Transportation

How to Stop Worrying and Love Lexus Lanes

Remember that dust-up several years ago when it was discovered Caltrans was not filling potholes or performing other routine maintenance on the 91 freeway linking Orange and Riverside counties? Seems that few other than Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority knew about a non-compete ... More >>

Buena Park DUI Checkpoint 6/22/12

If you're planning on driving drunk along Beach Blvd. in the vicinity of Stanton Ave. tonight and early tomorrow morning, be sure to bring some warm clothes. The Buena Park Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint in the area between 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., ... More >>

[UPDATED with Stats:] Costa Mesa Sobriety Checkpoint Saturday; Garden Grove Reveals Stop Stats and Plans

UPDATE, APRIL 27, 11:58 A.M.: If you believe sobriety checkpoints cost cities too much for the inconvenience and scant arrests they generate, the Costa Mesa Police Department counters with this: you're wrong.Funded by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway ... More >>

[UPDATED with More Participating Cop Shops:] Super Bowl Sunday Flex Defense Employed Against Offensive Boozers Behind the Wheel

​UPDATE, FEB. 3, 4:27 P.M.: According to a release this afternoon from the Anaheim Police Department, that agency and 13 others are taking part in the previously announced countywide law enforcement patrols targeting drunken drivers on Super Bowl Sunday. That now makes it an "Avoid the 26" operati ... More >>

Donald Bren's Highway Robbery

[Moxley Confidential] The developer's role in creating the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road is the county's most embarrassing un-prosecuted crime.

Sobriety Checkpoints in Buena Park Tonight, Westminster Saturday Night

​Sobriety checkpoint fever heats up tonight in Buena Park and Saturday night in Westminster.Buena Park Police's DUI/drivers license stop will be at the intersection of Stanton Avenue and Beach Boulevard from 7 tonight to 3 a.m. Saturday. Cops there note that over the past three years, DUI collisio ... More >>

Are You Ready for Some Checkpoint? Costa Mesa Holds One During Monday Night Football Tonight

​The Costa Mesa Police Department no longer discloses the locations before holding DUI checkpoints, but at least the cop shop still informs us when they are happening.Such as the one tonight at 6.The stop in search of unlicensed drivers and those under the influence of drugs or alcohol will contin ... More >>

One More Reason to Hate Flying: More Intense TSA Searches for Surgically Implanted Bombs

​Do you know an elderly person, who due to hip or knee replacements is wheeled into the TSA line at the airport, where he or she is subjected to a long, humiliating search? I do, and when recounting a recent horror story, I was topped by a woman who said her auntie was not only just removed from h ... More >>

[UPDATED with Results:] Irvine Holds DUI Checkpoint Close to UCI

​UPDATED, MAY 9, 8:39 A.M.: Besides reporting no significant traffic delays, the Irvine Police Department released the following statistics from Friday night's sobriety checkpoint at Campus Drive and Bridge Road: Vehicles stopped: 545Sobriety tests: 9DUI arrests: 2Citations issued: 10

[UPDATED: TCA's Thoughts] Time for a Rematch? TCA Rekindles 241 Toll Road Talks, Citing Japan Devastation; Surfrider Foundation Responds

Surfrider FoundationThe swindle'n continues.​UPDATE, MAY 9, 4:20 P.M.: The basis for the most recent PR campaign--pushing the need for additional evacuation routes in the case of a emergency at SONGS or Camp Pendleton--was a concern expressed in a public poll from November 2010 (months before ... More >>

[UPDATED with Charges, Drunk-Ass Claims:] John Hines, Long Beach Fire Captain, Arrested for Felony Hit and Run

​UPDATE, APRIL 27, 10:08 A.M.: Long Beach Fire Department Capt. John Hines began drinking April Fools Day morning at Schooner or Later bar in Long Beach, became heavily intoxicated and early that afternoon climbed behind the wheel of his Chevy pick-up, swerved into a bicyclist who was thrown 70 fe ... More >>

