Jet Blue / Facebook

If you're tired of L.A. constantly having the some of the highest gas prices in the nation, there's a small consolation.

If you're the flying type, the area also has some of the most affordable air fares in the entire U.S. of A. That according to a U.S. Department of Transportation domestic air fare survey released this month:

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Nanette Gonzalez for L.A. Weekly

It's officially Bike Week L.A., so try not to mow down bicyclists as usual, Angeleno drivers.

What is Bike Week L.A., you ask? Mostly it's just a way to encourage you to step away from the gas guzzler and instead pedal to work. Among the enticements, which include cleaner air and toned legs, is this:

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Stephen Falk / LA Weekly Flickr pool

Ever park your car at LAX for extended periods of time while you're away on business trips only to wonder, Damn, how can I make money off my idle ride?

Us neither. But still, this is an intriguing business idea. A company called Hubber hit Los Angeles this week, reps told us. It allows you to rent your car to strangers while you're away:

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Aurimas / Flickr

The stereotype of L.A. BMW drivers as self-satisfied jerks (nothing personal, boss -- just reporting the news) just got some scientific ammunition.

AXA Insurance's 2012 annual Motoring Census found that drivers of Bavarian lovelies were the most likely to express "enjoyment" behind the wheel during everyday drives:

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mypotholes.com

If you think our streets are crumbling before our very eyes, you're not alone.

The latest California Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment by the League of California Cities shows that our roads are in "rapid decline" and that our budget to fix them is perhaps even worse.

The assessment says that unless we come up with the cash to fix our streets ...

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Just when you thought it was safe to purchase gas again, the state is adding $3.5 cents to every gallon you buy.

Yep, right when the AAA of Southern California is screaming, "Gas Price Spike Screeches To A Halt," your own government is sticking it to you.

Here's the deal:

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Metro

How much does Beverly Hills want this subway to go away? Let us count the ways ...

The city announced this week that it is suing the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for approving the Metro subway's Westside extension funding eligibility while relying on a "flawed" environmental-impact report:

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D.J. Prator

LAPD officer giving ticket in downtown

With a camera and a web site, D.J. Prator fought the law and won -- and saved downtown drivers hundreds of dollars each in the process.

Last night, SoCal Connected's Laurel Erickson reported how Prator got a "no right turn" sign at the intersection of 7th Street and Broadway in downtown taken down in a matters of weeks after catching the city red-handed for setting up what appeared to be a ticket trap.

The city usually spends years taking away such a road sign. The extraordinarily fast action was "like an admission of guilt," Prator tells L.A. Weekly, that the some city official was up to something very sketchy.

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Dover Publications

We've survived the election, the holidays and the apocalypse, so there's even more to celebrate come New Year's Eve. Not only is it almost 2013, but we're all still here -- so let's keep it that way.

Given the vast amount of liquor that comes with NYE, operating heavy machinery isn't feasible, and it's not like alt-vehicles are an option, either. If drinking and driving isn't safe, neither is drinking and biking, drinking and skateboarding or even drinking and walking, for that matter.

But even though L.A. urban folklore claims everybody "needs" a car in the city, that's far from the truth. From using a taxi, private car or party bus to public transport, towing and Twitter, we have some of the safest ways to get home on New Year's Day and beyond. And in the spirit of citizen journalism, if you know about any driving alternatives we may have missed, please share them in the comments section, too.

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streetcar.la

Will the streetcars return to a revitalized downtown?

Proponents claimed victory last night after the L.A. City Clerk reported that a special measure to fund the old-timey transportation was winning 73 percent in favor to 27 percent opposed with nearly 2 in 10 registered locals turning in their ballots.

The special mail-in election for downtown voters will probably mean that the streetcar project will get ...

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Paretz Partensky / Flickr

If you felt reamed during October's California gas-price spike, in which records were set at the pump even though there was no real oil supply crisis at all, you have some powerful company.

