Blog: Repeal SB 221 Robbins' Bill For Possible Orangeline Conversion to Light Rail

I have been a resident of the San Fernando Valley for about a year and a half now; however, I come from the Green Meadows neighborhood of South Los Angeles where I lived my entire life. I can say that I really do love the Valley because it’s so urbanized which makes it really unique. I'm a full time student at Valley College and I work at Sears here in the Valley. I was first introduced to the SFV when my grandfather lived in Van Nuys a couple years ago. He lived there for more than 30 years and often talked about how nice it used to be where he lived near Sepulveda and Vanowen. I now live in the Valley Village neighborhood with my first apartment. I wasn’t particularly attracted to Van Nuys, but what really attracted me here to the Valley is the Red and Orangeline systems. I love the fact that I can take the Orangeline to school, or take it to Target in Sherman Oaks for grocery shopping. I love being able to travel to Westfield for shopping or take rides to Balboa Park. I love traveling to the NoHo Arts District to hang out with friends or transfer to the Redline to go and see my mother on the weekends. The Orangeline has been a real blessing for all of us here in the Valley because it makes life so much easier for thousands of people and have created countless opportunities such as employment and business development.

What’s the downside of it? From my experience, even though the Orangeline is convenient, it has proven to be a difficult and uncomfortable experience. The summer of 2012 was my first in the Valley. I remember waiting at the Laurel Canyon and Valley College stations in one-hundred degree weather while two or three buses would pass me and others up because of capacity. I’ve also experienced this same scenario in rain, wind, and even 35-degree weather at night. I’ve seen senior and disabled persons who waited long periods of time in extreme weather also due to bus capacity. When riding the bus, it can be a very uncomfortable situation. Due to its capacity, there is likely nowhere to sit and you become squashed against other people who also struggle to board. It becomes impossible to travel with groceries, large items, and luggage. I constantly see older women, children, and seniors who have to stand for long periods of time and be squished against others because there is no room for seating, usually occupied by other women and seniors. According the L.A Times, the projected ridership of the Orangeline more than tripled to 22,000 riders a day in 2005, less than a year after its opening. And according to a UC Berkeley study, researchers found that it even slightly reduced traffic on the 101 Freeway that it runs parallel to. Today, the daily ridership has reached more than 27,000 riders a day, an increase of over 5,000 in 8 years.

As a result of the Busway's capacity, calls for light rail are growing strong. Metro intended to use the Chandler corridor for a light rail passageway, but because of the Orthodox Jewish community's opposition, it proved to be a difficult task. In the L.A Times, their complaints of a light rail system included noise, property values, and a disruption of the practice of Shabbat. Shabbat prohibits driving or using electricity from sundown Friday through Saturday, those travelling to synagogue have to walk and, while not backed by any studies, claim to be exposed to more danger by crossing rails on foot. This position was questionable because studies have shown that mass transit increase property values and trains typically have bright light-head beams, making it impossible to miss. As a result, State Senator Alan Robbins sponsored SB 221, which prohibited a light rail from North Hollywood all the way to Hazletine Ave. Also, Zev Yaroslavsky successfully promoted proposition A, which banned Metro from using county sales taxes to fund Subway projects (Also another questionable move because the community suggested that only a Subway was acceptable, at least that’s what they said. This proposition also put a damper on the future of transit for L.A, making it difficult to secure funds)  The Subway was too expensive, reaching into the billions, so Metro decided to use a Busway system instead, but the community still opposed it despite Metro's promise of pedestrian walkways and traffic signals. According to the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, after Metro began the construction of the Busway, the Citizens Organized for Smart Transit (aka, the Citizens Organized against transit in my neighborhood) filed a frivolous lawsuit against Metro, claiming that actual travel time savings of a Busway system would be much lower than the projected time savings used to justify the cost of the Metro Orange Line. Metro won the lawsuit after demonstrating that designated BRT lanes would be faster than Metro Rapid buses. Construction resumed in October 2004. When I was looking through the L.A Times’ archives, I ran into an article that interviewed a man from Valley Village. The villager stated that only the working class and poor would utilize the Busway and it wouldn’t go anywhere you would want it. In my opinion, that position says allot about why the community really opposed anything despite all of Metro's accommodations. As a daily rider, I see young, old, White, Black, Latino, Asian, working class, middle class, white-collar workers, and everything else imaginable riding the Orange and redline systems. Some people are simply out of touch with reality.

Now that we’ve seen the success and the flaws of the Busway, negative sentiment by those who opposed the light rail are doing a 360. Even the Jewish Journal has now endorsed mass transit and admitted that past opposition to the Orangeline is simply unimaginable. Studies have also shown that with a LRT, travel times would be much faster. The Orangeline takes on average about 41 minutes to reach Warner Center but with a LTR, it would take only 29 minutes, saving 12 minutes in travel time. Ii is important that people around the SFV wake up and realize that we are an urban sprawl, which has proven to be dangerous in air quality and limits open space. We need an alternative to Cars and mass transit is the way to go. We cannot simply afford to succumb to NIMBY sentiment any longer that has held Los Angeles and the county back for 30 years beginning with the purple line that was supposed to break ground in the early 1980’s.

On March 27, Metro will hold a meeting at the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center
6262 Van Nuys Boulevard
Van Nuys, CA 91401 from 4-6pm

Discussion will be based on the East SFV corridor and whether there should be a Busway or LRT going from San Fernando to Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks along Van Nuys Blvd. I suggest that as many people as possible show up and support only a LRT along Van Nuys Blvd and stress the important of LRT instead of another Busway system. This will ultimately have a phase 2 that will travel out through the Sepulveda pass. Please while you’re there, stress the importance of a light rail system for the Orangeline.