An Open Letter to the Metro Board

Honorable Metro Board Members:

Last night while waiting for the 720 bus at the busiest intersection in Los Angeles (Wilshire & Westwood), I conducted an informal study of vehicles passing in the curb lane. First, the roadway was so congested that over the 5-minute period I surveyed an average of 14 people per minute passed through that curb lane. Second, about a third of the vehicles with identifiable dealer plates came from Burbank or points east along the I-210 corridor (Longo in El Monte, Claremont Toyota, etc). Third, I then boarded a bus, which was much delayed due to the congestion, and counted 55 people aboard that bus. One slow, delayed 60-foot bus carried as many people as 4 minutes of traffic. Public transportation is essential to getting Los Angeles moving again and recouping some of the $10 billion lost annually due to traffic congestion.

The transportation reauthorization bill is likely to expand funding opportunities for transit, but future projects will be continue to be evaluated based on cost-benefit criteria. Two proposed projects serve as significant system-wide ridership multipliers to all projects connected to the network. These projects will increase the potential benefits of all future transit projects in Los Angeles County more than any project, proposed or conceived. These projects are the downtown regional connector and the subway. These projects will create a robust core transit network by providing quick reliable access to job centers and areas of dense population. All peripheral projects will benefit, and jump well ahead in the competition for federal funds as a result.

The benefits of both the Wilshire subway and regional connector will be both substantial and regional. To focus substantial efforts on building other projects before making substantial progress on these core projects is akin to building the second floor before the frame (it’s an important part of the house, but there is nothing yet to support it) and appears parochial and short sighted. I urge you to pass a Long Range Transportation Plan that reflects this reality.

Juan Matute

MBA, MA Urban Planning

More than intent needed to ride Gold Line extension

I applaud the Gold Line Construction Authority and Citrus's College student efforts to raise the attention of public transportation investments in the Foothill corridor. However, their "I will ride" campaign should be an "I would ride" campaign. Students support the proposed line as, it would serve the Citrus College campus. These students probably easily envision walking, biking, or driving to a gold line station, taking the line to Citrus Ave, then walking the 1/3 to 1/2 mile to their destination on campus. However, most of these students will be gone in two years. If the these students and the Gold Line's supporters really want to ride the line, they should lobby their local city councils for land use policies which support light rail use, so that they will have ample reason and opportunity to ride when the Gold Line extension is built.

People travel because they want to get from here to there. There would be no sense in riding the Gold Line extension if it does not go where the supporters want to go. No one with a car at their disposal wants to upwards of walk a mile and a half to and from a station to get to their final destination. Thus, it is critical to concentrate housing, jobs, and places people want to go near the future stations, so that someone can get on the train in Glendora and go grab dinner and watch a movie in Claremont. If the “heres” and “theres” in the future Foothill Corridor are not near proposed Gold Line stations, then fixed-route light rail would be difficult to use for such a trip.

For light rail to have enough “heres” and “theres” around stations to be viable (still subsidized by local sales and property taxes, but high enough ridership to offer frequent service), the area around the stations should have roughly twenty housing units per acre. This type of land use allows people to buy or rent near a station so that they easily take advantage of all benefits the line has to offer. With fewer people living near stations, generally a line would require such a high subsidy to operate (at least 4 to and as much as 10 times the price of a ticket), that during times of budget cuts the line’s operator would not be able to offer frequent enough service to get people on the train. No one wants to wait 30 minutes to take a train. Those who did want to near stations would have to pay higher prices for rent and houses because of the low supply of housing in the area.

A previous generation of Citrus College students missed a great opportunity to promote the land uses necessary to give residents access to the light rail line. The Rosedale master-planned community is a new 518-acre neighborhood currently under construction right across the street from Citrus College and adjacent to the proposed Gold Line station at Citrus Ave. When completed, the neighborhood will have about 2.5 houses per acre – far below what will be needed to, in the future, house even a fraction of the 28,000 students currently attending colleges within 1/2 a mile of a proposed station.

Why I think you should vote yes on R

Hi Friends,

Many of you know I'm a strong supporter of Measure R. Many of you know that I'm working on my MBA in Finance and my MA in Transportation Planning at UCLA, so I've taken a dozen graduate-level classes on issues related to Measure R. I'm convinced that Measure R is vital to ensuring the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of Los Angeles. With all of the political noise we've been subjected to in the past few months, I wanted to make sure that you are aware of Los Angeles County Measure R before Election Day. I also hope to convince you to vote yes on Measure R to get Los Angeles moving again.

Each section has a heading written in the form of that question. If you're wondering the answer to the question, read the section. If not, skip it. Measure R is about making living in and traveling around Los Angeles more efficient, so there's no reason to waste time reading what you already know... Measure R needs a 2/3rd yes vote to pass, and right now, it's polling at around 2/3rds. I wouldn't waste your time with this email if I didn't think your vote mattered.

