Clean Air and Economic Justice Plan for Measure R

LA Times columnist David Lazarus fights against bus cuts and advocates for designated bus lanes, commuter routes, and a commitment to public transit in order to ease street congestion.

Here's a quick update. As you know, the MTA is considering compromising the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes project by caving to the demand of wealthy homeowners in Condo Canyon to remove their section of Wilshire from the BOL plan. Other groups of wealthy Westside residents have gotten word of this and gone on the offensive against the bus-only lanes.

Here is a letter that Barbara and I at the BRU sent to the MTA last week on October 19th.  We sent this to MTA as part of the formal public comment process on the Westside Subway Extension. Also known as the "subway to the sea," Mayor Villaraigosa's pet boondoggle project could have a $9 billion price tag that could result in massive civil rights violations of bus riders in particular, the potential disparate impact on hundreds of thousands of low income people of color who ride the bus as the sole or primary means of transportation.

BRU member Crystal McMillan reports on BRU's commemoration of the 54th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts."To use the example of the Boycott, we have to move forward with determination and we have to harness the will of the people. We will come together to stop the 2010 fare increase. We will use the Clean Air and Economic Justice plan to gain true mobility and a healthy environment. We will build an empowered and creative movement that can shape the Long Range Transportation Plan into a document that doesn't use fare increases and service cuts to fund our transit system."

On Thursday November 19th, the Transit Riders for Public Transportation Campaign and the Bus Riders Union hosted a transportation briefing event, "Re-Envision Urban Transit: Los Angeles and Beyond."