Fair Share of Traffic Relief Funding

Yesterday, I joined Mayor Villaraigosa, Councilmember Wendy Greuel, and several mayors from the Southern California region to urge residents to demand their fair share of traffic relief funding.

In November, California voters approved $20 billion in transportation bonds (Proposition 1B), which promised to help relieve our streets and highways from traffic congestion. Recently, California transportation officials proposed a funding plan that did not include $1 billion worth of highway projects sought for Los Angeles County. If approved, important projects that affect the 11th district, such as a northbound car-pool lane on the 405 freeway, would not receive any funding from this bond measure.

After protests from residents, staff of the California Transportation Commission yesterday recommended to increase funding and include Los Angeles County projects such as the car-pool lane project on the 405 freeway into the funding proposal, but this is not enough.

We must receive our fair share of these transportation dollars. Not only do we need full funding for the 405, we need funding for important Westside mass rail projects such as the Green Line extension to LAX.

In recent months, we have made significant progress on the Green Line. I have dedicated $500, 000 in CD11 funds for key initial studies to jumpstart the project. Assemblymember Ted Lieu has proposed legislation to create a Green Line Construction Authority. And a broad group of elected officials from the local, county, state, and federal level have formed the Green Line coalition.

By taking advantage of Proposition 1B funding, we can reduce traffic gridlock on our freeways and provide much-needed rail transit on the Westside.

I encourage Los Angeles commuters to demand their fair share of transportation funding.
The commission will vote on a list of highway projects tomorrow, Wednesday, February 28, 2007 in Irvine. You can reach the commission by phone at (916) 654-4245 or by email at California_Transportation_Commission@dot.ca.gov.

-Bill