: to Montclair. We are starting in earnest with that procurement. It'll likely be on the street in June, and we'll be able to hire that designer and then bring on a construction management firm as well, and begin that process. And in furtherance of completing the project, with probably about a year delay we're expecting. Damien So with the year delay, could you outline what the rough timeline looks like now, to get that phase? Habib So we'll go through a procurement process beginning in June, probably June to September or October. We're nailing down the schedule right now, we will go and we'll seek a designer. That designer will engage them. That designer will complete the design, take it from our 20-30% complete and to a complete design. About midpoint of that we will start a procurement for construction manager. That construction manager will look over the shoulder and work with the designer to prepare a bid and confirm that they can build the project for our budget. So that will take about two years from now, and then that'll be a 'thumbs up or thumbs down' with that design, with that builder. If it's within our budget, we'll award the contract to them. And then from that point, it's about a four-year construction project. So roughly, 2030-31. Just as a footnote, should that builder that we bring on - the construction manager - say, 'we need more money,' or 'it's an inadequate budget,' we then have the ability of going out and soliciting a new builder for that project and hiring them and going out for construction based on a new bid. DamienSo it sounds like a lot's going on, but the plan is still to move forward and to keep going. HabibAbsolutely. The mandate of the legislature...back in 2000 they determined that the project would go from Union Station to Montclair. Just so, you know, originally [it] was supposed to only go to Claremont, and then it was later amended by the legislature to take it from Claremont to Montclair. That is our mandate. It's very important for this project to work at its maximum. And that requires it get to these hubs. And the nearest hub for this project is, in fact, getting to Montclair - to the Montclair Transit Center, the bus center. It's very important for ridership and for moving people from the Inland Empire into LA County along the Gold Line route from Montclair. DamienAlright, so that covers last week's news. But since the last time we've talked, there was some good news involving construction of the current extension, so to speak. So why don't we talk a little bit about where we are in that process, which I believe is mostly done. HabibThat's correct: mostly done. We achieved substantial completion by the contractor in early January, satisfied with their work. It was turned over to Metro for them to begin their preparations for operation. They'll start, doing their own testing and training of operators for over the next several months, with the anticipation that they will put it into service some time this summer. Metro - once they get underway with their testing fully - they'll be able to determine, probably in the May period, when they're going to announce a operations date with exactly when they're going to operate it some time this summer. DamienI said "mostly" I know your part is mostly done. It's "Metro's part" now that is still worked on. I just wanted to make it clear that when we said completed, it doesn't mean it's opening tomorrow. It's opening in probably July or August, if things go well. Habib That's correct. And just footnote to that is keyword is "still on the job." There's a long list of punch-list items that they're completing, some landscaping, some wall improvements, fare gates, something that's been a design change. Metro has come up with different fare gates system that is being retrofitted in. Our design originally didn't have them. Now it does, and they're being built as we speak, and installed. So,some of those last minute details are being done. So if any of your listeners actually go along the line and take a peek at what's going on, you're still going to see construction workers out there. There's still activity, nothing to the degree, obviously, of when construction was at full tilt. But right now, there is work going on, some cleanup activities, and handrails and fencing and gating is still going on, DamienI think we covered the two big topics on the checklist. Was there anything else you wanted to say before we before we sign off until July? Habib We're very excited about July. This is going to be very big for the San Gabriel Valley to connect further into the San Gabriel Valley, into Los Angeles, and ultimately to Long Beach. It's going to be very exciting for passengers, I think, and people are really going to enjoy this ride. It's a great system, and the stations look great. The artwork looks great. So we have a lot to show off this summer. DamienWell, we look forward to talking then and when the first phase of the extension open. I got this cool pin set, so I still have my fingers crossed to get another pin… Well, thank you very much. And we will. We'll talk again soon. Habib Okay, take care. Damien, thank you. Bye.

The post-election special featured a pair of Streetsblog editors, Joe Linton of Streetsblog L.A. and Melanie Curry of Streetsblog California, joining Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. Most of the talking was done by Curry, Linton and Newton, and the trio kicked off the discussion by outlining the impact of the Trump administration on federal transportation funding, particularly high-speed rail and public transportation. In a new administration, California will face challenges securing federal funding. In LA County, some important county measures including the “climate bond,” Measure A for maintaining the county's homeless services and Measure G which will expand the Board of Supervisors and create a county executive position.  In LA City, progressive Isabel Jurado won over Kevin de Leon, potentially improving transportation and livability. Local elections in the San Gabriel Valley saw Sasha Renée Pérez elected to the State Senate and Nan Wong to the Alhambra City Council. Find yourself wanting more SGV Connect? You can hear more on County Measures A and G in our last podcast featuring homelessness solutions super hero Shawn Morrissey and Supervisor Hilda Solis. You can also check out our last podcast State Senator-elect Renee-Perez here of an appearance on Greenspon's SGV Weekly here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of Downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit foothilltransit.org. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays, and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.  

