Which way for the MTA?
IT'S ALL OVER but the lawsuits in the public-transit fare conflict, and the good news is, L.A. County decision-makers did the right thing. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a moderate fare hike last month that will reduce the agency's structural budget deficit without gouging the low-income riders who rely on the system. Just one problem remains: There still won't be enough money to build the kind of transit network L.A. needs.
Public-transit funding decisions in Los Angeles are often framed in terms of class warfare. Since the mid-1990s, when bus riders organized to fight overcrowding and oppose higher fares, activists have claimed that low-income, often minority bus riders are subsidizing the construction of rail lines meant to benefit wealthier, whiter commuters. Advocates such as the Bus Riders Union take this argument to extremes, accusing MTA planners of "transit racism" because they dare try to improve the county's dysfunctional rail system. This approach isn't just needlessly divisive, it misses the point.
It's true that rail lines tend to serve commuters while buses tend to serve transit-dependent people. It's equally true that thousands of low-income minorities ride the rails every day, while thousands of commuters take the bus. But which population should the MTA be serving? Does public transit exist to get people who don't own cars from point A to point B, or to get commuters out of their cars so they aren't clogging the freeways and polluting the air? Actually, an effective transit system must do both.
L.A. County's doesn't do either very well. The MTA's 73-mile rail system bypasses the densest, highest-traffic corridors in L.A., completely failing to connect the Westside with downtown and thus missing the best opportunity to reduce freeway congestion. Other big American cities have rail lines running from their international airports to transit hubs, yet despite the fact that Los Angeles International Airport has more people traveling to and from it every year than any other airport in the world, it has no such connection. There are cities in underdeveloped nations with better rail networks than L.A. (Mexico City comes to mind.) Meanwhile, despite a federal consent decree that forced the MTA to spend $1.3 billion improving bus service over the last decade, local buses remain overcrowded. The MTA plans to add eight Metro Rapid bus lines but could still use more, as well as more dedicated busways like the successful Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.
