Our ambition is to make prepaid transit passes available to every college student in LA County so that they can ride for free all over the county—not just to school—a strategy that will boost transit ridership,provide traffic relief, and maybe create transit riders for life!
The opportunity for a truly “universal” student transit pass program is 1 of several topics we’ll discuss at our 9th Annual Transportation Conversation at the LA Cathedral's Conference Center in downtown LA Oct. 27. Students are encouraged to attend and can get in free by registering HERE NOW!
We will also discuss building a broader coalition to boost transit ridership, developing more affordable housing near transit, and achieving our long-standing ambition to clean Southern California’s air at the same time we dramatically reduce the GHG emissions that cause climate change.
But we’re not all talk—we’re also about action: This month the California Legislature resoundingly endorsed AB 17, the discounted low-income student transit pass bill we sponsored—authored by Asm. Chris Holden, D-Pasadena—passing it off the floor of the Assembly 76-2 and the Senate 37-2! This bill could help create a universal student pass program here.
Will Governor Brown sign the bill? He has until Oct. 15. Please sign our petition HERE and give his office a call at 916-445-2841 ext. 4. Tell the staff member who answers that you urge the governor to sign AB 17 into law! It takes only a few minutes.
We believe it’s only a matter of time before a truly effective universal transit pass program gets off the ground in LA County. Think of the ancillary benefits: Providing discounted passes not only to students but also seniors and people with disabilities helps reduce the cost of living, improves mobility, access to opportunity, and quality of life, and will train a new generation of transit riders who may then make decisions about where to live and work depending on whether there’s transit access.