Just last week, the legislative session for the year ended in Sacramento meaning a batch of legislation was passed that, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would change the way the state conducts its transportation business. In this episode of SGV Connect, co-host Damien Newton goes it alone, interviewing Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry. As an aside, both Newton and Curry will be at the Streetsblog San Francisco/Streetsblog California anniversary party next week at Manny's in the Mission on Thursday, September 12, at 6:00 p.m. along with a bevy of transportation reform superstars including mayors, transit board chairs and Senator Scott Wiener. If you happen to be in the area, drop by and join us. Reserve your ticket, here. But for now, buckle in and enjoy today's podcast. A full transcript can be found beneath the audio player below. Damien   Before we get into the podcast, let me remind everyone that SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”   Hello, welcome to SGV Connect episode 127. My name's Damien Newton. We have a bit of a throwback episode here in that I am doing it on my own - or well, I'm not on my own, I have a guest: Melanie Curry, the editor of Streetsblog California, who's going to give us an update on legislation that has been passed and is awaiting the signature of the governor…hopefully.   We timed this episode to coincide with our Streetsblog San Francisco/California anniversary dinner next Thursday. If you'd like to join us on September 12, click here for more details.   And a link with all the information is in the email, excuse me, in the text of the story that accompanies this podcast. Boy, I'm struggling today, Melanie. I hope you're on your A game.    …and she gave a thumbs up. You guys can't see that because we're not recording the video.   All right. So it just so happens that the first couple pieces of legislation we want to talk about were authored and introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, who happens to be one of our guests of honor next week.   Isn't that an amazing coincidence? So why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about these two pieces of legislation? And again, these are passed by the legislature, but awaiting signature or possibly something worse from the governor.   Melanie Oh, we don't want it to be worse.    This is one of the reasons that we are giving a Streetsie to Senator Scott Wiener - because he got SB 960, a complete streets bill, passed… again. He's tried three times with this bill and last time it was vetoed by the governor. So we're crossing our fingers that that doesn't happen again.   It's a little bit different this time around. Caltrans pushed just as hard against it as it had in the past. They keep saying, “we're already making complete streets a priority.”   Damien …um…are they already making complete streets a priority?   Melanie It's hard to say. At the headquarters level, their talk is good, but how it comes out on the ground is a different story. CalBike is working on a report about that very issue, which they're not quite ready to release, but we'll find out soon what they have to say.    At any rate, Caltrans says they have a complete streets policy. But they're not really doing it. So what happened with SB 960 is Caltrans pushed back. They got language that they are more comfortable with, which is kind of similar to what they already have: they'll make complete streets when they are working on maintenance projects where feasible, which still gives them kind of a lot of outs.    However, the bill is a lot stronger than last time around. It specifically includes a requirement to create a transit priority policy at Caltrans - which is a huge difference. It requires better transparency, so Caltrans has to report on their complete streets and how much money they're putting into it.    It also requires them to come up with a shorter encroachment permit process - which sounds really wonky and kind of is - but it makes it easier for cities to make their own changes on their streets if they want to build a bike lane or something like that without having to go through  the onerous process that Caltrans makes them do..    Anyway, it's been passed. We've got our fingers crossed. It's not the solution, but it's a really good step in the right direction for making Caltrans make complete streets on all of their facilities when they are repairing them..Not freeways, but all the other ones.   Damien If this is a stronger piece of legislation than last time, doesn't it seem less likely that Governor Newsom will sign it?   Melanie Well, it's interesting. It's stronger in ways that are outside of the when and where. It's stronger because it has transit priority, which it didn't before. It's stronger because it calls for better transparency and a shorter permit process. But in terms of requiring when and where complete streets are to be incorporated into Caltrans projects, it's really similar to what the current Caltrans policy is.    It's kind of an interesting argument. [Newsom] said “give Caltrans a chance” when he vetoed a similar bill in the past. But at that time, there was a new Caltrans director. So they got a chance. That was four years ago. They had their chance. We haven't seen any results. So we're back with this bill.   I think it will take something to get the governor to sign it, but it might not be as onerous as it would have been four years ago. I mean, weigh in, call the governor! I don't know. It definitely needed support to get passed by the legislature, but I think it has a better chance than the last one did.   Damien But that's not the only thing that Senator Wiener's done that has him on our list of “legislation to talk about today.” He's also done something with passive speed enforcement. You might need to explain this one a little bit.   I know you just did a story on it, and I read the story. I could totally talk about this if I had to, but, you know, people would rather hear you talk about it than me.   Melanie Are you sure?   Damien I assume.   Melanie I don't know. My voice can get a little whiny. No, it's not enforcement. It's assist. So it's in-car technology that tells people, hey, you've gone over the speed limit. And it does that with, like, a beep.    So this one was going to be a great bill. We were excited about it when Wiener first [introduced it] because he was looking for something more active - which is also a, technology that exists where … it prevents you from going over the speed limit. But that was just too crazy. So - not too crazy, it's a known and used technology. European cars have it. But there was too much pushback. So he said, “OK, passive speed limit assist technology in all new cars starting in 2030.”   And that passed. And you know it's better than nothing. A lot of new cars already have this technology…   Damien …almost every rental car too   Melanie It would be very surprising if it didn't get passed. It's a help. There's actually surveys that show that drivers like it.   And what's really strange to me is that about six or seven Republican legislators in California wrote this strongly worded letter to Governor Newsom telling him to veto it because enforcement is a better way to [handle this issue]. And they said it puts an “undue burden on the majority of responsible drivers,” which, uh, wait a minute.   Damien Wait, but they're speeding, right?   Melanie Yeah. Yet it's an “undue burden.” Like it's going to beep at you. Like one beep. It's only a one-time notification. So I don't know where they get any of that, “Undue burden on responsible drivers?”    If you're going over the speed limit, wouldn't you want [your car] to tell you? I don't know. I really don't know where this comes from. I imagine all of them just want to speed like crazy for as long as they want to.   Damien These are the people that obviously rent rental cars and then speed in them.   Melanie And they don't like that one beep.   Damien They don't like that beep…Not that I know from my recent road trip what that sounds like.   Melanie Does it continue or is it just one [sound]?   Damien I think it depends. The car that we had, it beeped every time you went 10 miles over the speed limit. So, we obviously heard it once and then adjusted our driving for the rest of the drive across the country because, yeah.   Melanie Yeah. Right. Which is what people want. You know, like what if you're in a place that you don't know? What if you're driving in Oregon and there might be a cop that's going to pull you over?   Damien Or what if the speed limit drops and you miss the sign?   Melanie Exactly.   Damien If we drove through a county and you know at the speed limit dropped 10 miles an hour, and then all of a sudden we went from driving roughly the speed limit to driving 10 miles over the speed limit…that's where we were.   Melanie And that's where you're likely to get a ticket, too. So it's really helpful to be told by your car.   Damien Was it the ticket lobby that was against this?   Melanie You know, I don't know who those people are. I don't know if they're a lobby. They're just Republicans. I could find the letter and read you their names if you want, but they're Republican legislators who just hated it.   Damien I'm just flashing back, as I always do, to the efforts to set the speed limit…legislation that we fought for for so long and finally got passed by Laura Friedman a couple of years ago, and the dumb arguments we would hear about it.   Melanie Yeah, it's weird to me…. I'm looking at some of the names of the people that signed it, and I have to say some of them say some really dumb things in the hearings.   So I don't want to say they're dumb, but they're not very well informed.   Damien We can say that if you want to.   Melanie And this letter proves that…And they have an agenda that doesn't make a lot of sense.    Just the idea there, they are law-and-order Republicans and for some reason they really love the idea of giving people tickets to enforce this [issue]. I don't understand their thinking. I have the feeling that's not going to have much sway with Governor Newsom. Who knows?   Damien I mean, you never know these days. And he's been… he's been more conservative in the past year than I would have thought.   Melanie Yeah.  I'm not a politician for a reason. I don't understand the way you think about things when you're a politician. It's not always logical.   Damien Speaking of not always logical, let's talk about a bill that had to do with when you can and can't paint sharrows that was passed, but without the support of its initial sponsor, Streets for All…So what happened there?   Melanie Gosh, who knows. So, this is SB 1216 from Catherine Blakespear.   This was also a[similar]  provision in another bill from Laura Friedman, AB 2290, but that one was just held back. It didn't go anywhere.    So what this was trying to do was limit the use of Class III bike routes, which are, you know, they are signs and sharrows painted in the street, at most. They might just be signs, but they were really trying to get away from calling those even bike routes. People like Caltrans will put them down and say, “look, we made you a bike route.” But they don't really have any kind of good standards for when they use them, so the legislature tried to limit their use..    Plus, [the sponsors] wanted to eliminate funding for those projects. And actually, they sort of succeeded. When it was in the Assembly [Transportation} Committee, the bill was amended to restrict sharrows to roads that are 30 miles an hour or slower.    Imagine riding your bike at, what, 10 miles an hour on a 30 mile an hour road, and there's a sharrow there telling you to go ahead and use it. So whoever decided that 30 miles an hour or slower made sense is not a bike rider. And [the committee] would not remove any limitation on using bike route signs, so they can mark a bike route wherever they want, which doesn't also doesn't make sense.    Thinking of fast streets in the San Fernando Valley, for example, they could just call those bike routes. So when you look on Google Maps, it's going to tell you to go that way…and you get out there and you're like, “ah, I don't want to ride this road.”    It was so bad that the sponsor, Streets for All, just gave up. But! One good thing about that bill is it does have a provision that says that … Active Transportation Program projects can no longer use [ATP funds] for Class III bike routes, after January 2026.    I have a feeling that it doesn't really do that much anymore because the people who run the program are pretty aware of what makes a good bike route or a good bike project, and Class III doesn't really count. However, Caltrans is still going to use class III bike routes and claim credit for creating bike facilities. We have to keep our eye on that.   Damien One piece of legislation that we covered in our Santa Monica publication is Malibu would now be able to put speed cameras on the PCH as part of the pilot program.   There's a lot of reasons this is interesting.    A) that so many communities want to get in on a pilot program. There were three cities in Senator Ben Allen's district, but only Malibu made it on this piece of legislation.  B) is the need for this extremely complicated pilot program that a year after the legislation was passed, no cities actually have speed cameras up. Yet they're allowing other cities - and yet we [already] know from the entire rest of the world that speed cameras work - to join this complicated pilot program.   Do you want to talk at all about this legislation, what it actually does, and if maybe I took all of the thunder away on the interesting things, tell me to be a better interviewer. But if I did not, then fill in some other interesting things about this.   Melanie SB 1297 from Senator Ben Allen adds the city of Malibu to the speed camera pilot program that was created by AB 645 last year. That was from assemblymember Laura Friedman that allowed Glendale, LA, Long Beach, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco to do pilot programs with a limited number of cameras under all these really tight restrictions about where they could be, how they could be deployed, how they collected information from them, how they gave tickets, and they had to keep the the tickets out of the court system, and the fines had to be low and all kinds of really really tight restrictions.   None of those cities, as far as I can tell, have put up any cameras yet.   San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose have chosen locations for them, but they're not going to install them until next year. I can't find out about the other cities. At any rate, the city of Malibu will be able to add five cameras along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu [under this bill].   So what do we do about all the other cities like Santa Monica that might also want to put up speed cameras? They're all gonna have to wait. There's so much pushback from privacy groups and law enforcement, all these people who object to these programs. For law enforcement, this will make their life easier, but okay, whatever.   Damien The whole thing baffles me. Allen introduced this after there was a high profile crash that killed a bunch of Pepperdine students standing on the side of the road late last year. The PCH in Malibu has always been a safety disaster for bicyclists, for pedestrians, for car drivers, for everyone. Allen tried to address this - there are several different project programs that are going on, educational programs, enforcement programs…this effort was sort of added on to those.   But as soon as he announced it, all the other cities in his district were like, “ooh, us too, us too.”   Because cities want these. It just feels weird to me that the state is making it so hard, with a cumbersome pilot program and only certain cities.   This feels like an effort to keep them out, not an effort to promote them.   Melanie Yeah. What's fascinating to me about it is one of the arguments - which is a valid argument - against this was that street design is a more [effective] way to slow people down.   Yes, it's true. So one of the provisions in the original bill is that other street design changes had to be made. And especially if they put up a camera and it didn't slow speeds, then they had to make those street design changes.    Well, PCH really needs some design changes. And the ones – the responses that they have [had] to that crash are just pathetic. I'm sorry, they put up speed feedback signs and they put up signs. Education, enforcement, those are fine, but those are not the kinds of things that make people slow down or actually change the street so that people have to drive slow.   We just have so much resistance to creating calm streets. And because the PCH is such a heavily used thruway, people want to zoom on it. It doesn't make sense for people to be zooming on it. But it's just part of our speed culture that we just can't change [yet]. It's a bummer.   Damien I say romantic, I don't necessarily mean romance; but how many pop culture references over the years feature the hero or heroine in their convertible speeding up the PCH?   Melanie Absolutely. It's glamorized for sure.   I say people who want to go fast and feel the wind in their hair should roll their windows down and stick their heads out the window while they drive and feel the wind that way because it feels like you're going fast even if you're going like 20 miles an hour.   Damien Is it a little weird to hear the argument that it's road design that really slows streets down so we can't…we shouldn't do speed cameras 10 minutes after we were just discussing how Caltrans doesn't want to be mandated to do safe road design.   Melanie Yeah, we're in a very strange tangle trying to make sense out of all of this.   I mean, we can see it, advocates can see it. But the arguments can be complicated. I maintain hope that we will prevail sooner or later. And it's partly because we have super smart people working on these issues. But man, it's not easy. It's not easy.   Damien There was one more piece of major legislation we wanted to talk about before we might run down some of the other pieces, and that was what's been going on with e-bikes. It doesn't appear like there's much of an effort to make statewide e-bike policy. Instead, it's an effort to define what different communities can and can't do.   Melanie Yeah, and I wouldn't even call these major legislation.   Both of the authors of these two e-bike bills, [Assemblymembers] Tasha Boerner and Damon Connolly, had started off with bills that were going to require a license to ride e-bikes, at least class 2 or class 3 e-bikes. I'll go over the classifications in a minute. They're all about speed and throttle and stuff like that. But it became pretty clear those bills were not going anywhere. So both of them changed them.    In Boerners case San Diego and in Donnelly's case Marin County - they allow local jurisdictions to create e-bike restrictions.    Borners would allow San Diego to pass an ordinance banning children under 12 and from riding class 1 or 2 e-bikes. You have to be 18 to ride a class three e-bike [already]. What is a class 3 e-bike? Let's see, [it's] a little complicated: You have to use the pedals. You can't use just the motor, but it can go up to like 28 miles per hour using pedals.   You have to be 18 to ride that kind of bike. So Boerner wants it to change it so no one under 12 can ride a class 1 e-bike, which has a little bit of pedal assist up to 20 miles an hour at the most, or class 2, which has a throttle assist up to 20 miles per hour. And then after that, you would have to use your pedals, but [a class 2] could go 28 miles per hour.   Connelly has a similar bill, but he doesn't want anyone under 16 [to ride]. So [his bill would] allow Marin to pass an ordinance to require people to be at least 16 to ride a class 2 e-bike. And they could, if they wanted to, [also] pass an ordinance requiring any e-bike rider to wear a helmet. Even adults.    So it's a problem because they're inconsistent. They're local ordinances. Local helmet ordinances from the get-go are a bad idea. There's a lot of people from Berkeley who ride into Marin. So like, what are they going to do suddenly? There's a different law for them over there?   Damien I remember down here when one city was talking about banning scooters and others weren't, and it was like, well, what's gonna happen to someone riding on a scooter when they cross a border…Is it just gonna, like, stop?   Melanie Yeah. Well, yeah, actually they can. They do put speed limiters on scooters! Not cars…not cars where they could really do some good.    Those [bills] are like mostly annoying. They both passed, though. They're on the governor's desk. He may well sign them. Whether San Diego and Marin County passed those ordinances is a different question.   Another e-bike bill was from Senator Dave Min, which is kind of [an] interesting [one]. First it says that any e-bike sold in California has to have an e-bike battery that is certified to be safe, either the UL or the EU certification [or the like]. People are worried about battery fires and that would prevent that.   It's not without its controversy because when they were talking battery standards for the e-bike incentive program, there were a lot of bike sellers who were mad about that. They were selling bikes that didn't have that certification. And they were like, “they're fine!    But anyway, that passed. So if he signs it, they'd have to be certified.   And then the other thing that [the bill] did was clarify the definition of e-bikes. The reason that was an issue was because there is at least one manufacturer that makes these bikes that they sell as class 2 ebikes.    So class 2 has a throttle assist and you can go with the throttle up to 20. With pedaling you can go up to 28 miles an hour. So they were selling these as class 2 e-bikes, but they had a switch on them that would allow them to go “off-road.” [That would allow them to] go way faster with just the throttle, which means they're basically mopeds. Min's bill made those illegal. If  you sell something that's switchable, it's not an e-bike.   Wait, it's not illegal. It's a moped, which means, you know, age restriction and helmet restriction, etc. Because if you can go over 28 with a throttle, it…Yeah, that's not an e-bike.   And the thing is, like, how do you enforce that?   Can a cop tell from looking at it whether a bike is an actual class 2 e-bike or is it something else?   Damien So let's try and run down the rest of the legislation we had that we were going to at least touch on today.   Melanie Just a few things…One thing that passed that I think is really important because it makes me nervous is Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry worked really hard to get a bill passed that said you could not have any autonomous vehicle big rigs being tested on California roads unless there was a human operator present.   It was amazing how hard she had to argue for this.   Newsom had vetoed a similar bill last year, so he may veto this again. But meanwhile, the DMV is already … starting to put out draft regulations… for autonomous big rigs.   Isn't that fun to think about: driving on a road like Highway 5 and knowing the truck next to you has nobody in it?   If he signs this, there will have to at least be a person in the vehicle.   Damien Yeah, he's not, he's not signing that, I bet.   Melanie Maybe I can just like curl up in a ball and stay home for the rest of my life. Or they hurry up with that train so I don't ever have to get on a highway again.   Damien You saw the video? I mean, it looks like it's just about finished.   Melanie Uh no… but okay it's happening.   I would say one more more [bill] that's kind of cool is AB 2503 which gives a CEQA exemption for zero emission trains. There's a problem with that, of course, as it's another way that they're poking holes in CEQA instead of just reforming CEQA, and also it specifically says zero emission trains and people are still calling hydrogen trains zero-emission trains, and they don't understand why I refuse to do that. So, okay…a CEQA exemption for clean energy trains.   We need that, but still it's not great.   Senator Blakespear had got passed SB 689 so that you would not need to conduct a study to convert a vehicle lane into a bike or a transit lane in coastal areas. That was specifically to overcome problems with the Coastal Commission process.    And then there's another one, AB 3177. Streets for All sponsored it, and it's a little wonky. It says that you cannot require a new housing project to pay a mitigation fee to be used towiden a road. So that's big. And then there's one more, AB 2086, which calls for more transparency from Caltrans -  they have to create a dashboard that shows their funding which is very complicated   None of these have been signed, however.   Damien Right. None of these have been signed. Based on previous years, some of them might not be slam dunks, but if people have heard anything today that they want to weigh in on - again, you can contact your governor. Sorry. It's a little play of words off the, you know, contact your representative today. Contact your governor. It's the same governor I have. I think he's in state right now. So it's a good time to get him   So again, if you want to talk to us about this in person, we will be in San Francisco next week at Manny's in the Mission at 6 PM on Thursday. Feel free to stop by. Feel free to buy a ticket. Feel free to say hello. More information on that event is on Streetsblog California and Streetsblog  San Francisco, and of course, links to all of that are included with the text that accompanies this podcast.    Thank you for your time today, Melanie, and we will talk to you again probably at the end of the year. We'll talk about which of these bills have been signed and not signed and what we're looking forward to in 2025, which is getting closer.

