This is kinda cool! Courtesy Lawrence Sims.

Further deliberations in the California Legislature on how to spend the 40% of as-yet-unallocated GHG Reduction Fund money have been pushed off until the start of the second year of this legislative session, beginning January 2016. The upside is we have a few more months to prepare a bigger statewide push for student transit passes! But in the meantime, we hope to gear up a local campaign to convince LA Metro to set aside $5 million of the agency's Low Carbon Transit Operations Program funding for a universal student transit pass pilot in LA County.

From Move LA Partner Jonathan Parfrey on his Climate Resolve blog: There’s big news out of Sacramento this week: the California Assembly failed to fully approve two key climate laws. I say: buck up. Let’s focus on this: We won some incredibly important climate bills this session. The state is now dedicated to supplying a full half of its electricity from renewable power by 2030 — an amazing accomplishment. California continues to be a climate leader. We also passed three huge climate adaptation bills that will help us better plan and invest so we are prepared for the impacts of climate change. Preparing for the inevitable effects of climate change is necessary. We’ve already had success in our adaptation efforts; winning cool roof legislation in Los Angeles means we've begun cooling our city today and for years to come. Read more on Climate Resolve's blog.

Lots has happened since Move LA worked with the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC), NRDC, the TransitCenter and other partners on the Live Ride Share conference earlier this year — so much that the national nonprofit SUMC is staging another conference in their hometown of Chicago. Technology keeps pushing shared use forward and now there’s a plethora of apps to integrate ridesharing, bikesharing and carsharing with transit, and some 200 start-ups providing bus and shuttle services that fall somewhere in between public transit and the private car. There's increased interest in linking transit and shared use because it's clear they need each other. Have you read Nate Silver’s recent blog post “Public Transit Should Be Uber’s Best Friend”? If not, you should read it now!

As the the cost of education has gone up and the economic fortunes of families have gone down, providing students with universal student transit passes — like Santa Monica College’s “Any Line Any Time” program — seems like a better and better idea. A UCLA study shows these passes can increase student ridership by 70% to 200% and reduce driving by a similar measure. There are empty seats on transit that students could fill. GHG emissions would go down. We could develop life-long transit riders. And the Legislature is deciding what to spend GHG Reduction Fund money on. We are asking the Legislature to set aside $25 million of the GGRF for student passes — which are an eligible expense. 15 LA County community colleges and 20 nonprofit groups have joined us in this “ask” of the Legislature. Read the letter here.

New CA Assembly Speaker will be Anthony Rendon from Lakewood! This means both houses of the CA Legislature will be controlled by Latinos from LA County. Rendon's key concerns are the environment, early childhood education, and he's good on transportation and affordable housing issues: http://www.sacbee.com/…/…/capitol-alert/article33841500.html

Check out the iTransit website and get involved!  When Governor Brown convened the Extraordinary Session on Transportation and Infrastructure Development earlier this year, transit wasn't even part of the conversation. It was all about fixing roads -- with Cap & Trade funding! (A notion dismissed by Senate President pro Tem Kevin De Leon, who said "We need serious proposals.") The conversation has come around to including public transportation, and at a press conference in Sacramento this morning, state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) were among those who urged the state Senate to pass 2 bills: SBX1 7 (Allen) would triple the diesel sales tax and raise $300 million annually for transit, including about $85 million for Los Angeles. SBX1 8 (Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo) would triple the diesel sales tax. CLICK on the iTransit link above, add your name and address, and an email will be sent to the senators who represent you! ABX1 8 (Bloom and Asm. David Chiu, D-San Francisco) and ABX1 7 (Asm. Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys) will be considered by the Assembly soon.

Check it out on You Tube     Right, so you think the BUS is the LOSER? Guess again . . . because in a bus-only lane, with signal prioritization . . . Oh the irony.

Check it out on You Tube  Be patient, as 9-year-old Joshua takes a while to wind up into his song. He is singing along with Gabriele Morgan's "LA's Got Lines," and the lyrics she wrote to the well-known spiritual "Dry Bones" -- but her version is about the build-out of LA County's rail system: "The Green Line's connected to the Blue Line/The Blue Line's connected to the Red Line/The Red Line's connected to the Gold Line . . . " What's amazing is that Joshua is singing about what's actually happening (the transit build-out) right before our eyes: Since 1990 we've built and opened the Blue, Red, Green, Gold and Expo lines. Extensions to Expo (Santa Monica) and the Gold Line (Azusa) open next year. And The Purple Line, Crenshaw and the Regional Connector are under construction. It's easy to see why Flor is so excited!

The growing number of seniors in LA County have very similar needs to people with disabilies: In LA County, for example, about a third of those aged 60 or more have at least one disability and may be using canes, walkers and wheelchairs because they have become less physically, cognitively or mentally robust and their hearing, vision or balance may be impaired. Many rely on Access paratransit services, but could use fixed route public transportation if it was more affordable, accessible and reliable. Move LA has been meeting with 150 disability advocates to generate a list priority issues, policies and processes and we have written a letter to LA Metro signed by all the organizations above.  Below are 4 objectives that we and advocates believe would result in a more effective use of transportation system resources.