Changes are coming to LA Metro’s Board of Directors.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority met for their regularly scheduled board meeting on Thursday and officially instituted a new rule that many transit advocates have long clamored for: a system user on the board.
Los Angeles County Supervisor and LA Metro Board Member Janice Hahn proposed a new addition to the LA Metro board reserved specifically for regular riders of the Metro system.
Hahn, who herself began using public transit during her tenure as the LA Metro Board President, first floated the idea earlier this month. Hahn is one of the rare members of the LA Metro board who takes public transit semi-regularly—a seemingly novel idea for a governing body tasked with managing a multi-billion-dollar transit budget.
“The Metro Board needs a Metro rider,” Hahn said in a news release earlier this month. “I’ve started riding Metro more often, and it has made me a better Metro Director—but I’m not an everyday rider.”
Hahn continued by saying that an everyday rider would help shed light on “what’s working, what’s not, and how our decisions affect the people who depend on our trains and buses.”
On Thursday, that proposal was presented to the LA Metro Board and passed unanimously.
Hahn called the dedicated seat for transit users a “big step toward making Metro more representative of the people we serve.”
“This isn’t about replacing anyone’s voice. It’s about adding a perspective we don’t currently have,” she continued.
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Currently, the LA Metro board is comprised of Los Angeles County Supervisors, city officials, regional representatives and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her chosen appointees. The L.A. Mayor’s Office wields tremendous power in the direction of LA Metro’s priorities.
An additional motion presented by Bass would reserve one of her appointee seats for a an LA Metro rider or advocate. Potentially, there could be two regular riders on the board.
“Representation from transit riders on the LA Metro Board is imperative,” Bass said on social media. “I’m proud that my proposal to reserve one of the City of Los Angeles’ public member seats for a transit advocate/rider was approved by the LA Metro Board today, along with Supervisor Hahn’s amended motion to add an additional voting rider seat.”
There are no requirements at all for any members of the LA Metro Board to use the system or even know how it works. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger (R) is vice chair of the board, essentially the second-highest ranking officer among board members, and has gone on the record to say she does not feel safe or comfortable riding Metro trains or buses alone.
Other members of the board have prioritized freeway expansion over bus and train improvements.
The presence of a transit-rider on the governing body tasked with managing said transit system is, frankly, long overdue.
In a press release issued by Hahn’s office Thursday, Alfonso Directo Jr., Advocacy Director for housing and transit advocacy organization ACT-LA, said the addition of a voting member who utilizes the LA Metro system will provide equitable participation in the decision-making process.
“Transit riders, especially bus riders, who feel the impact of a late bus on their everyday lives have an invaluable perspective on mobility in L.A.,” Directo Jr., said. “Voting transit riders on Metro Board would prioritize and uplift a different set of issues than someone who has been elected and transit riders deserve a direct say on how Metro runs transit.”
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The prevalence of transit riders helping to lead and moderate the systems they use is not unheard of across the country, or even in California.
According to Eli Lipmen, Executive Director of Move LA, transit riders have made an impact in the governing bodies of Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and New Orleans RTA. Lipmen called the board addition a major win for Metro and its users.
Additionally, both the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority include voting rider representatives, Hahn said.
When will a transit user be added to the LA Metro board?
The LA Metro Board currently stands at 13 with one non-voting member. How these new voting members will become integrated into the new makeup of the board is still a bit unclear, and will still need state approval, according to LAIst.
Hahn says LA Metro is already re-examining the future of the governing board following the passage of Measure G, a countywide initiative that expands the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors—of which Hahn is one—from five members to nine.
The expansion is legally required to be completed by 2032. Prior to that, Los Angeles County voters will select its first County Chief Executive Officer, who will likely play a big role in Metro’s future.
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As for which transit-riders should be added to the LA Metro Board once the details are finalized, that also remains to be seen.
I have a handful of suggestions that I think should be at the front of the list. Among them, transit-centric content creator Nick Andert—known for his detailed breakdowns of transit projects in and around L.A., is near the top.
Nick Caputo of Livable Advanced LA; Joe Linton, editor of Streetsblog Los Angeles; the mysterious freedom-of-information-act maestro Numble; City of Los Angeles Controller and government spending watchdog Kenneth Mejia—the options are endless.
Which is why it’s truly maddening that it took the former LA Metro Chair finally doing what others did not—boarding a train or bus—to understand what transit advocates have been asking for years:
“How can you manage a system you don’t truly understand?”
We’ll have more concrete details about this new LA Metro voting member in the coming days. In the meantime, who do you think should be the first person to hold the position?
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