Friday, April 20, 2018

Transit ridership on a per-capita basis has been falling in Los Angeles County and nationwide. A recent SCAG/UCLA study points to the biggest (and surprising) reason: lower-income residents in Southern California are embracing car ownership at higher rates than ever before. At the same time, many with the resources to own a car are instead choosing some combination of shared mobility services, including bikeshare and scooter rentals, a transportation networking company solution, or other first-last mile options, and paying more to live closer to rail transit.

This trend upends a lot of longstanding planning and land use assumptions around the role of transit oriented development in promoting regional equity and livability and in reducing reliance upon automobiles. If these recent trends persist, how should cities, transit agencies, and developers respond to them? How do we make sure TOD is a livability strategy and not just an amenity? WUF’s panel will unpack ridership trends, discuss agencies’ plans to win back riders with customer-focused reforms and consider long-term implications for market-rate and affordable housing developers.

Panelists
Greg Ames, Managing Director, Trammell Crow Company
Conan Cheung, Senior Executive Officer, Operations at Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority 
Brian Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning, UCLA; Director, Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies; Director, Institute of Transportation Studies 
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, Executive Director of Los Angeles Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LA LISC).

Moderator
Naomi Iwasaki, Deputy Director, Investing in Place