A curious but interesting blog post that asks the questions "Is rent stabilization [rent control] enough if we don't also have abundant housing?" and "Will abundant housing be enough to keep rents in check?" On the Let's Go LA blog.

Two major take-aways from the crowded San Fernando Valley Town Hall meeting that Move LA co-hosted with the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments last week: There is a very high level of interest in and support for Measure R2 and for rail projects, and a very high level of support for bike and pedestrian projects as well.

Move LA was local co-host of the Live.Ride.Share conference on shared mobility — carshare, bikeshare, rideshare, etc., topics that trended on twitter in LA the day of the event! — at the Japanese American National Museum Feb. 23. Here is a short sum-up and ideas about next steps.

It makes sense that shared-use mobility evangelists are quite the cutting edge bunch. They are, afterall, pushing for nothing short of a revolutionary overhaul to how we go about our daily lives. But even we were taken aback by the raw volume of Twitter activity on the #LiveRideShare hashtag throughout the day on Monday. It was so massive that we were able to construct pretty close to a blow-by-blow synopsis of the entire day on Storify of the entire conference. 

If you missed the actual event, this is undoubtedly the best way to take in every quality nugget of wisdom, statistic and musing that surfaced this past Monday in downtown Los Angeles:

A new report from the US PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) ranks Los Angeles as 4th best at creating new technology-enabled transportation services including ridesourcing, carsharing, taxi hailing, static and real-time transit info, apps and virtual transit ticketing — LA provides 9 of the 11 services that were considered, ranking just behind Austin (#1), San Francisco (#2) and Washington DC (#3). The study found that among the 70 cities studied, 19 provide access to 8 or more of these services, and that carsharing is available in 69.

Move LA Vice Chair Daniel Tabor, who is the Executive Director of the Southwest College Foundation and the former Mayor of Inglewood, writes this about the proposed Harbor Subdivision rail line through South LA on the LA THRIVES blog:

When I was very young, my grandmother would dress me in Sunday clothes, tell me to buckle my belt to keep my pants from falling down, and away we would go.  The Red Car stop was a short walk and our exploration of LA’s cultural and entertainment destinations would consume our afternoon and early evening. In those days LA’s public transit system had a belt that looped together all destinations — it was the Red Car System. It seemed to go everywhere, with every trolley line crossing every other line. Maybe I was just too young to know better, but it sure seemed that way to me. (A larger Pacific Red Car map is in Metro's library here.)

Chris Ziegler writes on The Verge that: "The US Department of Transportation just released Beyond Traffic, a study best described as a dire warning about how the country's arterial lines will clog and implode over the next several decades. As far as USDOT secretary Anthony Foxx is concerned, pretty much everything is in bad shape and getting worse: roadways, railways, waterways, the whole nine yards." At Move LA, we take a sunnier view, believing that investments in transit and first-mile/last-mile bike and pedestrian connections, as well as policies that promote car-sharing, ride-sharing and bike-sharing, will stop the sky from falling. Still, the USDOT tells the truth and The Verge puts a sharp edge on it . . . and it's all about starting a real conversation about the future of transportation in this country. And Move LA is totally into that!

Gov. Jerry Brown made it clear in his State of the State address that climate change is a major priority. His three climate goals promise to transform California: by 2030 half the state’s electricity will come from renewable power, by the same year homes and buildings will be 200 percent more efficient, and in the next 15 years the state will reduce its use of petroleum by half.

A hundred years ago, if you asked people how their transportation system could be improved, most would have said they wanted a faster horse. It was not until Henry Ford came to town, paved a mile of road, and let them drive a Model T, that they realized they did not want a horse at all.

LeDaya Epps hit a few roadblocks in life and couldn't find reliable work and the income she needed to take care of herself and her three children.

Then she completed a union apprenticeship in construction through Metro's Project Labor Agreement and Career Construction Project programs — one of only two women to do so — and now she's part of the crew building the Crenshaw/LAX light rail line as a member of Laborers Local 300. And now she's invited to be a special guest of the First Lady at the State of the Union address!