There is a growing Bay Area population that lives in a transit village, a term coined to describe high-density housing within easy walking distance of train and bus stops. Long touted by city planners as the cure for everything from sprawl to obesity, they're now being built across the region. "There's no silver bullet in all this, but transportation accounts for 50 percent of the carbon emissions in the Bay Area," said James Corless, a planner with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees the region's transportation projects. "If you don't change land-use patterns so that people need their cars less, it's harder to make an impact." SF Chronicle 4/18/08
Some travelers at Los Angeles International Airport will be searched for weapons and explosives using a new scanner that peers through their clothes and creates an image of the person's body, federal officials announced Thursday. The sophisticated technology, called millimeter wave imaging, may prove to be a more effective way to check travelers for guns, knives, bombs and other dangerous materials than pat-down searches. LA Times 4/18/08
In honor of Earth Day, April 22, the Las Vegas Monorail Company is promoting the electric, zero-emissions transportation system to eco-minded Las Vegas visitors as an alternative to traditional automobile and mass transit. Savvy travelers can support an earth-friendly initiative to reduce traffic and pollution simply by riding the Monorail to reach their destinations along the world-famous Las Vegas Strip. Business Wire 4/18/08
Capitol Weekly this week has a whole host of commentary concerning High Speed Rail, including:
An opinion by Judge Quentin Kopp of the High Speed Rail Commission. It starts, “A dozen nations enjoy state-of-the-art, safe, high-speed trains that move people and products faster than we do at a fraction of the cost, pollution and hassle. It's been 10 years since California started developing our own system. Since then, traffic congestion and air-pollution have increased while gas prices have soared.”
…and another pro-HSR report by Jim Costa: “California saw unparalleled growth over the last sixty years, and we are now projected to have a state population of 50 million by 2030. Throughout this population explosion, the state expanded the freeway system and built new airports, but rail did not see the expansion and improvements that road and air travel did in the United States. Today, California has an opportunity to be a national leader in transportation by constructing an inter-modal high-speed rail system which would significantly enhance, and therefore improve our roads and airports.”
…as well as yesterday's article that talks about PPP in HSR.
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