This week's SGV Connect returns to our regular formula with a pair of interviews by Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. First, Chris interviews Melissa Mora Hidalgo, a queer entertainment writer living in Whittier. The interview goes back and forth between fun and serious, as the two discuss both her work and the performative allyship that occurs during Pride month. In short, Hidalgo would prefer a city that works to create safe environments for all its residents to one that puts up rainbow flags one month a year. You can read a transcript of the interview here. After that, Damien interviews Jonah Kanner, an advocate for safer streets with the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition. Kanner recently authored a post for PCSC's blog entiteled, "Pasadena Is Almost a 15-Minute City." Kanner explains what a 15-minute city is, and what little things Pasadena can do to come ever-closer to joining the 15-minute club. You can read a transcript of the interview here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Did we mention SGV Connect won a big award at the L.A. Press Club this week? Read all about it here.

This week's SGV Connect podcast is a special episode where the Streetsblog San Gabriel Valley team, Chris Greenspon, Joe Linton and Damien Newton, sit down and discuss the great success that was ArroyoFest 2023. All three were at the event but experienced it differently with Linton and his family biking the route, Newton completing the "Run the 110" 10k race and Greenspon walking along the 110 later in the morning. Of course, this is Streetsblog so we also discuss what the success of the event could mean for future open streets and open freeway events in the region and Newton even dreams of permanent freeway closures and replacements. A lightly edited transcript of the podcast appears after audio links. There's also one correction that's noted in the transcript but not the audio. At one point Newton states there were 1,700 people that completed the race. The number is actually over 4,000. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast. Transcript: (Note: Text in italics is audio that was taken during ArroyoFest itself.) Chris Greenspon  0:09   Hi, it's Chris Greenspon You're listening to SGV Connect #120, our ArroyoFest after special. We're going to take you through our experience. We all did a different mode of transportation there. And we all recorded some on site narration of the things we were experiencing, seeing and hearing. You're gonna hear that kind of audio laced into the episode throughout. So anyway, Damian hit us with that ad copy. Damien Newton  0:34   Oh, right. Well, this and every episode of SGV Connect is sponsored by Foothill Transit. Offering car free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to go Gold Line Stations across the Foothill and the Silver Streak into downtown Los Angeles. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit at Foothill transit.org Foothill Transit! Going good places. Joe Linton  0:53   This is Streetsblog editor Joe Linton, reporting from the off ramp to the Avenue 60. On the 110 freeway on the morning of ArroyoFest. My daughter and I are here got up at the crack of dawn. It's colder than I thought it'd be but it's warming up, I can see the sun arriving. And it's not quite crowded yet with cyclists but there are definitely 10s...probably hundreds of cyclists. Damien Newton  1:26   Alright, so I am near the starting line now. And there are 1000s of people in front of me and we are 18 minutes away from the start. So this is going to be a pretty pretty big race, maybe the biggest 10k I've done attendance wise. I do look forward to seeing the final numbers for this, this is going to be a big, well attended race. Chris Greenspon  1:53   I'm walking towards the 110 on Orange Grove Avenue just past the cover band and a row of porta potties. Both are always an encouraging sight and sound at these open streets events. We're about to get on the 110. And now let's talk about what we and so many other people have glowingly said about ArroyoFest, Joe. Joe Linton  2:19   Yeah, I think I mean, this is some people have been saying this online, but I think it really had some of the energy of the of the very first open streets event in Southern California. I mean, actually ArroyoFest 2003 is sometimes as good as that. But CicLAvia itself started in 2010. And people didn't know what to expect. And just you know, 10s of 1000s of people, more than 50,000 people showed up and it was downright crowded. With bicycles, the walk side, you guys can probably speak to that but wasn't wasn't quite as crowded early on. It wasn't quite as crowded. But it really got to a point on the freeway, you know, where three lanes of three car lanes wasn't enough to hold lots of cyclist wishing by so there was a lot of slowing down and, y navigating space with other human beings, the things people do in cities around the world every day. Chris Greenspon  3:16   Yeah, it's almost like it should have been widened. Damien, what did you make of the vibe out there? And that was in jest, SGV Connect devotees? Please, Damien, and take over. Damien Newton  3:27   Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Chris, almost giving me a heart attack before you put the microphone out. Maybe if we had extended it instead of widening it. Anyway, usually when I do these types of events, I'm doing that with my family who is completely bored of hearing me drone on and on about the benefits for open streets events, or I'm doing them with other activists. So this was new for me, because I'm doing it with running groups, not just like my friends that run but like surrounded by people, and it was a different discussion. No one was talking about the broader impacts it was more "oh, it's gonna be cool, we get to run on the freeway." It was pretty much a vibe. But then when we were actually out there running there were "Oh, this is cool." There were people way more people stopping to take selfies, and I was...depending how you view it...I was either at the back of the fast group or the front of the middle group timewise. And so I was around people that were serious runners, and they were stopping and taking pictures. They were talking about how cool it was they were they were doing this race. This is not normal conversation for a race unless you're in like a themed race like a Disney Race or a Rose Bowl Race or something like that, where you're in a unique environment. And that's what it was. It was a unique environment. And if you're not a runner, most five and 10 k's are on streets that are closed. That's just that's how they do them. You're in downtown or you're in the west side or your wherever it is a lot of it's on the road...but on the freeway had a very different feel for people and you saw I see way more pictures from other runners than I'm used to for these types of events. Usually pictures are at the start of the end with your friends. They're not in the middle of the race. Joe Linton  4:55   Damien, can you can you talk about a little bit about like so what was the route? Also, I think something that's unusual on runs to is that they gave people tap cards right and forced you guys onto the train. So talk about like, where it started and where it ended and how it basically worked. Damien Newton  5:13   Well, it started. I'm about 200 yards away from the South Pasadena station and we ran onto the freeway. We actually ran north for a little bit just so that we could I guess, be at exactly 10k..runners don't want a 9.8k medal. So then we turned around and ran basically south to the end. And it ended at the activity center at the south end of the route. Joe Linton  5:32   Yeah, which is in the Lincoln Heights right? Cypress Park, close to Dodger Stadium. Damien Newton  5:38   It was. One of the theories that I had as to why...there was a lot of discussion online that we'll get into is...why are we doing this only until 11. I was like, well, when they were planning this, they didn't know if the Dodgers were going to be in the World Series. And that was probably part of it. I mean, it'd be really hard to have a Dodgers World Series game and have a chunk of the 110 close until just a couple hours before the game starts. I was thinking that that might have played into that decision making but yeah, it was right there. And a lot of runners got on the Gold Line to get there because between the heavily heavily heavily advertised lack of parking...I probably got an email from the Ron the 110 every day in the week before telling me not to bother to drive and park. Between that and the free tap cards not just free. tab cards unique tab cards, all I can show mine off to the people in the room with me. I would guess almost everybody that ran took Metro to get there. Joe Linton  6:29   And what was the run? Like? Was it quiet? Was it loud? Was it fast? What's what was what was actually being out there running on a freeway? What was your experience? Chris Greenspon  6:39   And downhill at that? Damien Newton  6:40   Well, I was gonna mention the downhill because I've well stated on this podcast and elsewhere, I was in a Halloween costume. And I was not expecting to have my strongest race day. But I did really well in large part because it was downhill. Also, I ran into one of my run partners who's in a lot better shape than me and she dragged me along with her. So that helps too. But yeah, it was a lot of it was downhill. There was more talking than usual on the race. But I mean, other than that, it was quiet. And I think the talking was people going "oh, wow, this is cool." Which I actually said a few times out loud to the people I was running with. My friend Juanna who I was out with, we talked about how this was like a really cool race. And she's the type of person that does like 40 mile races and stuff like that, like, you know, my marathons are wimpy. And she was like, "No, this race is fantastic. This is one I'm gonna remember." Joe Linton  7:31   The freeway is so crowded. Lots and lots, hundreds 1000s of bikes, people on bikes, escapes, wheelchairs, scooters, more people arriving by the minute. Chris Greenspon  7:46   Now this is a sight, we're finally coming down into the much more green area of the 110 just got under a bridge then of course, down straight away in the distance. You see Mount Washington, people waving Joe Linton  8:03   People getting lost people find each other. And it's it's I think it's one of the most crowded open streets events I've ever seen. And the walk side is just as crowded as the bike side. Damien Newton  8:14   Okay, so I am done the race. I have done the festival I have seen there were 1741 people registered for the 10k. (Note, this is wrong, there were 1741 people that had finnished the race when I checked my times on the app. There were actually over 4,000 people that ran the race). Of course, we saw plenty of people running along the route that were not signed up, which is great. You know, I wanted my fancy medal but not everybody does. And it was a it was a great time. It really was a unique experience. Got a lot of great pictures. A lot of fond memories. Hope I get to do this again before I'm 65. Now I'm gonna go back out and walk the route a little bit. Chris Greenspon  8:48   Okay, so now do you want to go into the wrinkles? of the show of the whole event? Joe Linton  8:54   Yeah, just some of the buzz online. A concern raised by some cyclist was...advocates...on you're not some cyclists called it a shitshow some some called the dangerous. There were a lot of crashes of cyclists here and there. I mean, and when I say a lot, it's probably, you know, 50,000 cyclists and you know, two dozen of them maybe fell or something. I should say 50,000 participants probably. That's a guess. But certainly 10s of 1000s of folks participating in any event and I'd say more than half of those. probably more than two thirds of those, would be bicyclists. So probably 30-40-50,000 bicyclists. I think that we we don't share space that well in Southern California and that's drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, people taking transit. We're not used to these spaces where there's lots of people, and everyone's moving, and we need to really look out for each other. I talked to my daughter, "You need to know who's behind you and who's in front of you." You know? Every day on Southern California freeway's one or more people die. The freeway was safer than you know, every day in Southern California. But  I think there were a lot of small scale crashes and probably a few broken bones. And anybody else want to touch on that? Chris Greenspon  10:35   I would say? One thing that maybe should have been a hard rule would have been none of the three wheeled scooters with the two in front. maybe I'm misunderstanding physics here, but it seems like those were easier to tip forward. I saw at least three or four kids fall straight forward onto the freeway. With those again, the the really flimsy three wheeled scooters, as opposed to like some of the more modern razors that look like they're set up pretty stable. What about you, Damien, did you observe any precociousness or precariousness? Speaker 2  11:10   Well, again, I was in a really different situation, almost a controlled environment as you're gonna get in that sort of event where you know, everybody was running. So there wasn't a lot.. I mean, we did see a person trip. But like, that's not unusual. I will say when, in the early morning when you're running, even if you're