CV WEEKLY: Gatto Speaks to Local Democrats

A great piece in the CV Weekly on a mini Town Hall I had recently in La Canada.

Gatto Speaks to Local Democrats

Photo by CHARLY SHELTON - CV WEEKLY

By Mary O’KEEFE - CRESCENTA VALLEY WEEKLY

On Aug. 18, Assemblymember Mike Gatto spoke to the Cañada-Crescenta Democratic Club at a meeting hosted by Anthony and Ellen Portantino at their home.

At the meeting, Gatto answered questions from the audience on a variety of issues and spoke about what was happening in the state assembly.

He spoke on AB440, a bill that had cleared the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and is now on its way to Appropriations. The bill would give local governments the tools needed to clean up contaminated properties, known as brownfields, and to recover costs of the contamination from the responsible party/parties.

He also spoke of a bill to ease traffic. AB405 would allow HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lanes to be used by all vehicles during non-peak hours.

“It doesn’t do anyone any good when there is an accident [on the freeway] and you can’t go around it [because of the HOV restrictions],” he said.

Gatto added that other areas, including northern California, have time sensitive HOV lanes in which carpool restrictions are in place during rush hour and then open for all vehicles during non rush hour.

“This is the last month the legislature is in session,” Gatto said. “There are hundreds of bills in the mix.”

One of those bills was signed into law on Aug. 12 and will allow cities more freedom to build dog parks.

“The idea came from Laura Friedman,” he said. Friedman is a Glendale city councilmember. “She came to me at the opening of the Crescenta Valley dog park.”

The CV dog park was the first park of its kind opened in Los Angeles County. Friedman had pointed out to Gatto that L.A. County had the ability to self insure, but for a city it would be cost prohibitive to have a dog park. AB265 limits the liability that cities and counties face when operating dog parks and protects them from litigants who claim, for example, that they were unaware of potential dangers, according to Gatto’s website.

“We were able to get that bill through this year,” he said.

He commented on the 710 extension, saying, “I don’t see anything that is good” about that.

“And I think the community has spoken,” he added. “We don’t want this.”

A question came from the audience regarding the Rainy Day Fund, which is purported to increase the potential savings in the state fund from 5% to 10 % of the General Fund. Gatto is a supporter of the measure.

“To me, [the concept of] a rainy day fund is simple,” he said. “[It’s like] you see this guy and he is very wealthy and [appears to be] responsible but he has nothing in his retirement or savings. [After finding this out], you would say he is not responsible. … Well, that is what California is like.”

Gatto added the state tends to spend all its money in the good times and then has nothing when bad times come around.

The Cañada-Crescenta Democratic Club was chartered in 2005 to serve the Democrats in the area. They were then called the La Cañada Flintridge Democratic Club. In 2008, the name was changed to Cañada-Crescenta Democratic Club because its reach had grown throughout Crescenta Valley.

They meet on the third Sunday of each month except for June and December. 

You can read this article and more at http://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/news/08/29/2013/gatto-speaks-to-local-democrats/ # # # 

Mike Gatto chairs the Appropriations Committee in the California Assembly. He represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake.

LA WEEKLY: L.A. Carpool Lanes Open to All at Night? It's Possible

Photo by Mark Leuthi; (from LA Weekly)

By Dennis Romero Wed., Jun. 26 2013 at 8:01 AM

Ever get ready for a night out and hop on the freeway in anticipation, only to meet total gridlock ... at 10 in the evening?

Yeah. That's L.A. for you. And what's really infuriating is when you look to your left and see a wide open ghost town of a lane. The carpool lane. A bill making its way through Sacramento would open that extra lane for your nighttime enjoyment:

AB 405 by Mike Gatto of Burbank would allow "single-occupancy vehicles to access the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes during non-peak hours," according to a statement from his office.

Yes, you'd be able to use those lanes your tax dollars pay for -- lanes meant to alleviate traffic and encourage carpooling during rush hour, not after-hours -- later at night.

The bill passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee unanimously yesterday, Gatto's office announced.

While carpool or HOV lanes are open to commuters after-hours in the Bay Area, it's not the case in L.A. You're punished because you don't drive a Prius. And that's not right. Gatto:

"Carpool lanes are supposed to provide an incentive for carpooling during peak travel hours, and be good for the environment. I support these goals. But when motorists are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic at midnight while carpool lanes sit empty, those goals are not met."

Albert Valles - Flickr (from LA Weekly)

The bill says no new carpool lanes will be established after July 1, 2014, unless they're open to all after-hours. It also specifies that stretches of the 134, 170, 5, 210 and 57 be open to single motorists during non-rush hours.

Gatto:

"There is no reason for drivers to be stuck in traffic when a late-night accident or mysterious slowing clogs the rightmost freeway lanes, while the carpool lane sits empty."

