Bill Bogaard Leads Bike Bonanza

To celebrate Pasadena Bike to Work Week, Mayor Bill Bogaard donned his biking gear and pedaled from One Colorado to City Hall this morning followed by a caravan of cycling enthusiasts. Reader AA sent us pictures from the event with the note, "Photos of this morning. No, I'm not emailing from Bangalore."

You're the soul of wit, AA (don't worry, he's a friend). Enjoy the photos.



Mayor Bogaard addresses the gather cyclists at One Colorado.



The Bicycling Buccaneer arrives, just before the cavalcade set off.



Bipedal and bi-pedaling officers of the law accompanied the group.



Even though speakers had emphasized how safe it was to ride to work, the cyclists had a car leading them, flashing lights, and stopping traffic, including our reader AA who followed in the car.

MTA, the Murder Bus, and Racist Subsidies

Remember when we talked about local subsidies for public transportation? Okay, it was a while back, you're forgiven. But sounds like somebody heard our cries in the desert. Well, probably not, but regardless, there's a brouhaha brewing over rail and bus subsidies in LA, just like there was in SanFran a while back.

The MTA, claiming a $100-million operating deficit, wants us to believe that punishing its riders is its only choice. But it continues to subsidize rail projects at absurd levels.

About $57 million is spent on operations for Metrolink — a subsidy of about $5 a rider — which serves the whitest, most affluent suburban transit users. For the Gold Line, weekday ridership is 19,000 at an operating subsidy for each passenger of almost $7. The three Wilshire/Whittier bus lines, the most heavily utilized and effective in the nation, carry 90,000 daily passengers at a subsidy of 79 cents each.

That's Eric Mann and Manuel Criollo in the LAT. Even if you don't believe that disproportionate subsidies are the consequence of racism, the two activists (of the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union, respectively) bring up a good point: who deserves a free handout? That is, how do you determine who gets their housing/transportation/education subsidized and who doesn't? It's a tricky question and one that points out the inherent difficulties relying on a government body to determine who deserves what.

We don't have time to do the subject justice now, but it's worth taking revisiting. With the Gold Line expanding eastward and Foothill Transit heavily subsidizing bus riders, it's a challenge equally applicable to our cities as it is to LA.

[via Bottleneck Blog]

Murder Bus Correspondence

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous wrote in response to last Friday's post about the Murder Bus. His comments (which get special "correspondent" italics):

Glad to see someone else caught on to the ol' Murder Bus. As a student out at the 5 C's who commutes from Pasadena, I'm no stranger to the 187 and it's merits and deficiencies. The price is unbeatable, as you mentioned. Before I discovered this line, I took the Gold Line to Union Station and then the Metrolink out to Claremont. That whole process cost around 17 dollars roundtrip, and actually took about the same amount of time as the 187, though it was a helluva lot more comfortable. Also, the bus, being a convenient route, picks up an interesting cross section of the communities it passes through. Everyone from the functional alcoholic to a lector at my church to gaggles of teenage girls spends some time on the bus. It's a blast just to people watch. You do have to avoid making eye contact, though, because it tends to liberate the inner-rhetorician in some people. Once they get started, they can't stop lecturing about whatever topic prompted your conversation.

As far as the subsidies go, I gotta admit the line has no business being in existence. Coming back from school late at night, I'm often the only person on the bus for stretches of ten to fifteen minutes at a time. And they recently extended the times between stops (for what reason, I can't tell), which means that at night, without traffic, the drivers often crawl along at no more than ten miles an hour, at least through the eastern parts of the route. Nothing like being the only person (besides the driver) on a bus going jogging speed. It doesn't make any sense at all. But hey, while it's there, I might as well use it. Saves me a bundle.

Another friend who also has taken the 187 mentioned to us the extended times. According to our sources, it's difficult to see why on earth the running time of the line was extended from two hours to two and a half. Of course, despite the reader's selfless suggestion that the line get the ax, low popularity late at night hardly seems like adequate justification for the whole route to disappear.

If you've got any thoughts about other publicly subsized buses (or planes, trains or automobiles for that matter), feel free to drop us a line.

The Murder Bus and Subsidized Transportation

The Pasadena Pundit noted an interesting article from the Contra Costa Times a while back, about public transportation. The article deals primarily with Bay Area controversy, but has a number of larger issues that are directly applicable to our Foothill Cities.

Civil rights groups have a 2005 lawsuit pending against the MTC, charging that taxpayers in 2002 paid a $2.78 subsidy every time a rider boards an AC Transit bus, whereas subsidies for BART and Caltrain rides were $6.17 and $13.79, respectively.

Ah! Clearly some taxpayer groups are rebelling at the outrageous costs of public transportation, costs that invariably end up being foisted back on the shoulders of the average Joe (hey, all that subsidy money has to come from somewhere).

