Prop. A Funds Sought to Run ‘Trolley’ Buses Within Studio City

A Studio City group has applied for city funding to establish a community shuttle-bus service to transport residents to senior-citizen facilities, hospitals, libraries, churches, parks, government agencies and Ventura Boulevard businesses.

The Studio City Residents Assn. has proposed using buses that resemble old-fashioned trolleys and charging 25 cents per trip. Four buses would traverse the flatlands of the community from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with reduced service on Sunday.

From any point north of Ventura Boulevard, the line could be reached by walking no more than a few blocks.

The proposal, which has the blessings of City Councilman Joel Wachs, seeks funding from the city’s $28-million annual share of Proposition A monies. The funds are generated by the 1981 county ballot measure that imposed a half-cent increase in the sales tax to finance transportation projects.

The application is being studied by the city’s Department of Transportation, which expects to make a recommendation to the city’s Proposition A Committee within a month. Final authority rests with the City Council.

The proposed shuttle would augment service now provided by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which operates buses on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Tujunga Avenue and parts of Ventura Boulevard.

“The RTD, as I see it, is doing an excellent job,” said Jack Green, the association member who prepared the Studio City application. “But their job is to pick people up in communities such as ours and take them to other areas. This would pick people up in the local community and take them to points of interest within the community.” Green said the association surveyed communities throughout the United States with local transit systems and found that the trolleys are the most popular.

“It’s nostalgic and attractive,” Green said. “It reminds the older people of the street cars they used to ride. The younger people, though they have never ridden streetcars, like the appearance of it.

“When you see the pictures, it makes you want to get on and ride one, even if you don’t want to go anywhere.”

A similar trolley bus began operating in the Fairfax area last fall, according to Jim McLaughlin, a city transportation engineer.

The proposed bus service has the support of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, whose members believe it would bring shoppers to their businesses and help alleviate traffic and parking problems on Ventura Boulevard, according to chamber president Jerry Hays.

McLaughlin estimated that the Studio City project would cost about $30 per bus per hour to operate, or about $350,000 per year for all four buses. Of the $28-million annual Proposition A budget, all but about $2 million is already committed to existing programs or to such large proposed projects as the Metro Rail subway and the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach light-rail line, McLaughlin said.

The decision on whether to fund the Studio City shuttle, he said, will depend on how much support the proposal has in the community and the degree to which it would improve residents’ mobility.