Steve Dubner and Eric Morris of Freakonomics fame made the point in a recent NPR/Marketplace pitch that the per-passenger energy consumption of cars is lower than that of transit . . . Right. Because here's the rub: Buses, for example, are underutilized, and carry an average of just 10 passengers, while the average American car carries 1.6, which means a bus requires the expenditure of 20 percent more energy. Trains are slightly better than cars, requiring roughly two-thirds the energy per passenger.

Angie Schmitt takes Dubner and Morris to task on Streetsblog, pointing out that, among other things, they miss the point that transit helps create places where people drive less, walk and bike more, and live in much more energy and water-efficient homes . . .

Read/hear about it on NPR's Marketplace or on Streetsblog.

 

(Note: Measure J ended up with 66.11% of the vote.)

Steve Hymon reports on The Source that Measure J has crossed the 65 percent threshold but is still 1.59 percentage points away from passage. As of Friday, there were still 340,684 votes to be counted, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar’s latest news release. In order for J to pass, more than 78 percent of the remaining votes (if all cast a vote for or against Measure J, which is doubtful), would have to be "yes" votes.

That's possible but unlikely, Hymon notes, adding that it will be interesting to see "if Measure J can stay above 65 percent or perhaps climb within one percentage point of approval. For that to happen, the remaining votes likely need to come from the more central parts of the county, where support for J was the strongest."

See the results by map and spreadsheet here.

 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is this week considering amending the city's building code to reduce the minimum square footage of apartments from 220 square feet plus bathroom, kitchen and closets — about 290 square feet in all — to 150 square feet for a total area of 220. It's a solution to the problems of rising rents and the increasing population of single family households. Apartments this small are already permitted in San Jose and Santa Barbara, Seattle is testing these so-called "micro-apartments" and New York has a pilot project, and of course Tokyo and Paris did this long ago.

On The Atlantic Cities:

Typologies have been all the rage in planning circles for a while now. LA Metro's draft sustainability plan (approved by the Ad Hoc Sustainability Committee this week and on its way to the Metro Board) sorts LA County into four place types and relates them to VMT, showing that more density and more "job centrality" (number of jobs and their distance from each tract) significantly lowers VMT from an average of 23,000 miles/year to 16,000 miles/year.

"D" Place Types = high HH density and job centrality = such as the downtowns of Pasadena, Glendale, Long Beach, LA, Torrance, Santa Monica and Warner Center, for example = 15,988 miles/year

"C" Place Types = medium high HH density and job centrality = such as Burbank west of the I-5, Commerce, Lawndale, Van Nuys, Venice = 18,717 miles/year.

"B" Place Types = low residential density, low to high job centrality (predominantly auto-oriented low-density residential but with compact downtowns and urban neighborhoods) = Bel Air, Granada Hills, La Canada Flintridge, La Habra Heights, Malibu, Montebello, Palmdale, Rancho Palos Verdes = 23,275 miles/year.

"A" Place Types = medium-high residential density and low job centrality (not as connected to region's economic centers) = Agoura Hills, Claremont, La Crescenta-Montrose, Marina Del Rey, San Fernando, Santa Clarita and many South Bay Cities including Redondo Beach and San Pedro = 20,477 miles/year.

"A" Place Type

Metro ridership was up by double digits in October compared to last year, with rail ridership up more than 23%: from 8.1 million boardings in October 2011 to 9.9 million boardings in October 2012. There was record ridership on the Orange, Silver, Blue and newly opened Expo lines. Meantime bus ridership systemwide -- Metro and contract bus -- rose from 31 million total boardings last October to 32.7 million this October.

On The Source

Dan Bertolet on Citytank.org offers 13 koans on which to meditate, and ultimately concludes that "If we hope to succeed in giving lower-income households -- especially families with children -- the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits of living in a prosperous city, then we must start to take on systemic income inequality, and push for the expansion of socialized investments that offset the burden of expensive housing. Other conclusions:

* Density is a win-win both for housing affordability and sustainability overall

* Far greater government subsidy for the production of low-income housing is necessary

* We must find sources of subsidy that place the burden of providing affordable housing on society as a whole

* Efforts should be made to reduce financial, regulatory, and political encumbrances to the production of high-density multifamily housing

* Targeted incentives should preferentially promote the development of multifamily housing -- both market rate and subsidized -— in areas with access to high-quality transit

* Potential displacement should be addressed with targeted subsidies for housing and other social programs.

Read it at Citytank.org.

Utility relocation began today on the Westside Subway Extension, which should have been the first rail project built in the estimation of many transportation experts who in the 1980s were assessing which corridors had the highest densities and would provide the highest ridership. According to the subway timeline a construction contract will be awarded in 2014, tunneling will start in 2015 and the first segment from Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/La Cienega will open in 2022 or 2023.

At the press conference Mayor Villaraigosa said that since Measure J lost at the polls last week he is working on "Plan B" to accelerate transit projects, including the subway. Denny Zane added that Measure J is sure to become the "poster child" for eliminating the supermajority needed to pass local sales tax measures, saying where else but in California would 65% of the vote be considered a defeat instead of a landslide victory.

Steve Hymon was there: The Source

LA County's first toll lanes opened this past weekend on what used to be carpool lanes along an 11-mile stretch of the 110 freeway from Adams Boulevard south of downtown LA to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center near the 91 freeway. Tolls vary from a quarter to $1.40 per mile, depending on demand, but the average toll will be between $4-$7 or could be as much as $15.40.

Clearly there is demand: Metro officials have already issued 30,000 transponders -- which you need to use the lanes and which can be purchased on line at http://www.metroexpresslanes.net or at walk-in centers in El Monte and Gardena. They cost $40 but the money can be used toward fares.

The lanes are part of a 1-year federal demonstration project that also includes toll lanes on 14 miles of the 10 freeway between Union Station and the 605 due to open early next year.

Read the details in the LA Times.

MSNBC talk show hosts this morning said that Mayor Villaraigosa was on a short list for US Secretary of Transportation, along with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Republican Congressman Steven LaTourette of Ohio. But a story on The Hill blog the day after the election noted that it has become unclear whether in fact Ray LaHood is leaving the position.

LaHood, formerly a Republican Congressman from Illinois, had said last year that he would step down if Obama was re-elected but, according to The Hill, he has been less definite about that in recent months.

About the job LaHood had said "As somebody who's been in public service 35 years, I don't know if I've ever had a better job."

Read more on The Hill.

Steve Hymon contrasts the Measure J results with the Measure R results from 2008 and concludes: "Compared to the Measure J results, the most striking thing [about the Measure R results] is there are fewer areas where support ran under 50 percent and there are more areas around the county where support was over 70 percent. . . "

Read more on The Source.