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Rail Transit Is a Dead End, but Social Planners Keep Pushing for More
Government planners do not understand markets, so they promote overly pricey projects that fail to meet our real-world transportation needs.
It has been around 15 years since Orange County tried to build a $1 billion light-rail system that would have gone from one suburban parking lot to another. It would have moved around half of 1 percent of the county's commuters. What I remember most about that incredibly shrinking Centerline was that while it was supposed to reduce congestion overall, it would actually have increased congestion along main thoroughfares.
That was my first up-close encounter with the Cult of Transit. There is nothing wrong with expanding bus service and building new rail lines—provided they actually enable people to get where they are going. However, urban planners' fixation on transit stems more from social engineering than transportation engineering. The latter develops projects that enable people to get from Point A to Point B. The former builds projects designed to change the public's behavior—prodding them into getting around in ways the planners believe is best.
If you've got time on your hands, peruse the details of virtually any road-funding bond measure and see how much of the new tax revenue goes to roads—and how much goes to bike lanes and other alternative transportation methods. I remember when Gov. Gray Davis was at a ribbon cutting for a stretch of the 210 freeway near San Bernardino. Commentators declared that after that opening, the era of road building was over. No wonder congestion has only gotten worse.
Despite the planning community's long-running embrace of transit, the latest data suggests the public prefers to get around in their cars and SUVs. Using statistics from the Federal Transit Administration, transportation expert Randal O'Toole summed up the data in The Hill: "Ridership declined in all of the nation's 38 largest urban areas. Transit systems in Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Tampa-St. Petersburg all suffered double-digit declines, with Austin losing 19.5 percent and Charlotte 15.4 percent despite being two of the fastest growing urban areas in the nation."
That's stunning given not only the $50 billion in subsidies that transit systems receive each year—but the Herculean attempts by urban planners to promote higher-density living through proscriptive land-use policies and tax subsidies, as O'Toole added. Transit systems work reasonably well in traditional cities such as New York and Chicago, but look at the design of California's metropolises. Commuting patterns go every which way, which makes it tough to develop an effective transit system to meet our needs.
Have you noticed how Californians move up and down the state?
They take Southwest Airlines, which offers low-cost, quick flights serving the major airports. Yet former Gov. Jerry Brown had focused his attention on building a $100-billion high-speed rail system that, if it ever is completed, will have ticket prices higher than airfares and will take nearly twice as long as flying to get from the Bay Area to Southern California. What is the point? The answer echoes my earlier point: Politicians and planners use public money to change how we live in pursuit of grandiose goals, such as slowing global warming. Easing cross-state travel is important, but if that were the primary goal, our leaders would consider a variety of practical—but boring—ideas, such as improving air service in hard-to-reach places such as Bakersfield, the Central Coast or Redding.
I think of my attempts to take transit to go from my exurb to downtown Sacramento. It would involve driving to a station 20 minutes away, paying for parking, buying a ticket and waiting for a train. It would take longer and cost almost as much as just driving downtown directly and parking. That train might make sense in the urban core, but not in the outlying areas, yet officials love to lecture us about our supposedly unsustainable reliance on driving.
This highlights the real problem with transit. Planners, not consumers, drive it. Real private enterprises—as opposed to firms receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies to build government-directed projects—would never build a rail system based on an "if we build it, they will come" model. They would build systems that meet customer needs rather than fulfill wishful fantasies.
Furthermore, O'Toole refers to our current approach as "big-box transit," which involves "moving people in 60-passenger buses, 450-passenger light-rail trains or 1,500-passenger heavy-rail or commuter-rail trains." This approach is the result of union pay scales and government's inefficient and centralized approach to transportation.
Opening up the marketplace could result in myriad, small-scale alternatives, similar to the way that Uber and Lyft have disrupted the taxi industry. Government planners only understand taxing and regulating and do not understand markets, so they promote overly pricey projects that fail to meet our real-world transportation needs. Until planners figure that out, expect those transit ridership numbers to keep falling.
This column was first published in the Orange County Register.
Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. He was a Register editorial writer from 1998 to 2009. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
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I grew up in Charlotte, moving there in October of 1967. It was a moderately small city. There was no I-77 or I-85. But as the area grew, Charlotte wanted to be like Atlanta. The city leaders wanted the "Bright Lights and Big City" that was Atlanta. Atlanta had a Pro Basketball Team, and Charlotte needed a Pro Basket Ball Team. Then Charlotte got a Pro Basketball Team. Atlanta had a Football Team, Charlotte needed a Pro Football Team. Atlanta had a Regional Transit Authority and got Light Rail (MARTA). Charlotte got a City Transit Service (CATS) and eventually would get a Light Rail System, but first there was the Charlotte Trolley.