running fast on the southbound side, you're watching the bicyclists zip pass on the northbound side, some of them pretty fast. It wasn't very crowded yet. We were very happy for that separation. And I know some of the people that ran back the other way that I talked to afterwards said the same thing like that separation was great. As far as the people on two feet instead of two wheels were concerned...you two wheeled menaces you. So it was great. As far as we thought on foot. We didn't have the "Oh no, we're too crowded." It was like up there they are over there going much faster than we are. Chris Greenspon  12:01   Towards the end, I did see a few bikes on the walking side. Joe Linton  12:05   Yeah, I wondered that too:the speed differential. And so you had, four year olds on bikes with training wheels, and what they call MAMILS, middle aged men in lycra, fancy road bikes trying to get their miles in. And I think that there probably could have been some notice to...I hate to second guess the organizers did an awesome job...and this is sort of reaching for criticism, but  it's sort of slow cyclists on one side. If you're going less than eight miles an hour or something, you're welcome to be on the walk side. If you're willing to be really chill. It's kind of like bicycling on a sidewalk in LA. It's often a good choice, if you're willing to slow down. And if, if you want to go fast, it doesn't really make sense. Anyway, I hate to dwell on the small number of crashes with the so many people and so many smiles and people what was fun as event got going. So there's a concrete barrier that's maybe three, two or three feet wide at the top. And a lot of people were climbing up on the barrier and shooting selfies and getting the pictures of the freeway signs, Downtown to your right or whatever. It was really was a great vibe. It was it was fun to be in that space. And it's something where I think, "every CicLAvia is fun for me." And it's sort of like church. I had my great Sunday's whatever. And yet, there was a feeling at ArroyoFest, sort of like the first CicLAvia, that this was something big and new, and actually media wise, that has borne out. Open streets now under especially funded under Metro, there's maybe a dozen a year. Not quite one a month, but they rarely make the news. And this one, we got front page coverage in the LA Times lots of gorgeous photos. And TV news covered it. And how was your feed? Every other thing on my Instagram and Facebook was people's people's photos at this event. So it felt like it felt like a real happening and a real newsworthy thing. And not just another sequel?. Chris Greenspon  14:36   I think considering that. It was the first time that probably almost anybody...the majority of the people who participated ever got to do a thing like that go hang out on the freeway. The turnout scale was bound to be legendary. And with that considered, I think safety wise, it actually went pretty well. And honestly It was kind of nice that despite the like you said, the proliferation of media coverage, it was nice to go do something like this. And I didn't see a single TV camera the whole time. And I guess it feels like you can be more yourself. Maybe that was what I liked most about it. The sense of isolation, even though obviously, there was 10s of 1000s of people. It felt like being in another place in another world at times. Joe Linton  15:28   Yeah, it does. I mean, the quiet in the middle of the city in a space like that, it did feel kind of uncanny in some way. So let's talk about the future. I'm going to preface this with in 2009, everybody was like "CicLAvia will never work in Los Angeles" In 2010, we did it! I was one of the people who was working on the first one, although there were a lot of people doing it. I'm not the author. But I'm one of the one of the folks. And I think there was a sense after CicLAvia that, "This changes everything. We've demonstrated that if you build it, they will come." And yet, here we are, you know, a decade later. And I think less has changed than I would have hoped for at the time. So what's the implications for the future for this event? Chris Greenspon  16:18   So I think this, without a doubt has to raise Active SGV's credibility with the entire San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments Consortium. I mean, they're already very well regarded. But in the towns where they haven't really done much yet. I think this gives them if not a blank check, a very, very, very strong resume point. I mean, being having a successful event on the cover of the LA Times makes me wonder whether we might see an event on on Temple, in La Puente,, in Baldwin Park over to Walnut. That's something I would enjoy personally. But I can't imagine that we will not be seeing more Active SGV open streets events, especially along the L line as those continued to complete in the coming years. Joe Linton  17:06   So I do think that yes, it will make Active SGV, who did a phenomenal job, getting all the permits and organizing them in and bringing it all together. I think it'll make them more in demand for doing 66 Golden Streets. Communities can see this, the success and the happiness of stuff like this and ask for more open streets. But I also wonder, going beyond events to permanent treatments of public space. I think that car free space is at such a premium in Los Angeles. And people go to malls and the beach and stuff like that. And they have this experience of sharing space. And I think we need to look at our downtowns, Los Angeles, of course, but Pasadena and all the you know, these A Line stations. You guys call it the L Line, I call it the A Line or the Gold Line. I think we do need to look at instead of, you know, widening streets and building massive parking structures around our transit stations, to look at where can we do Paseos and bike facilities and shared space that we keep cars out of that people can come together in? That's what I hope grows out of it.  I think we've accepted, "we" being Southern California, we've accepted that we can come together for CicLAvia you know, for 626 Golden Streets, for ArroyoFest, once a month, twice a month, but I think we do need to look to can we do this, if not 24/7, even weekends.  Why don't we close a few blocks of a street in historic downtown area in Arcadia for example. But why don't we do that, you know, every weekend for two months during the summer or something like that. So why don't we make this space proliferate? And if it's too hard to close the street permanently? Can we do it all weekend? Can we do it for a season? Can we do it for four Sundays in a month or something like that? So I think there's kind of so I'm talking about there's kind of two ends of the open street spectrum: one is massive event like Heart of LA orArroyoFest, you know, close and iconic area, bring lots and lots of people. But I think the other end is important too. It's a little bit more like a farmers market. Can we take an area and actually I mean, the folks you've written about...the Complete Streets plan in El Monte... and looking at revitalizing some of the downtown areas that are having trouble drawing in customers. Activate that space by keeping cars out of it, and bringing music and vendors and people into it. And I don't know I say all this and I'm not, I don't want to be naive that that's an easy task. That's against the grain of what of what we do in Southern California. But these carfree spaces are really are important, are precious, and are perhaps the future of bringing people together.  Chris Greenspon  20:37   What I want to go out on is...nonstop we were hearing leading up to this, you know, in our previous interview with Marcus and Robert, about the history of ArroyoFest and people were saying, you know, just regular everyday people were saying, "Oh, who knows this isn't going to happen again, for 20 years." That joke certainly got beaten to death. But I'm wondering in your seasoned opinions. Do you think that within a more reasonable timeframe, we can do an open freeway event again, maybe not on the 110? And if so, where would you suggest but do you think it's within grasp? Joe Linton  21:16   Yeah, I mean, I think the wild rousing success of ArroyoFest says there's an appetite for this, that this is a fun thing, and that Angelenos will show up. I think you need to pick a freeway that's close to transit. A lot of freeways are really boring spaces that I think the Arroyo Seco Parkway, the 110 Freeway between downtown and Pasadena is probably head and shoulders, the most picturesque freeway on the west coast...maybe not the west coast, but certainly in Southern California. But I think you have to pick it well. I think you can't just say, "Hey, we're gonna close the, the 405 in Westwood, everybody show up." There's folks thinking about this at Active SGV at CicLAvia that could probably figure out where, where it makes sense to do it. But it is very difficult to work with Caltrans to repurpose Caltrans space for anything other than lots and lots of cars all the time. And I think there there are glimmers of change at that. But when you do a bike path project, and it takes three inches of Caltrans space away, it takes decades to get that project approved. And I think some of that's changing, but I mean, hopefully the success of a royal fast helps pull Caltrans into a more multimodal acceptance of this sorts of shared space. But I've perhaps been in the trenches too long to expect that we'll see ArroyoFest three anytime soon, and that we'll see other open streets events on freeways soon, but I hope I'm wrong. Damien Newton  23:03   Well, and there's the holy grail to have a freeway closure. I mean, on the west side, we had the 90 freeway debate briefly. We talked about possibly doing a study and the local advocacy group Streets for All was his was trying to get a federal grant to do a study and everyone seemed on board with it. And then a couple of neighborhood councils found out about it and flipped out because that's the role of our neighborhood council system to flip out and stop good things from happening. And they were successful. The mayor was, I believe one person said it might have been Ted Rogers, that she was "for it before she was against it." And she came out against it. And these freeway closures, though that I mean...that's after CicLAvia for a couple of years, we had pretty good momentum and building bike infrastructure. And as far as I mean, some of it was Sharrows. But 2010 We were happy just to get Sharrows some places. You know, Villaraigosa had, Mayor Villaraigosa the mayor of LA, had a goal for 200 miles of bike infrastructure year, including those dastardly sharrows. But still, it was happening and there was momentum and for whatever reason, maybe it's Villaraigosa got rid of the low hanging fruit. Maybe it's because Garcetti was too tactical, but that momentum really stalled and fizzled during the Garcetti years. So is the momentum here to do another ArroyoFest? Or is the momentum to go that big next step and look at the freeways that aren't seeing huge volumes of traffic, aren't seeing a regular influx of cars and say, "do we need this or can we do something else with this land?" The 90 may be off the table now, thanks to some crazy angry people. But they've been entirely... Joe Linton  24:36   ...It does look like it lost a lot of momentum. But I don't think it's a shut book just yet.  Speaker 2  24:42   That's exciting for me. But, you know, the battle over the 710 extension was was decades and I think that ArroyoFest shows that maybe we don't need those freeways, especially the ones that aren't your commuter freeways. And that's a lot of land to do something else with. They always say, "we're not growing more land or making more land," but we kind of can if we repurpose land that's not being utilized to the best extent that it is. Chris Greenspon  25:06   Well, that's a fabulous note to go out on. Joe Linton  25:09   Well, actually one one more closing note.  I heard at least a few folks showed up at a row fest that was their first open streets event. So there are regular open streets events, and the next one coming up is in South LA on Martin Luther King Boulevard, the date is December. Damien Newton  25:30   I think it's the 3rd but I'm looking at I think it's December 3, but I'm just double checking it, but it's definitely the first Sunday in December. Joe Linton  25:36   Yes, the first time in December. We think it's December 3 on Martin Luther King Boulevard in South LA. So check them out there. They're always a treat. And I think they do give you a sense of what NLA that's less totally festooned with cars might look like. Chris Greenspon  25:54   All right, well, that wraps us up for SGV Connect 120. In the meantime, listen to these sounds of ArroyoFest. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon catch up with Alhambra Councilmember and State Senate candidate Sasha Renée Pérez on the state of her candidacty and what is going on in Alhambra. The interview, the first in a series on the election, pings back and forth between her work in Alhambra and her vision for Senate District 25 This is Pérez's third time on SGV Connect. To listen to the other podcasts, click here. To read a transcript of the interview, click here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of Downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit foothilltransit.org. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays, and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

