Council to Seek Bids on Pilot Shuttle Bus Line : Transportation: The proposed program calls for the use of small buses between Studio City and Van Nuys, similar to two popular downtown routes.

The Los Angeles City Council moved closer Tuesday to providing low-cost shuttle bus service between Studio City and Van Nuys.

The council voted to seek bids from private firms to operate a yearlong pilot program. The council will vote later on whether to accept a bid, after determining if money is available for the service.

It would be the city’s first DASH program--an acronym for Downtown Area Short Hop--in the San Fernando Valley. The programs, which includes two popular downtown routes, use small buses to service relatively short routes. The city now operates shuttle bus routes in seven other areas.

Councilman Marvin Braude introduced the shuttle plan last April, saying the Valley has not received its fair share of Proposition A transit dollars. Funds from Proposition A--the half-cent transportation sales tax approved by voters in November, 1980--would be tapped to pay for the Valley pilot program, as they are now used to pay for other DASH programs.

Riders usually pay a low fare, such as the 25 cents charged on the downtown routes.

The council voted unanimously to seek bids for the Valley project. But the lawmakers also adopted a report by the city Department of Transportation, shaped by Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s transit committee, that ties the final decision to approve the project to a review of the status of the city’s Proposition A fund.

Holden and DOT officials have expressed concern that future funding for ongoing Proposition A-funded projects, including the many DASH services now in operation, could be jeopardized if new projects get Proposition A money. The DASH routes now operating cost $3.8 million a year and the Valley route would add about $1.1 million to that.

The city expects to receive nearly $64 million in Proposition A funds this year, but only about $7.5 million has been set aside this year for DASH-type programs, and the city faces potentially large bills for Metro Rail.

“It appears that before embarking on other new projects the city should address the long-term budget and funding priority issues,” according to a DOT report on the Valley shuttle project.

During Tuesday’s debate, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents a portion of the Valley, said a Proposition A-funded project for the Valley has been “a long time coming.” A shuttle bus system, he said, would be particularly helpful to the south Valley’s “growing senior population.”

Holden, however, said later that “since I’ve been on the council for three years and on the transportation committee, I’ve never gotten a request to fund a Valley shuttle. And when I did, I gave it top priority.”

Holden, a former Southern California Rapid Transit District commissioner, said he agreed to support the Valley project even though it meant giving it priority over several shuttle proposals introduced earlier for other parts of the city.

James McLaughlin, a top DOT official, said the bid specifications would be released in about two months.