Even as the city highlights clean energy and transportation for the 2028 Olympics, Metro and Caltrans move forward with plans to expand highways.

In a piece in Streetsblog Los Angeles, Wes Reutimann argues that plans to expand roadways in Los Angeles County will only exacerbate the air quality problems the region already faces. “Yet Metro and Caltrans are still moving forward with plans to expand highways across LA, in a fruitless effort to ‘relieve congestion’ once and for all.”
Reutimann points out that those plans will disproportionately affect communities along major freeways that are already some of the nation’s most polluted. “According to the CA Air Resources Board’s 2017 Scoping Plan, we will neither reach our air quality nor our climate goals unless we reduce how much we drive. Seven years later we have yet to align our transportation spending with science.”
Reutimann suggests that Metro and Caltrans could make better use of existing highway footprints to add tolled or HOV lanes and spend the savings on maintenance and multimodal projects. “Given everything we know now, more pollution, displacement, and destruction cannot still be an option. As L.A. prepares to host what’s touted as the greenest Olympic Games yet, the Metro Board should turn the page on this history of misguided, myopic, and auto-centric transportation planning.”
FULL STORY: Wider Won’t Work: Wider Highways Are a Prescription for an Unhealthy Future

Trump Administration Could Effectively End Housing Voucher Program
Federal officials are eyeing major cuts to the Section 8 program that helps millions of low-income households pay rent.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Ken Jennings Launches Transit Web Series
The Jeopardy champ wants you to ride public transit.

Driving Equity and Clean Air: California Invests in Greener School Transportation
California has awarded $500 million to fund 1,000 zero-emission school buses and chargers for educational agencies as part of its effort to reduce pollution, improve student health, and accelerate the transition to clean transportation.

Congress Moves to End Reconnecting Communities and Related Grants
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved to rescind funding for the Neighborhood Equity and Access program, which funds highway removals, freeway caps, transit projects, pedestrian infrastructure, and more.

From Throughway to Public Space: Taking Back the American Street
How the Covid-19 pandemic taught us new ways to reclaim city streets from cars.
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