It's mid-December, and that means it's time for our annual end-of-the-year SGV Connect Podcast featuring not just Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon, but also Streetsblog LA Editor Joe Linton and Streetsblog California Editor Melanie Curry. After that, we have one last interview by Chris with John Axtell published a literary zine this year about the landscape and culture of the SGV. John and Chris talk quite a bit about open spaces, and rebuilding the industrial wastelands around the 605. But first, Curry kicks off the podcast with a review of the legislation and other decisions made in Sacramento that have and will impact how the San Gabriel Valley grows and changes in the coming decades. In October she wrote an overview of some of the biggest pieces of legislation that the Governor signed (or didn't sign) and earlier this week she wrote a very early review of what could happen in the legislature in 2023. Next, Joe Linton discussed some of the changes that will be happening with the L.A. County Government and with Metro. The agency celebrated the restoration of service to pre-pandemic levels in the last month. New County Supervisors, and a new L.A. Mayor, signal that some other changes could be coming to the agency soon. Closing out the first portion of the podcast, Chris updates on the two biggest stories covered after he took over the beat from Kris Fortin: The Bus Rapid Transit concepts from the SGV Transit Feasibility Study and when County supervisors tossed out an activist appeal to slow construction on 85 condo units on a decommissioned school site in Hacienda Heights. To read a transcript of the interview beteen Chris and John Axtell, click here. To read a transcript of the discussion between the Streetsblog team, click here. Before we close out SGV Connect for the year, we wanted to remind everyone that Streetsblog L.A. is a non-profit and relies on reader donations to continue publishing. Even though our SGV regional coverage is sponsored, we need reader donations to maintain our story budgets and independent voice. Please consider making a tax-free donation today. Get started by clicking here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays, and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

