Mass Transit

Word has raced out that House Republicans are moving to eviscerate transit in the federal transportation bill. But there's also a series of provisions in the bill that are aimed at our grassroots communities of color who make up the backbone of transit ridership across the country. They include th elimination of environmental requirements and planning tools that project our rights.

Some Republicans in the House led by Speaker John Boehner want to fund the new Federal Surface Transportation Bill with revenue from off-shore drilling.

The Bus Riders Union and a broad coalition of allies put Metro's backs up against the wall today in the first Metro Board meeting since the release of the scathing federal civil rights audit earlier this week. The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) report calls into question the legitimacy and legality of policies that punished 100,000's of low-income bus riders and bus riders of color with repeated cuts in bus service and fare increases.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has found unprecedented levels of racially discriminatory impacts in its civil rights audit of Los Angeles Metro, the second largest transit agency in the country. These findings represent the most serious civil rights compliance deficiencies by an agency in at least a decade. By finding Metro "deficient" in 5 of 12 civil rights categories, FTA went beyond its more typical findings of procedural 'deficiencies' to also find that Metro ignored evidence that its transit service cuts had a discriminatory impact on riders of color.

The BRU, Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles have sent this letter to Mayor Villaraigosa and the Board of Directors of MTA calling for swift action on climate change. We demand restoration and expansion of bus service and a halt to the multi-billion dollar expansion of the I-710 freeway as two immediate actions that would benefit the health and well-being of LA's low income communities of color while reducing LA's carbon footprint.

Joining forces with Communities for a Better Environment, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA, the BRU marched to demand the Mayor and the MTA "Expanding the bus system, not the 710 freeway. Meanwhile, BRU organizer Francisca Porchas is representing Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and Transit Riders for Public Transportation in Durban, building our connections with the international climate justice movement.  

In selling new bus passes that are only good for 30 days, instead of
the old 31 days, MTA has once again limited our mobility and forced us
to pay more for less."With this new policy I can no longer get my child to school on the last day of the month because MTA found a way to make low-income families pay them more money." A single mother speaks out on the impact of the new policy.

Representatives from 11 leading member organizations of Transit Riders for Public Transportation gathered for 2 retreat-like days in Los Angeles.

Check out news coverage on the new report co-authored by the BRU and 14 other civil rights, labor, environmental, public health, and housing organizations from around los Angeles. The report Transit Civil Rights & Economic Survival in Los Angeles: A Case for Federal Intervention in LA Metro details the 4 year storm since the end of the consent decree.  LA Opinión, LA Weekly, and Streets Blog report.

Civil rights, labor, environmental, public health, and housing organizations argue bus service and fare increases result in civil rights harms for transit-dependent people and obstruct economic recovery for low-income transit-dependent Angelenos.