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Loukaitou-Sideris on Making Transit Hubs More Welcoming

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Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, interim dean of UCLA Luskin, spoke to WHYY about efforts to restore confidence in the SEPTA public transit system serving the Philadelphia area. Financial pressures have delayed infrastructure projects to improve safety and accessibility on the system’s aging subway network, and some riders say they are anxious about recent episodes of violence. Loukaitou-Sideris, an authority on transit safety who studied SEPTA during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the openness of transportation hubs is a mark of both inclusivity and inherent risk. “If we all start getting afraid of agoraphobia and not going to these public spaces, we will end up in a cocoon of private spaces,” she said. Loukaitou-Sideris added that she is encouraged by Philadelphia’s Hub of Hope, a space within the SEPTA system where unhoused individuals can receive essentials such as food and medical care.

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New Delays for LAX People Mover

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A Los Angeles Times story on delays in the construction of the $2-billion Automated People Mover at LAX cited Jacob Wasserman of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies. The 2.25-mile elevated train, which will move people to and from airport terminals, parking lots, a rental car facility and the Metro connector, was originally expected to wrap up in 2023, but new forecasts point to an opening in fall of 2025. “The transit connection to LAX has been the white whale of L.A. rail transit. Some of that has to do with the kind of unique politics and financial structures of airports and transit agencies,” Wasserman said. “There are federal rules for [the] Federal Aviation Administration that say airport money has to stay at the airport.” Wasserman also told KNX radio that the People Mover’s opening will be welcomed but would not necessarily fix congestion issues on the airport’s notorious traffic loop.

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Listen to the KNX report

 

 

Restoring Confidence in New York’s Subway System

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UCLA Luskin Interim Dean Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris spoke to the New York Times about strategies to increase safety on New York’s subway system. A string of recent attacks, some involving firearms, have eroded many subway riders’ sense of security. To keep guns out of the subway system, officials should consider stepping up security screenings in ways that affect service as little as possible, said Loukaitou-Sideris, who co-authored a chapter of the 2015 book “Securing Transportation Systems.” In addition to conducting frequent and rigorous bag checks, transit officials could install metal detectors and X-ray machines — a more expensive option but one that the Shanghai Metro has implemented efficiently, Loukaitou-Sideris said. Transportation officials around the world have also been studying the addition of firearm-detecting sensors to fare-collection devices and ticketing machines. “You have to eliminate the opportunity to bring the gun on the train,” Loukaitou-Sideris said.

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UCLA Report Examines California Public Transit Agency Labor Shortage

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A report co-authored by Jacob Wasserman, a research project manager at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, was highlighted in a Streetsblog article about labor shortages and their impact on public transit systems in California. Wasserman and co-authors Allie Padgett and Keenan Ky-An Do studied 20 California transit agencies, interviewing a number of workers, to understand ongoing labor shortages at the state’s transit agencies and efforts to attract and retain transit workers. “Raises may not prove enough to alleviate [labor] shortages, given rising costs of living, competition from other sectors and years of prior wage stagnation,” the authors wrote. They cite worker responses including California’s long commutes and high housing costs that make it difficult for them to work close to home. “Hard working conditions on transit push people away and out, even [though] pay and benefits in transit may be better,” they wrote.

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Questions of Fairness, Financial Viability of Free Transit Rides

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Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA, spoke to States Newsroom about public transit systems that waived fares to woo back riders after the COVID-19 pandemic. In some locales, officials are debating whether the free rides are financially sustainable. Most cities that have recovered their pre-pandemic ridership have large populations that depend on public transit because they don’t have access to cars, Taylor said. But reduced or free rides make less sense in cities with more affluent commuters, such as San Francisco. “It’s difficult to make an equity case for it,” Taylor said. “There is an excellent argument to be made for free fares in the right situation. But to do it universally would cost enormous amounts of money and actually convey benefits to high-income people who don’t need it.”

