>> Metro’s ad campaigns are getting people out of their cars, according to The City Fix, which wants other transit agencies following L.A.’s example:

Following Metro’s re-brand, discretionary riders, those people who have the choice to commute by car or transit, have jumped from 24 to 36 percent…. Over time, a sustained investment in marketing increases the number of people who use transit. Increased ridership leads to increased revenue and, ideally, an increase in service to match the new demand.

I think other forces (i.e. higher gas prices) were at work in addition to the ads, but I do like the way this post addresses some people’s unquestioned assumption that money spent on marketing instead of transit itself is money wasted. Metro’s also more recently invested in a blog, The Source.

>> Angelenos are getting adept at water conservation! The L.A. Times reports: “Water use in the city was down 18.4% from June through October, the hottest and thirstiest time of the year. This marks the lowest water consumption in Los Angeles in the last 18 years at a time when the population has grown by an estimated 500,000.”

>> L.A.’s got more bike sharrows than ever — thanks not to actual city government projects. Writes Damien Newton at Streetsblog: “Oddly, [the sharrows] seem to be centered in the area surrounding the Bike Oven in NELA’s bike district.”

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