5 Examples That Prove When the Going Gets Bizarre, the Bizarre Go to John Wayne Airport

​Recent reports of near-misses in the skies near John Wayne Airport are bad enough.But Orange County's commercial airport seems to have shifted from the scary to the bizarre over the past week.Check out the rundown of five recent examples of weirdness involving planes arriving at or leaving from J ... More >>

[UPDATED with Mesa Results:] Newport Beach and Costa Mesa Target Drunk Drivers

​UPDATE, APRIL 11, 8:39 A.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department has released the results of its DUI checkpoint at Newport Boulevard and 17th Street Saturday night:2,127 vehicles through the checkpoint; 611 vehicles screened; 9 drivers given field sobriety tests; 6 DUI suspects arrested; 12 driv ... More >>

Avoid Pink Elephants and Roving DUI Patrols Tonight

​Take a cab, plan an alternate route, or get your drink on somewhere else: roving sobriety patrols will be out tonight in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita."These multi-city DUI teams will target areas that have a high incidence of DUI-related arrests and collisions," reads an ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Colt Brennan, Former Mater Dei QB, In Car Accident And In 'Serious Condition'

The record-setting QB is in a Hawaii hospital in serious condition.Update, November 22, 11:03 a.m.: Terry Brennan indicated to reporters that his son, Colt, is "heavily sedated" and is "far from being alert." Colt is able to acknowledge that family and doctors are in the room, through hand signals, ... More >>

Baby and Me

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

[UPDATED:] DUI Checkpoint in San Clemente Tonight, Surf City Tomorrow

UPDATED: Huntington Beach police hold a sobriety checkpoint Saturday night (details below) . . . Orange County DUI AttorneySteady​The Orange County Sheriff's Department conducts a DUI/driver's license checkpoint in San Clemente from 6 tonight until 2 a.m. Saturday.

Catching Up With Leif Garrett Again

Leif Garrett, then and now.​Leif Garrett's arrest for drug possession Monday morning at the Metrolink station in downtown Los Angeles is a good excuse as any to revisit Dave Wielenga's great 1999 article, "Shakin' Like a Leif: Kicking Smack With Leif Garrett." What's the deal is with the 48-year- ... More >>

Stuff-a-Bus

Honda Center

Fitness Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

More U2 Info

​We all know U2 sucks. The songs are boring, Bono's a pompous ass and the rhythm section might be the worst in the history of rock 'n' roll. They've sold a bazillion records, yet no one I know has ever bought one of them, probably because my friends and I have good taste. But lame-os who own four ... More >>

Follow the Bouncing High-Speed Trains

Rendering of new Anaheim transportation hub, awaiting whatever comes its way.Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who had earlier seemed to be the biggest supporter in the U.S. Senate for a magnetic-levitation (Maglev) train from Las Vegas to Anaheim, is now pooh-poohing such a system, favoring instead a high-spe ... More >>

Fitness Hike

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

The Return of Toll Road Foister Jerry Amante

Here were told you about our question to Tustin City Councilman Jerry Amante, the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, the Transportation Corridor System Board of Directors and the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) who was all over the news last week after Comm ... More >>

Do You Believe a Passenger Jet Hit the Pentagon on 9/11? These Men Say You've Been 'PentaConned!'

The Mother of All Movie Curses?

As you no doubt have heard by now, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was seriously injured in a car accident today. As you probably heard from Mark McGrath by now, Freeman's accident is now being lumped in with a supposed “Curse of The Dark Knight,” a spate of recent tragedies suffered by other ... More >>

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson goes on a . . .

