Who are these people who don’t want transit?
by KatieBy Art Allen, Transit for Livable Communities’ Communications Assistant
When I read editorials in the newspaper that talk about how most Minnesotans don’t want expanded transit services, including buses and more light rail and commuter rail options, I have to wonder who they’re talking about. Because it’s not anyone I’ve ever met.
Here’s the thing: I have liberal friends, conservative friends, stridently libertarian friends, and they all think the idea of a fully-developed mass transit system in the Twin Cities—funded by the government, even the libertarian will admit—is a sound idea.
“But Art,” you may be saying right about now, “Don’t libertarians hate public transportation?”
My first response to that statement would be to not generalize; it’s not polite. Secondly, it actually makes sense for a libertarian to support transit. The number one factor my libertarian friend cites (aside from the fact that he takes the bus or bikes nearly everywhere he goes) is that economic development along transit routes—especially rail—is astronomical. In other words: the free market loves rail. Don’t believe me? It’s already happening. In Dallas, that liberal bastion, light rail has stimulated nearly $1 billion since it started in 1996 (as of 2005). We built Interstate 35 up to Duluth and that created minimal economic development. But when people mention a passenger rail to Duluth, economic development at the stations is all anyone can talk about.
Oh, and then there are all those new riders Metro Transit reported last year. All 77 million of them. What happens when their friends start riding next year? We need dedicated transitways for higher capacity light rail and commuter rail to increase the capacity buses just can’t meet.
Transit really really really isn’t a partisan issue. We can talk about how it should be funded, where it should be built, and all of that. But the fundamental question of whether or not we should have expanded transit choices everywhere in the metro—suburbs included—is as manufactured as the question of whether or not global climate change is real.
