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CITY OF COMPTON'S BLUE LINE TELLEVILLAGE
CASE STUDY
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CITY OF COMPTON'S BLUE LINE TELEVILLAGE
The Blue Line TeleVillage creates mobility through technology. Located in Compton, a
California city of over 90,000 near South-Central Los Angeles, the TeleVilIage allows
residents and employees to access many services without the need to travel. The
TeleVilIage is a virtual Main Street which connects people electronically through a
Telework Center, a computer lab with Internet access, a video conference center, and
interactive kiosks. Funded by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) and the City of Compton, it is served by local bus routes, MTA routes,
Greyhound and the Blue Line light rail at Compton's transit hub. Over 6,000 people a
day get on or off either the rail system or the six bus lines at the Compton Transit Center.
~ I) A day care and Head Start program, a police substation, a business assistance
program, a community meeting room, and a snack shop are also located in the same
building.
PROJECT HISTORY
The genesis of the project occurred when a Boardmember of the Los Angeles County
Transportation Commission (LACTC) a predecessor of the MTA attended a
workshop on telecommunications in 1991. She was intrigued by the consultant's vision
of a network of TeleVilIages. This vision dovetailed with the Comm~ssion's discussions
about how to create Livable Communities through joint development at its light rail
stations. The result was a 1992 MetroNet study by the same consultant for the LACTC.
It established the principle of using telemobility for the transportation agency.
In 1993, MTA issued its biennial Call for Projects to surrounding communities and transit
agencies for use of federal Congestion Management and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds; state
Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and Transportation Improvement Program
(TIP) funds; and local Proposition C sales tax funds. Although it is not usually an
applicant, MTA itself submitted a $500,000 proposal for the Blue Line TeleVilIage, based
on the MetroNet study.
An influential factor in MTA's decision to fund the TeleVilIage proposal was its desire to
contribute to Rebuild L.A. This was a consortium formed after the 1992 civil disturbance
following the trial which exonerated police officers in the Rodney King arrest. The City
of Compton was one of the geographic areas assisted by Rebuild L`.A. Compton's
population is 53~o African-American, 44% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and i.5% Caucasian,
with a median income of $24,971, according to the last census. The city is located along
the Metro Blue Line, a 26-mile light rail system that operates on 5-15 minutes headways
from 4:30 a.m. to ~ ~ p.m., connecting the central business districts of Los Angeles and
Long Beach. The Blue Line was the only operating light rail line with a fiber optic
network, planned as the transmission mechanism for the technological components of the
TeleVilIage.
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Implementation suffered a setback when LACTC and the Southern California Rapid
Transit District merged in early 1993. The General Manager of the new MTA froze
funds, including the TeleVilIage grant, in order to evaluate MTA's financial situation.
However, by mid-1994 the project was back on track. It opened on March 29, 1996 at the
Martin Luther King, Ir. Transit Center in Compton.
SERVICES OF THE TELEVILLAGE
The Blue Line TeleVilIage, which operates from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and serves 20-80 people
a day, consists of four components:
Computer Cab;
Video Conference Center;
Telework Center; and
Kiosks.
Computer Lab
Basic computer literacy and training in
specific software, such as Power Point and
Excel is offered on 12 Pentium computers.
Although the classes have a fee, free
workshops are available on Windows 95
and the Internet.
An annual membership is $ 10 per adult, $5
per student, $20 per families and free for
seniors. Members receive a free two-hour
workshop; their own e-mai] address and the
opportunity to create their own home page;
access to the Internet; and free access to the
computer lab every day for up to one hour
between I-6 p.m..
Members use the Computer Lab for a
variety of purposes. For example, students
do research on the Internet; job seekers
prepare resumes; and entrepreneurs design
their own business cards and Web pages.
With 956 members, primarily from
Compton, and with the training classes, the
Computer Lab is operating at capacity.
On a late July afternoon, there were 19 in the
Lab:
· a woman working on a Youth Ministry
project
· two adults updating their resumes
· a "20-something" woman chatting with
friends in Atlanta
· a man checking his stocks and mutual funds
a woman working on her business
a man bringing up an Amway site
7 youngsters playing computer games
a youngster and a middIe-aged man surfing
the Internet
a man waiting for a computer to type a letter
a junior college volunteer helping others to
· · #` .
gain experience tor llS resume
an employee overseeing the Lab
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The key to the Lab's success is the help provided by its staff. One learned on the job and
the other took computer courses in the local community college. Between the two of
them, they are able to help members with all software and hardware questions. Users
have spread the word about the availability of this guidance and support, swelling the
membership and increasing computer literacy within the community.
