Evelyn Blumenberg

Transport Policy
Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 33-42

 

 

The purpose of the Standard Environmental Reference (SER) is to provide a single, standard reference on compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related federal laws, executive orders, regulations, and policies. The reference is intended for statewide use by local agencies, Caltrans, and FHWA staff. The SER also provides information on compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and related state laws, executive orders, and regulations. This information is for use by Caltrans in the preparation of environmental documentation for on projects for which it is the CEQA lead agency. Local agencies, acting as lead for CEQA on their own projects, may also wish to refer to these portions of the SER for guidance and ideas supplemental to their own procedures.

L.A. officials press state for funds to widen 405 Freeway
Area officials put on a full-court press in Sacramento after bond funding for new carpool lanes is threatened.
By Duke Helfand, Times Staff Writer
February 21, 2007

SACRAMENTO - After an intense day of lobbying in the state capital Tuesday, Los Angeles' top leaders appeared to be winning their fight to secure $730 million in bond money to widen one of the nation's most congested freeways, with one powerful legislator threatening to hold up funds for transportation projects statewide if the city and other congested areas don't get what they need.

More than a dozen Los Angeles-area elected officials - including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) - descended on the Capitol to voice their unhappiness with a recommendation by the California Transportation Commission staff to omit new carpool lanes for the 405 Freeway and other local projects from an initial funding list.

Welcome to CalEJ.org! We hope that this site has something for everyone, whether or not you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and from people who have never heard of environmental justice (EJ) before, to life-long activists, and everyone in between. This space is envisioned to be a place to come for EJ-related news, discussions (debates and questions), real-life experiential knowledge, and research. We do not need to rely solely on mainstream corporate-owned media to get our word out. We have begun with a focus on the Bay Area and California because this is our home and we love it!

February 11, 2007
Economic View
What's the Toll? It Depends on the Time of Day
By DANIEL GROSS

FOR the small group of economists and policy wonks interested in applying supply-and-demand theories to the thorny problems of gridlock and ever-longer commutes, the $2.9 trillion fiscal 2008 budget released by President Bush on Monday contained some excellent news: $130 million in grants to finance construction of so-called congestion pricing systems.

Congestion pricing - the concept of charging higher fees to consumers for a good or a service at times of heavy use - is well established in businesses like hotels, long-distance phone service and air travel. And while London and Stockholm have successfully enacted plans that levy fees on drivers who want to enter traffic-clogged city streets, the United States has been slow to apply the concept on the roads. When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed last year that New York look into congestion pricing as a means of unclogging the city's famously clogged roadways, he was roundly criticized.

Actually, congestion pricing was born and bred in New York City. William Vickrey, the longtime Columbia University economist and 1996 Nobel laureate, is viewed as the father of the concept. In 1959, long before E-ZPass was a twinkle in a planner's eye, Mr. Vickrey proposed that cities could reduce traffic by using electronic systems to charge drivers for the privilege of nosing their sedans into urban grids.

Brian Taylor

"When Finance Leads Planning: The Influence of Public Finance on Transportation Planning and Policy in California"

University of California's Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC). Their work has included a resolution on scholarly communication

September 21, 2006
California Sues 6 Automakers Over Global Warming
By NICK BUNKLEY

California, which has battled the automotive industry over new global warming regulations for years, sued the world’s six-largest automakers yesterday, demanding that they pay for environmental damage caused by the emissions of their vehicles.
“Global warming is causing significant harm to California’s environment, economy, agriculture and public health,” said the state’s attorney general, Bill Lockyer.
“Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and automakers have refused to act.”
The suit, filed in United States District Court in Northern California, is the first such attempt to hold automakers accountable for the greenhouse gases that vehicles produce. It accuses General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan of creating a public nuisance by building millions of vehicles that collectively discharge 289 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

Includes reports on immigration and migration.

Includes reports on immigration and migration.

"CHIS is the largest state health survey and one of the largest health surveys in the United States. CHIS gives health planners, policy makers, county governments, advocacy groups, and communities a detailed picture of the health and health care needs facing California's diverse population."

""The San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection contains over 1,700 digitized images of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. These images depict scenes taken both during and after the three-day event, and include neighborhoods, buildings, refugee camps, and the process of reconstruction." Photos are browsable by subject. From the San Francisco Public Library." (via LII)

"Companion to an exhibit created from "photographs shared with the San Francisco Public Library by community members from the Western Addition, Ocean View/Merced/Ingleside (OMI), Mission and Sunset neighborhoods." The online photo gallery features dozens of photos of street scenes, celebrations, weddings, friends, people and their cars, people working, and more. From the San Francisco Public Library." (via LII)

This book has been cited time and again on issues of urban growth boundaries. Focussing on Napa and the area around San Francisco.