A Governance Reform Proposal: Improving Bus Transit Operations in Los Angeles

Abstract

This article examines key governing issues related to Los Angeles transit operations. The study uses empirical data from the National Transit Database and personal interviews conducted with transit agency officials. Based on technical analysis and evaluation, the authors call for empowering council of governments and small cities to address interagency/intersector coordination and political equity issues, downsizing the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Headquarters and strengthening autonomy of the “Service Sectors” to better streamline transit operation issues, abolishing small municipal transit operators to refine bus fleet size distribution, and enhancing transit service privatization to yield a better cost efficiency.

Keywords:

• public transit
• governance
• service sector
• privatization

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are very grateful for the valuable comments received from Professor Alan Black (University of Kansas) and for the reference paper sent by Professor Scott Bollens (University of California, Irvine). The article has also benefited from the personal, phone, and email interviews with Hasan Ikhrata (Southern California Association of Governments), Carroll R. Johnson (Fairfax Connector), and Bruce Howard (Minneapolis Metro Transit Marketing). Ying Zhou (Southern California Association of Governments), Marion Colston and Dan Nguyen (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority) also provided assistance in data collection. Any remaining errors are ours.

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