MTA Acts on 2 Initiatives Intended to Aid Traffic Flow

LOS ANGELES — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority endorsed two proposals Thursday that could reduce the city’s traffic snarls, particularly in the San Fernando Valley.

The first is a study of improvements to the perennially clogged Ventura Freeway. The other plans for engineering work for three transit corridors in Los Angeles.

The MTA board approved chipping in $500,000 toward the study of a 40-mile stretch of the Ventura and Hollywood freeways, a project favored by Gov. Gray Davis. The total cost of that study--which will examine the 101 Freeway from the Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, north to the Moorpark Freeway in Ventura County--is estimated at $4.5 million. Davis had included $3 million in his transportation initiative.

The MTA board also agreed to start the engineering process and apply for federal funding for studies of three transit corridor projects--a dedicated busway along Burbank and Chandler boulevards in the Valley; a rapid bus project along Wilshire Boulevard; and a light-rail line on the Eastside through Boyle Heights.

MTA board member and City Councilman Hal Bernson said the three corridors are new, much-needed transportation concepts for Los Angeles. “We can’t build subways everywhere in the city,” he said. “They could be a big incentive to get people out of their cars.”