End of a Life-Style?

The voters of Los Angeles will make a very expensive decision at the polls this fall. Should they authorize a special new 1% sales tax to subsidize bus fares and finance a brand-new $8 billion mass-transit system? Or should they turn down the proposition and face the unpleasant prospect of eventual curbs on the use of private cars--a drastic turn-away from the freewheeling California lifestyle?

The reason for the dilemma is air pollution. Every day Los Angeles cars belch the better part of 700 tons of noxious chemicals into the atmosphere. To protect the public's health from that heady mix of poisons, the Federal Clean Air Act of 1970 set firm deadlines for air quality to be improved to specific minimum standards. In Los Angeles' case, mass transit would presumably help by enticing commuters out of their cars. But the Southern California Association of Governments, which represents the 126 cities and counties stewing in the bowl of ambient filth known as the Los Angeles air basin, hoped to find another alternative. It turned to the Rand Corp. for an analysis of the problem. Lo and behold, the respected think tank recently produced what seemed at first glance to be model advice.

In its 124-page report, Rand concludes that the best way to clean up the air is to clean up the internal combustion engine. That happens to be Detroit's problem; under the clean air law, the automakers have until 1977 to produce a virtually pollution-free car. If state regulations requiring that old cars be fitted with effective antipollution devices are enforced, Rand's researchers suggest, then Los Angeles-area authorities need only take four relatively painless steps:

> Increase the size of the regional bus fleet from its current 2,100 to 3,300 buses by 1977.

> Maintain the present low fare of 25-c- for all bus trips.

> Set up a computerized data system to help drivers form car pools.

> Encourage car pooling further by giving cars with three or more passengers preferential treatment--e.g., reserving special freeway lanes for them.

Do all this, says Rand, and the number of vehicle-miles traveled daily in Los Angeles will drop 30% by 1977. That reduction, together with Detroit's new emission-control equipment, will cut the volume of air pollutants to 500 tons per day. The hitch is, the report concedes, that Los Angeles still would not meet the air-quality standards set in the law.

Nor would building the proposed mass-transit system accomplish much; at best, says Rand, going that route would yield "insignificant further improvements in air quality."

The provocative Rand study is based on a shaky hypothesis--that the automakers can create effective antipollution devices and that motorists will maintain them. Doubting Thomas Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles, prefers to back the rapid-transit proposal. "He does not feel he can rely solely on Detroit to clean up our air," says an aide. The net result of the study, besides pointing out that the clean air act's standards may be unrealistically strict, is to prove again to the besieged and besmogged voters of Los Angeles that there are no easy environmental answers.

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