Transit Agency

San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system has been the target of sporadic, aggressive protests since a transit police officer shot and killed an intoxicated homeless person on a train platform last month. The protests have been disruptive, delaying trains and making it harder for passengers to move through stations. But in the last week BART has gone too far to stop the protests, first shutting off cellphone service in downtown San Francisco stations to prevent activists from coordinating their movements, then closing those stations entirely during the evening commute.

Responding to an increasing Latino population and ridership, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Friday launched El Pasajero, the nation's first blog in Spanish from a major transit agency. "We have to recognize that the majority of our customers are Latino," said Marc Littman of Metro. "We want to put a Latino face on Metro so people can identify that it's not just white bureaucrats running this agency. " At least 61% of Metro's bus and rail passengers are Latino, as well as 37% of the agency's employees, Littman said.

As transit officials push forward on an ambitious plan to expand rail service across L.A. County, they are also proposing significant reductions in bus service aimed at cutting costs and making the system more efficient. The latest plans, combined with changes last year, mark the most significant overhaul of L.A.'s bus system in more than a decade and would slash overall bus service by 12% and increase the number of passengers on individual buses. Nine routes are set to be eliminated in June and 11 more would be cut back.

After almost two decades of effort to reduce vehicle emissions, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority retired its last diesel bus Wednesday and became the only major transit agency in the nation with a fleet that is totally equipped with alternative-fuel technologies. In an urban area where diesel buses began operating in 1940, the MTA now has 2,221 buses powered by compressed natural gas, as well as one electric bus and six gasoline-electric hybrids. Transit officials estimate that the elimination of diesel engines has reduced the release of cancer-causing particulates from the bus fleet by 80% and greenhouse gases by about 300,000 pounds a day in one of the smoggiest areas of the country.

If you found a fat wad of money on a bus, what would you do? Would you stuff it in your pocket and keep your mouth shut, or do your best to find its rightful owner? I asked myself those questions after meeting Rex Baker on Hollywood Boulevard a couple of weeks ago. I was out with a group that goes around looking for vets who might need help, and we saw Baker panhandling near the Guinness and Ripley museums. Baker bristled when I introduced myself. He said he'd left me a message weeks earlier, asking for my help in getting back some money he'd found, and I never called back.

County transportation officials have spent tens of millions of dollars on legal fees without adequate financial controls or oversight to evaluate and limit the costs, according to an audit released Wednesday. The review, by the inspector general of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, found that MTA attorneys had no written procedures for managing cases and routinely spent more than $200,000 for outside legal work without getting permission from the board of directors.

After two decades of planning, debate and delays, transit officials are slated to decide Oct. 28 on the routing and station placement for the long-anticipated Westside subway extension. Starting Monday night, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will host the first of five meetings to hear public input on alternative routes Release of the project's draft environmental impact report Sept. 3 started the clock ticking on a 45-day public comment period.

Public transit systems throughout Southern California are preparing to jack up fares this summer. They could use the extra money — the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority alone is facing a $181-million budget shortfall. But fare hikes aren't the whole solution to public transit's money woes. It's time that the dozens of city- and county-run systems that make up the region's transit network get together and hash out a plan to expand ridership, rather than repeatedly reaching deeper into the pockets of those who already ride the bus. "They need to entice people to leave their cars at home," said Esperanza Martinez, lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union, a public transit advocacy group.

Alarmed by soaring legal costs at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state legislator has called on the giant transit agency to review its litigation practices and finally heed the recommendations of a 2004 state audit. In a letter sent this week to MTA Chief Executive Arthur T. Leahy, Assemblyman Hector de la Torre (D-South Gate) said he was concerned that the agency's legal costs had surged more than 200% since 1995 and that MTA officials had brushed off suggestions from the state auditor to improve the oversight of contracts.

Los Angeles marked Transportation Freedom Day last week. What's that? It's the day when the typical median-income family has earned enough money to cover transportation costs for the entire year. Your basic middle-class L.A. household spends about $8,600 a year on gas, insurance, parking and vehicle maintenance, according to the California Public Interest Research Group, a watchdog organization. That compares with about $8,000 for the average U.S. family and represents more than 20% of most people's annual expenditures.