This week sees a special #SGV Connect podcast with Damien Newton interviewing Habib Balian, the executive director of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority. As we publish this podcast, the Authority is holding a press conference to celebrate the 50% completion point of the current Gold Line extension out to Pomona. For a full transcript of our interview, click here. Read the press release for today's event, here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Sign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays and catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn,iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

In this week's SGV Connect, Kris Fortin marches with protestors in cities throughout the San Gabriel Valley and brings us their voices direct from the rallies and marches. Kris also discusses his experience at the protests with his broadcast partner, Damien Newton, and how activism is changing in the San Gabriel Valley. You can read, and see, more of Kris' experiences at an article published at Streetsblog last week. One of the protests Kris attended on June 7 was in response to police violence that occurred the weekend before. On June 4 of last week, a lawsuit was filed against El Monte police officers involved who injured protestors through necklocks and chokeholds at the end of May. Last week, on June 9, the city announced that it was suspending the use of the "carotid choke hold" more commonly known as the "sleeper hold". If people want to get involved with the protests, Kris recommends following SGV Progressive Action, Pasadena Black Lives Matter, and Pomona Protests. Second, Damien talks with Eric Pierce, the editor of the Greenleaf Guardian in Whittier. Eric broke the news of a small-business-led effort to close a portion of Greenleaf Avenue in Whittier's downtown to car traffic to claim the space for retail and restaurant expansion during the COVID-19 crisis. After our interview, the plan was temporarily put on hold as the city is purchasing bollards and other devices to place around the expanded pedestrian/shopping/dining areas for safety. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

Welcome to the first episode of SGV Connect in 2020! This week's episode features Francisco Ojeda of Active SGV and Melanie Curry of Streetsblog California discussing the big stories of 2019 and what we can look forward to in 2020. First, Kris Fortin interviews Ojeda with Active SGV. The two discuss a wide range of issues that Active SGV is engaged with, including its roots in bike advocacy but also a wider discussion of climate change and social justice. After that, Damien Newton and Curry discuss some of the big stories of 2019 and how they will bridge into the issues of 2020. Of course, there's a long discussion of how we measure transportation impacts in the state, but also super-commutes and S.B. 50. (Note: the conversation between Newton and Curry happened before Senator Weiner reintroduced S.B. 50). SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