. . . rampage. Of course he does. In what assorted Internet pundits are already calling the stupidest hit-and-run ever, Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar (and Irvine resident) Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who was the subject of this 2007 Weekly cover story, was arrested yesterday in Balboa aft ... More >>

Colonel of Wisdom

This toll road debate is starting to feel like Clue—who's going to kill the project? Was it Colonel Magness, in the media, with cold, hard facts? Col. Thomas Magness wrote a little letter the Transportation Corridor Agencies didn't like. The letter disclosed that the TCA's preferred, certified a ... More >>

Santa Ana's Grand Choo-Choo Conspiracy Continues

Back in January, I theorized out loud about a SanTana scandal of Chinatown-esque proportions: the introduction of a light-rail system most likely involving the Cordoba Corporation, whose CEO sits alongside SanTana conflict-of-influenza-afflicted councilmember Carlos Bustamante on the board of the Sa ... More >>

Hu-what?! Schwarzenegger gives toll road stamp of approval

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's neutral stance on the 241 toll road extension magically changed for the worse Tuesday, and the Los Angeles Times reports that he's now urging the California Coastal Commission to approve the much-opposed project. The people at the Transportation Corridor Agencies are pre ... More >>

Trestles Tussle

The TCA’s expansion plans spark renewed activism

It's Your Money

But the government spends it

Toll Road Murders Women

The 241 toll road is a real lady-killer. On May 16, the 241 killed 65-year-old Nancy Donahue-Reddish, a grandmother two weeks into her retirement. She was on her way to Hemet to care for her ailing father when Javier Nelso lost control of his car, drove across the median and deprived six kids of Gr ... More >>

San Diego: Screw Trestles

San Diego has no business in San Diego County. At least, that's what their City Council seems to think. In our Best "Best of OC" Issue yet, Dave Wielenga eloquently described one of the major problems with the Save Trestles campaign: apathy. Surfers and the surf industry pay lip service to their be ... More >>

It's Good to Be Natural

No. 1: Save trestles. Or dont.

Will Walters Wescue the 241 Toll Woad?

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (R-73, 241, 261, 133) had a little get-together this morning with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the Marines, and Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. Only a select group of normal Chamber meeting attendees received invitations for the so-called "workshop". The invitation ... More >>

Tamed Swedes

Nature Benefit

Pedro: Making Dreams Come True

Assemblyman Pedro Nava is taking his battle against the Foothill-South (241) toll road extension online. At risk is San Onofre State Beach, 5th most popular state park in California, home to critical populations of endangered species such as gnatcatchers and pocket mice, not to mention the San M ... More >>

Bill Campbell Hates the (Surfin') USA

Today I listened to a State Senate Budget Subcommittee meeting on Transportation. Slightly more fun a C.I.A. interrogation. But as long as the TCA keeps trying to build a time/money-wasting toll road that might not even relieve traffic, when they haven't even done ANY studies on weekend traffic beca ... More >>

As A Disservice To Our Readers

The Times seems a bit confused by Assemblyman Pedro Nava's recent condemnation of the Foothill-South toll road, and so might you be. On May 6 the Times told its readers that Nava (D-Santa Barbara) didn't think the road should be built, that he wanted $450,000 spent on a UC study of alternatives to ... More >>

Ask Not for Whom the Toll Blows

San Diego wakes up, finds an Orange County freeway in its yard

Uncommonly Effective Cougar Repellant

The 241 toll road is exceeding all expectations for its ability to exterminate wildlife. As Scott Giffin revealed back in 1994 (Kill The Cougar, 6.10.04), toll roads through key animal habitat make for more roadkill than the Basra Turnpike. Yesterday's Register supported this observation when Erin ... More >>

Political Transvestism, Puma Killing, and The Blotter's Clairvoyance

Political transvestism and puma killing are in the news today, and both were implicit in posts on The Blotter yesterday. Coincidence or clairvoyance? Yesterday's first Blotter post dealt with the investigation by State Senator Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove) into the California National Guard's spying o ... More >>

A Road Runs Through It

Ride the Santa Ana River trail while you still can

Lost Highway

Cmon down to Jims World of Pain Motors!

El Toro Airport Watch

The Great Farce

El Toro Airport Watch No.148

Letter to Shredder

A Wreck

Toll-road history under reconstruction

Road to Ruin

The toll road is bleeding money and the Weekly wants you to know what the TCA, local dailies won't tell you: it's a looming financial disaster