Transit Ideas for South L.A. Explored : Transportation: Light rail for Crenshaw Boulevard and lower bus fares are possibilities. But funding is an obstacle.

After the Watts riots of 1965, a state commission attributed the unrest to the alienation of people living in South Los Angeles--made worse by what investigators said “may well be the least adequate network of public transportation in any major city in America.”

County transportation officials are not waiting for any repeat criticism to boil out of the most recent rebellion.

Although transit in South Los Angeles has improved in the last three decades--symbolized by the Metro Blue Line running through the area--the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and Southern California Rapid Transit District are researching ways to improve service.

The LACTC has given priority to studying a new light-rail line down Crenshaw Boulevard and is lavishing new emphasis on some old proposals, such as a Blue Line extension to the Coliseum and some sort of train line or busway along Exposition Boulevard.

The RTD is taking a different approach. Rather than proposing new transit lines to serve commercial centers, the district is recommending that the city concentrate rebuilding efforts on existing bus routes to create “transit corridors” offering fast, frequent service.

The new projects, which are far from final approval, would be in addition to such services as the Green and Orange rail lines and several electric trolley bus lines that are being designed and built to serve South Los Angeles, Westlake, Koreatown and other riot-wracked districts.

Despite persistent and growing budget problems, the RTD also is exploring the possibility of reducing its basic bus fare to 50 or 60 cents from $1.10. Staff accountants and planners are calculating the cost of temporary and permanent fare cuts, as well as whether lower fares should be limited to areas hit by riots or offered throughout the county.

The cost of reducing fares could be softened by the likelihood that ridership would increase sharply.

Bright promises aside, both agencies are struggling with large budget shortfalls, and officials at both agencies emphasized that new services would require new money. Although the state Supreme Court last week approved a second half-cent sales tax surcharge for transit projects, neither agency has the money for significant service increases.

The Crenshaw trolley remains on the LACTC’s “wish list” of transit projects that it wants to build but cannot pay for in its 30-year plan, which runs through 2020.

“This does not in any way imply that we’re moving forward on this project, or that we have the money to do this,” LACTC Executive Director Neil Peterson said of the Crenshaw trolley. “We’re looking to see if there is an opportunity to do something earlier than planned, but we’re not committing to do it any sooner.”

The LACTC and RTD are exploring how to exploit the federal government’s renewed interest in urban affairs.

One idea is to loosen federal regulations to speed construction of the Orange Line. On its west end, the line will serve Latino immigrant, Korean-American and African-American communities in the Mid-City district; its east end will extend into traditional Eastside Latino neighborhoods.

“By accelerating these projects, we can . . . create as many as 1,400 jobs during the first year of construction,” said LACTC board member Jacki Bacharach. “Now, more than ever, that is the type of program we can provide that will make a real, lasting difference.”

Another idea is to pursue new federal grants for the Crenshaw trolley by portraying it as a powerful way to attract private investment in Southwest Los Angeles, to rebuild burned-out businesses and bring new customers to the struggling Crenshaw Mall.

A similar theme is being used by RTD General Manager Alan F. Pegg to promote his agency’s “transit corridor” idea, developed in response to Mayor Tom Bradley’s request for suggestions to rebuild riot-wracked areas. Pegg said the development of specially designated transit corridors, which would enjoy special tax incentives for development, would help new businesses succeed by making it easier for customers to reach them.

Pegg also told the RTD board that the essence of transit corridors--concentrating shops and other businesses along a few streets, adding residential units on upper floors, then building high-speed bus-only lanes in the street--also could produce regionwide benefits by encouraging greater transit use, easing traffic congestion and reducing air pollution.

“The idea is to make major bus corridors as dense and efficient as rail corridors,” said RTD Planning Director Gary Spivak. “Why not, as we begin to rebuild South L.A., try to build in some of these improvements?”

These improvements could be partly funded with state bond money designated for relieving urban congestion and partly by reordering the priorities of millions of dollars in previously committed federal urban development block grants, Spivak said.

Pegg and RTD board member Nick Patsaouras suggested that some federal urban aid could be used in South Los Angeles to encourage the development of transit-related businesses--small companies that provide components for trains, buses and the pollution-free cars that have been mandated in smoggy Southern California.

The RTD and LACTC, at Patsaouras’ encouragement, have been working for months to find ways to translate the region’s 30-year, $184-billion investment in transportation into new jobs and businesses to replace those lost to the decline of aerospace and automobile manufacturers.

In the meantime, Patsaouras is urging both agencies to redouble efforts to include local companies in their purchasing programs.

“These efforts will help to rebuild Los Angeles in a meaningful and productive way,” he said.

Better Transit for South L.A.

Answering Mayor Tom Bradley’s call to rebuild South Los Angeles, county transit officials are considering a trolley line down Crenshaw Boulevard, a Blue Line extension to the Coliseum and a trolley line or busway on Exposition Boulevard.

These would be in addition to the Blue, Green and Orange lines that are operating or are being built to serve South Los Angeles, Westlake, Koreatown and other riot-torn districts.

* Line in use

** Proposed line

*** Line under construction

+ Station

++ Proposed Station

+++ Station under construction

*+ Blue line

+* Red line

-- Orange line

& Proposed Exposition line

&& Proposed Crenshaw line

+& Green line (Under Construction)