We're trying something new this week, both by hosting two podcasts in the same week and by conducting our first interview. This episode both Damien Newton and Kris Fortin interview David Diaz, the director of the Streetsie Award-Winning Supergroup, Active SGV. We cover a lot of ground in this one, so if you're looking for more information, check out these links to both past episodes of SGV Connect and links to Active SGV's website: Updates for "Streets and Treats" at the 626 Golden Streets website. A list of outreach events, including one tonight, can be found below the podcast. Past efforts to preserve open space in the San Gabriel Mountains with Representative Judy Chu. Active SGV's legislative agenda in Sacramento Bike Friendly Businesses (SGV Connect 24) and an update from Active SGV. A quick programming note, we promised an update on Foothill Transit in our "next episode" earlier this week. That interview is still coming, but since we spoke so much about tonight's meeting, we wanted to get this one live as quickly as possible. Look for that interview and much more in September. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

This week, SGV Connect looks at two issues impacting rideshare in the San Gabriel Valley.  First, Kris Fortin interviews Mike Long, spokesperson for Mobile Workers Alliance, the umbrella group started by SEIU 721 to organize rideshare workers. Stories of Uber and Lyft drivers striking and demanding better wages have been a hot story locally and nationally. Fortin and Long dive into local efforts to improve the salaries and lives for rideshare workers. Next, Damien Newton speaks with Maria Sullivan, the point person for Metro's contract with Via, a private rideshare partner. This Spring, Metro launched a pilot program where Via would operate around three areas including 13 bus and rail stations. To further its efforts to reach riders, the subsidized program is now completely free to transit riders who either begin or end their trip at one of the transit stations. More information on the program and the thirteen stations served, can be found here. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

Welcome to the last episode of SGV Connect for 2018. Today, Kris Fortin and Damien Newton talk with Joe Linton and Melanie Curry. The two Streetsblog editors join us to discuss some of the big stories from 2018 and what we're looking forward to in 2019.  Gas taxes debates, Proposition 6 and Keep Pasadena Moving are in our rear-view helmet mirror and the 626, the last chance to halt climate change and, well, Keep Pasadena Moving are on the road ahead. #SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.” Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

Damien Newton from Streetsblog LA (https://la.streetsblog.org/) lends his transit expertise to this week's show, along with comedian Adam Yenser. The conversation goes in depth on LA transit issues like electric scooters, "road diets" and whether they hurt local businesses, Vision Zero, and numerous other transit nerd topics. Plus: a very special talk radio interview, the definition of a "bollard," and someone on the show was late! Can you guess who? Isaac's full interview with Mark Thompson: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/conway-on-demand-20635767/episode/conwayshow-101-he-was-29930696/ (starts at 33:01) Adam Yenser: http://adamyenser.com/ Damien Newton's contributor page on Streetsblog LA: https://la.streetsblog.org/author/damien/

Welcome to a special podcast from Streetsblog California. Former SBLA and SBCAL editor Damien Newton interviews Elise Roy. Roy will be the opening speaker at this year's PEDS COUNT 2018 summit by California Walks. Roy is the founder of a consulting firm by the same name that specializes in helping designers understand how people with disabilities and other excluded communities experience the world. This process leads to better design of streets, better design of buildings buildings and, well, better design of everything else. PEDS COUNT is the fifth summit programmed by California Walks and attracts advocates, academics and civil servants to two day event that is part conference and part call to action. This year's summit will be in San Jose on October 18-19. If you want more information, or to register, please visit the summit website at the California Walks homepage. If you'd like to hear more about Elise Roy, she's also been featured on a TED Talk, that you can watch by clicking here.

In Monterey Park, the city council narrowly passed a plan to improve bicycle and pedestrian access throughout the city. In this week's SGV Connect, Kris Fortin talks to Henry Low about the state of play for bicycle advocacy in the city and its next steps. Low, a member of the Monterey Park Unified School District Board, also discusses what role schools can take in creating healthier communities with improved access to public space.   Later, Damien Newton talks to Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry about the ballot proposition that would repeal a recently enacted state gas tax. The funds raised would be used to repair roads and highways as well as improve transit throughout the state. However, the tax has become a political football, and Republicans are hoping to use it to score some electoral wins in November.   Coming Next Month: a preview of Pride of the Valley Open Streets event.   SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”   Catch past episodes of SGV Connect and #DamienTalks on LibSyn, iTunes, Google Play, or Overcast.

In today's Ask the Editor podcast, Streetsblog contributors Damien Newton, Melanie Curry, Jason Islas, and Kristopher Fortin talk about some of the main stories Streetsblog California covered in 2016. But we didn't get very far, because there are so many stories to talk about. Streetsblog California covers statewide issues, which tend to be policy-focused and wonky, but we also cover local stories that reflect the influence of those policies on the ground. Right now we have Kris Fortin covering Orange County, and Minerva Perez reports on local issues in the Central Valley. We'd like to be able to cover local stories all over the state, to help local advocacy efforts learn from each other, but we are limited in our capacity, both in time and manpower. Womanpower. Peoplepower. Which brings us to the reminder that these podcasts are also fundraisers. Please click here to donate to Streetsblog California to support unique coverage of the issues you care about. Those issues include the gas tax bill, S.B. 1. In the podcast, we talk about how this long-overdue gas tax increase raises money for needed infrastructure maintenance. Over the last year we reported on how the bill got passed and what the final bill ended up including. We followed up with reporting on how state agencies in charge of transportation funding have been formulating guidelines to spend the money wisely and, we hope, not just on building new roads that will mean more needed maintenance in the future (and won't solve congestion). Here, we also touch on the effort to repeal the bill, which would be a giant step backwards. See the S.B. 1 website, here, which is the state's first move towards advertising the benefits coming from the gas tax: “Your Tax Dollars At Work.” We also talk about the Active Transportation Program, which got a shot in the arm from S.B. 1—doubling funding for the program over the next ten years—and which in turn is kind of a poster child for the state to show immediate results from S.B. 1. And that brings its own complications, including the possibility that not-so-great projects could get funding just because they do something for bikes or pedestrians, rather than create a true transformation in the way planning for active transportation happens. As Melanie points out in the podcast, transformational change is a slow process, but in California, it is going in the right direction. Sometimes. Finally, we attempt to answer one of the questions we got from readers in response to our previous podcasts. This question was related to S.B. 1. Getting Around Sac asked: how much of the state's road projects are paid for by state gas taxes? And the answer is: we don't know, and we're not sure anyone else has pinned down the answer. That's because the state's transportation funding system is complex beyond belief, even without the so-called gas tax swap that will eventually be repealed by S.B. 1. Here's a link to some Caltrans charts that explain it in less than three hours. But to the question: even with the new, higher taxes, state gas taxes probably don't cover a much larger portion of road charges than they did in 2015, when it was about 25 percent. In that year, more than half of all transportation spending was from local tax measures, many of which are sales taxes. Which means, to answer an unstated but underlying question: no, roads are still not paid for mostly by gas taxes. Here are some references for people who like to delve into the complexities of transportation funding. A Legislative Analyst Office report here describes S.B. 1 in some detail. And here's a report that takes apart the “user pays” myth of gas taxes. And remember to donate to Streetsblog California so we can continue to study and write about these issues and future ones, statewide and local.

Welcome to the third podcast in our end-of-year-fundraising series in which we address questions from you, our readers, about almost anything you want to know. Today our editors Damien Newton, Jason Islas, Melanie Curry, and Kristopher Fortin answer a few ringers in some perhaps unexpected ways. Damien thinks we may have gone off the rails a bit, but it all comes together to make some sense in the end. We addressed a question from Kathleen Ferrier, who asks:  (block quote) What are the top three strategies for countering inflammatory NIMBYism? What have you seen work? Jason, who has had plenty of experience in his advocacy work with Santa Monica Next, thinks the first strategy is to get rid of labels. Our answers, in brief: pay attention, don't assume, and be human. While “Not In My Backyard” knee-jerk opposition to efforts to fix things is definitely a problem, it doesn't always stem from the reasons you might suspect, and you have to listen to find out what underlies people's objections to change. Our second question is kind of related, in that it demands a human response. Jeff Tumlin asks: Why don’t we talk more about the neuroscience of mobility? Like how being stuck in congestion triggers our fight-or-flight responses, shutting down the prefrontal cortex of the brain and reducing our ability to think through the consequences of our actions? Or why hopping on a bike can bring simple joy, and trigger the biological precursors of social trust? Listen in to hear how we think this should play out—and to hear about what might or might not have been a response to last week's podcast about sidewalks. And don't forget that we are asking for donations to keep Streetsblog California alive and well into the next year. Please support our work by clicking here and donating today. Do you have a question you want us to talk about? Submit it in the comments below, or by email to melanie [at] streetsblog.org, or tweet them @streetsblogcal Support journalism that covers the issues you want to know about. Streetsblog California reports on issues few media outlets cover, and we can't do it without you. Click here to donate today.  

