Frustrated by Traffic Gridlock?

Here’s What You Can Do!

Traffic in Los Angeles County has reached epic proportions. Are you frustrated and want to do something? Then don’t just fume about it – do something about it! Besides carpooling or taking transit, learn about how transportation planning and funding works and get involved! Congratulations on reading this overview and taking the first step!

Government Transportation Funding & Planning. Responsibility for transportation planning and transit operations falls with Metro (MTA, http://www.metro.net/), which has monthly board meetings downtown with public input opportunities. For a meeting schedule, see http://www.metro.net/board/mtgsched.htm.

Ultimately, it all comes down to funding – and most funding comes through the Federal & State government. Your State Assemblymember & State Senator, the Governor, your Member of Congress, and your US Senators all play important roles. Currently, they do not hear often from constituents about traffic gridlock very often; accordingly, transportation funding is often one of the first areas to get cut by the Governor, for instance. You can look up your state & federal officials’ names & contacts at sites like http://www.congress.org/.

Locally, each city also has a department focusing on local transportation issues. In L.A., it’s LADOT (http://www.ladottransit.com) – other cities have their own independent transportation departments and staff. Your elected City Councilmembers ultimately set the funding & policy plans, within the framework of what is possible with funding and state and federal law.

Civic Involvement. Besides our group, Building LA’s Future (http://www.endinggridlock.org/), there are a number of different groups you can join to get involved with to fight for solutions to gridlock, including groups like:

• FAST: Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic: Sponsors of a RAND Corporation report on short-term traffic relief solutions.
• MOVE LA: Founded by a former Santa Monica Mayor who also was very involved in 2008′s Measure R for transit.
  
• Mobility 21: Business-focused group founded by the LA Chamber, Metro, and the Auto Club.
  

• (There are many more groups doing good work, too, but space here is limited! [This post is adapted from a 1 page printed handout])

About Building LA’s Future: Building LA’s Future is a nonprofit effort dedicated to ending in Los Angeles County. Our programs have ranged from a CEO Summit on Transportation, to an annual “Traffic Fighter of the Year” ceremony. For more information, see http://www.endinggridlock.org.

Lessons Learned From Year One of Running a Student Transportation Advocacy Organization

By Sirinya Tritipeskul and Juan Matute, Buidling LA’s Future’s 2009 “David Bohnett Leadership Fellows”

Editor’s Note: Building LA’s Future (www.endinggridlock.org), a nonprofit effort to fight gridlock in LA, asked Sirinya and Juan to prepare this summary of Bruins for Traffic Relief (BTR) with the hope it might inspire students at other schools to start their own transit groups, and so that others could learn from BTR’s success.

About Bruins for Traffic Relief

Bruins for Traffic Relief (BTR) is a UCLA-sponsored student organization founded in the spring of 2008 by Misha Silin, a 2009 graduate of UCLA, and his two fraternity brothers. Misha was inspired by a course he took on civic engagement to make a difference in a tangible way. BTR is his response to the Los Angeles’s high levels of traffic congestion and limited transit options, particularly contrasted with his hometown of Moscow, Russia.

BTR was founded as a joint undergraduate and graduate student club. In its first full year, Juan served on graduate student cabinet and was able to secure resources for club activities. BTR participated in a number of activities, including the following:

1) A grassroots campaign to support Measure R, a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation improvements around Los Angeles County through 2039. The grassroots campaign inspired the official campaign to push harder. Measure R passed by a hair.
2) Organized public support to encourage Metro to make scheduling data available on Google Transit via the launch of “Los Angeles Wants Google Transit”, a Facebook Group. Over 800 people joined the group. Today, Metro data is now on Google Transit, lowering barriers to transit use for those with iPhones, other smart phones, and computers.

3) Produced one of three City Council District 5 runoff electoral candidate debates at UCLA in April 2009 in conjunction with the UCLA External Affairs office. Moderator Adrienne Alpert asked several questions related to transportation and the state of retail in Westwood that were written by Bruins for Traffic Relief members.
4) Collected signatures for petitions demonstrating support for Westside Extension and Phase 2 of the Expo Line from students.
5) Attended and made public comments at meetings of the Metro Board of Directors, Westside Extension, and the Expo Line Rail Authority.

Lessons Learned

We had a lot of fun participating in Bruins for Traffic Relief, as we got to make new friends, meet local decision-makers and politicians, and learn how to leverage traditional grassroots activism with social media to advance our agenda.

We also learned a lot of things along the way about running a first-year organization vested in engaging with the public regarding transportation.

