Transit Agencies Gridlock Commuters

D. Malcolm Carson

Given the traffic congestion and air pollution that literally and figuratively choke California's major metropolitan areas on a daily basis, one would think that local and regional transportation agencies would be falling all over themselves to do whatever they can to increase public transit ridership. Instead, decision-makers continue to devote the lion's share of transportation dollars to big ticket rail and highway projects that have more to do with construction contracting and real estate development than with real transportation needs, even in the face of mounting adverse federal court decisions.

Not surprisingly, these multi-billion dollar projects have largely failed to reduce traffic congestion or boost transit ridership. What they have accomplished is the diversion of badly-needed funds from existing, heavily-patronized urban transit systems. Not only are these systems vital lifelines for poor and minority inner-city residents, but they also hold the most promise for increasing transit usage. These systems have, for the most part, been allowed to wither on the vine for want of simple, yet cost-effective, improvements in service.

Fortunately, federal courts in the 9th Circuit are beginning to pay attention to this monumental waste of federal tax dollars. Within the last two months, transit advocacy groups have won several important court decisions that will hopefully force regional transportation agencies in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles to fulfill legal mandates to direct federal funds toward transportation projects that actually benefit riders.

During the week of July 22-26, two court rulings were issued against the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). In the first, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson found that MTC had failed to make good on a 1982 pledge to increase transit ridership by 15 percent by 1987 as a way to reduce auto pollution and meet federal smog standards. The court directed MTC to meet the ridership goal by no later than November 9, 2006.

Later that week, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel stayed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of the vehicle emission reduction element of the Bay Area's air quality plans until at least October, when oral arguments are scheduled. Opponents argued that under current regional transportation plans, motor vehicle emissions would exceed federal standards by 26 tons a day. As a result, the MTC postponed its scheduled approval of a $9 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins October 1.

In Los Angeles, on August 6, the mediator appointed to oversee the federal consent decree requiring the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) to provide better bus service ruled that the MTA has violated overcrowding standards on at least 68 bus lines over the last two years. This is just the latest in a long line of rulings against the MTA in the case dating back to 1996. Despite this string of losses, the MTA continues to appeal each and every court ruling requiring it to reduce overcrowding and expand bus service, preferring instead to waste millions of dollars on futile appeals.

As an example of how these funds might be better spent, one needs only to look at the MTA's own wildly successful Metro Rapid Demonstration Program. In response to the federal consent decree's mandate to improve bus service, the MTA introduced a new "rapid" bus service on Wilshire/Whittier and Ventura Boulevards. The Metro Rapid lines are served by new, clean-fuel buses outfitted with special transponders that allow local officials to coordinate their movements with traffic signals to improve travel times. The lines also offer improved route layouts and scheduling.

With capital costs per mile at less than one percent of the cost per mile of new rail lines, operating speeds have increased by 29% and 23%, and ridership has increased by 42% and 27% on the Wilshire/Whittier and Ventura lines respectively. The $8,274,300 total investment netted 30,000 new transit riders per day, more than the total weekday ridership on MTA's Green Line Metrorail, completed at a cost of almost one billion dollars ten years ago.

Instead of dragging their feet and mounting unsuccessful legal appeals to court decisions mandating basic, cost-effective improvements in public transportation services, agencies such as the MTA and MTC should listen to what transit riders and their advocates have to say. Improving existing urban transit systems has been proven to be a cost-effective means of significantly boosting transit ridership. Most importantly, however, such improvements also provide a much-needed lift to the greatest users of public transit -- poor and minority citizens struggling to access vital employment, health care, education, cultural and recreational resources that are often located far from where they live.

D. Malcolm Carson is a staff attorney specializing in transportation issues with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

A slightly different version of this commentary originally ran in the October 14, 2002 edition of the Daily Journal.

back