Whoops. Not quite.

Activists behind the suit persuaded local governments, including the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last May, to pass transit equity resolutions urging that money be distributed equitably.

It's not the expense of the transportation that matters, it's the dollars. Everyone just wants to get in on the gravy train of public money.

Of course, this debate has, in different form, been raging closer to home. The MTA, facing a $1.8 billion operating deficit over the next ten years, is planning a major fare hike, a proposal that has raised enormous hue and cry, including allegations of racism, since minorities tend to rely more heavily on public transportation.

Meanwhile, as the chief actors in this sturm und drang continue to rage, the Foothill Transit system has continued to fly (or drive) below the radar (well, relatively below the radar). The system serves all our local cities with fares lower than what the MTA charges currently (to say nothing of the increases). A basic bus trip will only set you back a buck, while two can speed you from downtown to Montclair via the Silver Streak (with free Wi-Fi to boot!). It's a crude measure, but compared to the numbers described for the Bay Area system, it's likely that every bus rider for Foothill Transit demands well over three dollars in subsidies.

The most notorious example of this has to be the infamous Murder Bus. The 187 line runs from Old Town Pasadena to Claremont, largely on Colorado, Huntington and Foothill. One dollar can take you from the Crown City Jewelry and Loan to the lair of the Claremonsters. Not surprisingly, the line is pretty popular among commuters; the AAA says the same round trip in a car would effectively cost you over $30 (think gas, insurance, wear and tear, etc).

Fares, being so low, account for less than a third of costs. According to Foothill Transit, the remaining 73% comes from "Los Angeles County Proposition A and C funds, California State Transportation Development Act (TDA) and State Transit Assistance (STA) funds." Ah, perfect: our tax money gets washed through both county and state bureaucracies before they are kind enough to give it back to us in the form of subsidized transportation. No word on how many dollars you have to feed Sacramento for every one you get back, but Southern California does tend to get the shaft in transportation funding.

The complexities of the issue make all more poignant a quote from the Contra Costa story, from well-meaning legislator Mark DeSaulnier.

"I wanted to do something to help low-income people," said DeSaulnier in an interview in his new office in Martinez this week. "It turns out, I've been a little bit naive about this."

Ah, yes, helping low-income people is a laudable goal. How to actually help them is a little trickier. There's much more to say about the issue, but I'll pause and ask your thoughts. What do you think of subsidized public transportation? Should be be brawling with the Gold Line to make sure they're not getting more dollars per rider than Foothill Transit? Favorite story from the Murder Bus? Let us know via email or in the comments.

SGV misses funding boat

The LA Times' Bottleneck Blog says that the San Gabriel Valley "got the shaft on freeway funding." But hey, the Gold Line's going to the airport.

Eastward Ho! Gold Line to Ontario

Just in case anyone hasn't gotten their fix of Gold Line news and commentary, it turns out Ontario wants to get in on the Gold Line party. Jason Newell at the Daily Bulletin reports:

The idea of making the airport the final destination on the Gold Line light-rail service that runs from Los Angeles to Pasadena seems to be gaining favor, Mayor Paul Leon said Tuesday.

Leon addressed the Gold Line possibility during an aviation summit at LA/Ontario International, where aviation experts and airport officials discussed the airport's future and impact on the region.

It seems like a wonderful idea, but does bring into critical relief what a lot of critics have been pointing out for some time: light rail isn't exactly the speediest way to get around, not to mention the low volume of riders it actually carries (thought that debate isn't going to be resolved any time soon). Happily, those questions have plenty of time to resolve themselves, since it's looking like it will be a decade until the Gold Line even reaches Montclair. In the interim, anyone interested in expressing how they'd jump on the Gold Line to Ontario in a heartbeat should sound off in the comments.

Favorite quote of the article definitely comes from pro-airport consultant Jock O'Connell (sweet name):

"You can build a better mousetrap, but the world won't beat a path to your door unless there's a two-mile-long runway in your front yard," he said.

Ah, but of course.

Dreier's Got Gold Line's Back

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to play some hanky-panky with transportation funds, which could threaten progress on the Gold Line extension (among other projects), and lots of people are unhappy, Dan Abenschein writes over at LA CityBeat.

...the Los Angeles Metro Transit Authority was understandably alarmed to hear Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger propose diverting $1.1 billion away from public transit agencies in his 2007 budget. With local cities giving new attention to buses and trains, the governor seemed to be sending exactly the wrong message.

“It is very much a serious concern of ours that the government is taking money that was intended by the voters to be used for public transportation,” said Michael Turner, the MTA’s government relations manager.

Don't worry, though. Everyone's favorite Glendoran, David Dreier, isn't going to stand for it.

Rep. David Dreier (R-Glendora), whose 26th District spans across the San Gabriel Valley, is insistent that the MTA should prioritize a $1.1 billion Gold Line expansion that would extend the line from its current terminus in east Pasadena all the way to the Ontario Airport.

