see you soon! good luck with the move.

On the BRU, I didn’t mean to dispute your characterization, only to say that I came away with a vaguely negative impression of them after reading this, the most detailed description I’ve yet read. That’s more because of my pro-train bias than your actual writing.

Good point about the ever-changing LA. As somebody who’s planning to start a transportation-only publication up here in PDX, I think and hope you’re right that this is an underreported subject. We definitely need to talk more about this when you’re up here.

Thank you for your comments. L.A. is definitely not the town it used to be. Then again, it’s never the town it used to be.

As far as the BRU, I wasn’t attempting to portray them in one light or another, but I do agree they have been effective. Exploring their history in L.A. and on the L.A. transit scene, though, is another story.

When I first conceptualized this piece it was Fall, 2008. My initial goal was to explore — at a time when the scope of the recession and remained unclear — whether the response to the economic crisis would offer an opportunity for a real Green New Deal. Obama hadn’t yet been inaugurated, and it was still unclear what the stimulus would entail. At first I wanted to discover whether the moment would be an opportunity for actual structural change in how we manage both economy and society.

Of course, I had to narrow my scope and look at specific examples, so I wanted to see how or whether Measure R — and LA transit priorities in general — offered an opportunity for a green revolution (at the outset of my reporting gas prices were still high, too, and I wanted to know whether record ridership levels would maintain once they dropped, and whether leaders would take steps to maintain the public focus on transit even after fuel costs dropped). Just as the resultant story didn’t have as much as one might want about the BRU, I don’t feel it had quite enough about the environmental nature of this discussion, and I’d still like to write more about how society could actually make the shift away from the individual passenger automobile and what public leaders could do to encourage such a shift, if indeed it is seen as a priority.

I think I can say something about the BRU’s position on BRT vs. LRT, with the caveat that I don’t speak for them and didn’t speak with them too deeply about this. What I’d imagine they’d argue is that LRT, or any transit modality, shouldn’t take resources away from functional, existing transit systems relied upon by tens of thousands of Angelinos. With limited transit funds, resources should go toward those systems already depended upon for commutes to work, school, health care and other necessities.

As to Erin Steva of PIRG, well, she did make that argument, but it’s clearly not her, or PIRG’s only reason for promoting transit. As she notes in the story, she experiences its functionality every day (still, you rightly noted the point about it being an “under-rated reason” for building transit). It’s worth noting that our interview took place in February, when the economic picture was quite unsettled (not that it’s particularly settled now) and my guess — and this didn’t come up in our conversation — is that the job creation element of her position might have had something to do with making transit expansion politically palatable.

As I noted in the “A story still in transit” sidebar, this story has evolved very much since I reported it. Unfortunately, the realities of establishing my freelance career since May, applying for jobs, etc., kept me from keeping the concerted focus on transit I was able to have during my graduate studies, and that others like Damien Newton of Streetsblog or Steve Hymon (first of the times, now of Metro’s The Source) continue to keep. I’m not trying to make excuses, but to note that it’s certainly an evolving subject. What I can say confidently is that it remains an underreported subject, even though transportation is so crucial to modern life.

I’m not sure how I feel about the BRU, as you portray them. They’re almost certainly the most effective such organization in the country, it seems, and god bless them for that. Do they have a BRT vs. LRT position?

Also, the PIRG guy actually argued that the most underrated reason to build transit is so we can hire more public-sector mechanics? Christ. That’s depressing.