The Urban Poor and Mass Transit Politics: Organizing Bus Riders in the Capital of the Automobile

Abstract

Mass transit is a major political and urban planning issue in large cities in the United States and around the world. This paper examines mass transportation politics in metropolitan Los Angeles, and how bus riders, who are mostly poor, elderly, racial/ ethnic minorities, and immigrants, have organized to challenge social and environmental inequalities in regional transit planning and policy-making. The main research questions posed by this paper are as follows: First. what are the major mass transit challenges confronting the Los Angeles region, and how do these challenges impact the urban poor?; and, Second. what are the organizational characteristics, political tactics, coalition strategies, and policy influences of poor peopleﾒs mobilization against transportation inequality and injustice in Los Angeles? To answer these questions, the paper employs a qualitative case study approach and interviews with members of the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union (BRU), the social movement organization formed by the urban poor to advocate for reform in urban mass transit planning and policy in metropolitan Los Angeles. The paper concludes with several theoretical arguments about the role of poor peopleﾒs movement organizations as political actors in the urban policy and planning process, and a proposal for expanding contemporary research on the politics of race, class, justice and urban transportation in global cities.