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Home > About Us > Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library


Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library



Transportation Research, Resources, And History In Context

New And Notable: All Roads Lead To Congress, Green Metropolis & Innovating For Sustainability
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 31, 2010 3:10 pm
We wanted to take a few moments to again discuss some of our more interesting recent acquisitions here at the Metro Transportation Library.

The legislative process can seem mechanical and ...

Research Roundup: Benefits Of California HSR, The ARC Effect, BRT Studies & Evaluating Rail Criticism
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 30, 2010 11:33 am
The Institute Of Transportation Studies' Center For Urban Infrastructure at UC Irvine released its Thinking Ahead: High-Speed Rail In Southern California (31p. PDF) report last week. It attempts to ...

50th Anniversary Of L.A.'s "Metro Rail"...Say Whaaat?!: Celebrating The 1960 Birth Of Our Modern Rail System
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 23, 2010 5:08 pm
In July, Metro and Los Angeles celebrated 20 years of Metro Rail.

To commemorate the anniversary last month, we took a look back at both the history of service between Los Angeles and Long ...

SurveyLA: What Is It And Why Does It Matter?
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 17, 2010 4:13 pm
SurveyLA – the Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey – is Los Angeles’ first-ever comprehensive program to identify significant historic resources throughout our city.

The survey ...

Research Roundup: Transit Benefits & Costs, Highway Funding, Bus & Rail Transit, Security & Procurements
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 16, 2010 12:26 pm
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute has just published a new guidebook describing how to create a comprehensive framework for evaluating the full impacts (benefits and costs) of a particular ...

Demand-Based "Smart Parking": Watch How It Works
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 11, 2010 1:29 pm
SFpark Overview from SFpark on Vimeo.You may have heard recent stories about San Francisco's bold experiment with demand-based parking, a two-year pilot project that launched two weeks ago (see links ...

Dude, Where's My Flying Car?: Understanding Peak Years And Paradigm Shifts In Transportation Modes
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 9, 2010 2:29 pm
Who doesn't love a great infographic? We were looking through a recent work titled The Geography Of Transport Systems (New York: Routledge, 2009 ed.) by Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Claude Comtois and Brian ...

New And Notable: Traffic & Gridlock, Becoming An Urban Planner, Sustainable Urban Design, Transportation In A Climate-Constrained World
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 6, 2010 1:49 pm
Gridlock: Why We're Stuck In Traffic And What To Do About It by Randal O'Toole (Washington, D.C. : Cato Institute, 2009)

"O'Toole's Gridlock is a brilliant ode to mobility, which he argues ...

Research Roundup: State Of Repairs, Transit & Demographic Diversity, Flexible Public Transportation Services
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on August 4, 2010 4:16 pm
Image courtesy of Flickr

The Federal Transit Administration's 2010 National State Of Good Repair Assessment (35p. PDF) is a new study that estimates it would cost $77.7 billion to shore up ...

A.D.A. Turns 20: Transportation And The Americans With Disabilities Act
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 26, 2010 12:42 pm
Image via Flickr

While everyone was celebrating the 20th anniversary of rail in Los Angeles last week, another important anniversary was approaching without much fanfare: the Americans ...

Information Innovation: Metro Transportation Library Leads The Way
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 21, 2010 11:16 am

Brigham Young University plugs their library service by capturing potential users' attention through a parody of the popular Old Spice commercials, via YouTube

An old axiom in ...

Research Roundup: High-Speed Rail, Transportation Statistics, Transportation Taxes
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 15, 2010 4:19 pm
We want to periodically highlight current transportation and transit research that is particularly useful or timely. Several new reports were issued recently that caught our eye and deserve review ...

History Pin: Google In Partnership To Take On "Augmented Reality" & Map The World's Photos And Stories
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 14, 2010 5:09 pm
Image via Information Aesthetics

We recently highlighted The Museum of London's efforts to create an augmented reality iPhone app from a set of geotagged images in their collection. With ...

Blue Line At 20: Welcoming The First Metro Rail Project And Its Continued Success
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 12, 2010 11:50 am
"Past The Banner Threshold Into A New Rail Era For Los Angeles" from September 1990 Headways

As we discussed last week during our look back at early rail links between Los Angeles and Long ...

Blue Line At 20: Looking Back At Early Service Between Los Angeles And Long Beach (1902-1961)
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 8, 2010 11:29 am
Pacific Electric Railway On First Day Of Operation to Long Beach, July 4, 1902 (via Metro Library Flickr)

Next week, Los Angeles' first contemporary rail project turns 20 years old. The ...

What CicLAvia Might Look Like: Scenes From "Oaklavia" And Other Car-Free Street Events
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 7, 2010 4:05 pm
Image via Sunday Streets SF

In just a couple of months, Los Angeles will begin an experiment with temporary street closure of streets for CicLAvia (promotional video can be found here). ...

1922 Los Angeles: Unprecedented Growth, Congestion And A Plan For Relief
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on July 6, 2010 2:47 pm
We recently discovered a fascinating 1922 PhD. dissertation from University of California, Berkeley that is a treasure-trove of various maps and charts. J.M. Terrass wrote his Study and Plan of ...

