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Clean
Air Campaign - Bus Only Lanes
Giving
Buses the Green Light
A
main goal of the Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses campaign
is to dramatically reduce air toxins and greenhouse gas emissions
from autos by reducing auto use in Los Angeles. With these
reductions, Los Angeles will begin to do its part in reducing
global warming and will improve the health of Black, Latino,
Asian and working class children throughout the county. One
of the BRU’s immediate goals is to create bus-only lanes
on all 29 corridors where there is or will be Rapid Bus service
(15 lines have already been implemented, the remaining lines
will be implemented through 2008). Included in these 29 corridors
are the Wilshire, Ventura, Vermont, Central, Hollywood and
Crenshaw thoroughfares.
(For a full list, click here) |
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| A
countywide bus-only lane program would disadvantage the auto
and therefore encourage the use of public transportation.
This would start to reduce the harmful emissions of auto tailpipe
toxins that harm our children’s
health and contribute to global warming. Los Angeles is one
of the most polluted and auto-dependent regions in the country
with 8 millions cars for 10 million people. Our cars emit
thousands of tons of chemicals into the air such as carbon
dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming
and causes devastating man-made disasters such as recent Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans. The auto also produces particulate
matter and other toxic chemicals that cause asthma and cancer.
The reduction of auto use is a life and death issue for communities
in urban Los Angeles. Dramatic changes in mass transit public
policy can lead to rapid changes in public health. |
Map
of the 28 Metro Rapid corridors where the BRU aims to implement
bus-only lanes. 
Wilshire Corridor Bus-Only Lane Campaign
| The
BRU’s first step is to implement a bus-only lane on
Wilshire Boulevard—the heaviest traveled corridor in
the country with 80,000 daily riders. Our campaign aims to
expand and protect fast, high quality bus service for thousands
of bus riders along Wilshire, who are predominantly low-income
communities and communities of color, while reducing auto
use and toxic emissions. The new bus lane would stretch 20
miles from Downtown to Santa Monica, along Wilshire Boulevard,
carrying passengers faster across the county, and potentially
attracting thousands of drivers out of their carcinogenic
cars. |
| A bus-only lane
on Wilshire Boulevard would extend the existing 1-mile bus-only
lane pilot project that has run on Wilshire from Centinela
Avenue to Federal Avenue since it was implemented in March
of 2004. This one-mile bus-only lane pilot project has already
illustrated the success of bus-only lanes in reducing travel
time (by as much as 14% so far) and increasing bus reliability
for the transit dependent. Further, while one lane of automobiles
moves an average of only about 1,200 people per hour, a well-designed
bus-only lane has the capacity to carry at least 6,000-7,000
passengers per hour. Bus-only lanes on all major thoroughfares
in the county can provide greater transportation access to
schools, health care centers and hospitals, as well as personal
mobility for shopping, family outings, religious service and
other errands and recreation. Wilshire is the first step towards
better mobility, less pollution and improved public health. |
We
need your help!
How can you help?
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