>> BREATHE LA’s Green Salon considers the latest advances in diesel use and examines new policies that mandate a shift to cleaner practices.  Event includes a drawing for four free pairs of Metrolink Weekend Passes.  BREATHE LA will be hosting events throughout the day, so check their website for more details.  The Green Salon takes place Thu., Oct. 27 from 9-10:30 a.m. at The California Endowment, 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles. Cost: free. Email info@breathela.org to register.

>> EarthFlow Design Works, Fais Do Do and The Los Angeles Permaculture Guild present Harvest the Rain, a book signing and talk with Nate Downey, author of Harvest the Rain. “Every drop of rain is an opportunity, every storm a resource.”  Come out on Fri., Oct. 28 from 7-9:30 pm at Café Club Fais Do-Do, 5257 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles. Cost: Free.

>> Come out this weekend for the first Green Festival in Los Angeles.  Listen to experts talk, check out eco-friendly products, taste delicious organic foods and beverages, try out yoga and movement classes, and mix and mingle with other forward thinking minds!  Event takes places Sat., Oct. 29 from 10 am – 7 pm and Sun., Oct. 30 from 11 am – 6 pm at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.  Cost: free for minors and folks that cycle to the event, or $15 at the door.  See website for more details.

Image via Green Festival

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>> Metro day passes are just $5 now! Enjoy the cheaper rides while they last –

>> Plastic bags are officially banned in Long Beach starting today — at least in the big stores. And paper bags will cost you 10 cents each — so remember to BYOB! In case you’ve forgotten, a plastic bag ban also went into effect for the unincorporated areas of L.A. County last month. Here’s how we’re doing on plastic bag bans in L.A County cities. Earlier: Got extra reusable bags? Drop them off at Santa Monica’s Share A Bag spots.

And soon you can expect:

>> Birth control sans copays. Insurers now have to cover birth control with no copays — which I think is big green news. Fewer unplanned pregnancies means fewer baby Americans means fewer resources needed. Earlier: Single and happy? Five single bloggers that make solo living fun.

>> Less trees and better views at Yosemite. Of course, hacking down trees for sightseeing purposes is a plan that’s proving controversial.

>> Less Chromium 6 — a.k.a. the Erin Brokovich chemical — in California tap water. California set the nation’s first public health goal for this carcinogen at 0.02 ppb — an unenforceable limit, but one that’s hoped to, you know, become enforceable. LA Times reports: “Environmentalists praised the new state goal, saying they hoped it would pressure state and federal officials to set enforceable standards for the metal and other drinking water contaminants.”

Photo by Fire Monkey Fish

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In case you haven’t heard yet: L.A. cyclists raced against a JetBlue plane from Burbank to  Long Beach over the weekend — and the two-wheelers won by over an hour. Even more interestingly, public transit taker (and also a cycling advocate) Gary Kavanagh beat the plane too. So did a tweeting woman on rollerblades!

Clearly, fighting traffic to the airport, making it through security, and relying on a cab driver to know the way is not as efficient as traveling across town in more eco-friendly ways. Slate has the unofficial finish times, calculated by @bcgp:

Bike: 1:34
Metro/Walk: 1:44
Rollerblades: 2:40
Plane/Lost Cabdriver: 2:54

For those new to the story, Slate’s Tom Vanderbilt provides a nice comprehensive article on what went down — and waxes lyrical about the possibilities of cycling and public transit in the city:

In the face of this fanciful idea (a traffic-busting flight!) it became possible to demonstrate that cycling, often taken as a non-serious or marginal or even annoying (to some drivers) form of transportation in the United States, could seem eminently reasonable: not only the cheapest form of transportation, not merely the one with the smallest carbon footprint, not only the one most beneficial to the health of its user, but the fastest….

But the race today wasn’t only about the cyclists. Gary Kavanagh*, who had reacted enthusiastically to my initial daydreaming about a “Tour de Carmageddon,” was the day’s dark horse, revealing the secret efficacy—and perhaps, for some remote Twitter spectators, the existence—of Los Angeles’ oft-derided subway system. (When I thought of a cyclist racing a jet, I admittedly wasn’t even aware one could take mass transit between BUR and LGB).

