Comment now to ensure Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes get approved!

Re-posted from The Labor/Community Strategy Center
http://www.thestrategycenter.org/blog/2010/07/12/comment-now-ensure-wilshire-bus-only-lanes-get-approved


Comment now to ensure Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes get approved!
By April Wong
Publication Date: Monday, July 12, 2010

We're so close to making Bus Only Lanes a reality!

The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project has been released for public review!

Over the next month until July 26th, MTA will be taking in public comments online and via mail to be included in the official Environmental Impact Report.

If all goes as planned we can have the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes up and running in early 2012!

Your comments are critical, due by July 26th
Your comments will be critical during this time because full public participation makes the Environmental Impact Report that much stronger.

As soon as the Environmental Impact Report is completed, the Los Angeles City Council and the MTA can move to approve the project for construction.

Imagine what we else we can unlock with this precedent for reducing auto/oil consumption in the auto capital of the world!

How to submit your comment
Submit your comment supporting the results of the draft Environmental Impact Report to Wilshirebrt@metro.net or visit the website for an online comment submission form at http://www.metro.net/projects/wilshire/

Key points for your comment
1. I support the findings of the draft EIR.
2. I urge MTA and LA City Council to adopt the "Alternative A" proposal with one minor amendment. Amend the proposal to include Valencia to Parkview St. segments in the project where the Westlake/Alvarado community resides.
3. I support the expedient implementation of the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes Project.

Organizing behind the Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
The last two weeks members of the Bus Riders Union, environmental allies such as Green LA and Natural Resources Defense Council, community residents from the Wilshire Corridor, Koreatown, and Pico Union as well as the Westside have come out to testify at 4 public hearings on why they support the results of the environmental impact report and the overall bus-only lanes project.

The successful implementation of the Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes project is not only an environmental breakthrough but holds the key to implementing a countywide bus-only lanes network and bus-only lanes throughout the rest of the country. Our right to clean air, responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases and the impacts of global warming, and reclaiming our streets from cars for our mobility and community needs all takes a movement fighting on the ground to win.