Transportation

A loaf of Love's Bakery bread is a slice of life in Hawaii, as familiar to residents and tourists as flip-flops and aloha shirts. So there was no way residents would be deprived of their daily staple even if it meant having to fly the loaves a circuitous 5,000 miles through Los Angeles. On Tuesday -- thanks to bankrupt Aloha Airlines -- residents on the islands of Hawaii and Kauai were in danger of being without their ration for the first time since Robert Love, a Scotsman waylaid in Honolulu, began baking the bread in 1851.

The undulating asphalt gave way to a sea of potholes and the bicycle shuddered with each curve and dip. Ahead, the Brooklyn Bridge rose in a long incline toward the camera-ready skyline of Manhattan. But the cinematic quality of the city was lost on an approaching bicyclist, who saw only a tight grid of streets with thin slices of available roadway -- spaces that momentarily widen, then narrow, in the anarchy of Manhattan traffic.

SCOOTERS are prone to many of the same safety issues as motorcycles. Their size makes them difficult for drivers to see, and on smaller-displacement models in particular, their low power makes mixing with fast-moving traffic more challenging. If you want to ride a scooter and aren't already a regular rider of two wheels, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation has a few recommendations.

With gasoline prices skyrocketing, key members of the Los Angeles business community are beginning to throw their political weight behind a sales tax increase to pay for more road and mass transit projects, including the beginning of the subway to the sea. David Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, told me Tuesday that as a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member he intends to vote to move the sales tax forward toward the November ballot.

Santa Maria, Calif. Ask Marv Hurley how many bones he's broken in rodeo and he'll rattle off a list that adds up to almost an entire skeleton: both ankles, both wrists, both feet, his collarbone, every one of his ribs. But out-of-control gas prices -- now that's a cowboy's nightmare. "They're killin' me," moaned Hurley, a 50-year-old bareback rider who manages to hang on to bucking broncs for a full eight seconds even with a partly metal pelvis that's held together by screws.

As commuters increasingly turn to bus and rail lines because of soaring gasoline prices, public transit, long the poor relation of American travel, is finally getting respect -- and money. In an effort to make riding bus and rail lines even more appealing, the House on Thursday moved to provide $1.7 billion to help transit agencies pay higher fuel costs, limit fare hikes and expand service. California would receive about $266 million. That's on top of a record $10 billion -- a $1-billion increase -- a congressional committee recently recommended for expanding transit nationwide in the next year.

Thousands more California students will have to find their own way to school this fall, as districts slash bus routes to cope with budget shortfalls and high fuel costs. Critics worry that the cuts will increase traffic around schools, shift costs to parents already struggling with rising gas prices and prompt more absenteeism, hurting students' academic achievement. But paramount is the fear that the reductions will endanger students as more walk or drive to school.

To avoid spending $10.5 million in taxpayer money just to make a political point, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe announced Thursday that he would change his vote from "no" to "yes" and permit a half-cent sales tax increase for roads and mass transit to be placed on the November ballot with other general election issues. Knabe, however, made it clear that he would continue to fight the tax proposal.

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza put it in no uncertain terms Friday: She is prepared to kill the bill that would allow a half-cent sales tax increase to go on the November ballot in Los Angeles County to pay for road and transit projects. "I said in order for the bill to pass the Senate, it is going to have to contain the Green Line extension," Oropeza (D-Long Beach) told me. "They" -- Los Angeles County transportation officials -- "understood that.

Reversing course from only a week ago, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday to put a sales tax increase for mass transit and road projects on the Nov. 4 ballot. However, the board also voted 3 to 2 to officially oppose the measure. Confused? Hey, it's local politics. First, the ballot issue. Last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted to put a half-cent sales tax increase on the general election ballot.