Bradley Plan on Ride-Sharing Rules and Truck Fees Is Stalled

Objections of Los Angeles City Council committee members stalled action Wednesday on Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposal to impose ride-sharing regulations on smaller businesses and impose fees on trucks using city streets during rush hours.

During a hearing of the council’s Transportation and Traffic Committee, members Michael Woo and Marvin Braude each found fault with the key parts of the mayoral program to ease growing traffic congestion on the city streets. Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is not a committee member, stopped by and attacked the plan by Bradley, whom he may oppose in the 1989 election.

In the end, committee chairman Nate Holden said the plan will be discussed at another hearing. Bradley’s transportation aide, William Bicker, said he was pleased with the committee’s reception and looked forward to working with the members on a final draft.

Braude praised Bradley for submitting the “most comprehensive and significant” attempt to design a traffic-easing plan. But he objected to the mayor’s proposal to extend the city’s mandatory ride-sharing program to firms with 200 or more employees.

At present, businesses with 700 or more employees face fines of $100 a day if they do not develop ride-sharing plans. Dropping the requirement to firms with 200 or more workers goes “too far, too fast,” Braude said. Such firms do not have the personnel departments or other staff facilities needed to put together an employee ride-sharing program, he said.

Woo agreed and said that he was also worried about how such a sweeping program could be coordinated by city departments. His concern for the details of implementing the plan helped persuade the committee to hold more hearings.

Yaroslavsky attacked the proposal to impose unspecified but “significant” fees on truck operators for driving on city streets during peak traffic hours.

He called the plan “a disaster, ill-advised and flawed.”

He said that big truckers would easily pay the fees. “The big guys can afford it, the little guys will suffer,” he said.