following up on the busway

Thursday, August 05, 2004, at 05:57AM

By Eric Richardson

Just following up on yesterday's post about stopped work on the Orange Line. The Daily News is the source of good morning reading today, with an article on one man leading the busway opposition and an editorial decrying NIMBY opposition to the construction. Both make the point that NIMBY concerns already scuttled both subway and light-rail plans in the valley, forcing Metro to go with the busway.

But Tom Rubin, the subject of the aforementioned article, doesn't just think the valley busway is a bad idea.

He said he sees faults in the MTA's other projects, the trains to the Eastside and Santa Monica, but has to pick his battles -- though he's already criticized the Santa Monica train proposal, saying it, too, should have considered the Rapid bus alternative.

Now wait just a minute... There's already Rapid bus service to Santa Monica. The 720 bus heads from downtown to the ocean along Wilshire, a street with some of the worst traffic in the country. And what happens to a bus in that traffic? Oh, right, it doesn't go very fast. And what happens when Metro tries the only thing remaining in its power and wants to make one lane on Wilshire buses only? Oh, right, people complain. Shop owners complain they'll lose valuable curbside parking that -- wait a minute -- isn't even legal in the times Metro wants the bus-only lane.

Local blogger and Trojan fan BoiFromTroy wraps up a post quoting from the Daily News editorial with this:

With a partial assist from the Daily News, Mayor James Hahn has turned Los Angeles into a BANANA Republic, where we build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody. Expand the airport? Bah...bog it down in a convoluted "security" plan. Build solid waste storage? Why bother when we can ship it 70 miles to someone else's landfill. Fix the freeways? How come if all people will do is drive on them!?!