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Keeping L.A. Connected Is Topic of Annual City Hall Day

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Graduate students from throughout UCLA Luskin gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Feb. 16 to participate in the 18th UCLA Luskin Day at Los Angeles City Hall. The longtime tradition brought together students and local leaders from government, nonprofit agencies and the community to discuss and learn more about how the city can prioritize first-mile and last-mile investments in transportation. The Luskin School joined with UCLA’s Office of Government and Community Relations to partner with the office of city councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky to address transportation in preparation for large-scale events such as the Summer Olympics, soccer’s World Cup and the Super Bowl. Urban Planning Professor Brian Taylor of the Institute of Transportation Studies served as this year’s faculty advisor. Discussion touched on local projects such as the Metro Purple Line expansion and the pending Sepulveda Transit Corridor and Crenshaw/LAX Transit projects that will seek to speed up city transit and make it easier for riders to get to their preferred destinations. Other transit policy choices relating to street-level access for bikes, scooters, walking and rolling were mentioned, as were ridehail and parking policies. “Events like Luskin Day at City Hall provide students with invaluable hands-on experience to learn about public policy in local government,” said Kevin Medina, director of the Office of Student Affairs and Alumni Relations, which organized the event. The students’ policy recommendations will be presented to Yaroslavsky in May, Medina said.

View more photos from the day on Flickr

UCLA Luskin Day at Los Angeles City Hall

Moving Away From Public Transit’s Commuter Focus

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Brian Taylor, director of the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, spoke to the Canadian Press about Ottawa’s transit system, once a model of innovation but now facing low ridership and budget woes. Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA Luskin, recalled attending a lecture about Ottawa’s transit success when he was a student in the 1980s. “Ottawa and Adelaide, Australia, were sort of the poster children for looking at a more cost-effective way to provide the metro-like service, but with less expensive buses,” he said. For decades, many people worked and studied in a concentrated area in downtown Ottawa, and the buses ferried riders on a transitway set apart from congested roads. Post-pandemic, transit systems would be wise to cater to communities rather than commuters, Taylor said. “The spatial and temporal characteristics of demand for transit are changing. It’s less downtown-centered, and more sort of moving from place to place,” he said.

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Paying for the Proposed Inglewood People-Mover

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A Los Angeles Times article about the financing of a proposed elevated train that would connect SoFi Stadium and other entertainment venues with the Metro K Line cited Jacob Wasserman of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin. The Federal Transit Administration has pledged up to $1 billion for the people-mover designed to ferry riders through downtown Inglewood. The remainder of the project’s $2 billion price tag must be raised to lock down the federal award. While some officials noted that providing transportation is the job of government, Wasserman said a good case can be made that the owners of the entertainment facilities, including SoFi, the Kia Forum and the soon-to-be-opened Intuit Dome, should offer a financial contribution. “It is going to serve the customers there who pay money to go see events and games,” he said. “All transit serves businesses, and it’s a public service, but I think that this is disproportionately focused on these event venues.”

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Taylor on the Addition of New Toll Lanes on the 405

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Brian D. Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Orange County Register about the opening of new express lanes on the 405 Freeway. Motorists who use the two express lanes on 16 miles of the freeway in Orange County will have the option of paying a toll or carpooling. The lanes will be free to three-person carpools, but two-person carpools during rush hours will need to pay. Taylor, a professor of urban planning and public policy, said express lanes help keep traffic flowing compared to general lanes. For example, the two express lanes on the 91 Freeway carry about 45% of its total traffic. “Those two lanes are operating so much more efficiently that more people are getting through as a result,” Taylor said.

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Bringing Shade to Bus Stops Across L.A.

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Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at UCLA Luskin, spoke to LAist about new funding to build more bus shelters in the city of Los Angeles. The Sidewalk and Transit Amenities Program will add 3,000 bus shelters and 450 shade structures to the city over the next 10 years, part of an initiative to help Angelenos withstand the impact of climate change, Mayor Karen Bass said. Brozen welcomed the announcement. “Extreme heat kills more people than any other natural disaster,” she said, adding that building bus shelters is one effective way of offering relief through shade and protecting public health. Brozen’s research has found that only about a quarter of Los Angeles Metro bus stops have shelters that provide shade, creating health risks for many of L.A. County’s most vulnerable people.

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