UPDATE: The meeting began at 9:50 a.m.
Here is today’s agenda, but let’s face it: the issue on the agenda that looms over others (which includes consideration of Metro’s 2015 budget) is the Metro Board of Director’s consideration of fare increases and changes proposed by Metro staff.
As for the order of the meeting, the Board will likely tackle consent items, then the budget and then the fare change proposal.
Those who want to listen to the meeting can do so at 213-922-6045, although the capacity of the phone line is limited. I will also provide a link once I have it for an audio stream of the meeting that should work on most computers (UPDATE: try this link to listen to the meeting on your computer). I’ll be covering the Board meeting throughout the day on The Source and on Metro’s main Twitter feed.
Here is the fare change option recommended by Metro staff:
Click above to view a larger version of the chart.
Below is a Metro staff report explaining the need for the fare changes, financial statistics, a summary of public responses to the changes and Metro staff’s response to them:
There is a change from the original staff proposal issued earlier this year: staff is now recommending that fares include two hours of free transfers, not 90 minutes.
Also on the agenda is this motion by three Board Members — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (UPDATE) and Don Knabe — to postpone the fare changes that would go into effect in 2017 and 2020 until more study can be done. The motion as updated Thursday morning:
Both the staff fare proposal and the motion require two-thirds approval — i.e. nine of the 13-member Board of Directors.
Here is a Metro staff handout that summarizes the fare change proposal and includes a summary of the public responses:
What are they saying about the fare increases outside of Metro? Here are editorials in the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
I’ll be covering the Board meeting throughout the day on The Source and on Metro’s main Twitter feed. More information about the proposed changes can be found by clicking here.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
mike dunn,
Well let’s see. What do you expect is going to happen when the Greater Tokyo Area has a population of 32 million in an area size about LA County whose population is entirely reliant on mass transit and most people has a 9 to 5 work hour?
Oh that’s right, you get the same effect as we do here: massive traffic jams at peak commuting hours. Except their traffic jams are on overcrowded trains and buses.
So is that going to scare me away? No. Because as Theo mentioned, that’s going to be how LA is going to be in the next coming decades: more people, more transit riders, not enough space.
Or do you have any other solution? Can you invent a magical teleporter like Star Trek?
mike dunn,
The way gas prices are rising, an ever increasing population here in LA where we just crossed the 10 million population mark for all of LA County, and more people turning to transit, that’s exactly what’s going to happen here in LA in the next 20 years.
That’s the fact of life of living in LA where everyone wants to live in a place where there’s nice weather. You either have traffic jams on the freeways or massive overcrowding on the trains and buses. Space is limited now in LA. Can you offer any other solution how to deal with limited space, increasing population, higher gas prices, and increased ridership numbers?
I’m sure some idiot with a TAP CARD who considers themselves a expert on public transit will again tell us how great the transit systems are in Asia. They fail to mention how passengers on some of these systems are crammed into rail cars by professional pushers.
You don’t know how lucky you are
MTA fares have gone up 3 times in 19 years ! Wow
Here in London they increase every year
Even the final proposal puts MTA rates at half those here in London
Without a pass a single journey on the underground is $7