CalTrans

Thanks to California Gov. Jerry Brown signing San Francisco Assemblyman Phil Ting's "bikeways" bill on Sept. 20, expect to see many more protected bike lanes constructed by cities throughout the state. Another signed bill will increase bike funding.

September 24, 2014 - LA Streetsblog

Protected bike lanes are not included in the California Highway Design Manual, notwithstanding the state's recent endorsement of the NACTO manual. All that's needed to change that is Gov. Jerry Brown's signature.

September 2, 2014 - LA Streetsblog

Transportation decisions are best made locally, not by the state DOT, right? For those advocating for tolled, managed lanes over free, general purpose lanes, the 405 Freeway in Orange County may prove the exception.

July 29, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

News flash: California has become only the third state to endorse the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ (NACTO) Urban Street Design Guidelines to enable more walk and bike friendly projects such as protected bike lanes.

April 12, 2014 - NACTO

Results are in from the California Household Travel Survey and they look good for alternative transportation—use has doubled since 2000. The survey also says a lot about the surveyor—Caltrans, long known for counting only vehicle trips.

March 12, 2014 - Napa-Solano Times-Herald

The eastern span of the Bay Bridge has had cost overruns, delays, scandal, and lukewarm architecture reviews, but the latest bad news is cause for concern—the bridge is leaking into structural elements and officials aren’t sure why or what it means.

February 12, 2014 - SF Gate

Hoping to encourage other cities to follow San Francisco's successful application of protected bike lanes, Asm. Phillip Ting (D-S.F.) would have Caltrans "develop minimum safety design criteria" for what would be a new class of bikeways in the state.

February 4, 2014 - San Francisco Bay Guardian

Can the nation's largest state department of transportation, long oriented to building highways and fighting congestion, be brought into the modern, multi-modal era? The State Smart Transportation Initiative's report for Caltrans may do just that.

February 1, 2014 - The Sacramento Bee

Instagram images and group bike rides now celebrate the Bay Bridge’s eastern span, but the bridge’s long construction process was a constant source of concern. A new report details what went wrong to (hopefully) prevent future mistakes.

January 25, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

Orange County, birthplace of the nation's first high occupancy toll (HOT) lane, may never see another. Not only did they reject a plan to add one (or two) toll lanes, to the 405 Freeway, legislation to ban them altogether may be introduced.

December 11, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Unless these states come to an agreement with Amtrak by Oct. 16 to help subsidize regional rail service, required by the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act of 2008, Amtrak will cease operating them. Agreements were reached with 16 states.

October 8, 2013 - Governing

Two towers set to transform Hollywood's skyline will alter it just a bit less after developer Millennium agreed to lower their proposed heights by more than a dozen stories. The CA Department of Transportation is raising concerns about the project.

June 20, 2013 - Curbed LA

Jeremy Rosenberg's latest entry in his "Laws That Shaped LA" column looks at the impact of the Collier-Burns Act, a state law passed in 1947 that allowed the city to become "smothered with concrete and asphalt goliaths."

October 11, 2012 - KCET Departures

Charles Piller reports on the investigation into suspect safety test results for roads and bridges across CA, including the new Bay Bridge, revealing a string of troubling data for which officials and critics are holding Caltrans accountable.

August 8, 2012 - The Sacramento Bee

To encourage train ridership, Caltrans and Metrolink have teamed up to display train times on electronic signs along two oft-congested Southern California freeways.

December 24, 2011 - The Orange County Register

Artist Richard Ankrom got tired of the chaos created by bad signage for the Interstate 5 exit near Pasadena. So he created and mounted his own sign.

January 11, 2010 - GOOD Magazine

Civil rights activists sued CalTrans for failing to provide wheelchair ramps across the state. In federal court yesterday, CalTrans settled with the groups, agreeing to over a billion dollars in access improvements over 30 years.

December 23, 2009 - The Los Angeles Times

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.

November 16, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

Citing the estimated current cost of repairs as a partial reason for noncompliance with federal law, Caltrans heads to court against disability advocacy groups. The agency has failed to maintain or upgrade thousands of curbs and intersections.

September 18, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

This Labor Day, a 300-ft. section of the east span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge will be cut out and pushed aside, connecting to a new detour that will facilitate the switch from a double-decker configuration to a side-by-side one.

August 6, 2009 - CalTrans