It’s Halloween, and we have a really scary story to tell. It's about LA's nightmare traffic and how it will only get worse as LA County's population continues to grow. As you get ready to go out tonight, take a minute—you're probably just sitting in traffic anyway—and think about it: more traffic, more cars, more potholes, more air pollution, more of your valuable time wasted sitting in traffic, stoplight after stoplight. Totally scary, right?

On Monday, October 24, Los Angeles Count Metro Chair John Fasano and Vice Chair Eric Garcetti announced that the Expo Line will now run every six minutes for the majority of the day—cutting in half the time between trains.

“We will meet the demand of folks who are already taking the Expo Line from the ocean to downtown and vice versa,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

This expanded service was made possible by the addition of the 50th new P3010 rail cars from Kinki Sharyo, the contractor building the new light-rail vehicles. These rail cars are built right here in Los Angeles County at a facility in Palmdale that has hired over 400 full-time union workers.

Measure M would dramatically improve our transportation system and redefine commutes for residents in every corner of LA County to get us where we want to go, when we want to get there, however we choose to travel—whether by train, bus, car, bike or on foot. Not only will there be more rail and bus lines and connections between them, there will also be more connections that make it easier to get to rail stations and bus stops on bike and on foot. Measure M will even close gaps to create a continuous 51-mile bike path along the LA River!

The Move LA twitter town hall on Measure M was jumpin', and we trended to #3 on twitter in Los Angeles using the #VoteYesOnM hashtag even though we had tough competition—it was #NationalDrinkBeerDay, which stayed solidly in 1st place.  There were 450 posts that engaged 100 users in an hour, with tweets by those users going out to another 137,000 users for a total of 1.7 million impressions (which users may or may not have seen). Significantly, more than half of the messages were positive and only 2.5% were negative (rest were neutral). And the tweet that got the most engagement was one with a photo of Ron Milam and his twin boys! Lesson learned: If you want retweets, take photos of your kids! Click below to see a "best of" the storified tweets!

Lillibeth Navarro contracted polio when she was a baby but has nonetheless long been a vigorous advocate in the Disability Rights Movement and in California’s Independent Living Movement. And she's the founder of CALIF, Communities Actively Living Independent & Free, a nonprofit that addresses discrimination against people with disabilities. (That's Lillibeth in the photo above; she was a plaintiff in the lawsuit contending that LA's broken sidewalks and missing curb ramps impair the rights of people with disabilities.)

As a part of Move LA for the next few months, my mission will be spread awareness of Los Angeles’ public transportation happenings to Angelenos. I hope to motivate residents, travelers, and tourists alike to see Los Angeles from outside the automobile — and to see the city from a lens closer to its people, architecture, and history.

Very big news from LA Metro yesterday: The agency has received several unsolicited proposals for "public private partnerships" or "P3s" to design, build, finance and help accelerate some of the major projects that would be built if voters approve Measure M on Nov. 8.

These include two proposals to accelerate the West Santa Ana Branch Light Rail project, also known as the Eco Rapid Transit Line, which would run along an abandoned Union Pacific Railroad ROW from Artesia north through several southeast cities and then along the west side of the Los Angeles River to downtown LA, with plans to eventually extend it to the Bob Hope Airport and even further north. Cities along the corridor have voted to oppose Measure M because they believe the construction of this line is unfairly late in the project implementation schedule.

One proposal to design-build-finance and accelerate this line comes from Skanska, an affiliate of a Swedish firm that has offices in Riverside, which built the Exposition Light Rail Line, and is now building the Regional Connector in downtown LA and the first phase of the Westside Subway Purple Line Extension. Skanska has also submitted a proposal to accelerate the Purple Line Subway Extension to UCLA and the Veterans Administration.

Another proposal to design-build-finance and accelerate the Eco Rapid Transit Line comes from ACS, based in Madrid and one of the leading construction companies in the world, which is currently working on stretches of California's high-speed rail line and the Crosslinx light rail line in Toronto, Canada.  

The fact that there are two competing proposals makes it more likely that there will be serious acceleration of the Eco Rapid Transit Line.

Pledge to vote for Measure M HERE!

At Tuesday's #VoteYesOnM press event beneath Los Angeles Coliseum’s iconic peristyle, Mayor Eric Garcetti highlighted the popularity of recent Expo Line ridership as testament to Metro’s potential to move people fast and efficiently. The presser was attended by LA Rams Executive VP Kevin Demoff, Metro Board Director Jackie Dupont-Walker and Measure M’s broad coalition of community and advocacy partners including Move LA’s very own Denny Zane!

The depth and breadth of the coalition that’s vigorously supporting Measure M is impressive, but today we’d like to call out AARP California and St. Barnabas Senior Services in particular for their enthusiastic support and active campaigning.

AARP California, representing 1 million older Americans in LA County alone, has endorsed Measure M—the first time this powerful organization has ever endorsed and is actively campaigning for a local ballot measure. AARP CA prioritized Measure M because the number of people aged 65 and over is likely to double in 15 years, making it critical that LA County’s transportation system works for people who can’t—or don’t want to—drive. St. Barnabus, LA’s oldest senior services agency, has also endorsed and is getting out the vote for Measure M.