12/19/2023 0 Comments Freeway pro slideshow![]() See SBLA’s Twitter thread for a few more selected lowlights.Īccording to a December Measure M Oversight Committee report, Metro and Caltrans are continuing to hit snags on freeway widening projects currently under construction. SYNTHESIS SYNTHESIS SYNTHESIS – slide from Metro/Caltrans 710 Freeway Corridor Aesthetic Master Plan presentation These are the aesthetics of the 710 Freeway – slide from Metro/Caltrans 710 Freeway Corridor Aesthetic Master Plan presentation Opening slide of Metro/Caltrans 710 Freeway Corridor Aesthetic Master Plan presentationįreeways and aesthetics don’t mix all that well… and the slide show might make you laugh or cry. The Metro website has a 62-page slideshow about the plan, apparently developed about five years ago. It isn’t really news, but Streetsblog recently came across the I-710 Corridor Aesthetic Master Plan developed by Metro, Caltrans, and the Gateway Cities Council of Governments. Starting with this sort of car-centric “baseline” can Metro be trusted to come up with a truly “multi-modal investment strategy” for the corridor? Or will they just want to add more and more and more freeway lanes? 710 corridor diesel particulate matter – via Metro video The air there is heavily polluted with diesel particulate matter and several other pollutants. It is low-income, predominantly Latino and Black. The presentation does include useful information on the demographics of the corridor – and the pollution burden borne by people there. Metro’s narrator identifies himself as a driver speaking to an audience of drivers stating “as we know driving the freeway during the peak hours… often that is down to a crawl where you come to a stop in many locations” The 710 corridor is predominantly Latino, with Black people making up the next largest portion – via Metro video It details car congestion, delays, speeds below 45 or 35 mph, “bottlenecks,” etc. Metro’s presentation compares 710 car volumes to suburban Orange County freeways. Much of the Metro presentation focuses on making a case for widening the 710. (Hint for Metro’s intern: the only protected bikeways in the study area are in the city of Long Beach.) Some 710 Freeway “bottlenecks” – via Metro video Metro’s “Bike Routes ” map labels many bike paths as protected bikeways, and maps numerous protected bikeways in lots of places where they don’t exist: East L.A., Vernon, Carson, etc. The presentation emphasizes that there is “a lack of designated bike routes,” though cyclists know that bike routes are typically meaningless. River, when the river facility is actually a bike path. Metro’s video states that there is a “protected bike lane” along the L.A. (In addition to map errors, the photo shows a bike bridge in the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz – not the river path in the 710 corridor area.) Metro’s error-ridden slide of 710 corridor bikeways – via Metro video. The presentation further focuses on declining Metro ridership. ![]() Metro’s video incorrectly states that “Metro’s NextGen Bus Plan will result in changes…” though the agency already implemented the third of three planned sets of NextGen Bus Study changes in December 2021. 710 corridor transit baseline – via Metro video The transit and bike portions of Metro’s 710 baseline video are factually wrong. The video shows Metro biases toward highway widening. ![]() The meeting did feature highlights from a 30-minute Metro video purporting to outline the baseline conditions of the 710 Freeway corridor. Much of the task force meeting was about setting up more and more meetings, trying to get community members to commit to spending time on vaguely defined committees. (After decades of community resistance, the $6 billion 710 widening project was, in 2020-21, canceled by the EPA, paused by Caltrans, and suspended by the Metro board.) As SBLA noted before, the task force sure feels like a Metro tactic to waste the community’s time while running out the clock in hopes that the current heat on the project dies down. ![]() Yesterday, Metro hosted the fourth meeting of its recently-formed 710 Freeway widening task force. Latest on Metro’s 710 Widening Task Force Below is a round-up of several recent freeway stories that didn’t quite rise to the level of their own post.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |