Leadership Wins Transit Debate

A high-speed busway or light rail? An east-west route or north-south?

These are legitimate questions to raise about the best use for state transportation funds that could be coming to the San Fernando Valley. The trick will be agreeing on an answer.

Gov. Gray Davis’ $5-billion state transportation plan calls for $245 million for a high-speed, east-west busway across the Valley.

Such a busway has been championed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, among others.

Modeled after buses in Curitiba, Brazil, the 15-mile busway would run along the Burbank-Chandler railroad right of way, which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority already owns, connecting Warner Center in the West Valley to the soon-to-open Red Line subway in North Hollywood.

Anyone who’s experienced the gridlock on the Ventura Freeway should welcome an alternative way to get across the Valley to downtown.

Yaroslavsky envisions additional busways--along a Canoga Avenue railroad right of way linking Warner Center with the Chatsworth MetroLink Station and up Van Nuys Boulevard, connecting Sherman Oaks with Pacoima and the Sylmar MetroLink station.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) and Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla argue that a north-south line should come first, given the number of people in the northeast Valley who depend on public transportation.

Davis’ transportation plan would be better had it left setting such priorities to local leaders rather than listing specific proposals.

The key word here, however, is priorities--or, better yet, leaders. Valley leaders have failed in the past to agree on priorities and, consequently, lost transit dollars to other parts of the county.

Davis’ proposal is, after all, only a proposal at this stage. The funding request faces a tough battle in the Legislature, not to mention a debate between rail and bus advocates and the stiff opposition of the Valley’s omnipresent Not In My Backyard contingent.

It will take strong leadership from Yaroslavsky, Alarcon, Padilla and other Valley leaders to win the battle for consensus at home, which is the first step toward winning the funds, period.