Are you behind this, party people?

You can read this article and more at the LA Weekly HERE

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

LISTEN IN: Mike Gatto on KABC's Peter Tilden Show

Mike Gatto on the KABC Talk Radio’s Peter Tilden Show – June 4, 2013

Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) joined KABC 790 Talk Radio show host Peter Tilden for a candid conversation about thinking independently as a legislator, cracking down on the influence of lobbyists and special interests, and some common-sense solutions to everyday problems faced by Southern Californians.  Tilden was particularly excited about Gatto’s efforts to open carpool lanes during off-peak hours and stop the fleecing of motorists who park at broken parking meters.

PRESS ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Open car pool lanes during non-peak hours

Published: June 09, 2013; 06:00 PM | California does not have so much freeway capacity that the state can afford to leave some lanes mostly empty for much of the day. The state Senate should back a bill that would open some car pool lanes in Los Angeles County to regular traffic during non-rush hours. And the Legislature should extend that approach to other Southern California counties, as well.

The Assembly last month passed AB 405, by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, by a 72-0 vote. The bill would allow regular traffic to use car pool lanes on portions of Highway 134 and Interstate 210 during non-peak hours. Gatto structured the bill as a pilot project, but he clearly wants to extend the same approach to other freeways in Southern California.

The idea is attractive to a car-clogged region that routinely faces frustrating traffic congestion. California now has 1,428 miles of car pool lanes out of about 12,000 miles of freeway in the state, with plans for adding 777 more miles of the restricted-use lanes. But single-occupant vehicles dominate Southern California traffic, leaving the restricted lanes largely useless to most drivers. Adding new freeway lanes in heavily developed Southern California is both difficult and expensive, so the region needs to make the most efficient use of existing freeway capacity.

Inland residents, for example, welcome additional lanes for the crowded Highway 91/Interstate 215 route between Riverside and San Bernardino. But leaving those lanes off limits to most drivers 24 hours a day stands to annoy motorists more than ease traffic. All taxpayers are paying for stretches of roadway that only some drivers can use, because sharing rides is not a simple matter for many people in Southern California’s sprawling commuter culture.

California already has a precedent for opening the lanes to all traffic for part of the day: Northern California car pool lanes have restrictions only during peak traffic hours Monday through Friday. The rest of the time, all drivers can use the lanes.

Caltrans, however, says that traffic patterns make that approach infeasible for Southern California, because daily freeway congestion lasts longer. But that claim hardly justifies keeping the lanes off-limits to other traffic 24 hours a day. And the car pool lanes do have room for general use: A 2012 Caltrans report showed that some of the restricted-use lanes in Los Angeles County barely met Caltrans’ minimum standard for car pool lanes of 800 vehicles per hour, even at peak times. And those counts can see a substantial drop after rush hour periods.

Car pool lanes are supposed to decrease traffic congestion and improve air quality. But the lanes do nothing to serve those goals if they remain mostly empty while the rest of the freeway is jammed. Such instances only irritate motorists and undermine public support for the restricted-use lanes.

Opening the lanes to all during nonpeak times would promote more efficient use of freeway space while lowering drivers’ frustration level. Transportation policy needs to be practical, and leaving some freeway lanes largely empty for part of the day falls far short of that mark.

You can read this editorial and more at the Riverside Press Enterprise by clicking HERE

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

PRESS ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: During nonpeak hours, open car pool lanes to all

The Legislature should support efforts to open car pool lanes to all vehicles at off-peak
travel times to improve traffic flow. - See more HERE

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Car-clogged California needs every bit of efficiency the state can squeeze from freeways. So legislators should back a push to open car pool lanes to general traffic during non-rush hours. The state does not have so much freeway capacity that it can afford to leave lanes mostly empty for long stretches each day.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, last week introduced AB 405. The bill would open a five-mile stretch of car pool lanes on Highway 134 to regular traffic during off-peak travel hours. Currently, only vehicles with two or more occupants can use the lanes, regardless of the time of day. The assemblyman notes that the goal of car pool lanes is to ease traffic congestion and improve air quality. But letting lanes sit empty while bumper-to-bumper traffic jams the rest of the freeway just irritates motorists, without serving any policy purpose.

Gatto crafted the proposal as a pilot program, but clearly envisions extending the same approach to freeways across Southern California. He has the right idea: Letting solo drivers use car pool lanes during off-peak hours is a cost-effective way to increase freeway capacity — cheaper certainly than spending billions of dollars to add additional lanes. The state now has more than 1,400 miles of car pool lanes, out of about 12,000 miles of freeway in the state.