Many Angelenos who weren’t even aware of this race talked about how the freeway closure actually made for quite the pleasant weekend. KPCC’s Molly Peterson picked up on this tweet from L.A. County’s public transit agency Metro:

That’s one big idea — and GOOD asked for more this morning by kicking off a new project: “Imagine Your Los Angeles Street Beyond Cars.” Submit your best car-free vision by Sunday, July 31 for a chance to get it seen at the A+D Museum on Thursday, August 11 during the Moving Beyond Cars party. One winner will get GOOD goodies and other prizes. RSVP for the party now to find out who the winner is then.

Earlier:  Without a Car in the World: See 100 Car-free Angelenos

Photo by Michael Dorausch

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Yes, the 405′s closing for a weekend. Yes, the 10 and 110 freeways are getting toll roads. Here’s why you should stop whining, as L.A. Times’ Steve Lopez advises, and start taking public transportation more often.

>> Public transportation + calorie counts on menus = Weight loss. Fascinating story from a man who always thought he’d be fat — then lost 80 pounds by moving to New York, where walking’s de rigeur and calorie counts are prominently posted at fast food joints, per state law.

The first week in New York I went to Chipotle, something familiar from back home, and I was confronted with a menu that prominently listed each item’s calories, posted by law thanks to a 2008 regulation championed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The truth was shocking. The tortilla alone was 290 calories, plus beans and rice added another 250 calories. That was 540 calories before I even made a real choice. For my favorite burrito — chicken with corn salsa and guacamole — the grand total was about 960 calories. Here I was making “healthy choices” at Chipotle, and I’d blown nearly half a day’s suggested calories.

Earlier:
>> Simple summer slimming tip: Take public transit to drop pounds
>> 7 Eco-friendly diets: Live green, lose weight, save money
>> Supersized is the new normal — but can you eat just half the burrito?
>> Organic junk food — less corn syrup, just as many calories

>> Metro’s even offering some free bus service during the 405 closure — and “adding 61 buses and 32 rail cars to enhance service on the bus and rail lines serving the area which will be impacted.” See if your fave bus line’s offering free rides next weekend.

Photo by Michelle

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>> Yes, you can get from San Francisco to Los Angeles via public transportation. A writer for the SF Weekly did it (via LAist):

I wander off into the heart of downtown L.A. beneath a staggeringly bright midday sun. Doing the math, I have just taken 16 buses or trains operated by seven public agencies. Transportation costs totaled $41.25 for a trip that took exactly 32 hours and seven minutes and covered some 480 miles. And was it crazy? Of course. But traversing the state via public transit allows you to meet people and see places you’d never encounter in any other way. You share a seat with a cross-section of California.

>> Get ready to bike downtown — Bicycle lanes are planned for Figueroa, Flower, Spring and Main Streets. According to blogdowntown, “within the next year, lanes should be headed to Figueroa between 7th and Cesar Chavez, Flower between 3rd and 7th, Spring between Cesar Chavez and 9th and Main between Cesar Chavez and Venice.”

>> Californians are snapping up electric cars — so much so that California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has run out of money! LA Times reports “The ARB proposes to triple the amount of funding to the program for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to $15 million. The rebate amount for zero-emissions vehicles, however, is likely to be reduced, from $5,000 to $2,500 in order to meet demand.”

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>> 10 deals and freebies for pedaling during Bike to Work Week. Get free bike gear, win bike-friendly prizes, and get to fun parties and rides.

>> L.A. cyclists can get a free $20 for their bikes each month by commuting to work on bike. Are you taking advantage of this freebie?

>> LAPD’s got new electric bikes to help patrol bike-friendly events, and CA-36 congressional candidates say they’re all about improving cycling in the city.

