The New Look of Metro

In November 2016, Angelenos gave Metro the directive to build. Measure M, approved by 71% of L.A. County voters, is one of the most ambitious, comprehensive transportation infrastructure programs in U.S. history. By 2040, it will fund numerous transportation improvements, including a rail connection to LAX, a rail line through the Sepulveda Pass, reimagining many of Metro’s 170 bus lines, and funding long-term maintenance of the growing system. It’s an audacious undertaking by any measure. Yet under the catalytic leadership of L.A. Metro CEO Phil Washington and Metro’s forward-thinking board, the agency looks to not only improve mobility around L.A. County, it wants to foster lasting social, economic, environmental, cultural prosperity for communities that surround transit. And it’s prepared to deliver such transformation. Equipped with a staggering $6.6 billion budget this fiscal year, Metro is poised to create lasting change around our transit corridors. RELM sits down with Nick Saponara, Deputy Executive Officer, of Metro’s Transit Oriented Communities Program to understand the agency’s intrepid vision and how its fashioning urban life, and urban form, through transportation.