The Legislature hereby finds and declares:
(a) There is an imperative need for a comprehensive mass rapid transit system in the southern California area, and particularly in Los Angeles County. Diminution of congestion on the streets and highways in Los Angeles will facilitate passage of all Californians motoring through the most populous area of this state and will especially benefit domiciliaries of that county who reside both within and without the rapid transit district. It is, further, the declared policy of the state to foster the development of trade and the movement of people in and around the Los Angeles area for the benefit of the entire state, and one of the purposes of the Southern California Rapid Transit District is to further this policy.
(b) In view of the limited powers of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (herein sometimes referred to as “authority”) it has become apparent that the authority is unable to solve the transit problems of the southern California area and provide the needed comprehensive mass rapid transit system.
(c) It is, therefore, necessary to provide a successor corporation to the authority, to wit: a transit district, and to establish such transit district governed by representatives of the governmental agencies in the southern California area so that there will be sufficient power and authority to solve the transportation problems in the southern California area and to provide the needed comprehensive mass rapid transit system.
(d) It is evident, therefore, that such a transit district may plan to meet the transit needs and problems of the whole southern California area; and that the estimates of future population growth for the southern California area make it imperative that a comprehensive plan for rapid transit contain projections of population trends extending over the next 30 years.
(Amended by Stats. 1979, Ch. 579.)