Video Conference Center
The Video Conference Center, which can seat up to 16 people, has been used for distance
learning and teleconferences. City of Compton department heads recently took a course
from California State University at Dom~nguez Hills by sitting in the Conference Center
and discussing the material with the instructor via the video screen. Four-year-olds in the
day care program located within the Transit Center interacted with the librarian from the
Pasadena Public Library while she read them stories. A Women's Technology and
Empowerment Conference connected the 90 participants with Edith Ssempla, Ugandan
Ambassador to the United States, and artist/scuIptor Artis Lane. The Conference Center
can also be rented on an hourly basis by businesses wishing to conduct meetings with
others located anywhere in the world.
Currently, the Conference Center is in use about 50~o of the available hours. Other
planned programs include a telemedicine project and a government services linkup.
Physicians from Drew Medical School will teach participants from a local senior center
about glaucoma and diabetes. Ophthalmologists may also view the participants' eyes
over the video screen to determine if a follow-up office visit is needed. In the Circuit
Rider Program, representatives from government agencies will use the Conference Center
to link citizens with the central office. For example, a case worker from the Veterans'
Administration or the Foster Parents' Program could meet at the site with residents and
help them file applications or access their records without having to travel to the home
office.
Telework Center
Two work stations, equipped with telephones, computers and access to a laser printer,
fax, and copy machine, are used by about 5-10 people a day and are busy about 80% of
the time. Many users are self-employed, while others telecommute some days instead of
making the stressful trip to the office in congested Los Angeles.
The director of the TeleVillage calls the Telework Center "a small business incubator.
Although initially envisioned as a center where those employed a distance away could
work near home a few days a week, the Telework Center is actually used primarily by
entrepreneurs. These budding business owners sign up for use of the private work spaces
to make phone calls and compose letters for their fledgling enterprises while having the
resources of the City of Compton's Business Assistance program also located there. The
Center includes a video computer for teleconferences, allowing the separate parties to see
each other and work together on the same document, such as a budget or proposal. Video
,,
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Mentoring is available for small business owners and entrepreneurs who wish to be
counseled one-on-one by management experts and specialized professionals located
elsewhere in the region.
Smart Travel Kiosks
There are three kiosks in the TeleVilIage and two located off-site at City Hall and
Compton College. The kiosks provide information on transit schedules, city services,
AIDS assistance, weather reports, movie showings and permit on-line access to the
County Housing Authority's database on available housing. Plans are underway to
include real-time information on freeway congestion and re-routings and the ability to
enroll at Compton College via the kiosks.
FUNDING AND FUTURE PLANS
Federal, state, and local funds were awarded for the planning, implementation and first
year of operation of the TeleVilIage. The $188,599 total came from the following
sources:
Federal Transit Administration grant
Caltrans grant
MTA local funds
$100,000
$ 88,000
$ 599
Now in its second year of operation, the TeleVillage is funded equally by MTA and the
City of Compton. The two-year funding of $ ~ million covers the salaries of four staff,
operating expenses, and technology leases. The federal government is supplying
Compton's share in the form of a block grant to train welfare recipients moving into jobs.
MTA is providing the local match of a half million dollars with Proposition C funds.
The federal block grant will add a new dimension to the TeleVilIage. It will become part
of a one-stop job training center, where welfare recipients will be enrolled in computer
courses and distance learning classes. The day care program, which is already available
in the Transit Center, will be joined by an unemployment office, where welfare recipients
can apply for job placement assistance.
Applicants to Compton's Department of Job Training will be placed in a two-hour
morning computer orientation class at the TeleViTIage. Already, those enrolled in the
Department's summer youth job program must show that they have both a library card
and a membership in the TeleVilIage in order to do research. Connect L.A., sponsored by
the non-profit Center for Government Studies, is considering installing its software in the
TeleVilIage as part of the job program. Connect L.A.'s program lists job openings,
provides a template for a resume, and gives tips on interviewing for a job in several
languages. Users can access a video where persons in selected jobs describe their duties,
qualifications, and benefits.
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MTA has granted similar funds for one-stop job training centers to the cities of E] Monte,
located along an MTA busway, and Inglewood, located on the Green Line raid system.
Although MTA considers these centers an expansion of the TeleVilIage program, the new
TeleVillages may not contain all the components now existing in Compton.