1. Funding - This was crucial: In BTR’s first year, we were able to rely upon funding from the UCLA Sustainable Resource Center to pay for materials, such as our signs
   
2. Recruit both undergraduate and graduate students.
   
3. Establishing Track Record: We found that that we were very lucky around start an advocacy campaign well-organized series of events around a single, discreet cause to maximize perceived impact while minimizing perceived commitment.
   
4. Developing a succession plan for long-term sustainability and retention:
   
   1. The first year members were also in their last year of school. They sought to recruit younger students to take over with limited success
      
   2. Seek to formalize new student organizations within existing student governance structures in order to facilitate resource acquisitions and annual transitions
      
5. Managing new media:
   
   1. With Measure R, we were able to capitalize on media coverage by taking photographs and writing copy in emails and on blog entry during week one, with a goal of using a using snowball effect to expand media coverage over the 4-week campaign
      
   2. With “LA Wants Google Transit”, we established ourselves as a reliable source on LA Metro’s transition to Google Transit with local blogs.  We would send tips and blog entries when appropriate.  We also mobilized the digital following we had established  with the Measure R campaign to support the campaign for Google Transit
      
6. Cultivating recognition, working relationships with people who were willing to mentor us and educate us on the local policy arena.
   
7. Recognizing the realities of fragmented agenda – We often asked ourselves whether should the club be a transit advocacy group or a broader transportation group that also advocates for bicycle infrastructure?
   
8. VERY IMPORTANT: Dressing in UCLA school colors for meetings conjures nostalgia and positive feelings among many stakeholders (except for Art Leahy [CEO of Metro], who is a HUGE USC fan)
   
   
   
   

See the New York Times for more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/nyregion/17minute.html?_r=1

Without an overhaul of the city’s transportation network it is only a matter of time before the city breaks down, a victim of pollution and overcongestion. 

It is time that L.A. step up with a vision for a fully built out mass transit system, improved highways and streets.

Eng said that he would like to have seen harder lobbying from transit agencies during budget talks. “We have to have a transit constituency that is willing to step up to the plate,” Eng said. “Our votes are only as good as the last people who talk to us.” 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lewis26-2008dec26,0,1661524.story

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-13-obama-transportation_N.htm

By Duncan Mansfield, The Associated Press
Updated: 12/15/2008 09:35:28 PM PST

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Jim Richards is no kid, but he loves to ride his bike. At 51, he has become a cycling commuter, pedaling 11 miles from his home in the suburbs to his job in downtown Knoxville.

“It really doesn’t take that much longer” than driving, he insists.

And he gets 40 minutes of exercise twice a day without going to the gym, which he credits for a 20-pound weight loss.

New research illustrates the health benefits of regular biking, walking or taking public transportation to work, school or shopping. Researchers found a link between “active transportation” and less obesity in 17 industrialized countries across Europe, North America and Australia.

“Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates,” authors David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University conclude.

Americans, with the highest rate of obesity, were the least likely to walk, cycle or take mass transit, according to the study in a recent issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. The study relied on each country’s own travel and health data.

Only 12 percent use active transportation in the United States – 9 percent walk, 1 percent ride a bike and 2 percent take a bus or train – while a quarter to one-third are obese, the study said.

By comparison, 67 percent of commuters in Latvia, 62 percent in Sweden and 52 percent in the Netherlands either walk, bike or use mass transit. Latvia’s obesity rate is 14 percent, the Netherlands’ is 11 percent and Sweden’s is 9 percent.
A similar pattern was found in Canada (19 percent active transportation, 23 percent obese) and Australia (14 percent active transportation, 21 percent obese).

Overall, Bassett said, “Europeans walk three times as far and cycle five times as far as Americans.”

The authors say it’s more than lifestyle choices that lead Americans to use their cars more. Europe’s compact, dense layout and infrastructure are more conducive to getting around without a car.

Europeans on average walk 237 miles and cycle 116 miles per year; U.S. residents walk 87 miles and bike 24 miles. Bassett and Pucher calculated that that translates into burning off 5 to 9 pounds of fat annually for Europeans compared with only 2 pounds for Americans.

While the analysis doesn’t prove that transportation keeps obesity levels down “they make an excellent case,” said Susan Handy, who heads the Sustainable Transportation Center at the University of California, Davis.

Anne Lusk, a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health, said the study’s results make sense.

“What I found most exciting about this excellent research is the applicability,” she said. “The issue then becomes should we improve our transit, walking or bicycling opportunities simultaneously or should we focus on one of the three?”