MetroRiderLA

Photo courtesy of redpopaccidents.

Recently on MetroRiderLA we discussed the fare gates to come on most Metro Rail stations in the near future, as well as the TAP Card’s role in enabling fare gates.

The Metro Board, despite plenty of criticism from fellow Board member Richard Katz and testimony from transportation expert Richard Stanger, have continued to pursue their gating strategy, and have responded to some of the criticism regarding fare gates. They came up with a presentation to be shown to the Metro Board today responding to some of the criticisms. Here we deconstruct some of the myths that Metro staff uses to justify fare gates.

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Proposition 91 is one of the odder measures on the ballot. The proponents have urged a “no” vote, and no one seems to know of any supporters. Thus, you get snarky blog entries and misinformed editorials stating that “no one is supporting the measure”. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and Proposition 91 is important to saving transportation funding.

The reason is that Proposition 1A had a loophole in it to permit the state Legislature to borrow money from transportation funding, as long as they pay it back in three years. In 2008-09, it appears that this will be the case and the County of Los Angeles will lose $61 million for roads and public transit in the unincorporated areas. “But”, one might say, “this is only for emergencies.” Well, Governor Schwarzenegger just declared an “emergency” over declining property tax revenues that we knew were going to happen a long time ago. “It’s a loan”, one could say, but unfortunately, counties and cities don’t have the same ability to issue bonds as the state does. Budget cuts to local transportation departments are going to be made, which means more potholes, worse sidewalks, and reduced transit. The problem with deferred maintenance is that waiting three years for the loans to be paid back could mean that roads need a higher degree of reconstruction, doubling or even tripling costs when a simple layer of asphalt could have done the job. People’s property values go down with poorer sidewalks. The ridership on transit doesn’t come back when the money comes back. You could go on.

Proposition 91 will permanently close the loophole and protect valuable transportation funding. The real reason that the proponents are opposed to it is the deal that was cut when Proposition 1A was placed on the ballot in 2006. By pushing up the issue, and agreeing to permit loans to be made, the proponents agreed to oppose the measure, and to use their space in the ballot book to write an opposition piece. But that doesn’t mean that us voters have to honor that deal.

For more information, please visit www.yeson91.net.

January 12, 2006 - June 17, 2007

From the LADOT web site:
The Holly Trolley’s 1 1/2 year run as a LADOT pilot program is coming to an end. The service will be suspended indefinitely at 2:30 AM on Sunday, June 17, 2007.  We will analyze the ridership data collected and use this pilot program experience to plan future Hollywood transportation services designed to alleviate parking and traffic congestion and allow visitors and residents to get around Hollywood without difficulty.

As an alternative evening/nighttime service, commuters may take the Metro 217 service along Hollywood Blvd. between La Brea Ave. and Vermont Ave., or the Metro Rail Red Line service between the stops at Hollywood/Western Ave., Hollywood/Vine and Hollywood/Highland.

[tags]metro, los angeles, fare hikes, public hearing, bottleneck blog, public transit[/tags]

Here are the details of the fare proposal, for all categories. I had to take a photo of a reporter’s copy of this because some flack at Metro PR refused to give me a copy or let me look at it. The increase is cryptically called “Scenario 29″ and it was approved 9-4 (the Mayor’s votes the only no votes). “Scenario 29″ calls for increases of approximately 20% on a biennial basis. Fare table after the jump…

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[tags]fare hikes, los angeles, mta, metro, public hearing[/tags]

The fare increase showdown is set on May 24. Here is a preview of what could happen.

• Expect either a large turnout or very little turnout at all. As discussed here before, there is a student walkout planned that day and the Bus Riders Union is mobilizing their membership by posting flyers all over town. Or they could have done a good job at scheduling it to avoid attendance, as most of the fare forums have had poor turnout and the kids could be flakes that just want a day at the beach. Either way, both of those groups have advertised for folks to be there at 8:30 a.m., and it may be prudent to do the same.

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[tags]lacmta, metro, fare hikes, meetings[/tags]

12 speakers in the San Fernando Valley. 3 at Gateway (in a huge room the size of an aircraft hangar, with over 100 chairs set up, yet hardly anyone came). 7 at Westside/Central Sector. Nobody seems to want to express an opinion one way or the other.

What is going on here? Are people informed of the forums? (Some people found out about it through those small “Metro News” ads that Community Relations runs for each sector, but they are easy to miss unless you are looking for them.) No notice on the buses about them (or any hearing, for that matter). Do people not care? The BRU did not show up at Gateway or the Westside, so do they care, or are they just focusing their energies on May 24?

It is notable that they have produced items in multiple languages per the FTA regulations (which I went on at length a while back), and they had a stack of all of these at the Gateway Sector meeting that I went to (none at Westside, though). They are putting more information on the website (though not nearly as much as I would like), and they did more public meetings aside from that Thursday morning. Yet the public is not taking advantage of that. This is not a good sign.