Pasadena got out in front of the state of California this week by replacing "level of service" with a more holistic, less car-centric, set of standards for review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
"On November 3, Pasadena’s City Council voted unanimously to ditch the car-centric measure of mobility called 'level of service,' or LOS," according to a post on the Boyonabike! blog.
The change at the local level occurs as the state is working to revise its Level of Service requirements as a part of the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Pasadena Department of Transportation staff report to the Pasadena City Council [pdf] explains the policy change, which would replace "two existing Transportation Performance Measures with five new Transportation Performance Measures and Set Thresholds of Significance for CEQA for the new measures." Those five new measures, as listed by the staff report: "Vehicle Miles Traveled Per Capita," "Proximity and Quality of the Transit," "Pedestrian Accessibility," Vehicle Trips Per Capita," and "Proximity and Quality of the Bicycle Network."
Boyonabike! also adds this commentary on how and why LOS was shown the door: "The policy change was developed and proposed by the staff at Pasadena DOT and is a critical element of Pasadena’s efforts to become a more environmentally-friendly city by encouraging multi-modal transportation, and denser, mixed-use development downtown."
FULL STORY: An End to LOS in Pasadena
Day One of the National Planning Conference—Reunions, Pandemic Planning, Equity, and VMT
The American Planning Association gathers for its first in-person National Planning Conference since 2019. Planetizen is in attendance, and here is some of what we saw on the first day of the conference.
The Final Days of 'Level of Service' in California's Environmental Review Process
A long-awaited draft update of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has finally been released, and Level of Service will finally be a thing of the past in the next two to four years.
California Environmental Law Continues to Frustrate Bike Planning (for Now)
Help is on the way. The law that requires the governor's planning office to devise an alternative method for measuring vehicle traffic for environmental compliance will also take up where an earlier law that exempted bike lanes from CEQA left off.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association