Mitra Ebadolahi Ebadolahi is a
fourth-year international development studies and history student
who believes that the forces of good will kiss evil on the lips.
She encourages comments at [email protected].
Click Here for more articles by Mitra Ebadolahi
While visiting Berlin over winter break, I was often asked about
living in Los Angeles. What was it like? I started thinking about
this enormous city, with its sprawling landscape and diverse
population, about the ritzy “Hollywood” stereotype and
the reality of millions of working class residents just struggling
to make ends meet. Traffic, rent, sun, and palm trees.
Traffic.
Traffic.
After 18 years as a SoCal resident, I found I could speak more
extensively about driving in Los Angeles than I could about daily
living here. The City of Angels? How about the City of Exhaust?
To get from point A to B in Los Angeles, commuters must battle
through gridlock, dodge road rage, and choke down smog. Bus riders
are forced to deal with erratic schedules, delayed buses, expensive
fares and overcrowding on all major lines.
In stark contrast to L.A.’s stress-filled commutes, trips
in Berlin are mellow and enjoyable. Thousands of buses run 24 hours
a day, on schedule to the minute. These buses run so efficiently
and regularly that there is almost always an empty seat. Surface
streets are designed with “Bus Only” lanes to expedite
service.
In addition to a world-class bus system, Berliners have access
to three other types of public transportation: the U-bahn
(underground metro), the S-Bahn (faster, lighter urban trains) and
over-ground trams. The rail and bus system takes the city’s
3.5 million residents to within walking distance of any point
desired, and subsidized transport passes enable Berliners to ride
all four forms of transportation affordably.
 Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin Los Angeles
wasn’t always such a sprawling, immobile mess.
In the 1920s, an inner-city rail system quietly and efficiently
connected the downtown area before being destroyed by the joint
efforts of a group of automobile, gas and tire corporations led by
General Motors (“The Corporate Century,”
www.mojones.com). If this early system had been maintained, it
would have been easy ““ and relatively inexpensive ““ for
city developers to expand public transportation as Los Angeles
grew. But by 1950, the damage had been done. L.A. had been
converted into Hell-A, the car capital of the world.
These days, having a car in Los Angeles is both a blessing and a
curse. A private automobile provides relief from a decrepit bus
system, but parking, insurance, gas and service make cars a
financial burden many simply cannot afford. There is also a high
social and environmental cost associated with our car culture. The
stress of traffic manifests in human tragedies like road rage,
while gas-guzzling status cars and the daily commute release tons
of pollution into our sunny skies.
In a city where access to transportation is required for
livelihood, those who must rely on mass transit have suffered the
most. In 1996, L.A.’s Bus Riders Union successfully sued the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority for prioritizing expensive
and unnecessary rail projects over buying new buses to relieve
overcrowding and regularize service.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, 90 percent of MTA
funding prior to the ruling was devoted to trains that carried only
10 percent of commuters to and from affluent L.A. suburbs (CSM,
Sept. 25, 2001). The BRU’s victory underscored the race and
class discrimination that permeate public transportation in L.A.,
where 81 percent of the half million-plus bus riders are minorities
(www.bru.org).
We have all suffered enough, especially since there are plenty
of viable alternatives. Is it really so much to ask for our city to
use our tax dollars to provide a subsidized (i.e., affordable),
efficient and environmentally friendly bus service spanning the
entire breadth of L.A.?
The MTA is constantly complaining about funding. Why
doesn’t our state and municipal government prioritize
civilian needs over, say, corporate welfare, whereby select CEOs
receive government money to boost their dwindling profit margins?
If we were to actively demand our rights to cleaner, quieter, more
accessible cities, could the automobile lobbies really hold us off
for long?
Imagine traveling to work or class each day in a bus or tram,
reading the paper instead of listening to the traffic report. What
if you could quickly and easily travel anywhere in Los Angeles
without worrying about fender-benders or parking availability? What
if the smog lifted so that the sun could shine through?
Think you would miss your car?
Think again. After all, why deal with the hassle of paying for
parking, buying gas or designating a driver when you could simply
hop on a bus or tram that would take you wherever you want to
go?
Los Angeles needs to prioritize its public transportation, and
we need to start demanding no less than we deserve. Electric trams
and natural gas buses will clean our air and clear our streets. The
MTA must begin by buying more buses and upgrading its service along
every running line. More buses, more drivers and more regular
routes are crucial for transforming L.A. from a sprawling mess to a
sparkling city.