“We are really on track because of Congressman Dreier’s support for the project,” said Susan Hodor, the public affairs director of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority, created in 1999 to plan the construction of the Gold Line. But she acknowledged it will be a struggle to get a fair share of bond money to fund the project. “We are going to have to fight really hard to make sure we get consideration for part of that pot of money.”

I'm sure the developments banking on the Gold Line extension are, ahem, quite friendly to the Honorable David Dreier.

Call me crazy, but it seems obvious that any system that consists of "a pot of money" that is then fought over is certain to be less than effective. It's even better when everyone is fighting over borrowed money. The full article charts the many ways state transportation funding ignores state transportation needs and is worth a read.

Weigh in with your thoughts, if you're so inclined, in the newly-enabled comments.

The Gold Line and Monrovia

Pasadena isn't the only city to face questions of how to handle new development. In fact, with the Gold Line extension, the debate over high-density, public transit-linked growth is running out to communities throughout the Foothill Cities. Monrovia is no exception.

On Monday, the city held the first of a series of public meetings to give Joe Citizen a chance to comment on the city's General Plan (Emmanuel Parker, SGVT). The laundry list of issues the city faces should be familiar by now: future traffic growth, high-density developments, proximity to public transportation, among others. Like Pasadena, the archetype Foothill City for high-density development, plans are afoot to create a "transit-oriented urban village."

The Station Square Transit Village will consist of an 80-acre transit-oriented urban village designed around the proposed Gold Line light rail station in Monrovia.

The village will be south of the Foothill (210) Freeway and north of Duarte Road, and could include as many as 3,000 new homes and businesses. No specific development projects within the transit village are currently proposed.

Not to rain on any parades, but "south of the 210 Freeway" is a serious hike from Old Town for the casual pedestrian. To put an urban village down there is one thing, but to make to use the Gold Line, as the route is currently planned, to get to Old Town sounds like a time-hungry enterprise. Also, consider the marked difference in Pasadena between the two areas on either side of the 210 Freeway (focusing, for the sake of illustration, on the area near Old Town Pasadena). It's an updated version of living on the wrong side of the tracks as the rental prices demonstrate.

While Monrovia south of the 210 isn't a wasteland, I'd be surprised to hear a resident tell me it's reasonable to expect to walk from below the freeway into Old Town (I agree with Claremont Insider on this one). Of course, this could just be short-sightedness on my part. One could imagine a future with South Myrtle built up attractively, with a half-mile or so jaunt up to Old Town be no more tedious or taxing than strolling along the Colorado strip.

Even as the Gold Line edges eastward, it's still hardly clear that it will be the messianic cure-all that some are touting it to be. And those planning 3,000 new homes and businesses should consider how heavily they're relying on the promise and premise of light rail.

Actual News About Duarte?!?

No, not really. But this is actually a pretty good post from an LA blogger trying to figure out the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. As she mentions, John Fasana, City Council Member of Duarte is involved with such things, helping to counter the LA-centric nature of the transportation bureaucracy.

Regional Airports

Apparently, United and Delta are vying to fly out of the Palmdale airport again.

If northeast county residents fly out of Palmdale, it could mean fewer weekend travelers clogging local freeways while making the drive to LAX or Burbank Airport, which is now called Bob Hope Airport.
Weekend traffic continues to jam both local east-west freeways, namely the Pomona (60) and the San Bernardino (10) through the San Gabriel Valley. Also heavy during Saturdays and Sundays are the San Gabriel River (605) and the Long Beach (710) freeways.

"Heavy" indeed. A big, bloody mess that gets worse every week is more like it. I'm not crossing my fingers for more flights in and out of Palmdale to help things, but it would be nice if the op-ed was right.

As a recent USA Today article by one Martin Kasindorf tells us, the Ontario airport is now "LA/Ontario International. And the airport in Palmdale, 60 miles northeast of the city, is LA/Palmdale Regional Airport." Regional airports, the future of transportation? If they can get the prices down low enough on some staple routes, I would guess this might be the case. From what I hear, things are looking up for regional airports all over southern California. But I'll continue to disbelieve that their success will reduce traffic until I see actual results. The 210 was supposed to reduce traffic, remember?

A Happy New Year for the 210 Updated

The 210 will be completed by the end of this year, but we'll have to wait another [insert profanity here] few years for it to link directly to the 215, according to Imran Ghori of the Press Enterprise.

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Fred Ortega's Daily News article tells why "[l]ocal cities are not giving up their fight to improve one of the most clogged and dangerous freeway junctions in the San Gabriel Valley," the 10/605 interchange. "Duarte Councilman John Fasana, a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board," was at a recent meeting of local officals who support upgrading the interchange.