Transportation
Blog
Los Angeles Faces an Olympian Task
The city and county of Los Angeles have struggled to jump-start home and business reconstructions eight months after wildfires destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena, with only 17 permits issued for the Palisades and fewer than 300 for all the affected areas combined. State and local officials have waived myriad building ...
Blog
The Train To Nowhere Goes Somewhere – Maybe
The promise of a bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and maybe even extending to San Diego to the south and Sacramento to the north, was broken longer before ground was broken in 2015 for the project. The route has been shortened, the construction timeline endlessly extended, and ...
Blog
Never Gonna Give You Up: Will High-Speed Rail Ever Be Scrapped?
Critics say the troubled project should be abandoned. They correctly point out that incurring sunk costs is a better outcome than continuing to spend tens of billions on a dream that is unlikely to be completed, and if it is, won’t be anything like the modern system promised to voters ...
Blog
Limiting Freight Train Length More About Union Demands Than Safety
The perpetual tribulations of the high-speed rail are reported with an almost clockwork frequency, but they aren’t the only train stories in California. Freight trains might soon be getting a larger share of the attention. In their eternal search for more dues-paying members, unions want to shorten freight trains. Rail companies are naturally opposed. ...
Blog
California cities may now dodge bullet train destruction
In his May budget revision for fiscal year 2025-26, which began on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked $1 billion a year for the next 20 years from the state’s cap-and-trade system toward the rail project. Like the wounded Black Knight in the “Tis but a scratch scene” in “Monty ...
Blog
Radar love: Do automated speed cameras make cities safer?
Radar love: Do automated speed cameras make cities safer? By D. Dowd Muska | May 23, 2025 Earlier this year, San Francisco garnered national headlines when it activated California’s first “speed safety cameras.” The city-county’s ticketing tech, however, wasn’t the focus of the spotlight. Under the state law authorizing the new system, “drivers with low ...
Blog
What will California cities do if the bullet train is derailed?
What will California cities do if the bullet train is derailed? By John Seiler | May 16, 2025 California cities face numerous needs for mass transit at the local level. But lurking over any plans is the California High-Speed Rail project, which has soaked up funds since voters approved it ...
Blog
Technology is spotlighting failure of arcane transit models
Alas, the walkout, taken in response to a “disgraceful contract offer,” didn’t accomplish much. Strikers’ “energy” and “resolve” may have been “very strong,” but on Day 17 of their protest, a judge ordered the dispatchers, bus drivers and light-rail operators of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 back to work. A ...
Blog
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away By D. Dowd Muska | April 17, 2025 Urbanists often have their heads in the clouds. But this is ridiculous. Today’s trendiest transportation topic in the world of “smart growth”? What the YouTube channel Climate and Transit calls “aerial lifts that ...
Blog
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed?
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed? By D. Dowd Muska | March 14, 2025 Sept. 30, 2026, may seem far off to you and me. But for many politicians, contractor and activists, the date is just around the corner. Their livelihoods depend on favorable provisions in the mammoth, multi-year ...
Los Angeles Faces an Olympian Task
The city and county of Los Angeles have struggled to jump-start home and business reconstructions eight months after wildfires destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena, with only 17 permits issued for the Palisades and fewer than 300 for all the affected areas combined. State and local officials have waived myriad building ...
The Train To Nowhere Goes Somewhere – Maybe
The promise of a bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, and maybe even extending to San Diego to the south and Sacramento to the north, was broken longer before ground was broken in 2015 for the project. The route has been shortened, the construction timeline endlessly extended, and ...
Never Gonna Give You Up: Will High-Speed Rail Ever Be Scrapped?
Critics say the troubled project should be abandoned. They correctly point out that incurring sunk costs is a better outcome than continuing to spend tens of billions on a dream that is unlikely to be completed, and if it is, won’t be anything like the modern system promised to voters ...
Limiting Freight Train Length More About Union Demands Than Safety
The perpetual tribulations of the high-speed rail are reported with an almost clockwork frequency, but they aren’t the only train stories in California. Freight trains might soon be getting a larger share of the attention. In their eternal search for more dues-paying members, unions want to shorten freight trains. Rail companies are naturally opposed. ...
California cities may now dodge bullet train destruction
In his May budget revision for fiscal year 2025-26, which began on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked $1 billion a year for the next 20 years from the state’s cap-and-trade system toward the rail project. Like the wounded Black Knight in the “Tis but a scratch scene” in “Monty ...
Radar love: Do automated speed cameras make cities safer?
Radar love: Do automated speed cameras make cities safer? By D. Dowd Muska | May 23, 2025 Earlier this year, San Francisco garnered national headlines when it activated California’s first “speed safety cameras.” The city-county’s ticketing tech, however, wasn’t the focus of the spotlight. Under the state law authorizing the new system, “drivers with low ...
What will California cities do if the bullet train is derailed?
What will California cities do if the bullet train is derailed? By John Seiler | May 16, 2025 California cities face numerous needs for mass transit at the local level. But lurking over any plans is the California High-Speed Rail project, which has soaked up funds since voters approved it ...
Technology is spotlighting failure of arcane transit models
Alas, the walkout, taken in response to a “disgraceful contract offer,” didn’t accomplish much. Strikers’ “energy” and “resolve” may have been “very strong,” but on Day 17 of their protest, a judge ordered the dispatchers, bus drivers and light-rail operators of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 back to work. A ...
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away By D. Dowd Muska | April 17, 2025 Urbanists often have their heads in the clouds. But this is ridiculous. Today’s trendiest transportation topic in the world of “smart growth”? What the YouTube channel Climate and Transit calls “aerial lifts that ...
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed?
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed? By D. Dowd Muska | March 14, 2025 Sept. 30, 2026, may seem far off to you and me. But for many politicians, contractor and activists, the date is just around the corner. Their livelihoods depend on favorable provisions in the mammoth, multi-year ...
