Earlier this year Move LA started working on legislation to prioritize shade as an essential need for low-income transit riders and people of color who are on the frontlines of climate change. The bill would treat bus and pedestrian shelters and street furniture as a matter of statewide concern and identify the number of bus shelters and their locations, as well as gaps in this critical infrastructure.

During the heat wave we experienced last September, LA Times reporter Rachel Uranga wrote a lengthy piece on the challenges bus riders face in Los Angeles, where less than one in four bus stops provide shelter even though temperatures can become very hot. As I write in this article, we are in the midst of a climate emergency now and make too many riders stand and wait in the hot sun.

It doesn't have to be this way, but because the permitting process is so challenging in the City of Los Angeles (see graphic), we have built a fraction of the shelters that are needed for climate-resilient communities, which disproportionately impacts riders who are low-income, seniors, BIPOC, or people with disabilities.

Shelter provides respite from the heat. A study published in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine found the rate of emergency department visits for heat-related causes increased 67% for African Americans, 63% for Hispanics, 53% for Asian Americans, and 27% for white people from 2005 to 2015.

Move LA, ACT-LA, Safe Routes Partnership California, Streets for All, Bike LA, Active SGV, and Let's Green California are joining in support of the demands being made by 48,000 striking Academic Workers at all 10 University of California campuses for free public transit passes and subsidies for bikes/e-bikes. Move LA Executive Director Eli Lipmen joined striking workers at UCLA in solidarity and sent the below letter to University of California President Dr. Michael Drake.

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Metro is proposing changes to its complex and complicated fare structure with a scheme called fare capping, an “equitable, pay-as-you-go fare payment model that ensures customers only pay for the rides they take and never overpay.” Fare capping, in theory, can result in a more equitable and “fairer” way to charge fares, according to research conducted by the National Academies Transportation Research Board and the experience of systems in London, Boston, Dallas, and other major metropolitan areas. And there are some good policies proposed in Metro’s proposal, such as capping the total cost a rider would pay per day/week, creating a simpler fare structure, improving the LIFE program, ending extra charges on Silver Line and Express routes, and removing the TAP card fee.

Despite this, Move LA asks the LA Metro Board to take a step back and direct Metro staff to restructure this proposal at their December 1^st, 2022, meeting because the fare capping proposal is based on two assumptions that are fundamentally flawed and undermine the plan, resulting in unfair fares that are likely to drive customers off the system.

Let’s start with the example of a senior who takes two buses to see their doctor and pays $.35 for a one-way, off-peak fare. Under the proposed changes, the cost of their trip, one-way, would be more than five times more expensive ($.35 versus $2.00) and, with daily fare capping, still be 4 times as much ($.70 versus $3.00).

Some say Lyft created Proposition 30 but if you know us and remember all the eblasts and Zoom calls we did about the need for climate and clean air action in 2020 and 2021 you know that isn't true.

Move LA and our Northern California partner SPUR began an online conversation with 70 elected officials, agency leaders, enviros and environmental justice and clean air advocates, labor and guests from the east and west coasts in 2020 after COVID hit—see our panelists HERE. 

Join us this weekend for major Get Out The Vote efforts! Saturday we'll kick off the Yes on ULA canvassing campaign at the LA/OC Building Trades in Historic Filipinotown at 10am. REGISTER HERE! And on SUNDAY, join our rally for Yes on Prop 30 in Hollenbeck Park at 12pm with free tacos and mariachis! REGISTER HERE!

Move LA, an organization founded on the potential for a broad-based and inclusive coalition to transform Los Angeles, condemns the hurtful, divisive, and racist conversation between Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, Kevin De León, and former LA County Federation of Labor head Ron Herrera.

These leaders have betrayed our trust. The use of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, homophobic, anti-AAPI, anti-renter, and anti-Semitic speech, as well as the threat of violence against Mike Bonin’s young Black child, has no place in our discourse. Angelenos must have faith that their leaders will treat everyone fairly and equitably.

As you may have read, there's been talk about improving or restoring rail transit on the Crenshaw Corridor since the late 1940s! Move LA has been part of that conversation for almost two decades, and thanks to our effort to get the Measure R half-cent sales tax on the ballot in 2008—and thanks to voters for passing it—that dream becomes a reality this Friday!

We need your help to talk to voters about the United to House LA ballot measure (Measure ULA)! Would you join us from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 27, for a Move LA-hosted VIRTUAL phone bank? 

This is the ballot measure that Move LA’s Denny Zane drafted with homeless services providers, affordable housing nonprofits, labor unions, and renters' rights groups. It was put on the ballot by 98,171 LA renters, homeowners and small business owners who want to see real change.