Things to read whilst transiting: the ultimate guide to winning your white elephant gift exchange on the Five Thirty Eight blog. I ended up with a Rudolph mug after someone ‘stole’ a really cool marshmallow gun in a white elephant last week.
Things to listen to whilst transiting 2:
Art of Transit:
Chasing a climate deal in Paris (NYT)
Very nice landing page with many short and digestion-friendly articles on the ongoing summit in Paris. Two tidbits worthy of mention: scientists don’t believe the emerging deal will limit the average global rise in temperatures enough to prevent “catastrophic” damage from global warming.
And the theory that all those melting glaciers/icebergs will trigger a new ice age? Don’t bet it, says the Old Grey Lady.
Will we ever get a true car-free city? (The Guardian)
Toronto in lovely black and white. Photo by Steve Harris, via Flickr creative commons.
A number of European cities are working on proposals that would take roads from cars and give them to pedestrians and cyclists. Hamburg is one of them: “Hamburg, on the other hand, is currently making waves by enforcing an auto-ban on a number of urban roads to develop a network of route for pedestrians and bikes that link parks and open spaces together.
In North America, there’s talk of Toronto maybe getting a car-free street during rush hour. But that’s about it, although a number of cities are expanding transit and bike lanes.
Expo Line strikes truck and derails in Santa Monica (LAT)
Coverage of yesterday’s incident along Colorado Avenue — a truck turned left in front of a test train. The train runs down the middle of Colorado Avenue between 4th and 17th Street in Santa Monica, a street-running stretch in which there are no crossing gates and train operators follow traffic and train signals. There is testing scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday next week.
The American middle class is losing ground (Pew Research Center)
Excerpt:
After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it. In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined, a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.
Perhaps most troublesome is that there are more lower income households and middle income households have seen their accumulated wealth largely dampened by the Great Recession. Upper income households…not so much (surprise!).
Why am I including the headline here? Seems to me that a city with a lot of good mobility options — including transit — provides both a safety net for lower income households AND a way for other households to save money if they either don’t have to drive as much or perhaps need one less car.
Things to watch/listen to whilst transiting: take it away, Edna Vasquez…
From the Dept. of Go Metro: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are playing the Expo Line-adjacent Sports Arena on March 15 and 17. For those hoping to get tickets this morning, good luck! To my millennial friends: once upon a time at rock-n-roll shows, musicians played electric guitars, drums and saxophones — back before they got PowerBooks. If you have some spare coin, Springsteen is worth a look-see.
Recent How We Rolls:
Dec. 10: hey, so when is the Expo Line to SaMo opening?
Dec. 9: Uber’s latest biggish idea, health clinics at transit stops?
Dec. 8: L.A. Weekly’s Purple Line Extension skepticism, smog discounts in Bejiing
Dec. 3: a new name for Pasadena’s bus system, flying versus the environment.
Dec. 2: Monrovia considers loaning 1.5 million to restore Gold Line adjacent historic train depot
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