Vision Los Angeles

Transportation solutions for a mega-city

Posted: 12-Feb-2009; Updated: 23-Jul-2009

The LA County Economic Development Corporation is working with EDF to cut congestion and keep businesses thriving.

More Information

Learn more about the transportation program at the Vision Los Angeles site.

Los Angeles is legendary for many things—including its air pollution and traffic congestion.

Business leaders routinely point to these factors as hurdles to attracting and keeping good workers. Environmental and health advocates point to them as black marks on the region’s livability.

Los Angeles: #1 worst place for commuting

Daily commutes in Los Angeles get worse all the time. In fact, the region earned the dubious distinction of being the #1 worst place to commute—out of all urban areas nationwide—for lost time, lost productivity and wasted fuel.¹

Wasted money, worsened health

Cars, trucks, trains, planes, ships and other mobile sources create more than two–thirds of the air pollution in the Los Angeles region. This pollution costs the region many billions of dollars every year for health care, lost days at work and school, and even premature death.

The gridlock problem

The status quo transportation system is literally choking the City of Angels. But answers have been elusive in part because no one can agree how to really define the problem, much less solve it. Without that consensus, the region remains trapped in both policy and traffic gridlock.

This gridlock is threatening the region's ability to grow its economy and provide basic needs: a reliable way to get to work, a safe job, healthy environment, breathable air, and a fair chance to succeed.

Breaking the gridlock: Vision Los Angeles

Vision Los Angeles is designed to break the gridlock by developing a consensus about the problem and delivering solutions. It will do this in two steps:

Step 1: Collaborate on a plan

Over the next nine months, the project leaders (EDF and the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation) will gather a diverse group of advisors from the private, nonprofit and government sectors to develop a game plan, including a list of initiatives to get Los Angeles County to a cleaner, more productive and more mobile future.

The plan will:

Rest on the notion that economic strength, environmental quality, and social equity are inextricably intertwined.
Rely for help on a team of renowned transportation and housing consultants.
Recognize that transportation gridlock is in part a symptom of other problems, including the availability and location of housing and jobs.
Recognize that various entities—not just government—must be part of the solution.
Include projects and policy initiatives that can be achieved in the short–term, and some that will require a longer timescale.

Step 2: Make the plan a reality

The consensus plan we develop will be the centerpiece of a multi–year media and policy campaign to ensure its recommendations are implemented. This will include research to identify the best messages, and securing paid and earned electronic, broadcast and print media. It will also include broadening the champion base from the advisory group to a diverse population.

We plan to introduce our solutions in these public policy arenas:

The next gubernatorial election debates
The federal transportation act reauthorization debate
The effort to meet the state's greenhouse gas reduction requirements in the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).

The jackpot: Economic vitality and environmental health

Vision Los Angeles will be a model for addressing transportation and pollution problems across the state, the nation and the globe. It will deliver real initiatives and real projects that will strengthen the economy, improve the environment, reduce pollution associated with transportation and sprawl, and improve peoples' day–to–day lives.

1 “The 2007 Urban Mobility Report”, Texas Transportation Institute, September 2007.