From worsening traffic to Measure M and Vision Zero, there's been a lot going on in 2017 when it comes to L.A. transportation. KPCC's commuting and mobility reporter Meghan McCarty Carino recapped the year's highlights with Take Two's A Martinez. She started by comparing 2017 with 2016.
"Every year is pretty much a big year for transportation in Southern California but 2017 didn't have the big blockbuster headlines that 2016 did. That's when the Gold Line the Expo Line opened, we had the Measure M campaign, a $120 billion ballot measure that was being voted on. But that does set us up for one of my top stories of 2017. When Measure M passed last November, it set L.A. County up to position itself in very stark relief to the new administration, the new political landscape at the federal level in terms of transportation issues."
Just as California has become this symbolic force of resistance on issues of environment and climate change and immigration, L.A. -- with this massive vote to tax itself to pay for transportation solutions -- is poising itself at the forefront of an emerging model, which McCarty Carino says had been brewing long before President Trump took over. But it's taken on more symbolic importance in an era of federal cutbacks.
"The fact that L.A. is charging ahead on its own to massively invest in these big visionary transportation projects with little or no help from the federal government – it's certainly something that's been touted by folks like L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti as being a beacon for the nation as a way forward on these issues."