Transporation Daily News 11/6

The Bay Area's air pollution agency proposed Monday to ban wood fires on bad-air nights and to bar new installations of open hearth fireplaces in homes and buildings. The measure is designed to protect the public from the health effects of tiny smoke particles that can lodge deep in human lungs.  No date has been set for the rule to take effect. Contra Costa 11/6/07

In a rare display of partnership, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster on Monday touted a joint plan to scrap old diesel rigs and replace them with newer, cleaner models as part of an effort to slash port-related pollution linked to 2,400 premature deaths a year. However, leaders from both cities forecast intense negotiations to come as port authorities, truckers, environmentalists, shippers and health officials begin devising a plan to implement the program, which calls for replacing the port complex's entire fleet of 16,500 trucks by 2012. LA Times 11/6/07

 

A temporary ban on cars in parts of Golden Gate Park on Saturdays would be extended for five years under a measure passed by a Board of Supervisors committee Monday. SF Chronicle 11/6/07

 

The California Supreme Court overturned a state employee union's contract Monday that limited Caltrans' ability to assign engineering work to private companies, saying it violated a 2000 ballot initiative that removed legal barriers to such arrangements. Proposition 35, sponsored by a contractors organization, repealed state laws that had allowed California to use private firms for engineering and architectural jobs only when state employees were unavailable or companies could save the state money. The measure could shift substantial work from the public to the private sector, starting with projects funded by a $19.9 billion transportation bond that voters approved in November 2006. The ruling means state agencies "will have the ability to contract out, if they need to, to get many of these roadway projects completed," said Deputy Attorney General Vickie Whitney, the state's lawyer in the case. SF Chronicle 11/6/07

 

Domestic airline performance through September of this year ranked as the worst for any comparable period in at least 12 years, the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported yesterday. Through September, 73.18 percent of flights arrived on time this year, compared with 76.14 percent in the same period last year and the 12-year high, 82.82 percent in 2003.NY Times 11/6/07

 

Progress in California on curbing emissions -- One year after California vowed to cut industrial and auto greenhouse-gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 to combat global warming, the state is groping its way toward answers about how exactly it will attain that goal – and who will bear the costs. Christian Science Monitor 11/7/07