Metro Board Getting Ready to Spend Measure R Money

No sooner has the news come out that Measure R has officially been passed by voters four weeks ago, the Metro Board of Directors is already moving to begin spending some of that money.  This week's special Metro Board meeting, the first since late October and the last in 2008, has some Measure R proposals and other interesting proposals.

On the Measure R front, the Board will vote on two measures that will allocate the expenditures for the first couple of years of the 30-year funding proposal.  The first proposal by Richard Katz directs Metro staff to immediately begin pricing potential rail yards and maintenance facilities for the rail lines that can be built with Measure R funds.  The second proposal, by Mayor Villaraigosa, directs staff to put together a bus improvement plan to spend the billions of Measure R dollars directed towards bus programs.

Of news to cyclists, Metro is proposing to raise the fees for renting a bike locker from $25 a year to $48.  Metro runs their bike locker program with the Los Angeles County Bike Coalition who assures me this change should not be viewed as Metro looking to increase revenue on the back of cyclists.  It's more a matter that demand for these lockers has increased dramatically in the last year and oftentimes renters aren't using those lockers very often.  It's believed that the higher cost would give pause ot the occasional users, increasing the amount of lockers available to commuters.

Last, a temporary extension of the Sheriff's contract is on the agenda.  There's been a lot of talk online about the value of the sheriff's to Metro security after a Bus Bench blogger was arrested for filming in a public location.

Image: LA Streetsblog/Flickr