Despite the depressing, ongoing inability of the state’s government to pass a transportation package, the efforts of those pushing for transportation improvement in Minnesota haven’t been wasted. Among other things, they’ve brough to light the fact there is a real demand for improved public transit. People and officials from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie are clamoring for the proposed Southwest light-rail line, for instance. Two factors have pushed the cause forward, particularly among once-skeptical suburbanites: the great success of the Hiawatha light-rail line, and the increasing congestion of metro-area roadways. Piecemeal fixes and bonding (i.e. borrowing from future taxpayers) won’t solve the problem. We need a transit system. How long will it take until state leaders–certain state leaders–hear the whistle blow? ~Gene Rebeck, Twin Cities Business