MTA Funds for Needy Areas

In the always complex world of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the right things seemed to happen at Monday’s meeting of the agency’s board of directors.

The Eastside and Mid-City areas have a $220-million commitment to future and still undecided mass transit alternatives to the subways that had been originally planned for those areas. That’s rightly equal to the amount of funding that had already been earmarked for underground rail.

The MTA board also decided to spend $151 million in State Transit Improvement Plan monies on new buses that the system badly needs. That ought to fulfill requirements in an early December deadline to come up with a use for that money or relinquish decision-making authority to the state.

All that might sound as though it took place in a calm and consensus-focused meeting; it was anything but that. This was bare-knuckle, turf-based politics. The usually understated Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and the always gunning-for-a-fight Supervisor Gloria Molina combined forces for what critics called nothing more than a race-based argument. We don’t agree. Their argument was, quite properly, about need.

The MTA and Mayor Richard Riordan wanted a clear sign-off on a countywide bus plan in which dedicated rush-hour lanes--something that ought to be studied further before a commitment is made--would be used by buses, perhaps replete with the power to maintain longer green lights at intersections to stay on schedule.

MTA board members Molina, Burke and Richard Alatorre, a City Council member, rebelled and prevailed. They were right to insist that money earmarked for subways in areas they represent remain there for other transit projects. When resources are finite, priorities must be set. It’s a fact that the Eastside and Mid-City have large populations that depend on buses for transportation. Before the MTA gets going on ambitious new dedicated bus lanes, it’s only right that it first provide basic, reliable service where it is most needed.