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Brozen on New Metro Ambassador Pilot Program

Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, spoke to CBS Los Angeles about the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new ambassador pilot program. This program was implemented to reduce crime rates on Metro lines, which have been steadily rising since 2021. The program is one of the largest of its kind in the country, with nearly 300 ambassadors deployed throughout the Metro bus and rail system. They are specifically trained in areas including customer service, conflict de-escalation, emergency preparedness and disability awareness. “It’s just a real human touch that I think does have a lot of promise,” Brozen said.


 

Brozen on Effectiveness of Transit Ambassadors

Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, was cited in a Curbed article about improving safety on subways and LA Metro lines by employing transit ambassadors. These ambassadors serve to create a safer environment and help commuters with questions and directions. Metro’s 2022 customer experience survey showed that a large number of commuters were people of color and lower income whose greatest concern was reliable service and a feeling of safety. Reports of racial profiling by Metro police had contributed to negative experiences. “Researchers found that poorly guarded or empty areas on the train and platform contributed to not feeling safe riding the train at night,” Brozen said. The ambassador program aims to create a more welcoming environment throughout the Metro system, and could open doors to more safety initiatives in the future. “The public realm needs more people looking out for other people,” Brozen said. 


 

L.A. Metro’s Struggle with Homelessness Is ‘Big Dilemma,’ Loukaitou-Sideris Says

Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris was featured in a Los Angeles Times article about Metro’s attempts to grapple with homelessness. Unhoused residents have long found shelter in the transit agency’s stations, trains and buses, but their numbers have grown as the L.A. homelessness crisis has deepened. Metro counted 5,700 homeless riders on its system last August. A study by the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies found an increase in the number of homeless people on the Metro during the pandemic as shelters closed and commuters stayed home. “It’s a big dilemma,” explained Loukaitou-Sideris, lead author of the study. As Metro aims to revive transit ridership, many commuters are concerned about the issues of homelessness and rising crime. “The agencies to a certain extent, and rightly so, feel that they are in a transportation business, and they have to deal with a challenge that is not of their own making,” Loukaitou-Sideris said.


Wasserman Imagines Possibilities for Fareless Transit

Jacob Wasserman, research project manager at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, joined KCRW’s “Greater L.A.” to discuss the possibility of a fareless Metro. After nearly two years of free bus rides during the pandemic, LA Metro has resumed fare collection, stating that they cannot afford to continue the policy. According to Wasserman, bus and train fares make up 15-20% of Metro’s annual operating funds. “[That] is not nothing, but is also a sum that they could make up through other sources of revenue,” he said. Ridership trends in Los Angeles had declined for years, but ridership during the pandemic was actually much higher than in other cities. Wasserman explained that essential workers, low-income riders and riders of color rely on the bus system to get around. He believes that there is a path to fareless transit “if Metro thinks outside of the box and looks at ways to make transit more accessible for all.”


Loukaitou-Sideris on Making Public Transit Safer

Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris was featured in a Greater Greater Washington article about a proposal to temporarily ban people from public transit in Washington, D.C., if they are charged with sex or weapons offenses on the transit system. The Washington Metro’s safety board gave preliminary approval to the policy as a response to a significant increase in the number of reported sex offenses during the pandemic. In her research on harassment on transit, Loukaitou-Sideris has found that sexual harassment rates change based on environmental conditions. “Crimes like groping tend to happen in overcrowded buses or rail cars, while those committing indecent exposure tend to be emboldened when few people are around,” she explained. In one global survey, Loukaitou-Sideris found that 80% of women reported having been harassed on transit in the last three years. “That harassment, and fear of harassment, has real implications for mobility, particularly for women, LGBTQ folks and people of color,” she said.

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Matute on Debut of Metro’s On-Demand Rideshare Service

Juan Matute, deputy director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, spoke to Spectrum News about L.A. Metro’s new on-demand rideshare service. Metro Micro allows passengers to summon a ride within a designated service area for $1 per trip. The program will launch in the Watts/Willowbrook and LAX/Inglewood areas. If successful, it will expand into four additional neighborhoods next summer. “Metro will learn much more about where people actually want to go from and to, and when they want to do it,” Matute said. “With a fixed-route bus, you know where you pick them up and go, but you don’t know how far they walked or if they used some other device.” While other transit agencies have tried similar on-demand services and failed, Matute explained that Metro has enough money to experiment without putting the agency itself at risk.


Matute on Metro’s Fareless Transit Initiative

Juan Matute, deputy director of the Institute for Transportation Studies, expressed his support for fare-free transit in a new Streetsblog LA article. Metro CEO Phil Washington announced a new task force that will plan and implement a fareless transit system pilot program in Los Angeles County. The COVID-19 pandemic has cut fare revenue to an all-time low due to decreased ridership, back-door boarding and half-price fares. Metro described the pilot initiative as a “moral obligation to explore how a fareless system can aid those that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.” However, some have expressed concern over Metro’s proposed 20% bus service cuts, which would diminish the benefits of free transit service. The article cited data shared by Matute on social media that illustrated that Metro is among the state’s best-suited agencies to attempt fare-free transit.


Ong Foresees Upscaling and Displacement in Crenshaw

Paul Ong, research professor and director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, expressed his concerns about upscaling and displacement in a recent Curbed article on the community’s response to planned redevelopment in South Los Angeles’ Crenshaw district. Residents worry that the expansion of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall will lead to higher housing costs, ultimately displacing low-income residents. Last year, Ong authored a study tracking economic progress in South Los Angeles over the past 50 years that found that 42 percent of renters in the region are “rent-burdened.” He predicted that the opening of the new Crenshaw Metro station will lead to a rise in housing costs in the area. “We certainly see that there are particular interests in developing that area that would lead to upscaling,” he said. The Crenshaw Subway Coalition, led by local community leaders, aims to inform residents about six major developments in the district and educate them about gentrification.


Manville Comments on Link Union Station Project

Associate Professor of Urban Planning Michael Manville’s comments on the progress of the Link Union Station project were featured in a Los Angeles Downtown News article. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has designed the Link Union Station project to transform the outdated Downtown Union Station into a modern transit hub with the addition of up to 10 run-through tracks. Manville explained, “With run-through tracks, the basic logic is right in the name. It allows for some vehicles like express routes to pass through without having to stop or turn around.” The project is designed to increase rider capacity, reduce wait time on the tracks, and offer shorter and more efficient rides. After five years of planning, Metro has released a draft environmental impact report and is currently accepting public feedback on the plan. According to Manville, “[The Link Union Station] project is needed if Metro intends to make the facility the hub of a growing and more connected system linking both local lines and regional light rail.”