City Council Vote on BOL.pdf

On Wednesday, August 15th, the Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union secured an important environmental and public health victory at the Los Angeles City Council - the approval of a $27 million project to implement peak hour bus-only lanes on Wilshire Boulevard.  The Wilshire Bus-Only Lane will run from downtown L.A. to West L.A. and will operate from 7:00am-9:00am and 4:00pm to 7:00pm during rush hour. Wilshire Boulevard has the largest transit ridership in the county with over 90,000 boardings a day.  The bus-only lane is expected to reduce travel time by 20% for current transit users and will attract new riders to public transportation.This vote prioritizes public transit and is a break from auto-driven public policy in the car capital of the world.

This is a step towards the implementation of a countywide network of bus-only lanes on all major bus transit corridors in Los Angeles County.  A countywide bus-only lane network would reduce the harmful emissions of auto tailpipe that attack our children’s health and damage the environment.  As BRU Planning Committee member Jorge Alberto states, “this decision represents a challenge to the auto industry, but equally as important it’s an improvement in the mobility and public health for the primarily immigrant and working class of color transit dependent.” We also believe dramatic changes in transit policy are necessary to reduce greenhouse gases in order to begin to address our responsibility to the Third World and communities most devastated by global warming. By taking one existing lane of mixed flow traffic (cars, buses, etc.) and using it exclusively for buses we can triple or quadruple the lane’s utility, improve the speed of the buses, and help make public transportation an alternative to the auto. 

For the last four years, this project has been highly contested and faced many bureaucratic obstacles. We have had to directly pressure City leaders to move beyond verbal support towards actually funding and implementing the project.  We would like to thank Councilmembers Wendy Greuel, Bill Rosendahl, and Jack Weiss, along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the leadership they provided to help usher the City Council vote.

We would also like to thank our allies who have supported the fight for the Wilshire Bus-Only Lane: David Petit and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Breathe California of Los Angeles County, Security Officers United of Los Angeles 2006 (SOULA2006), Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, students and faculty from Camino Nuevo, Cleveland, and Westchester High Schools, and all the institutions, organizations and businesses that have endorsed the campaign.

This is the down payment! We want bus-only lanes on Crenshaw, Western, Manchester, Olympic, Soto etc. Join us in our fight to improve mobility and curtail auto’s lethal emissions!

# 10

MTA Officials Raided the Wilshire Bus Only Lane Funds in 2001

# 9

90,000 Riders on the Wilshire Corridor Spurred by Bus Rapid Service

# 8

Let Our People Breathe – LA’s Air Is the Silent Killer

# 7

There is Unanimous Support from Elected Officials for Bus Only Lanes; Yet Unanimous Inaction has been the Order of the Day

# 6

President Bush’s Hocus Pocus Scientists Flunked Their Junior High Earth Science Class

# 5

If You Came to the Conclusion that Cigarettes Are Bad For You, Why would you stay silent on 7 Million Cancer Causing Cars In the Streets

# 4

What do Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, the BRU’s Barbara Lott-Holland and Grandma Kim have in common?

# 3

MTA Is Still Gloating About Increasing Your Fares

# 2

Your People Can’t Wait; the World Can’t Wait – Look Into the Mirror

# 1

Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilpersons Gruel and Rosendhal, Supervisor Yarolsasky this isn’t personal, its time to Act!