This post from Investing in Place first appeared on the Investing in Place website.
In June, Metro will be deciding on what could be one of the most transformative ballot measures for our transportation system in recent history. The measure is a half-cent sales tax that would generate over $120 billion in the next 40 or 50 years to improve bus lines and build train lines, to strengthen our sidewalk and bicycle lane networks, improve our highways, and to repair and maintain our infrastructure to last for decades to come, among many other efforts.
Investing in Place and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition have responded to Metro’s draft expenditure plan—dubbed #Metroplan—with a comment letter to Metro CEO Phil Washington. Is #Metroplan a hit or miss? Please feel free to read here.
Our major recommendations are:
#Metroplan needs more equitable active transportation funding.
#Metroplan should focus on providing high-quality transit for riders.
#Metroplan should promote innovative demand management and land-use strategies to improve mobility,
The ballot measure expenditures should be transparent, accountable, and inclusive in its priorities and respond to future needs.
Despite our regional issues—like our affordable housing crisis, too many injuries and deaths of people, children, and older adults walking and biking on our streets, the suburbanization of the poor, planning for our communities to adapt to the “silver tsunami” as tens of thousands of baby boomers age, and of course, climate resiliency—transportation, and how we get around, is at the center of it all… It’s how we get to the grocery store, to our jobs, to housing, to our schools, and to medical care. Transportation can enhance our quality of life. Or, for many others, our transportation system can be a lifeline.
We hope you—as a resident or community leader—or your organization considers signing onto our letter or developing your own. You can fill out this form to sign.
We still have a voice in making this one of the most impactful and visionary transportation plans in LA region’s history. We’ve had Prop A, Prop C, and Measure R in 2008. Let’s make the next 2016 transportation ballot measure one of the ‘Greatest Hits’ that can have a lasting impact for future generations to come.