Statewide Coalition Calls For Better, Cheaper, Cleaner Bus System

A statewide coalition of environmental and civil rights organizations is increasing pressure in the bus riders’ fight to improve public transit service in Los Angeles. The groups are calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to meet its legal obligation to increase and improve LA bus service with clean vehicles that will get people to jobs, families, shopping and vital services, while minimizing the environmental impacts of the new buses.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Coalition for Clean Air, Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California and Communities For A Better Environment in a legal brief filed today criticized the MTA for balking at the terms the agency agreed to in the October 1996 consent decree to improve MTA’s bus service.

“Low income and minority communities do not have adequate access to jobs, loved ones, doctors, shopping, churches, parks and other basic needs,” said EDF senior attorney Robert Garc