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Friday, June 18, 2021

Is Light Rail in Los Angeles County the Answer to Traffic Congestion?

 

June 15, 2021


For the past twenty years or so, public transportation in Los Angeles has seen a dramatic rise in revenue generation for projects around Los Angeles County (Measure R, Prop C, etc).  These goals include making it easier for residents to use public transit, alleviating traffic congestion, and accessibility to various locations (downtown LA-Red Line, Santa Monica-Expo Line, the Eastside, and the outer reaches of the San Gabriel Valley-Gold Line).  With all the money being put to use, are the goals expressed by the Los Angeles County Metro Transportation Authority (LACMTA) prudent?  Are LACMTA's Light Rail proposals and transportation aspirations the best way to alleviate traffic congestion in the most populous county in America?

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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly referred to as "Metro," became the new, single agency in Los Angeles County after a Sacramento politician initiated and passed a bill to combine two former transit agency rivals.  The Southern California Rapid Transit District (known as "SCRTD"), a transit operator, ran from the 1960s through the 1980s, and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC), a transportation funding and planning agency, was formed in 1976. Their rivalry caused serious problems for transit riders in the county and was carried through the formation of Metro in 1994.  The impetus for creating one main agency was the competition and lack of professionalism between RTD and the LACTC, the prime example being that a Blue Line light rail transit project (RTD) was terminated so close to the heavy rail Pico Station, six blocks to be exact, which was under the authority of the LACTC.  Richard Katz, a state assemblyman, joined public outrage, initiated, and successfully passed, a bill that would combine both agencies into the current LACMTA (wikipedia.org).

For those who are part of the Southern California "car culture," taking public transit is not something done on a regular basis. For most of the early 20th century, Los Angeles had an extensive trolley system that ran through a comprehensive network of rail lines throughout the city, and parts of the county. Pacific Electric ("Red Cars") ran the largest trolley system in the world in 1920s Los Angeles. It was joined by the Los Angeles Railway, which ran the other trolley, the "Yellow Cars," on their joint gauge. However, after revenue problems, along with the birth of more roads and the U.S. highway system, the extensive trolley system was slowly dismantled.  The state legislature, however, did create the first version of "Metro" in 1951 to control what was left of bus and rail transit in the city of Los Angeles, and outlying areas (Holmes,2020).

The first light rail line was the Blue Line, which originated from the South Bay (Long Beach) into downtown Los Angeles and began service in 1990. Other new lines have been built since then.  I had taken the Gold Line regularly for work in the past, a route that connected the San Gabriel Valley (it now extends to Azusa and East Los Angeles) and I found it to be a competent public transit system. There was a time when it had an Express Service, one that avoided stopping at all the stations along the route to the Union Station hub. It was terminated when it was proven to not save that much time off the regular routes.  Since that time, there have been extensions to the Gold Line, and a new line to Santa Monica, Expo Line, along with enhancements to other colored routes.  Recently, Metro changed the names of their rail and subway lines to a lettered system, similar to the subway system in New York. For example, the Gold Line is now known as the L Line.


In this century, Metro is betting big on rail transit in Los Angeles County. According to their published Long Range Transit Plan (LRTP) updated in 2020, it is an expansive, ambitious $400 billion transit plan over the next 30 years (https://www.metro.net/projects/lrtp/). Of that, the agency will spend approximately $61 billion on countywide rail and transitway capital projects through the year 2050, with the funds coming from voter-approved propositions from countywide sales taxes (Prop A, Prop C, Measure R, Measure M) programs, state, federal programs, and other sources (such as bonds). Some of these programs are part of Local Return, which are ordinances for sales tax initiatives that require the Metro to spend money to improve, support, or initiate transit projects within the county.  

The LRTP forecast is based on estimated sales tax revenue increases over several years and current project cost estimates.  If there are changes in revenue (for instance, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic could be felt for years), it could throw them in doubt.  However, Metro states the 30-year forecasts for the LRTP can be updated to incorporate any current financial issues since it is a "living" document.  That being said, is rail investment the right idea to get behind?

The 2020 LRTP presents some ambitious plans for Metro, one of which is the expansion of rail transit countywide and in partnership with other transportation agencies.  Upon completion of current projects, new projects include four priority "pillar" projects: West Santa Ana Branch, Eastside Extension-Phase 2, C Line (Green) to Torrance, and Sepulveda Transit Corridor (metro.net/2020/lrtp).  Additionally, there are upgrades for Union Station, so that the iconic and telegenic train station will be able to support proposed projections of increased regional and intercity rail service.  Sales taxes from Measure R and Measure M will provide funds for these ambitious goals.

