December 5th Action.pdf

BRU Climate Justice Plan: More Buses, Bus-Only Lanes & Less Cars

The Inconvenient Truth about Global Warming is the 7 Million Cars Running on LA Streets. On Wednesday, December 5th at 4 PM, join the Bus Riders Union Climate Justice Rally on the corner of Wilshire and Western.  This rally will be part of a worldwide mobilization that calls attention and demands action to stop the devastating impacts of Global Warming.  In the city of Los Angeles, we are calling on Mayor Antonio Villariagosa and other L.A .City Council members to secure the $27 million neccessary for the Wilshire Bus Only Lanes Project.  We believe that any elected officials who is serious about fighting global warming, has to aggressively implement policies like the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes, which puts high capacity buses before single passenger autos. This is the kind of breakthrough transportation policy needed in the car capital of the world.

How can we tackle global warming and climate change without taking on the auto? We all have to face the fact that 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions are produced by single occupancy autos in California.  In the Mayor’s Green L.A. action plan to combat global warming, he has stated that L.A.’s transportation policy should focus on moving people not cars. Yet when we read his plan, instead of focusing to reduce the number of cars in our streets by challenging its space and prioritizing buses, his plan calls for a rail network including the $785 million Phase I Exposition Line and the $6 billion Subway to Santa Monica that threaten to bankrupt the entire bus system.  Let’s face it, 20 years later with over $10 billion invested into building it, rail still has not reduced the growing number of cars in the streets.

Unfortunately, all these policies follow the short-sighted and failed strategy of luring commuters out of their car by throwing money into corporate driven construction schemes and further restrain much needed funds for a viable 1st class bus system centered on the needs of Black, Latino, and working class communities.  So, come on.  Don’t just lament what happens to our brothers and sister in New Orleans, Sri Lanka and Mexico who have been hit by very “un-natural” disasters while the auto continues to flood L.A. streets.  Join us to call on Mayor Villaraigosa to secure the $27 million needed for the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes project, which is a first step to create a countywide network of bus-only lanes and reduce greenhouse gases from LA’s autos.