Move LA’s Transportation Conversation #9 was – like our 8 previous conversations - a big success! We have heard plaudits across the spectrum for the quality of leadership represented by our featured speakers and the highly substantive and future-oriented discussions from our panelists.

We heard from environmental leaders like Senator Fran Pavley (ret.), Senator Ricardo Lara, NextGen America Founder Tom Steyer, and LA Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. We honored the "Five Transiteers"- the five Metro Board chairs and Metro CEO who made Measure M a reality - Supervisor Michael Antonovich (ret.), Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Duarte Mayor Pro Tem John Fasana, and Phil Washington. We received an update from Metro Deputy CEO Stephanie Wiggins on how Metro is accelerating Measure M projects and improving service. And we engaged in conversation around the biggest challenges of our day - affordable housing; clean air, greenhouse gases and goods movement; and the challenges of reducing congestion and providing access to transit for all.

We even started a trend on social media - our hashtag #MoveLA started trending in the LA region as people talked about the conversation on their social media channels.

Move LA’s Unfinished Business include:

Building Transit Ridership

• A truly universal student transit pass program, expanded mobility services for older adults and persons with disabilities are priorities, as well as more active transportation options that would make a significant contribution to equity and quality of life for many community members.
• The need to measure the effectiveness of our transportation system not just by the number of transit riders, but by a reduction in single-passenger cars on the road.  This means encouraging walking, riding bicycles or using other mobility services, such as micro-transit, in addition to rail and bus transit. 
• The need to consider congestion pricing (“go zones”) as a way to accelerate usage of alternatives.

Move LA’s Next Priorities include:

Community Development Near Transit

• Preserving existing affordable housing and ensuring renters security in their homes as something just as important as building new units. 
• Creating new funding for affordable housing, despite great efforts to date.  Considering new forms of tax increment financing and new sources of revenue, perhaps even seeking countywide voter approval of a funding measure.   
• Actually building new units – both market rate and affordable - especially near transit.  Affordable land and community acceptance are big challenges.     

Modernizing Infrastructure, Cleaning Our Air, Abating Climate Change 

• Building new coalitions to champion modernizing regional transportation infrastructure for goods movement, Metrolink and deploying clean vehicles as soon as possible.  
• Completing the mission of cleaning our air soon by identifying new resources to accelerate deployment of both near-zero and zero emission vehicles - not just cars, but trucks and off-road vehicles as well.
• Dialogue between the trucking industry and others in the goods movement industry and environmentalists and environmental justice advocates.
• Dramatically ramp up the manufacture of clean vehicles and make major reductions in greenhouse gases that will bring economies of scale to and lower prices, making it possible for other communities in the state and the nation to do the same.  This is an essential California strategy to abate climate change.

We will be posting all of the major speakers and sessions on Youtube so you can watch our incredible sessions on Measure M implementation, affordable housing and community development, and how we come to a "grand bargain" on clean air, climate change and goods movement. Check our blog next week for updates.

Thank you Sponsors!

And finally, we have to thank our sponsors who make our work possible. Without them, we wouldn't be able to bring you the great conversations that make our work a reality.