MTA staff views the TeleVilIages as part of the agency's 12-point TDM strategy. MTA
will develop methods to measure the mode switches that may result from the
TeleVilIages. The TeleVilIages will remain as demonstration projects until they can be
evaluated for their effect on trip reduction and increased transit readership.
Preliminary results are quite encouraging, however. A survey of the membership
indicates that a majority of people walk or take transit to the Compton TeleVilIage.
Whereas 90% of those in MTA's service area drive to work, a survey indicates that only
30% using the TeleVilIage drive there. The survey of ISS] users, conducted in April and
June, 1997, reports the following modes of travel to the TeleVilIage:
Drive
Carpoo!
Walk
Bike
Transit
Taxi
443
11
451
16
660
109
150
4
Blue Line raid
MTA Bus
Compton bus
MTA rail and 397
bus
o
Figure 1 depicts the results of the survey in percentages of those travelling by each mode.
TRAVEL MODES TO TELEVILLAGE
April & June 1997
MTA Rail Compton
Bus
and Bus
25~o
MTA Bus
9%
0%
Drive
28%
Blue Line Bike Walk
Rail 1% 29%
7%
Carpool
1%
s
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Ninety-two percent of those who responded live within Compton. However, persons
from 63 other zip codes answered the survey, indicating countywide interest in the
concept.
Besides the new one-stop center for job training, the director of the Compton TeleVilIage
sees many other potential applications, if more funding becomes available. Some of her
ideas include:
.
Teacher training, which would help fast-track certification to meet the demands of
California's class size reduction program and prepare teachers for bilingual
classrooms;
Family reunions, where Compton citizens could reunite via teleconference with
distant family members;
Job interviews in the Video Conference Center, which would allow job applicants to
seek employment in other parts of the state or nation without having to travel to the
interview;
· Additional workshops to address community interests, such as how to fix a computer
or how to create computer-generated invitations;
Real estate searches, where families could view the housing opportunities in other
parts of the county, state or nation via computer; and
Wiring housing developments for cable television so that children who have no books
to take home from the impoverished L.A. School District could receive educational
seminars produced in the TeleVilIage through their televisions at home.
BARRIERS ENCOUNTERED
Many transit professionals have spent their careers concentrating on how to increase
ridership and provide optimum service in a specific mode, such as bus or rail
transportation. Therefore, having a transit agency involved in trip reduction is in itself a
conflict in mission in the eyes of these transit professionals. MTA was able to overcome
this internal resistance to the Blue Line TeleVilIage by focusing funding and
implementation for the project in the planning section of the agency. Bus and rail
operations were not eligible for the TDM funds used for the TeleVilIage. Consequently,
there was no competition within MTA over the operating budget.
The lack of involvement by the operations division did, however, have some fallout. A
key reason for locating the TeleVilIage in Compton was its location on the Blue Line, the
only operating segment of the light rail system at that time. Excess capacity in the fiber
optics which MTA had installed for its own operations could be used as the transmission
vehicle for the TeleVilIage's various functions. Because this plan did not get
communicated during the design and engineering, inadequate fiber and connection points
were installed, preventing a connection by the TeleVilIage.
6
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To avoid the high cost of retrofitting the network, the Compton TeleVilIage now uses
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines from the telephone company. Compton
has since approved an of} pipeline project through the city which will provide fiber optics
to the TeleVillage when it is installed. Based on the MetroNet report, MTA now plans
"to sell the right to develop a countywide fiber-optic system along more than 300 miles of
right of way, reserving space for public access," including connections to the new
TeleViliages, according to the Los Angeles Times.62)
Lack of a shared vision for the TeleVilIages continues to cloud their future. MTA is
providing seed money for them as demonstration projects. Whereas the applicant and
developer of the Compton TeleViliage was a local, non-profit economic development
corporation, MTA is now restricting applicants to cities. MTA staff said that locating the
management of the TeleVilIages with the cities will generate the community buy-in that
is necessary for their long-term funding and usage.
The consultant who wrote the MetroNet report and developed the Compton TeleVilIage
has a much larger vision of the role of TeleVilIages. He believes that a network of
TeleVilIages-perhaps 5~surrounded by neighborhood centers, would change the
nature of public transit. Instead of serving the present dispersed urban form,
transportation in the form of circulating community shuttles, demand-responsive vans,
and electric vehicles could bring residents on short trips into the neighborhood centers.
Retail shopping, schools, doctors and government services would be clustered there
physically or electronically through the TeleVilIages. This vision would support the goal
of increased mobility; it would also implement a policy of equity, "by giving everybody
access to the broad-band world," he said.
