Thread: Hispanics more likely than whites to take transit, carpool

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3614785

Study: Hispanics more likely than whites to take transit, carpool



LOS ANGELES A study says Hispanics are far more likely than whites to carpool or use public transportation.

The U-C-L-A study found recent Hispanic immigrants were seven times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to use public transportation and five times more likely to carpool.

The study did not look at the reasons for the commuting patterns, although income appeared to be a large factor.

Professor David Hayes-Bautista, who conducted the study, says the findings contradict expectations that the increase in the size of the state's Hispanic population would lead to a corresponding increase in traffic congestion.

L-A Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says some Hispanics simply can't afford other modes of travel.

U-C-L-A relied on data from the 2000 Census for the study.

I think the problem with the study is that it relied upon Census date from 2000. The other problem with the study is that once again an organization that should know better refers to the distinction between Whites and Hispanics.

For yet another time....Hispanics are White. Comparing Whites to Hispanics is comparing a Race to a Language.

Another problem with the study is the demographics of Los Angeles and the location of where the buses and mass transit are located.

I would surmise this study from UCLA if analyzed isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Because you see....the whole issue of driver's licenses came up AFTER the 2000 Election and the 2000 Census. Prior to that, illegals couldn't get a license and wouldn't admit to a Census Taker they drove a car illegally.

Geeez....I used to hold UCLA in higher regard than this half-ass study would demonstrate they deserve.

I think the study show why Los Angeles, Mexico mayor wants to spend so much money on mass transportation projects. To hell with fixing the gridlock on the freeways.


www.presstelegram.com

Villaraigosa putting transit on fast track

New mayor's focus will face major bars of funding, organization.

By Lisa Mascaro
Staff writer

In the days since Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took the helm of the MTA board, he has unveiled bold transportation plans, ridden the subway twice and geared up for a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek more money for transportation projects.
In gridlock-worn Southern California, the new mayor is putting transit in the spotlight in a way that hasn't been done in years, bringing an "invigorating tonic' to the sometimes forgotten Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Villaraigosa who dreams of building a subway to the sea faces enormous challenges at the $2.8 billion agency, which can't afford its own operations, faces a legal showdown with the Bus Riders Union this fall and is still paying off debt from subway building mistakes years ago.

"Transportation gridlock, ways of easing gridlock, are on everybody's mind," said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat' Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles.

"A lot of people feel if this administration can't do it, it probably can't be done."

As MTA chairman, a job predecessor James Hahn passed on, Villaraigosa has a bully pulpit to push his transportation plans. He has pledged to bring his full energy to the MTA.

He admits he won't be able to fill all his campaign promises for new rail lines or a subway in the four or eight years he could have in office, but believes he can lay the groundwork for public transit investment for a generation to come.

Days after being sworn in as mayor, he brought in an all-star line-up of appointees including Councilman Bernard Parks as well as former San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Richard Katz, who chaired the Assembly's transportation committee for a decade, and former California Transportation Commissioner David Fleming, both Valley secession leaders.

His early priorities will be to seek more funds from Washington and Sacramento, as well as to review the MTA's budget, which faces as much as a $300 million shortfall next year, and begin planning for future projects.

Tops on his rail agenda will be securing funds for the MTA's next rail project, the Exposition line to the Westside.


Enormous investments
For all the goodwill the mayor has fostered with his energetic start, building rail lines and freeway fixes takes enormous investments of money and time.
Plus he faces political and practical challenges of working with the 13-member board that includes the county supervisors and representatives of smaller Los Angeles County cities who have their own agendas.

There will be labor contracts to negotiate with MTA's workers next year, including the mechanics' union which called the 2003 strike but has since contributed nearly $50,000 in independent expenditures toward his election.

And he'll be limited by strict ethics laws which prohibit board members from voting if they've received more than $10 in campaign contributions from those with contracts before the board.


Taking steps
Already last week, Katz helped broker a deal in Sacramento to ensure MTA money wasn't used to fund the $6 billion Bay Bridge project.
This week, the mayor will head to Washington to try to bring back more funding in the federal highway bill for big-ticket items like carpool lanes.