In addition to these rail projects, Metro plans to improve bus service, like increased travel speeds, all-door boarding, complementary paratransit service, signal priority for bus and rail service, continued coordination between Metro and other local transit agencies. It is detailed in the agency's NextGen Bus Plan, and include doubling the frequency of bus line service (10-minute intervals), improve and expand service, 7-day service week,  quarter-mile distance to a bus stop for commuters, and have those bus stops be more comfortable during wait times (metro.net/projects/nextgen). In my opinion, this is where Metro can make the most difference. Improving bus service will be the central tenet for making their goals achievable and is key to improving public transportation in Los Angeles County.

However, there has been push-back with regard to Metro's optimistic goals and revenue estimates. Over a series of critiques of Metro, two researchers, Thomas Rubin, and James Moore, with the Reason Foundation, performed reviews of various past and current endeavors of the transit agency, including their opinions on Metro's "28 by 2028," which is their plan to target projects that can be completed before the 2028 Olympics. While rail projects tend to get local media attention, it is bus service that generally brings in dependable revenue for Metro. According to the authors, bus service is very productive and cost-effective, and rail is not.  The authors examined Metro's FY14 Adopted Budget and found that the agency showed a preference to expand rail service and how it "misrepresented" the performance of bus service to support this direction (Rubin & Moore, 2019). However, the powers that be (or those with the most influence, which are I suspect are construction firms), Metro places more support for rail expansion than bus improvements. 

Misters Rubin and Moore went into additional time detailing their views of the problems with the business model of Metro.  They show how transit ridership has been declining from peak levels in the late 80s.  What is the cause for this, since the county's population has increased over the past 30 years?  Light rail has eaten into some of that ridership, but since it has leveled off, I don't see it as the sole reason for a lowering of bus service transit levels. The authors state that commuter levels have receded from bus service, but that rail has not received an increase in ridership from this change. They make the claim that the agency's LRTPs tend to overpromise and underdeliver (notably light rail projects that don't get built), and also overstates its projections based on sales tax initiatives the amount of revenue actually generated. They add that its most recent voter proposition, Measure M, will not provide the rosy revenue streams it promises.  These construction projects are likely to fail due to over-estimation of sales tax revenue and underestimation of construction costs projections (Rubin & Moore, 2019). Further, these authors state that even though Metro plans on light rail expansion, we may not see a transit commuter increase for those new rail lines, despite aspirational intentions. 

What is the long-term outlook for Metro?  While I feel that the city of Los Angeles had a pretty efficient public transit system before World War II, the proliferation of the automobile into middle-class families made that trolley transit system underutilized and outdated, and many of the rail lines throughout Los Angeles County were removed to make way for roads and highways.  That transformation increased through the latter half of the century, and no serious initiatives took place until after the merger between the SCRTD and LACTC. I think the formation of Metro gave those within the agency who were pushing for new transit projects an unchecked desire for increased construction for specific constituents in the business community.  While light rail, the underground subway, and Metrolink have given residents of the county more options to commute and travel throughout the region, the desired increases of those using public transit seem to have leveled off (like those who use bus transit). Low gas prices are part of that regression. Light rail has seen new riders of public transit, but I don't think the stated improvements to how people get around have been what city and county planners had envisioned.

Where do go from here? Based on the reporting of Rubin and Moore, Metro's projects to alleviate congestion may not be the best way forward.  Instead of constructing new light rail lines, more study needs to determine if these projects will do what they intend. Their studies, from the Reason Foundation, states otherwise.  It appears that county residents who use public bus transit have declined and rail use has not benefited.  Too many people who live in the county find traveling by car to be their preferred way to get around. Additionally, a study on behalf of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), performed by UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies, implied that lower-income county residents (the ones who use public transit the most) have access to own, and use cars more than in years past (Manville, Taylor, Blumberg-2018).  Electric cars, once they become affordable for the masses, could put a larger dent in Metro's hope to see more public transit once new light rail lines are completed. California is the state with the largest number of electric vehicles, and that number will continue to climb.  The California New Car Dealer Association (CNCDA) recorded data for electric car ownership, which saw an increase from 1.5% to 6% between 2015 and 2020 (cncda.org). With that upward trajectory, and the subsequent decrease in the need for gas-powered cars, will that drive more people to avoid taking public transit?

Using public transit should compete to become a better alternative to mitigate the stress of freeway gridlock for car drivers today.  Metro must focus and design its comprehensive transit system to move people quickly to the most popular and necessary destinations throughout the city (for example, LA Live/Staples, the Coliseum, Santa Monica, LAX, and beach cities) in the most efficient manner with seamless transfers to different bus and rail lines.  If despite improvements, it becomes a hassle to get around, people would rather spend their time in their cars.  Instead of spending billions of dollars on new rail projects, Metro would be wise to determine where the majority of county residents want to travel most frequently and in the shortest time frame and invest those dollars to make car travel less desirable.   Good intentions do not translate into new light rail riders.  Effective allocation of tax revenue that moves the most people to the right places will establish successful public transit in Los Angeles for the 21st Century. That is what I hope will be the primary focus instead of Metro's actual long-range transit plan.


 


 

 




Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority

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