MTA Turns Its Focus to North Valley

The northeast San Fernando Valley used to be the place where the urban momentum of Los Angeles petered out, giving way to ranches, horse trails and foothills.

But with an 11.5% jump in population during the 1990s, much of the area has increased in density, a place where a growing working class relies heavily on a thin public transit system.

Experts say the northeast Valley is one of the toughest challenges facing Los Angeles County’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They contend the agency has been slow to realize that lifelines are needed for those northern and other outlying areas of the MTA’s 1,433-square-mile territory.

“The difficulty is that while the Los Angeles area has grown in population, it is still massively spread out,” said David Grannis, a transportation lobbyist for Planning Company Associates and chief consultant to the San Fernando Valley Transportation Strike Force.

“So, the challenge for MTA is to figure out how to connect these formerly underpopulated areas, like the northeast Valley or Santa Clarita, to the rest of the region, and how to provide enough transit choices.”

James L. de la Loza, the MTA’s executive officer for planning, noted that “places like the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and areas of Long Beach and the South Bay are developing the same level of density as the core of the city.

“It’s an urban region,” he said. “It’s no longer a suburb.”

Mindful of that, Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) and state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) have come up with $100 million to improve the Valley’s north-south commute.

MTA officials say the “anti-congestion” money will pay for a range of improvements on possible routes such as San Fernando Road, Lankershim Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard. The money also will help pave the way for a Metro Rapid bus line scheduled to debut in early 2003 on Van Nuys Boulevard. With fewer stops and signal-priority technology that keeps traffic lights green longer, the Rapid buses have been a big hit on Ventura Boulevard and in the Whittier-Wilshire corridor.

The Ventura line has cut travel time 23% compared to traditional bus service, and the Whittier-Wilshire line 28%, according to the city Department of Transportation.

The Rapid coaches are also cleaner than the worn-down 233 standard buses, like the one in which frequent riders Daniel Mata, 26, and Carlo Castrellon, 59, were bumping up Van Nuys Boulevard recently. Both were in the middle of hour-plus commutes home.

Castrellon smirked when asked if he supported plans for a faster bus.

“How couldn’t I?” he said.

Not everyone is rooting for the MTA’s program. Like an east-west bus line planned for the Valley, the north-south routes are expected to draw fire from neighborhood activists worried about their effect on property values, pollution and noise. MTA officials are bracing for particularly fierce opposition to dedicated north-south bus lanes, which would squeeze out car traffic.

The agency is still considering dedicated lanes, but people such as Sam Zakher, manager of the Wine & Liquor Basket on Van Nuys Boulevard, have strong concerns.

“If you only have one lane [for cars] going each way at this intersection, you are going to have a problem,” Zakher said, nodding toward the rush-hour traffic outside his door. “It wouldn’t be good for business.”

But Sylmar resident Bart Reed, a transit activist, said the bus line plans represent a long-overdue recognition of the north Valley’s increasing need for public transit.

“[Bus riders] have always dealt with second-class service, low-class service and low-class products,” Reed said. “With a better-quality product they could really benefit, with better access to jobs and education.”

Buses serving the area have become more and more crowded.

From 1990 to 2000, the population of the northeast Valley neighborhoods of Arleta, Sunland, Sun Valley and Sylmar jumped by a combined 32,000, to a total of 312,000.

There are no buses to the vast new Cascades Business Park at Balboa Avenue and Foothill Boulevard, and visitors to Juvenile Hall in Sylmar must rely on a shuttle that runs every 45 minutes. Rail service is limited to Sylmar and Sun Valley Metrolink stations.

Bus rider Desiree Gaston, who was returning to Koreatown after visiting a relative at Juvenile Hall, hadn’t heard of the shuttle. She said she had been walking to Juvenile Hall from the last regular bus stop.

“Rapid bus would be good, but I think it’s going to be a long ride regardless of what they do,” she said. “I ride the Rapid on Wilshire, and it’s overcrowded and slow sometimes. They get so crowded, they don’t always stop. It’s not as rapid as it used to be.”

On the regular bus, longtime rider Juanita Pama, 25, didn’t know much about the MTA’s anti-congestion plans. But she said her 40-minute commute from Sherman Way to Ventura Boulevard--less than four miles--was more than anyone should have to endure.

“My biggest disappointment every day is the bus,” Pama said. “Other than that, life is great.”

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Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this story.