Public transit issues expected to be high priority under Raman administration

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Set us as preferred Public transit is expected to be a top priority for Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman, an advocate for expanding bus lanes and making the city friendlier for bicycles — and who campaigned on getting the Los Angeles International Airport people mover back on track after years of squabbles, delays and cost overruns.As mayor, Raman will oversee the city’s transportation department and will have the power to appoint new members to the city’s Airport Commission.What’s more, she will have regional clout through L.A.

Metro, the transportation agency that runs the county’s light-rail and subway lines.Raman will take over as chair of Metro’s board of 13 voting members, a job now held by Mayor Karen Bass, whom Raman defeated for reelection this week.She will also get three appointees on the board, and can replace the current mayoral appointees — Councilmembers Katy Yaraslovsky and Imelda Padilla and community advocate Jaqueline Dupont-Walker — who all backed Bass in this week’s election.Metro is currently in need of millions of dollars to fund a massive bus network for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Raman said that she would push Los Angeles’ congressional delegation to make this a key priority.In a statement to The Times ahead of the election, she said she will also prioritize Metro projects that “give the most benefits to the most riders and help make our network more useful” and plans to reinstate a project team in the mayor’s office to eliminate city delays on major capital projects.Transportation analysts believe Raman, who has a graduate degree in urban planning from MIT, will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass, whose background was in healthcare and community organizing.

“I do think we’ll see a considerable amount of action on transit and mul...