What is Measure R?
Measure R is a one-half cent sales tax increase that will provide a projected $40 billion to fund transportation projects to increase mobility around Los Angeles County as part of Los Angeles's Long Range Transportation Plan. The plan targets the most congested areas of Los Angeles County with smart, location-appropriate capacity expansions. In many areas, this means adding lanes, synchronizing traffic signals, or reengineering intersections to improve traffic flow. In some areas, this means adding bus service and constructing light rail. In the Wilshire Corridor, this means expanding the subway network. In many areas, a combination of street improvements and transit capacity expansion will get Los Angeles moving.

Here's the ballot language:

TRAFFIC RELIEF. RAIL EXTENSIONS. REDUCE FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCE. To: Synchronize traffic signals; Repair potholes; Extend light rail with airport connections; Improve freeway traffic flow (5, 10, 14, 60, 101, 110, 138, 210, 405, 605, 710); Keep senior/student/disabled fares low; Provide clean–fuel buses; Expand subway/Metrolink/bus service; Dedicate millions for community traffic relief; Shall Los Angeles County's sales tax increase one–half cent for 30 years with independent audits, public review of expenditures, all locally controlled?

According to the Texas Transportation Institute, Los Angeles is #1 in the United States in traffic congestion, time spent in traffic, and wasted gas. In 2005, congestion cost Los Angeles $9.3 billion in lost time and fuel, or about $1,400 per resident. The average of $25 per resident invested by Measure R won't eliminate congestion in Los Angeles, but it will significantly improve mobility and access to opportunities across the region and provide a substantial return on public investment.

Measure R is a County Measure at the "bottom of the ballot" (after elected officials and state propositions) for Los Angeles County voters. Find out where you're voting tomorrow and see a sample ballot at http://.lavote.net/locator

Isn't the Eastside of the County and the San Gabriel Valley getting the short end of the stick?

Measure R provides funding for Metro's Long Range Plan, which was developed during a two year, very public, multi-stakeholder process aimed at getting Los Angeles moving again. This plan prioritizes funding of transit projects with high ridership potential, such as the Wilshire Subway (which will carry at least 180,000 people per day) and are sure shots for federal funding matches. The pet project of the Eastern County and the San Gabriel Valley is the Gold Line extension to Claremont, which is projected to attract fewer than 20,000 daily riders. The gold line extension will not necessarily be competitive for matching federal funds, nevertheless Measure R provides around $700M for the project. East County politicians who oppose Measure R fail to realize that it will not get them their Gold Line extension any sooner, as this project has been prioritized lower on Metro's Long Range Plan. Some of them are hoping voter rejection of Measure R will force Metro to change the long range plan, a process which will take at least five years while Los Angeles continues to suffer in traffic, and is unlikely to move their pet projects up on the list. Encouraging their constituents to vote against Measure R is especially damaging because LA County doesn't have uncommitted funds available to move forward on any of these projects without Measure R. This means that a No Vote on Measure R delays all of the projects in the Long Range Plan until at least 2015.

The Westside of Los Angeles will receive about 124% of the county-wide per capita funding that measure R will provide and much of this, $4.5B, or 11% of Measure R funds will go towards the Wilshire Subway. A $4.5B federal match will provide the $9B needed to build the subway to Westwood. What was billed as the "subway to the sea" had to be scaled back in order to fund projects elsewhere in LA County.

By contrast, the San Gabriel Valley is projected to receive only 84% of the county-wide per capita funding Measure R will provide. However, the system-wide improvements will open access to more opportunities throughout Los Angeles and create stronger links to existing transportation alternatives (Metrolink, Gold Line) that have been previously financed by Los Angeles County taxpayers. If every region received an equal return of funds, Measure R would presumably do wonders to placate politicians, but less to alleviate congestion in Los Angeles.

Isn't a sales tax regressive? Won't Measure R hurt the poor?
An across-the-board sales tax is regressive. Measure R is not an across-the-board sales tax increase because rent, utilities, services, and food are not taxed in Los Angeles County and make up a high proportion of a low-income family's expenses. Low income families, especially those without access to an automobile, stand to contribute less than $25 per capita and benefit a great deal from the increased transportation funding that Measure R will provide.

Why does Measure R call for a sales tax? Shouldn't investment in infrastructure be financed by bond measures?
Ideally, an increase in property taxes or a bond measure would be used to finance Measure R, which will provide benefits that will be captured by increases in real estate prices. However, in California, Proposition 13 has long limited property tax funding (and choked many local governments and school systems) and makes funding Metro's long range plan through a property tax assessment impossible.

A bond measure would be a great way to provide funding while hiding the costs to residents. However, bond funding has been raided by the state in the past to cover budget shortfalls, resulting in no money for the programs the bonds were supposed to fund.

A sales tax increase allows Los Angeles County to maintain local control and accountability for funds and allows Los Angeles to pay for improvements as it goes rather than taking on debt and later scrambling to find funds to cover payments.

What's this I hear about you dressing up as a Pirate and shouting "AYE on RRRRRR" at passersby on a street corner in Westwood?
http://losangelestransportation.blogspot.com/2008/11/transportation-headlines-for-monday.html
Scroll down to the pictures. One benefit of being the photographer is that you never show up in any of the pictures J

Best, and Good Luck at the polls tomorrow!