California

One of the conclusions of a new study in the San Francisco Bay Area is that switching to electric and alternative fuel cars won't reduce the burden on households because ownership is the most significant expense. Thus, density is the only way out.

The California High Speed Rail Blog says that the biggest obstacle to building HSR in California isn't the cost, but a number of problems with the planning process, especially the California Environmental Quality Act.

In this op-ed, Verlyn Klinkenborg posits that cycling, at least on the Stanford campus, is more about asserting one's identity than anything else.

It's the largest redevelopment project since the great earthquake of 1906: 702 acres, 10,500 residential units, a shipyard brownfield cleanup, and a new stadium (hopefully) for the 49ers. The Environmental Impact Report has just been released.

As traffic congestion has worsened, so has the philosophical divide between LA and Orange counties in terms of how to address it.

The Gold Line extension served 75,000 riders for its grand opening, but ridership dropped by over two-thirds for its first weekday operations.

An extension of one of L.A.'s light rail lines opened this past weekend. Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne offers a hopeful prediction that the extension will inspire an improvement in streetlife.

California Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered state officials to seek federal funding only for the state's high-speed rail project--at the expense of efforts to make Metrolink trains safer, some say.

Many in Sacramento and California's Central Valley are concerned that they aren't being prioritized in the process to get high-speed rail moving.

Parking by the Giants Stadium costs $1 less an hour than before the pilot program began, but on 'game days', the rate shoots up four-fold. Parking rates are not set daily but hourly by time of day, and have become quite profitable.

The Valley Transportation Authority plans to release its final report on a bike share program by the end of the year.

A critical look at the football stadium proposed for outside Los Angeles, called "green" architecture, but it seems the costs will far outweigh its benefits.

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and Kaiser Permanente are teaming up to offer safety training, bike helmets, and lights to day laborers.

The state of California is unveiling an effort to create a detailed strategy for how the state should grow. The ambitious plan is being kickstarted with a modest $2.5 million investment.

That was the message of nonprofit San Francisco Beautiful in their successful campaign to stop Proposition D, which would have created a special sign district in the mid-Market area in hopes of revitalizing it.

Put the chief planners of seven of North America's most progressive cities in a room and ask about their challenges, they inevitably point to the overriding role of the political leaders they serve. Expanding public open space also was raised.

Victorville, CA is a textbook case of the housing bubble gone wrong. Moving forward, Warren Karlenzig argues that places like Victorville show the need to consider a new paradigm of density and efficiency moving forward.

A new study from ULI details the transportation costs for households around the San Francisco Bay Area, and finds that SFers spend on average $500 less each month than suburban dwellers in the area.

It's no surprise when voters in the college town of Davis, California, say no to a housing development. But it is a surprise when Modesto says "whoa" to growth, and when development-averse Santa Barbara and Ventura reject new controls.