A quick sum-up: Yes this is the largest transit expansion in the USA, with 5 lines under construction and 2 milestones coming up this spring with the opening of the Expo Line to Santa Monica and the Gold Line to Azusa, deep in the San Gabriel Valley. The Crenshaw Line to LAX is 50% done and the Regional Connector (which connects existing lines downtown to provide one-seat rides -- no transfers required -- from Pasadena to Santa Monica, for example, or Culver City to Long Beach) is almost 20% of the way toward completion. Still to come: the build-out of Union Station, which Joel likens to "a second downtown in DTLA," rail linkages to the rest of the state with high-speed rail and, of course, the possibility of a sequel to the Measure R sales tax for transportation on the 2016 ballot. Read it on the Huffington Post.

See a dozen delightful photos like this one (Daniel Hoherd/flickr) of animal stowaways on San Francisco's public transit system — from rats to chickens, and lizards to parrots. At CityLab by John Metcalfe, a man after my own heart. Let the animals ride free!

Creator Neil Freeman says people "disproportionately order the posters in DC, NY, OR, CT, or MA, and not in AR, MO, LA, OK." You can order your's here. 

Parking for students and faculty is a problem at colleges and universities across LA County and the nation, but land for parking lots/structures and the money required to build them (underground parking can range upwards of $30,000 per space -- money that should be used for educational purposes instead) is always in short supply. Moreover, schools are less interested in accommodating solo drivers these days and more interested in going green and encouraging students to carshare/bikeshare and use public transit. That's why Move LA has been working with LA County Supervisor/LA Metro Board Chair Mark Ridley-Thomas on a universal student transit pass program. "[Student transit passes] would really give more students access to education, because mass transit is much cheaper than driving a car," Move LA Executive Director Denny Zane told the LA Times. "And community college students especially often work part-time, so it would make it possible for them to get to school and work and make it affordable." Read the story in Sunday's LA Times!

Steve Hymon just posted this on The Source: Earlier today, President Obama signed into law the long-term surface transportation authorization bill recently passed by Congress - Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). Yesterday, both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the new transportation law.  The bill authorizes approximately $305 billion for Highway, Transit and Railroad programs over 5 years ($61 billion per year).  Passage of the FAST Act by Congress and President Obama signing the measure into law today ends a process of Congress repeatedly adopting extensions to the current surface transportation authorization law – MAP-21.

“The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is proud of the leading role U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and members of the Los Angeles County Congressional Delegation played in passing the long term surface transportation bill that President Obama signed into law today,” shared Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair Mark Ridley-Thomas. “In addition to Senator Boxer’s remarkable effort to ensure passage of this bill, we are grateful of the leading role that Congresswoman Grace Napolitano played as a conferee for the FAST Act and the support of Congresswoman Janice Hahn, in her capacity as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Metro will be securing approximately $600 million in formula funding from the FAST Act over the next federal fiscal year to enhance mobility for Los Angeles County’s ten million residents.  We can also expect the FAST Act to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to Los Angeles County in the coming year to build our growing rail system. Lastly, I want to personally thank President Obama for signing the FAST Act into law today,” added Chair Ridley-Thomas.

iTransit is a growing advocacy network of organizations and people standing up for better transit in California, and is organized by the California Transit Association, already 200 members strong. iTransit makes it REALLY easy to contact your legislators and tell them to support transit funding! Join as an individual or organization and they'll keep you in the loop! The CA Legislature is coming back into session really soon!!!

From Stephen Lee Davis on the T4America Blog: For the first time in a decade, Congress is on the cusp of passing a 5-year transportation authorization bill that will carry us into the next decade. Though we await final floor votes and the President’s signature, it will almost certainly be approved in a matter of days. So how does the bill stack up against the pressing needs of our country? While the final bill has changed only slightly from the separate versions passed by the House and the Senate since July, we’re going to take a slightly different tack than our usual “ten things you need to know,” and break this bill up into the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Writes Oliver Wainwright: "Architects may have felt creatively stifled in the old Soviet empire — but there was one place where their imaginations were encouraged to run riot: the bus stop. Photographer Christopher Herwig went on a 30,000km odyssey to capture their strange beauty." See the astonishing photos in The Guardian.

South LA’s star is rising. It’s not just because of the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project, though the increased mobility that a rail line brings — especially a rail line that comes within a mile of LAX — is a catalytic force that can bring all kinds of changes. It’s also because South LA has a powerful advocate at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas serving as chair of the board. (The Supervisor is photographed with students from LA Trade Tech, LA Community College District Board of Trustees Vice President Mike Eng, Denny Zane, and Michael Woo, dean of Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design, at a board meeting about the feasibility of a universal student transit pass program; more about that below.)

October was a very productive month for moving toward Metro's 2016 ballot measure. First, Governor Brown signed SB 767 (De Leon), enabling Metro to go to the ballot and outlining a process that will balance local needs with regionally significant aspirations and appropriate funding goals. Then, at Metro’s October board meeting, staff provided a glimpse into the potential 2016 ballot measure and the long range transportation plan when it approved a staff report initiating the framework process: Now through the summer of 2016, Metro will engage the public in shaping both the measure and the LRTP. What was notable about the staff report: