Emergency personnel at a car crash scene in Lake Forest, Orange County. (Photo: mikeledray, via Shutterstock)The pandemic-prompted shift to at-home work dramatically reduced the number of cars on the road, so people drove faster, drank more, paid less attention and got lazy about their seatbelts, all of which contributed to the highest rate of fatal accidents in more than a decade.
A multi-unit housing complex under construction in Vista, San Diego County. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)OPINION: With one act next week, an obscure state panel could make nearly $2 billion available to finance and fund affordable housing projects around the state. Or it could choose to leave that money on the table and instead enable a Canadian corporation to issue tax-free bonds to finance a controversial, economically unjust, and environmentally damaging desalination plant in Orange County.
A freight-laden train makes its way through a city's core. (Photo: Serjio74,. via Shutterstock)When most of us receive a package at our door from Amazon or another delivery service, we rarely think about the complex system that brought it to us, from manufacturing and packaging to shipping, sorting and last-mile delivery. But California’s massive freight system is key to both our economy and our environmental health.
Motorists along the Ventura Freeway in Sherman Oaks. (Photo: Oscity, via Shutterstock)A California transportation plan of historic proportions has been approved – but what happens next? First, is the 12-cent increase in the fuel tax, starting in November. Then, other taxes and fees will kick in to help finance the $52 billion package in Senate Bill 1, which includes $34 billion over the next 10 years for repair and maintenance of roads, highways, bridges and culverts.
Downtown Los Angeles, as traffic zips along. (Photo: Sean Pavone)Gov. Brown’s call for a special legislative session to fix California’s crumbling roads, highways and bridges comes as music to the ears of those who build big projects. For months, groups representing labor, contractors, local governments, transportation interests and others worked on legislation to revamp the state’s roads and ease the movement of freight at the state’s ports. That legislation may serve as the centerpiece of the special session.