Juan Matute, deputy director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, weighed in on several recent news developments regarding Southland transit. In a Los Angeles Times report on building a Metro line through the Sepulveda Pass, Matute assessed different options for funding the route and securing future revenues. He cautioned that, amid financial uncertainty, “we might just end up with a project that’s on the books, but the can is kicked down the road.” Matute also spoke to the Daily News about a proposed bus line that would eventually connect the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Opponents fear the dedicated lanes for electric buses would worsen traffic and attract unwanted development. “The approach that Metro has is a more collectivist forward-thinking approach,” Matute said, while opponents are more focused on individual concerns. A Curbed report cited Matute’s study of the region’s sluggish bus speeds and his conclusion that the most effective remedies are bus-only lanes or a regionwide congestion pricing strategy.