But one of the big issues coming up will be the Sept. 30 deadline for MTA to comply with the latest court order to buy more buses as part of the consent decree to settle a civil rights lawsuit with the Bus Riders Union. With a shortfall to deal with, fare hikes remain a possibility despite widespread opposition.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he welcomed the mayor's emphasis on seeking new funds from Sacramento and Washington, saying that's what it will take to fund the bold projects on his agenda.

Regalado at CSULA agrees it's a new era for transportation leadership.

"The fact that you had (Villaraigosa) campaign so hard on (traffic) and resurrect it in his inauguration speech, and him making the moves he has, underscores there is a mayor who sees a need and is going to be active in meeting the need."

Yep....just add those billions to the cost of illegal aliens while you creep at 10 miles an hour to and fro home to work in LA Rush Hour on the freeway. I've experienced it on business trips....couldn't wait to get out of there.

Here you go with Mexico's new mayor trying to get you out of your car and on to mass transportation with all the illegals. It's not going to work in California. Mass transportation is not very practical in the state for most commuters. Why doesn't he come out and say he is doing it for the poor Mexican community.


www.washingtonpost.com

New L.A. Mayor Pushing Public Transit

By TIM MOLLOY
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; 7:00 PM



LOS ANGELES -- Getting drivers to take the train or bus has never been easy in this car-crazed city of endless freeways, where gridlock is so awful that rush-hour speeds average less than 30 mph.

The new mayor wants to change Los Angeles' car culture, though his push for mass transit comes in the same month of the London subway and bus bombings.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is starting small, asking Los Angeles residents to give up driving just one or two days a week. The theory is that getting a few more cars off the road would go a long way toward easing gridlock and air pollution that are the worst in the nation.

"Los Angeles has a history of over-reliance on the single-passenger automobile, and we're going to have to change that history," said Villaraigosa, who went to Washington last week to lobby for more funding for transportation projects.

Since freeways overtook a once-thriving trolley system half a century ago, attitudes toward public transportation in Los Angeles have ranged from blase to hostile.

When a subway line was to expand out of downtown to Hollywood, community groups sued, calling it a source of sinkholes that swallowed up the project's funding. At the low point, construction cracked cement stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

The rail system's four lines extend over 73 miles, but many residents have no idea where their local bus or subway station is, if they even have one. Villaraigosa and others acknowledge some people live too far from mass transit for it to be convenient, but hope those commuters will occasionally walk, bike or car pool.

"We don't have a system that can take you anywhere you want to go," said Villaraigosa. "Until we do, and we make it convenient, safe, affordable, reliable and fast, we're not gonna change those habits."

Tayde Palomares used to ride buses, but now spends about an hour each morning driving 12 miles to her daughter's day care and the downtown law firm where she works. Palomares, 28, said it is worth sitting in traffic to avoid men on the bus who would leer and test pickup lines.

"You know those looks," she said. "That's the main reason why I started driving. I feel much safer."

David Fleming, one of the mayor's appointees to the regional Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board of directors, emphasizes the importance of removing even a small number of cars from the road.

While serving on the California Transportation Commission, he learned that as a rule of thumb, 100 cars can travel together down a stretch of highway at 65 mph with no problem. But add another 20 cars, and traffic reaches a breaking point, with vehicles slowing to 20 mph, he said.

"If you can get 5 percent of the people who would otherwise drive a car and put them in public transit, you've solved a good deal of your public transportation problem," Fleming said.

Since the mayor took office July 1, he has frequently taken bus and train rides, gently suggesting that if the mayor can ride, other commuters can, too.

For commuters who do use mass transit, reasons range from environmentalism to economics.

Amy Wolfberg is among those who has a car but prefers the subway. Staying off the road saves her about 15 minutes each half of her commute, and her company pays for a $52 monthly commuter pass to encourage employees to use public transit.

"I was born here so I've always been concerned about pollution," said Wolfberg, 43, who works at a downtown accounting firm.

