By Denny Zane
Summer in Los Angeles is in full effect. For many, that means time spent in the sun on our beautiful beaches, watching the waves and, of course, sitting in hours of traffic to get there. But for many Angelenos, particularly those living in historically disadvantaged communities, traffic is more than a hurdle to beach bliss — it is a major cause of inequity in our city.
While the “movability disparity,” as it is called, is not new to Los Angeles, it has recently reached historic levels. To address it, we need to pivot from a conversation that focuses solely on transportation through the singular lens of infrastructure, to one that addresses the issues most closely intersecting with transit such as social inequality and environmental justice.
In my years working on transit-oriented development, I have dedicated myself to addressing LA’s complex transit problems and advocating for comprehensive solutions. Los Angeles is the most auto-dependent city in the country, with the most congested highways and the worst air pollution. Public concern is amplified by the fact that Los Angeles County anticipates 1 million more residents over the next 30 years.
If we don’t get serious about traffic solutions, we run the risk of losing our role as an economic leader and experiencing a serious decline in quality of life for all socioeconomic classes, with our most vulnerable communities disproportionately harmed.
Standstill traffic during peak commute hours most severely impacts communities who are already vulnerable to negative health and economic outcomes. AAA recently determined that Angelenos spend an average of almost $9,000 annually on car expenses including gas, auto insurance, and regular maintenance. While this figure impacts all of us, the financial strain and burden is worse for individuals with lower incomes.
Los Angeles’ use and distribution of land further contributes to ongoing systemic injustice. A Stanford study found that in Southern California, lower income families often do not have the privilege of choosing to live in a more desirable location and are left with little to no options but to live near LA’s busiest roads and freeways. This is a literal mobility trap for disadvantaged communities. A trip to the grocery store becomes a time-laborious task that can significantly impact an individual’s ability to survive and thrive.
We recently learned that Angelenos now lose 104 hours each year sitting in traffic. This is too much for anyone, but it is most threatening to low-income individuals who often work hourly positions; an individual who is working full-time in a minimum wage position loses over $1,000 annually without accounting for the aforementioned costs of driving. That’s about 5 percent of a minimum wage worker’s annual earnings. Add on top of that the cost of medical expenses related to living in an area constantly poisoned by driving emissions, like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and the injustice should become glaringly clear.
So, what do we do to protect our most vulnerable communities? First and foremost, we start getting real about comprehensive traffic solutions, and we do it now. We shine a light on the complexity of LA traffic congestion to get the ball (and our tires!) rolling. We take cues from cities across the world who have found sustainable solutions to relieve traffic congestion such as bike lanes and pedestrian friendly paths, first and last mile solutions, decongestion pricing, ridesharing technologies and on-demand shuttles. We look at the hard facts, like how providing discounted transit passes to middle-school, high school, public college and university students has already been proven to cause exponential growth in overall ridership rates, and we let this type of data drive decision making.
Together, we can put pressure on our elected officials to prioritize LA traffic solutions and create better health outcomes for our citizens, support environmental progress for our planet, and pave a clear path for our city’s growth as a global leader.
Denny Zane is the Executive Director at Move LA. Move LA’s mission is to build a broad constituency that will advocate for the development of a comprehensive, diverse, robust, clean and financially sound public transportation system for Los Angeles County, champion strategies to accelerate its implementation and policies that will ensure prosperous and healthy neighborhoods around stations where people of all ages and incomes can live, work and thrive.
