LOS ANGELES -- Senator Barbara Boxer today enthusiastically endorsed Measure M, the Los Angeles County Traffic Improvement Plan, citing its positive impact on infrastructure, air quality and quality of life.
"As I prepare to leave the Senate, I am strongly supporting Measure M because it will continue my commitment to improving California's infrastructure, air quality and quality of life for millions of people across L.A. County. I urge everyone in L.A. County to vote yes on Measure M," Senator Boxer said. "Passing Measure M will enable L.A. County communities to work with my successor to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation infrastructure funding that would otherwise go elsewhere."
In thanking Senator Boxer for her support, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti noted, that “Senator Boxer was crucial to securing billions of dollars in grants and loans for the Subway and Regional Connector. The Senator’s support for Measure M is consistent with her career as champion of mobility for our region and the entire state.”
Barbara Boxer became a United States Senator in January 1993 after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives and six years on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. In November 2010, she was reelected to her fourth term in the Senate.
A national leader on environmental protection, Senator Boxer is the ranking member on the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW).
In 2012, as Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, she led efforts to pass a bipartisan transportation bill that will save or create nearly 3 million jobs nationwide. In 2010, she spearheaded the effort in the Senate to extend the Highway Trust Fund to help protect 1 million jobs in transportation nationwide.
Senator Boxer has also won numerous awards for her efforts to create a cleaner, healthier environment and for her dedicated work to address the threats of climate change.
Measure M will reduce the time people are stuck in traffic by fifteen percent a day. According to the non-profit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, it will create 465,000 new jobs. Measure M will ease traffic immediately by repairing potholes and repaving local streets and roads in each of L.A. County’s 88 cities. It will keep senior, disabled, and student fares affordable and will provide critical earthquake retrofitting for overpasses and bridges.
A recent Texas A&M analysis found that traffic congestion costs the average commuter in our region $1,711, including from wasted fuel and lost productivity. All together, drivers in our region lose 622 million hours stuck in traffic a year, for a total cost of $13.3 billion, according to the analysis. The L.A. County population is projected to increase by 2.3 million.
Measure M will modernize L.A. County's aging transportation system and build a twenty-first century transportation network that expands subway, light rail, Rapid Bus, Metrolink, freeways, and highways. Measure M adds and accelerates transit lines and finally ties them together into a comprehensive system that will work with an improved freeway and local road network.