Other riders have no choice about their mode of transport. MTA surveys in 2002 found the average household income of bus passengers was $12,000 annually, and $22,000 for train passengers.

So far, the transportation authority hasn't noted any reduction in ridership since the London bombings, and officials have stepped up the number of uniformed and undercover sheriff's deputies and bomb-sniffing dogs. Deputies conduct consensual searches of those they deem to be acting suspiciously, but aren't doing random checks like police on New York subways.

On a typical weekday in June, 1.2 million passengers rode MTA buses. In addition, about 243,000 passengers took MTA trains on a typical June weekday.

If other passengers aren't ready to commit to public transit every day, MTA officials hope they will follow the lead of riders like Anthony Contreras.

The 26-year-old takes an express bus as often as possible from his home in Manhattan Beach to his downtown office, paying $3.50 roundtrip and saving on parking that runs from $10 to $30. He said he would take the bus more often if it ran later at night.

"It's cheaper than parking and it's less stressful," Contreras said.

It's a cultural difference. AMERICANS love their cars....and chocolate...right? Isn't that what the lady says in the BP commercial...she wants both. And that is just the American Way, isn't it?

"Mass Transit"....is just sounds Commie, doesn't it? Why don't they just call it Train Transit or Bus Transit? "Mass"...I just don't GET THAT, do you?

You have to understand why these "studies" are done and why they get such widespread distribution in the media.

They always show that the native population is inferior to the new immigrants.

Two days ago, there was a "study" that showed immigrants using less health care than the native born, and in fact were subsidizing the natives.

Now they'll use mass transit, unlike those selfish natives who insist on wasting precious natural resources and polluting the environment.

And we've all heard time and time again how the immigrants contribute more to society than they cost.

I'm sure that there will be a study published soon that shows they use less water, as well.

The point is that the media has an agenda, and is going to push that agenda no matter what.

CountFloyd--you are so right. That is the trend isn't it?

My God. Next thing you know they'll have a Cadaver Festival to show how economically they can eat.

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

I'm sure that there will be a study published soon that shows they use less water, as well.

The point is that the media has an agenda, and is going to push that agenda no matter what.

I think you're on to something with illegals using less water. There have been a few articles posted on the forum where illegals living in overcrowded houses were using the yard as a toilet. The argument can already be made they are conserving water.

Originally Posted by Judy

My God. Next thing you know they'll have a Cadaver Festival to show how economically they can eat.

Well the "Day of the Dead" is already a big holiday celebrated in Mexico.

Found another article with a slightly different take on the subject. I have a great idea to reduce traffic congestion in Southern California. Stop the out of control building and deport the ones who came here illegally.


www.ocregister.com

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Drivers urged to go public
L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa says gridlock would ease if drivers would take the city's subway or buses just one day a week.

By TIM MOLLOY
The Associated Press



LOS ANGELES – Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking Los Angeles residents to give up driving one or two days a week. The theory is that getting a few more cars off the road would go a long way toward easing gridlock and air pollution that are the worst in the nation.

"Los Angeles has a history of over-reliance on the single-passenger automobile, and we're going to have to change that history," said Villaraigosa, who went to Washington last week to lobby for more funding for transportation projects.

The rail system's four lines extend over 73 miles, but many residents have no idea where their local bus or subway station is, or if they even have one. Villaraigosa and others acknowledge some people live too far from mass transit for it to be convenient, but hope those commuters will occasionally walk, bike or car pool.

"We don't have a system that can take you anywhere you want to go," said Villaraigosa. "Until we do, and we make it convenient, safe, affordable, reliable and fast, we're not going to change those habits."

David Fleming, one of the mayor's appointees to the regional Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board of directors, emphasizes the importance of removing even a small number of cars from the road.

While serving on the California Transportation Commission, he learned that as a rule of thumb, 100 cars can travel together down a stretch of highway at 65 mph with no problem. But add another 20 cars, and traffic reaches a breaking point, with vehicles slowing to 20 mph, he said.

"If you can get 5 percent of the people who would otherwise drive a car and put them in public transit, you've solved a good deal of your public transportation problem," Fleming said.