LA Metro Earns Latest California Golden Fleece® Award

for Unacceptable Crime, High Costs, and Unnecessary Expansions

Oakland, CA—For its unsafe, unclean, and poor performance, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), or LA Metro, is awarded the California Golden Fleece® Award. The dishonor is given to California’s state or local agencies or government projects that swindle taxpayers or break the public trust.

In an area known for its car culture, LA Metro has about 25 million riders per month. Independent Institute researchers found those riders faced an increase of crime over the last two years, as well as lower on-time reliability for buses than those in London and Paris. Its inefficient operations, high costs, financial mismanagement, and poor customer service are just some of the criteria considered for the dubious distinction of the California Golden Fleece® Award.

Unfortunately, the Metro system has not been able to offer riders a safe experience. The month of May 2024 provides a good example, with six violent incidents cited in the report.

The system is also plagued by cost overruns and delays on new capital projects. Eliminating new projects and stations are included in the recommendations in the report.

“We have 19 recommendations to improve LA Metro, including lifting housing density restrictions near rail stations, choosing bus transit over rail for new services, and simply becoming a more customer-focused agency,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, and author of the report.

More than 10 million people live or work within the LA Metro’s service area of bus and rail lines. The recommendations included in the report would make a difference to those who deserve a safe and reliable mass transit system.

Read the entire report here.

For more information, contact Robert Ade, [email protected], or (510) 635-3690.

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INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE
100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428

The Independent Institute is a non-profit, public policy, research and educational organization that promotes the power of independent thinking to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity.
For more information, visit Independent.org.