Disneyland

 OCTA released its weekly update a few nights ago, and here's my take:

• OCTA CEO Will Kempton and two of the Board of Directors recently flew to Washington, D.C., to continue their advocacy work on the federal level for public transit. They've asked for flexibility in funding so that public transit in Orange County can continue to operate (operating funds) instead of having funds locked in for just construction (capital funds).
• Disneyland hired some of OCTA's laid-off drivers and is renting some of OCTA's unused buses in order to serve a new Disneyland parking lot. OCTA is spinning this as a service to the "community," but I partly disagree: these buses don't serve Anaheim's community nor do they serve the rest of us living in Orange County, and only further encourages auto-centric behavior.
• There's a fairly long list of neutral-to-negative articles towards the end regarding the most recent cuts that OCTA took. 

  read more→

Anaheim City Hall is certainly giddy about their Go Local project. Wait until you hear about the latest news from the OTHER Magic Kingdom.

Recently, our cohort Steven covered the various modes of transportation that the city was studying to connect the new ARTIC fortress with the rest of the Anaheim Resort, including (but not limited to) BRT, light rail, and a monorail. Knowing Anaheim officials and their “Shiny Ball Syndrome” (you know, like when a kid sees a shiny object and instantly becomes attracted to it and disregards whatever they were doing in the first place), the most favorable option was a monorail.

Meanwhile over at Mouse Headquarters, Disney officials are dealing with a real pain in terms of parking for the current Resort. As more people seem to drive cars to the Resort, parking has become a nightmare on a daily basis, so much so that Disney has now begun to direct guests over to satellite parking lots located on Disney Way and Harbor Boulevard and rent charter buses to bring them to the park.

Too bad people don’t realize they can use the 24 hour bus service on Harbor and Katella, along with the somewhat frequent service on Katella to travel to and from the Train Station and Angel Stadium. Oh wait- I just realized March in is a few weeks.

Do you smell a solution coming? read more→

Spokker last week attended the Anaheim Fixed Guideway Transit Corridor Study early scoping meeting. In essence, OCTA and Anaheim staff are considering building bus rapid transit, a monorail, a maglev (?!?), personal rapid transit pods, or an automated people mover. The line would run for about 2 miles and cover Disneyland, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Gardenwalk, the Angels Stadium, and the Anaheim Amtrak-Metrolink train station. read more→