This coming February will mark the 5th year of the Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses Campaign since it was launched in 2005 at the Future of Transporation Conference. From the beginning we knew what a daunting task it would be to frontally challenge the auto in the auto capital of the world yet despite the hostile conditions, we've made major breakthroughs in the city in making bus-only lanes/public transit a real public health and global warming priority.

 

Turning the tide for Bus-Only Lanes

2009 marks an important harvest of our last 5 years of hard work organizing bus riders, local businesses, public health and community allies and local elected officials like former councilmember Wendy Greuel and Bill Rosendahl, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. With the full $23.3 million of federal funding secured [1], the tide has turned to move the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project into reality.

I am proud to say that the BRU is recognized as the experts on bus-only lanes. We are now working with MTA and other local transit agencies on developing a plan for countywide bus-speed improvement, which includes bus-only lanes.

March: Wilshire Bus Only Lanes Get Federal Greenlight! [2]   August - Bus Riders Union visits Diane Watson [3]   September: Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Moves Forward with Environmental Impact Report [4]   October: Public Scoping Meetings: One Step Forward Towards the Bus-Only Lane on Wilshire Boulevard [5]     November: LCSC 2009 T-shirt: Rooted in the Struggle T-shirt Fundraiser  [6]

 

The fight is not over: Westside opposition

The fight is not over though for the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Campaign. We are one step closer but as we've learned from civil rights history, the backlash against our gains becomes fiercer as we get closer to winning.

This year we're going up against a few but politically influential Westside residents who don't mind bus-only lanes, mobility of thousands of Black, Latino, and A/PI bus riders, or stopping global warming as long as it's not in their backyard--and for some it may just be too hard to break away from the legacy of the polluting auto. With the completion and approval of the Environmental Impact Report pending this summer [7] and a powerful opponent, reconsolidating our united front of community and environmental allies, elected officials, and MTA will be critical.

 Clean Air Campaign Highlights of 2009

• March - $9.8 million secured from the 09 federal budget for Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project [8]
• August - Member delegation visits to LA congressional representatives [9], Lucille Roybal-Allard, Diane Watson, and Xavier Becerra to request support for Clean Air Campaign and our TRPT national campaign platform
• October - 2nd half of federal funding, $13.5 million for Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project secured in the 2010 federal budget
• September - Meeting with Transportation Committee councilmembers Bill Rosendahl and Paul Koretz to ask their support for the project
• October - Over 40 members and allies mobilized to testify in support of the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes at the EIR public scoping meetings [10]
• November - Over 500 letters of support collected from bus riders for the EIR
• November - Clean Air Campaign Fundraiser "Rooted in the Struggle" T-shirt launch [11] raises $1,000 by end of year!