Cuts to LA's Bus Lines

For 10 years, LA's Metro, and its predecessor, MTA, functioned under a federal consent decree, which required more buses and lower fares to benefit poor people of color. But that decree expired five years ago. Metro is building new trains, and improving roads and freeways, with money from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2006. At the same time, it plans to cut bus service by 12 percent and increase the number of riders on individual buses. Metro claims bus ridership is "astonishingly low," and that better management will mean "enhanced service." The Bus Riders Union, which was a plaintiff in the case that produced Measure R, says its benefits are being taken away.