The U.S. senators from California, Washington and Oregon this week asked the U.S. Department of Justice to do a "refinery-by-refinery investigation into the cause of spikes that drove gas prices to more than $4 a gallon in Western states during May and October."

That according to ...

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William Brien

With Metro facing two lawsuits over the Westside Subway, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his apparent buddy Beverly Hills Mayor William Brien decided yesterday to break ground anyway for the controversial Subway-to-Brentwood -- once known as the Subway-to-the-Sea.

It was an odd, even surreal, photo op that seemed to ignore all realities facing the troubled subway line, which includes that fact that Measure J was voted down last week and, as a result, there's a question if Metro will have enough money to finish the Westside Subway.

Beverly Hills Mayor William Brien, who's own city has filed one of the lawsuits against Metro to stop the Westside Subway from going underneath the Beverly Hills High School campus, seemed to be especially living in an alternative universe.

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The cash is starting to roll in for Measure J, the November ballot initiative to extend the county's half-cent sales tax to accelerate transportation projects.More »

"Why won't you show it to us!?"

CBS2's David Goldstein did a report last night in which he blew the lid off a state employee's daytime alcohol purchases.

Goldstein then confronted Jerry Brown about it, provoking the governor to point his finger in Goldstein's chest and momentarily swipe his cell phone.

Even better, it's all caught on tape!

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Antonio Villaraigosa

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a chance to end his term on a high note by securing passage of Measure J, the half-cent sales tax extension to fund transportation projects.

The measure needs a 2/3 vote, and internal polling shows it very close to that threshold. The mayor is the key figure behind the measure, having leveraged support at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and in the Legislature to get it on the ballot.

But Villaraigosa does not appear in the TV commercial urging a "yes" vote, suggesting he is not the best pitchman for a measure that would cement his legacy.

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Sepulveda Pass tunnel: The next frontier

When Antonio Villaraigosa ran for mayor, one of his big proposals was the Subway to the Sea. Now that the Westside subway extension is finally, however slowly, moving toward reality, the candidates for mayor are looking for the next big challenge.

They seem to have settled on building a train through the Sepulveda Pass. At a recent debate, the two frontrunners -- Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti -- both endorsed tunneling through the pass as the next logical step in expanding L.A.'s rail network.

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Willie Brien

Last night, four members of the Beverly Hills City Council blew a golden public relations opportunity -- and refused to approve a strong anti-Measure J resolution. The initiative seeks to extend a recent half-cent L.A. County sales tax hike for another 30 years to 2069.

Instead, the Beverly Hills Courier reports, City Council members Willie Brien, Julian Gold, Lili Bosse and Barry Brucker approved a wishy-washy resolution to "not take a position in support of Measure J," with Councilman John Mirisch the lone dissenter.

"Not supporting something is not the same as opposing it," Mirisch said. "This doesn't address the civil rights, social justice or spending (issues)."

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Stephen Estes

Plankageddon.

People threatened to exploit the symbolism of a car-free 405 by riding bikes on it and using it for other environmentally friendly activities during the first Carmageddon shutdown last year.

But, save for a few random acts of planking and dining, the mass transportation demonstrations that some cops feared didn't materialize.

This weekend the 405 shutdown is back for Carmageddon II. And once again ...

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Slate

L.A. buses: a dying breed.

'Tis the season for local and national politicians to co-opt the media into singing their praises. November 6 is right around the corner -- making one positive article by a respected journalist the (free!) equivalent of 100,000 campaign mailers.

But because L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the president's longtime Latino pet, has burned through all his shills here at home, he now relies on D.C. journalists to spot his political ambitions. And boy, are they delivering:

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Expo Line

MTA officials held a press event this morning at USC to encourage Trojan fans to take the new Expo light-rail line to Saturday's home opener at the L.A. Coliseum.

The event went off without a hitch, until the MTA folks tried to use the Expo Line to get back to their offices downtown.

That's when the train broke down.

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