And in other green transportation news:

>> Metrolink will debut a $10 weekend pass come July 1. Plus, expect expanded rail service for L.A. County in the years to come –

>> 9% of new Los Angeles vehicle sales to be electric by 2015, 11.7% by 2020, says UCLA study. By 2020, that number could jump to 11.7 percent.

Photo of the inaugural CicLAvia on Oct. 10, 2010 by Gary Leonard

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>> 5 discounts and deals for traveling green in Los Angeles. From a free gift with a green spa treatment to 20 percent off locavore-friendly dining!

>> 7th Street to get a bicycle-friendly makeover. From Catalina Street in Koreatown to Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles, 2.2 miles of bicycle lanes will be painted, giving cyclists more room and visibility. That room will come from cars, who’ll see their driving space reduced from two lanes down to one lane going each way. Street parking will be retained.

>> Will Wilshire bus-only lanes get more Angelenos riding Metro? There’s a plan to give buses their own lanes for 7.7 miles on Wilshire during rush hour — a plan that would shave 11 minutes of public transit riders’ commutes! Some car-dependent Angelenos aren’t happy about the idea, however. What are your thoughts?

Photo by biofriendly/Flickr

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>> Streetfilms answers the question, “What is CicLAvia?”

>> 13 Ways of Looking at CicLAvia. My poetic roundup about the car-free event.

>> Metro to drop day pass prices back to $5 in July. Hurting from gas prices yet? Metro’s trying to entice you to ride, not drive.

>> Master bus riding in Los Angeles with your smartphone. Plan trips instantly and find out when the next bus is coming while on the go.

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High-speed rail has yet to revolutionize American travel, but that’s not stopping two green-minded adventurers from exploring the U.S. via train — and the fold-up bikes they can carry or ride. Russ Roca and Laura Crawford are redefining the American road trip — by going the distance without ever getting into a car.

“Big Adventure, Small Wheels” is what the simple-living, travel-addicted couple is calling their journey. The two aren’t new to adventure travel — or to a remarkable dedication to alternative transportation. Just a few years ago, I knew Russ as the local bicycling photographer, famous (at least among environmentalists and cyclists) in the L.A. area for lugging all his heavy photography equipment around on bike.

Then in 2009, Russ and Laura sold everything they owned to go on a bicycling adventure called Path Less Pedaled — traveling 10,000 miles over 15 months all over the U.S. After a short break, the two are ready to venture out again — this time adding trains to the mix.

“We’re getting some great support this time round,” said Russ in an email. “Adventure Cycling is pretty excited about the idea of multi-modal touring. We’re hoping to get Amtrak officially on board. And we’ve got 3000 Facebook fans this time around, to help guide us to some interesting places.”

Want Russ and Laura to come by your town? Get their attention through Facebook, Twitter, and their blog — and cruise over on your bike to meet them when they roll into town.

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Does your city have an innovative smart transit policy? The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Smarter Cities project put together a list of America’s Smartest Regions for Transportaion, naming the 15 U.S. metropolitan regions that are really thinking outside the car. On top of the list are well-known mass and alternative transportation leaders like New York City and Portland, but cities I’d never heard of — like Yolo, Calif. and Bremerton, WA — also made the list.

That’s because the study includes four to seven cities in three different population size categories. San Francisco, Calif. made it on the large cities list with its bicycle network and BART system, but partly rural and partly urban Yolo., Calif. also got kudos for its Yolobus system, bike-friendly streets, and alternative fuels leadership.

Sadly but as expected, Los Angeles did not make the list. After all, the metropolitan regions were judged based on public transit accessibility, car use, and transportation costs — all areas that the L.A. metropolitan area could improve upon.

That said, Los Angeles just got a big bicycle plan for the city, will be opening the first half of the Expo Line next year, and has plans to continue expanding its rail network. Maybe in a few years, the city known for its car culture will start getting recognized for its out-of-the-car transit options.

One can dream.

Earlier:
>> EPA: The real energy-efficient home is a less car-dependent home
>> Avoid heart attacks by not sitting in traffic
>> Abogo reveals the transportation costs of your neighborhood

Photo by Ernesto Andrade

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