Streetsblog Editors Tackle Your Questions Welcome to the first podcast in our Ask the Editor series, in which the editors at Streetsblog California attempt to tackle your questions about almost anything you want to know. Today we discuss three of the questions we've received from our readers. Next week we will talk about more of them. You can still submit questions either by emailing them to melanie@streetsblog.org or tweeting them @streetsblogcal By the way, this is also a fundraiser. Yes, in this podcast we attempt to show how lovable we are, and how deserving of your support, because it's not enough that Streetsblog California brings you news about sustainable transportation that few other outlets report on. We also want you to know that we're kinda fun. And, it seems, a little bit wonky, if this podcast is anything to judge by. Please consider supporting to our work to bring you information about local and statewide policymaking, funding, and laws affecting your transportation options by clicking here and donating today. [LINK] You will hear Kris Fortin, our reporter in Orange County; Melanie Curry, editor of Streetsblog California and fearless explainer of wonky topics; Damien Newton, founding editor of Streetsblog LA and director of the Southern California Streets Initiative, which oversees all the Streetsblogs in California; and Jason Islas, Editor of Santa Monica Next and associate director of SCSI. In this inaugural podcast, we tackle three questions from readers and supporters. We were hoping for softballs, but you, dear readers, sent in some doozies. Or maybe we just like to talk too much. The first question was from our friend Pedal Love, who asks: “I believe that car crashes are the number one cause of preventable death in youth under 21—am I correct?” Yes, it turns out to be so—for youth ages 15 to 24, the most common cause of preventable death, according to the Center for Disease Controls, is car crashes. And they are the fifth most common cause of preventable death for people age 0 to 14.  The question is, why? Does it go up at age fifteen because that is when people start navigating traffic on their own? Maybe it has to do with the dearth of driver education in California, or the ease with which even inexperienced drivers obtain drivers' licenses. There's a lot to unpack here. The second question came from Marvin Norman, a regular reader and a member of the Streetsblog California steering committee. “When,” asks Norman, “will the VW Electrify America money start to show up in projects on the ground?” Damien tells us that the $2 billion settlement agreement between VW, the federal government and several states—with California, whose regulators caught VW cheating diesel emissions tests, at the forefront—is already on the ground in other states, and “coming soon” to California. A timeline, here [PDF], shows electric charging stations being planned and built by the end of 2018, and an electric car-share program being developed for a 2019 launch. On the ground:  https://electrek.co/2017/07/10/vw-ev-charging-network-electrify-america/ coming soon:  https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/vw_info/vsi/vw-zevinvest/documents/california_zev_investment_plan_supplement_062917.pdf The third question was from Jeffrey Tumlin, planner at NelsonNygaard, first leader and formulator of the Oakland Department of Transportation, and also a Streetsblog California steering committee member. His question was about congestion, and why we can't seem to solve it although we throw so much money at it. Transportation investments have a powerful effect on public health, land value, social equity, economic opportunity, CO2 emissions, air quality, and other values. But no transportation capital project has ever succeeded in reducing congestion – at best, all infrastructure does is congestion chokepoints around. Why in California do congestion metrics remain central to most transportation funding formulas and performance analyses? If California thinks of itself as a global leader, why don’t we learn from other countries in doing more sophisticated business case analyses to ensure good outcomes from our transportation tax dollars? A quick summary of the ensuing discussion, which does it no justice: because habit, inertia, lack of understanding of or belief in the concept of “induced demand,” political expediency, and funding.  But there is some hope. California is finally in the process of changing rules to require new developments to measure and report on how much vehicle traffic they produce instead of just how much congestion they produce. [LINK]  And the new gas tax will fund several programs that could help shift the focus away from just congestion. The Congested Corridors program, for example, will—if it's done right—invest in figuring out how to move people through congested corridors, not just cars. That program is set for adoption at the next California Transportation Commission meeting on December 6, so cross your fingers (or contact a commissioner). http://www.catc.ca.gov/programs/SB_1/103017_SCC_Draft_Guidelines.pdf http://www.catc.ca.gov/ctcstaff/members.htm Listen to the podcast, and please consider donating to Streetsblog California.

Welcome to the latest episode of SGV Connect, Streetsblog Los Angeles’ podcast covering the San Gabriel Valley, featuring hosts Damien Newton and Brian Velez. SGV Connect’s new episode includes a series of interviews conducted by Brian Velez on the pending report by the U.S. Department of the Interior examining whether or not previous administrations followed proper procedure in creating national monuments. A National Monument is a place of historic, scenic, or scientific interest set aside for preservation usually by presidential proclamation. The San Gabriel Valley National Monument covers 342,177 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 4,002 acres of neighboring San Bernardino National Forest. Velez interviews Congressmember Judy Chu and Los Angeles resident Roderick Burr, two supporters of keeping the San Gabriel Mountains Monument as it is. He also speaks with Glendora City Councilmember Judy Nelson, who opposed parts of the designation of the monument in 2014 but currently has a more supportive view. A final report, due in August, could decide whether or not Trump challenges the National Monument designation made by the previous administration. In the meantime, there is a lot of waiting, and a lot of unease, from supporters of the monument. #DamienTalks is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”

Welcome to the first episode of SGV Connect, the podcast formerly known as #DamienTalksSGV, covering the issues, places, people and events that impact mobility in the San Gabriel Valley. In this week's episode, Damien Newton interviews Habib Balian, the CEO of the Gold Line Foothill Construction Authority. Following a successful meeting earlier this week for potential contractors for construction, it seemed a good time to check back in on the next extension of the Gold Line. The Foothill Gold Line from Glendora to Montclair will extend the Metro Gold Line 12.3 miles and add stations in the cities of Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, and Montclair. Ground breaking will be this October, but construction won't be complete until 2025. SGV Connect is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”  

Special guest Damien Newton of Streetsblog LA joins Jeff and me on this episode to tell us all about LADOT's new strategic plan, which includes a Vision Zero goal: zero traffic deaths by 2025, a vision all of our cities should get behind. He walks us through the oddities of LA politics and the pitfalls that may await the plan, as well as some really good reasons it could succeed. (Her name is Seleta Reynolds.) Then Jeff and I move on to Helsinki, Finland, and its even more ambitious goal: Zero private cars by 2025. They have a plan to do it, which includes many elements that are already in place in the United States and that haven't -- yet -- brought us to zero cars. We talk about what Helsinki has in store that could get them to their goal. And then we research Finnish fauna. I know you're listening to this podcast on your phone while you're on on your bike or whatever, but when you get to a safe place to stop, shout at us in the comments.  And find us on iTunes and Stitcher and the RSS feed.

Colin Marshall sits down in Mar Vista with Streetsblog Los Angeles founder Damien Newton (and his young daughter). They discuss what Los Angeles transportation culture looked like from a distance before he came here (nonexistent); how he found himself covering the city's "turning point"; the advantages to getting around from just where chose to make his home, and the disadvantages that include having to take "the bus to the bus to the train to the train to the train" to Pasadena; the Expo Line's approach to his neighborhood, and what it has made him think about the ways communities can take advantage of new transit; Santa Monica as "basically paradise" (despite the rumors floating around there of  coming "soul-crushing traffic"); the relative prevalence of "kind-of car-freeness" in Los Angeles, and what makes the difference between it and other cities allowing absolute car-freeness; the city's early attempt at a bicycle network, like the time it put down "twenty miles of weird sharrows" over a weekend; the benefits of stoking a pretend infrastructure rivalry between Santa Monica and Long Beach; why Los Angeles simultaneously produces complaints about "being forced to drive" and "being forced out of our cars"; the importance to no longer building based on the effects on cars, but the effects on actual people; the generational change that has led some commentators to label young people unmotivated for their lack of driver's licenses; what has made bikes so much cooler today; Los Angeles' first Ciclavia, the initial dread that nobody would show up to it, and the instantaneous dispersal of that dread; the questions of how many times you can just report "This is awesome!" about an event like Ciclavia, and whether its future routes can "give South Los Angeles its due"; the difficulty of every firmly saying "this is Los Angeles," and the non-existence of most Los Angeleses seen in popular culture up to now; and the availability of something culturally new to learn every day in the city, even just on its surface.