What Would You Choose: Food, Clothes, or Bus Pass?

Those are literally the stakes for many low-income bus riders in the face of MTA’s fare hikes—as one single mother testified to the 13 imperial MTA board members on May 24, 2007. She was one of 350 people who testified, and one of 1,500 people who we turned out for a whole day of protest against MTA’s proposal to double and triple bus fares and passes. Our people overflowed every assembly room in the building, including the grand front entry of what many bus riders call the Taj Mahal, and they even locked the front doors, so many didn’t even get into the building!

We did not succeed in reversing the hike, but we did build our greatest independent mass movement in our history and also built enough pressure to move Mayor Villaraigosa to change his position and oppose the worst hikes. Villaraigosa also made the unprecedented proposal to reduce service on rail lines as a way to prevent the hikes. Our next steps have been to consolidate 100 of the most engaged new people who joined the movement, continue negotiations with the mayor, fight the fare hikes, fight for Bus Only Lanes, and pursue a very ambitious legal tactical plan with both Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Howrey LLP to oppose the fare increases on environmental and civil rights grounds.