The evidence supports the assemblyman’s proposal. A 2012 Caltrans report about such “high-occupancy vehicle” lanes in the Los Angeles area suggests the lanes underperform. An average of 1,300 vehicles per hour used the lanes during rush hour times in 2011. Caltrans puts a limit of 1,650 vehicles per hour as the maximum traffic level for such lanes, so the car pool lanes are hardly filled to capacity. Some of the car pool lanes barely met Caltrans’ minimum standard of 800 vehicles per hour. And those numbers were for peak times. Traffic in those lanes would be even less during off hours — hardly an efficient use of existing freeway space.

That result is not an anomaly. A 2007 report by the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley found similar underuse of California’s car pool lanes — and suggested that opening the lanes to all traffic at some times of the day would improve freeway operations.

California already has a precedent for doing so. In Northern California, the car pool restrictions only apply during morning and evening rush hour periods Monday through Friday. The rest of the time, anyone can use the lanes.

Caltrans says that following a similar approach in Southern California would be impractical, because the daily freeway congestion lasts longer. But that contention merely means less time might be available for all-purpose use of the lanes, and is not a persuasive reason for keeping restrictions in place 24 hours a day. And nothing undercuts public support for car pool lanes like being stuck in traffic while a restricted lane sits empty.

Expanding freeways is costly, time-consuming and disruptive, so California needs promote the most efficient use of existing lanes. And barring most traffic from lanes that are nearly empty for part of the day is not a sensible approach to meeting that goal.

Read this editorial and more at: http://www.pe.com/opinion/editorials-headlines/20130220-editorial-during-nonpeak-hours-open-car-pool-lanes-to-all.ece#sthash.4JH92mvT.dpuf

LISTEN IN: KNX 1070 News Radio drivetime interview re: AB 405

“We’ve all sat on the freeway at night or midday, and seen an accident or something that slows the right three lanes to a crawl while the carpool lane sits open and unused,” Gatto said. “My AB 405 would allow better use of the carpool lane during those non-peak hours by allowing people to use it even if they don’t have a traditional carpool.”

LISTEN IN as I discuss AB 405 on KFI Radio

LA Times Excerpt: Lawmaker wants to open Southland car pool lanes for off-peak use

Eastbound traffic on the 134 Freeway is clogged by an accident. (Mike Meadows / Associated Press / June 10, 2010)

By Patrick McGreevy
February 19, 2013, 10:51 a.m.


...Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) said his AB 405 will create a test program that could be expanded to other congested freeways in Southern California that do not open up car pool lanes to all traffic after rush hour. It would allow single-passenger vehicles to use the car pool lanes in off-peak hours in a five-mile stretch of the 134 between the 170 and 5 freeways...

You can read this entire article, and more at the LA Times by clicking HERE

PRESS RELEASE: Gatto Bill will Ease Congestion, Better Manage Carpool Lanes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               Contact:  Justin Hager (818) 558-3043

February 19, 2013         

MIKE GATTO INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO BETTER MANAGE CARPOOL LANES, EASE CONGESTION

Sacramento, CA – It's happened to anyone who lives in Southern California.  A late-night accident or mysterious slowing clogs the rightmost freeway lanes, while the carpool lane sits empty.  Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) has introduced Assembly Bill 405, a measure that will create a pilot program of sorts to ease such traffic congestion by permitting single-occupancy vehicles to access the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes (also known as carpool lanes) on State Highway Route 134, during non-peak hours.

A recent CalTrans report indicated that Southern California’s HOV lanes are not being utilized to capacity during non-peak hours, leaving single-passenger vehicles idling in slow-going or stand-still lanes.  Unlike Northern California, where HOV lane restrictions are in place only during peak commute hours, HOV lanes in Southern California, including those on the 134 Freeway, are restricted on a 24-hour basis. 

Gatto explained that “carpool lanes are intended to increase the capacities of our freeways, reward those who carpool during rush hour, and protect the surrounding environment from harmful exhaust.   When motorists are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic at midnight while carpool lanes sit empty, none of those goals are being met.  It just doesn't make sense.”

Gatto’s measure would require Caltrans to allow single-passenger vehicles to access the HOV lanes on a five mile stretch of the 134 Freeway between the 170 Freeway and Interstate 5 during non-peak hours.

“The current restriction of HOV lanes to only high-occupancy vehicles or to those who can afford high-efficiency vehicles is an ineffective way to operate these lanes outside of rush hour,” said Gatto.  “California’s highway system needs to remain flexible, especially in areas where people drive the freeways at all times.” 

Many commuters along the 134 corridor, which links the 101 Freeway to Pasadena and beyond, do not work traditional hours.

Gatto is also overseeing an effort with state and local agencies to investigate ways to address administratively the underutilization of HOV lanes in the region.

“Traffic congestion is almost always bad during rush hour; it need not be bad all night long,” said Gatto. 

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Canada Flintridge, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood.   www.asm.ca.gov/gatto