Subway Wraps: Innovative Transit Revenue Streams (Not Sandwiches)...
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on June 30, 2010 11:05 am
Image via NYC The Blog

We've written before about the financial crunch facing most transit operators in the current economy, but many agencies are countering difficult decisions with new ...

Sustainability In Transportation: A New International Exhibit And Metro Library's Up-To-The-Minute Resources
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on June 24, 2010 4:47 pm

An international exhibit on sustainable transportation opens today in New York titled "Our Cities Ourselves," a joint program of the Institute for Transportation and Development policy and the ...

Lost Parkways Of Los Angeles: The 1946 Proposed Interregional, Regional And Metropolitan Plan
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on June 22, 2010 5:30 pm


In the long history of transit planning in Los Angeles, early documents focused on relieving congestion with new street plans. Shortly after phenomenal growth in both area and population ...

Who Let The Data Out?: Comparing Transit Systems' Open Data Elements
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on June 9, 2010 11:15 am

Washington D.C. is the latest transit agency of note to open its data to the public - and they are going all out to take the lead in this area in order to improve service. The agency is ...

Transit Agency Cooperation In Mid-Century L.A. (Or Lack Thereof)...
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on June 2, 2010 5:12 pm

How do we increase the appeal of public transit ridership in Los Angeles? Recent Los Angeles Times columns (here, here, and here) suggest that streamlining transfers and passes within and ...

Hand-Held Museums: Is The Future Of History On Your Phone?
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on May 26, 2010 4:30 pm
Contemporary street scene with 1953 image of soldier in Piccadilly Circus

In addition to transit and transportation news and research, we are also periodically highlighting innovations in ...

The "Original Downtown Regional Connector?": The 1954 Underground Bus Network Maps
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on May 21, 2010 6:14 pm
Click on the map to open it, and again to enlarge it.

We wanted to follow up on yesterday's post about the proposed underground express bus network from the 1954 Supplemental Study Of Mass ...

The 1954 Plan For Los Angeles' Underground Bus Network (Yes, Underground!)
Posted by Metro Digital Resources Librarian on May 20, 2010 5:48 pm

As we proposed in our inaugural welcome post, our goal is to provide context for current transportation issues as well as to share the rich resources in our collections. Our ability to ...

All-Electric Bus Picking Up Passengers In Southern California (Foothill Transit)
Gizmag

Bike Corrals: Local Business Impacts, Benefits, And Attitudes (23p. PDF)
Portland State University School Of Urban Studies And Planning

A Bold Landmark By The Expo Line: Eric Owen Moss' Samitaur Tower In Culver City Will Display Video And Artwork Visible To Transit Riders On The Light-Rail Line
Los Angeles Times

Debunking The Myth Of Motorist Entitlement To Monopolize The Road ("There's an old line among opponents of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. It says road construction funds shouldn't be used to build bike lanes and sidewalks because cyclists and pedestrians don't contribute to the gasoline taxes that fund road construction.")
StreetsBlog LA

Decision On High Speed Rail Station Location In Valley Is Far Off
LAist

Delayed Mapping In The Age Of Realtime Information (More discussion of Metro's "12 Minute Map")
Human Transit

Denver Airport Breaks Ground On New Rail Line To Downtown ("Denver joins a growing list of U.S. airports that are trying to promote public rail transportation. Others that will be connected directly via rail in the coming years include Dallas Love Field, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, Oakland, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles.")
USA Today

Gold Line Opens Bidding On $450 Million Extension Phase, Tests New Public-Private Partnership Model
Pasadena Star-News
Construction Authority Issues RFP For $450 Million Light Rail Extension From Pasadena To Azusa: RFP Will Result In Public-Private Partnership With Winning Bidder (2p. PDF)
Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Press Release

Keeping Tabs On Traffic
Wall Street Journal

LA County Sidewalk Riding: Part 5
LADOT Bike Blog

More Solo Drivers Are Coming To California Carpool Lanes: Is It A Good Idea?
Los Angeles Times

New And Notable: All Roads Lead To Congress, Green Metropolis & Innovating for Sustainability
Metro Transportation Library Primary Resources Blog

No Need For Speed: 20's Plenty For Us
StreetFilms

Omnitrans Sets Service Reductions
Inland News Today

Protecting America's Commercial Bus Passengers With National Passenger Carrier Safety Push
U.S. DOT Fast Lane Blog

Should Carpoolers Get A Free Ride?
GOOD

Should Public Transportation Be Free? (In Paris, an underground group is posing that question. They dodge fares, not to save money, but to spark a debate over whether public transportation should be free or not)
American Public Media Marketplace

Shoup's Parking Ideas Offer MUCH More Than A Nifty Way To Price On-Street Parking
Reinventing Parking

A Stolen Bus Leads To An All-Too-Familiar Suspect
New York Times

The Truth About London's Cycle Superhighways ("Its 9 mile route offering moments of perfection and incredible frustration in equal doses.")
This Big City

USDOT Announces New, Historic Uniform High-Speed Rail Design Standards To Help U.S. Manufacturers To Compete
Mass Transit

When It Comes To Walking, L.A. Is More Deadly Than Other Cities
LAist
Los Angeles Metro - Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive



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