Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
CalTrans
Solo drivers in the Golden State will have more options to escape traffic congestion on busy freeways – for a price, as transportation agencies increasing decide to convert existing carpool lanes to high-occupancy toll lanes and add new ones.
Los Angeles Times
The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, connecting the East Bay and the North Bay near San Francisco, is 63 years old, but a local elected official is thinking about how to replace it.
The Mercury News
Unlike for land use regulations, state law doesn't require Caltrans to switch from Level of Service to Vehicle Miles Traveled in measuring the environmental impact of projects. The state department of transportation is making the change anyway.
Streetsblog California
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order last month directing state agencies to consider climate goals in their spending and operations. Two weeks later, three highway widening projects were deleted, and locals are crying foul.
Streetsblog California
California Governor Gavin Newsom over the weekend vetoed a bill that would have required the state's department of transportation to consider public transit as well as bike and pedestrian infrastructure when planning projects on state-owned roads.
San Francisco Chronicle
What could have been the first new freeway for Los Angeles County in decades might now only mark the end of an era.
Streetsblog LA
The San Francisco Chronicle offers a round-up of 11 big transit projects, by Caltrans, BART, SFMTA, and others, making progress around the bay.
San Francisco Chronicle
State and county officials gathered on Friday to celebrate the start of a $514 million project to convert carpool lanes to express lanes and connect auxiliary lanes to make for a lane addition. The 32-mile project on Highway 101 opens in 2022.
San Mateo Daily Journal
An upcoming project will raise the clearance height of connectors, but construction is expected to bring even more delays to the heavily used network.
San Francisco Chronicle
Sen. Scott Wiener introduced legislation to make state highways that run through villages, town, and cities, often acting as main streets, accommodate the safety needs of walkers, cyclists, and transit users when undergoing capital improvements.
Streetsblog California
After more than 60 years, a slew of new road projects will leave the debate about the Interstate 710 gap in the past.
Pasadena Star-News
Caltrans says signs on transportation projects are nothing more than a useful way to show taxpayers that gas tax funds are being put to good use. But not everyone agrees.
KPCC
Caltrans is studying a plan to widen 16 miles of Interstate 80 through Solano and Yolo counties, over the Yolo Bypass. Initially, the plan called for a carpool lane, but uncertainty about funding makes a toll lane a possibility.
The Sacramento Bee
That's how the Los Angeles Times editorial board characterized the $6 billion plan by Los Angeles Metro to widen the 710 freeway. "A waste of money," they assert. Key to the solution is how to deal with goods movement from the seaport complex.
Los Angeles Times
Caltrans hopes to build two 14-mile high-occupancy toll lanes on Hwy 101 in San Mateo County, one of the region's most congested corridors that lacks carpool lanes. The $534 million project would begin construction in 2019.
The Daily Journal
After withdrawing support for a controversial extension of the 710 Freeway, Los Angeles Metro is asking cities for local road improvements to improve traffic flow in its stead.
Pasadena Star-News
New legislation would continue the Clean Air Vehicle program after Jan. 1, 2019 to allow zero and near-zero emission vehicles to continue to qualify for carpool lane stickers in the Golden State.
Santa Monica Daily Press
The saga of the 710 Freeway will continue, as it has for decades. Now, however, a proposal to build a 6.3-mile tunnel from El Sereno to Pasadena, has lost key support from the regional transportation agency.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
A staple of the California driving experience will soon be a thing of the past.
The Mercury News
Was the I-405 widening project worth it for Los Angeles? Depends on whom you ask.
Los Angeles Times
