BUS SYSTEM NEEDS INDEPENDENT, ELECTED BOARD.

Byline: Charles J. Thomas Local View

A few years ago I attended a public meeting at Kaiser Hospital in Panorama City. It had to do with the bus system. While waiting for the meeting to open, a woman approached me and asked where I had parked my car. I responded that I had no car.

``Oh,'' she said. ``Someone drove you here?''

Mind you, this was a meeting that was essentially for bus riders. Do the people of Los Angeles actually think that no one rides the buses? The bus system is needed in Los Angeles for thousands of people who cannot drive cars. It should be available to all of those who will not drive cars and especially for those of us who should not drive cars. All of a sudden you are talking about millions of people.

What if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were to develop a system that would bring a minibus fleet into existence to serve the public in neighborhoods that are not too thickly populated or where the streets are too narrow for large buses?

This mode of transit would benefit those who cannot afford the ``smart'' shuttles or who find that system unsatisfactory. These minibuses would be running at regularly scheduled times on fixed routes. The MTA does not want to run minibuses, but public pressure upon the organization might change that.

The MTA is chartered to provide a transit system for the entire population of this vast metropolitan area. It is doing a yeoman's job, but the political means of operating the agency leave a great deal to be desired.

It is in the hands of people who really are not interested in public transportation and who assume that everyone should be driving cars. They are not in tune with 21st-century thinking and clearly are not aware of the transit needs of the general public, particularly the working poor.

Domestic employees often live far from their jobs and have a need to get into every neighborhood, and it is imperative for them to have decent and reliable bus service.

This city does not shut down at 7 in the evening, but many bus lines do, making it impossible for many people to get to all the places they needto go, including their homes. Many people are trying to go to night school to learn and improve their lives. Many are working through the evenings and the nights.

Why do the MTA and other bus companies shut down the service so early?

Who said that Los Angeles is not a 24-hour operation and that most transportation systems should not be operating throughout the 24-hour day?

The creation of a separate transit zone in the San Fernando Valley would not be a real answer to the problems facing the passengers. There is an element of doubt that the people behind this zone thing are any more interested in actually providing the needed service than the MTA board is. I wrote to the gentleman in Glendale who is heading the zone thing - Sheldon Baker - and he has not responded to me. I passed along a copy of my excellent plan to place a bus line of one kind or another on every major street in the Valley.

If any changes are to be made in the structure of the MTA, it should be in the creation of a democratically elected board with no ties to the present structure - no Wilsons, no Patasourases, no Majeskis. One person I would like to see on this board would be Kymberleigh Richards, a person who is a rider and really knows the business of public transportation. Another is Patrick Moser, and yet another is Dana Gabard. These people - with whom I do not completely agree - care.