According to this consultant, his vision of 50 TeleVillages and the backbone network
could be accomplished in Los Angeles County with $500 million for capital and the first
year of operating costs. He noted that this cost is comparable to rebuilding the 2.6 miles
of the Los Angeles Harbor Freeway, which included a second deck for buses and
carpools. Another comparison he mentioned is the cost of reconstructing the Cross-
Harbor freeway in Boston at $ ~ billion a mile. Thus, reconfiguring our transportation and
our society to one centered in neighborhoods, not sprawl, "is a political problem,"
. . . . · · . . . -
relating to funding priorities, "not a technological problem," he said.
Where society places its emphasis has an impact on not only whether, but how, projects,
such as the TeleVillage, are funded. As was indicated earlier, federal money for job
training of welfare recipients will provide the continued funding for the TeleVilIages.
Thus, the source of funds is shaping the future scope of work for the TeleVillages.
Indeed, the use of demonstration grants can itself be a barrier to implementing a
TeleVillage. The large investment required in capital equipment and space can be a
deterrent if on-going funds have not been identified. Once the investment is made, staff
time is best spent on developing programs that will fully-utilize the TeleVillage's
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resources. Fundraising can detract from program development and marketing, eroding
the potential for success.
AS one way of addressing this issue, the Boardmember who initially spearheaded the
Compton TeleVilIage believes that MTA needs to formulate a strategic plan to tie the
TeleVilIages together. She shares the consultant's larger vision creating a community
center when transit is involved in joint development around its stations or with its fiber
optic resources. If TeleVilIages became part of the transit agency's strategic plan, their
future would become embedded in the agency's vision and budget. However, because
she is no longer on the Board, she is unable to directly influence this larger strategy.
Nonetheless, support for the TeleVilIages still exists on the MTA Board. Although some
Boardmembers are only nominally involved though approval of the grants, one County
Supervisor who sits on the Board calls the Compton TelevilIage a positive and important
project. "It's a way older people can learn new skills comfortably in their own
community," she said. She continues to view the TeleVilIage as a transportation strategy
that takes advantage of the presence of the transit hub to increase constituents' education,
job, and communication opportunities.
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS
MTA has demonstrated its ability to break out of a modal orientation, to take risks, and to
become a mobility manager through its sponsorship of the nation's first-ever TeleVillage.
The technology and transmission options are available to permit any transit system in the
nation to replicate MTA's TeleVilIage project. The concept is transferable to a
multiplicity of settings, including bus transfer hubs, customer service centers, and
government offices. Although MTA's service area is highly urbanized, the concept
would be particularly applicable for rural areas where mobility is restricted.
Based on their pathfinder experiences, those involved had the following advice for a
successful implementation:
i. Insure the buy-in of the political leadership and high-level staff from the outset. This
will promote the involvement of all the departments within the agency and foster
coordination.
Develop a long-range strategy for implementation of TeleVilIages, complete with
performance measures to evaluate their contribution to the organizational mission and
to the community in which the transit agency operates. This strategy may involve
different vehicles and new ways of providing transit service. It should be linked to
any joint development in which the transit agency is involved.
3. Commit to more than a one-year demonstration project and identify funding to
support it. This commitment recognizes the tenacity and dedication needed to bring
about change and innovation.
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4. Involve the surrounding community in its development, promotion, and responsibility
for success. This includes working with city government and its land use planners to
insure the TeleVilIage is part of a larger planning vision.
5. Link the TeleVilIages with other opportunities. MTA was able to contribute the
TeleVilIage as part of the Rebuild L.A. project. Compton will take advantage of
pipeline construction to link it to a fiber optic cables. Similarly, where funds or
demographics do not justify a new bus route or rail line, the transit agency may be
able to work in partnership with a community to build a TeleVillage. For example,
the opening of a new civic center or library could be an opportunity for the transit
agency to develop this joint project.
The former Boardmember who championed the Compton TeleVilIage sees it as a way of
giving life to the lip service about Livable Communities. The TeleVillage truly "uses the
'information superhighway' like a highway," she said. Instead of asking people to travel
to the services, she advocates TeleVilIages as a way to promote mobility by bringing the
services to the people.
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REFERENCES
(~) Siembab, Walter, "TeleCity Strategy for Sustainable, Livable Communities: The Blue
Line TeleVilIage in Compton, California," September, 1996, Los Angeles.
(2) Spiller, lane, "It Takes a TeleVilIage to Revive a City," LOOS AngeZes Times,
January 2S, 1997.
10
Representative terms from entire chapter:
conference center
