These are the books I actually read this year, even if they were all written earlier than 2021. Let’s start with the novels: Brooklyn — Colm Toibin

The main problem for improving LA transportation is that most of our ideas for a safer, more sustainable network are not popular enough. Taking space on the street away from cars for bus-only lanes? Not popular enough. Taking space to put in protected bike lanes? Not popular enough. Implementing safety-oriented…

This is a list of the 8 books I most enjoyed this year. These are mostly older books- in fact none were published this year. I check a lot of books out from the library and don’t make it past the beginning on most of them. …

This article discusses the power of the community to shape decisions about transportation infrastructure and how we use our streets for getting around — things like whether a bike lane gets installed, whether car parking is free, whether a general traffic lane becomes a bus-only lane, or whether e-scooters are…

Earlier this year, I wrote a three-part series of articles outlining the way that transportation policy gets made by elected officials. But it’s worth discussing elected officials at the local level (City and County) and how they relate to their communities in a little more detail. …

In the past few years, I’ve really enjoyed reading memoirs. So I decided to compile a list of my favorites. A few guiding principles: Life is too short to read long books. …

Indirect Policy-Making: Appointments, Budgeting, and Oversight — My previous articles in this series discussed why elected officials make transportation policy and how they make policy “directly” using the legislative process. This article will discuss three “indirect” ways that elected officials exert control over transportation policy: (1) Appointment; (2) Budgeting; (3) Oversight. (1) Appointments

Direct Policy-Making: The Legislative Process — My previous piece discussed why elected officials make transportation policy. This piece begins to discuss how they make policy. The way elected officials influence the course of action on transportation matters can be split into two categories: (1) direct and (2) indirect. This not a precise distinction, but rather reflects…

Why Elected Officials Make Policy — I’ve written at some length here about the main governmental organizations that oversee transportation in Los Angeles and California. But in truth, none of the departments or agencies described in these articles (Metro, LADOT, Caltrans) are completely “in charge” of either the street or transportation. These departments do manage things…