The Charlotte Trolley was the initial attempt to get light rail. First they claimed the original Southern Railway "R" Line that ran from the Charlotte C-D Yard next to North Davidson Street, under the 30th Street Bridge, down to just beyond Tyvola Road, where the new "R" Line met with the old line that ran through the city.
The Light Rail was first run with a Trolley from Greece, while an original Charlotte, Southern Utilities Trolley Car from the 1930s, that had been used as an apartment was restored. It was still kind of a Museum Operation (you could ride from "the South End" Trolley station to one uptown and return, but you couldn't commute on it or get off anywhere else), with a cummins diesel trailer power car to provide electricity, before the catenary was put up) . Then the City actually bought 3 Trolleys, that looked like the original 1930s Trolley. I took my wife and kids to ride and we actually got to ride one when it was brand new.
Then Charlotte got a Light Rail Grant, with new Siemens M.U, cars, electrical sub-stations, a double tracked line from just north of Pineville, NC at I-485, all the way to the UNC Charlotte campus, with heavy rail and concrete cross ties, an overhead Catenary wire, Signals, a respectable Light Rail Facility (next to the Bus Maintenance Facility) on South Boulevard, and another on North Davidson Street, near the original Norfolk Southern Railroad terminus in Charlotte. Where they hadn't appropriated the old "R" Line (from Woodlawn Road South, due to the cooking oil refinery (that was C & T Refinery and is now owned by Cargill) to Pineville, a parallel Double Tracked mainline was installed next to the freight stub line into the refinery.
The line from the Center of the City, South to Pineville passes through Dilworth, "the South End," Sedgefield, Collinswood, Madison Park, and Starmount neighborhoods as you move further South, before getting to Archdale, Sharon Lakes and into the north end of Pineville. Most of these neighborhoods are demographically upper middle class, with Sedgefield having been the hottest piece of Real estate on the east coast. But they were once low cost, low rent neighborhoods. Apartments and Condominiums are growing up on South Boulevard, where there once we're businesses. To say that this area (out to Starmount) has been gentrified is partially true. But, with the coming of the Light Rail, many people who were moving into Charlotte from the Northeast and already were accustomed to taking the light rail or subway to work, this was marketed toward them and a hence fore unknown demand was made to order.
When the line to the northeast to UNC Charlotte, via the NoDa (North Davidson Street) neighborhood was built, NoDa was getting going, but getting there was accomplished by going through the historic Belmont neighborhood (near Parkwood Avenue), which was barely starting to be gentrified the Plaza (Road) section near Sugar Creek Road was likewise still rough and only beginning gentrification. But then it passed through the edge of Hidden Valley, a neighborhood that started out as white, quickly turned black and even more quickly developed a drug and gang problem. A good part of the neighborhood is turning hispanic, but it's not being gentrified. As the line passes out of the edge of Hidden Valley, you get more high end apartments, eventually passing the University Memorial Hospital (part of Atrium Health Care) and terminating at UNCC.
At the stations, it is announced to keep your electronics and personal property close to you, implying that they could be easily stolen.It's no wonder that the light rail ridership is off, with the new addition of the northeast section of the CATS LYNX Blue Line
But, what bothers me the most about the light rail is that the street traffic has been purposely slowed down, in order to "encourage drivers" to take the light rail train. The speed limit on North Tryon Street, between the end of the I-85 exit to US 29 and Old Concord Road has been reduced from 45 MPH to 35 MPH. And on the south end of the LYNX Blue Line between the New Bern Street and Scaleybark Road Stations, the light rail line crosses the southbound lanes of South Boulevard twice at grade in a 1/2 mile section.
So the LYNX Blue Line has been a real estate boon to developers in Charlotte, who built apartments and condominiums. It will probably speed the gentrification along the North Davidson Street sections of the Belmont neighborhood and the northeast section of the Plaza, before Eastway Drive and old Concord Road. There is a 200 home development being built between the old Concord Road Station and the McCullough Drive Stations. But traffic is getting worse and Hidden Valley won't gentrify any time soon. I don't see ridership growing on the north end in my lifetime (about 25 - 30 more years).
The Charlotte Trolley was the initial attempt to get light rail. First they claimed the original Southern Railway "R" Line that ran from the Charlotte C-D Yard next to North Davidson Street, under the 30th Street Bridge, down to just beyond Tyvola Road, where the new "R" Line met with the old line that ran through the city.
The Light Rail was first run with a Trolley from Greece, while an original Charlotte, Southern Utilities Trolley Car from the 1930s, that had been used as an apartment was restored. It was still kind of a Museum Operation (you could ride from "the South End" Trolley station to one uptown and return, but you couldn't commute on it or get off anywhere else), with a cummins diesel trailer power car to provide electricity, before the catenary was put up) . Then the City actually bought 3 Trolleys, that looked like the original 1930s Trolley. I took my wife and kids to ride and we actually got to ride one when it was brand new.
Then Charlotte got a Light Rail Grant, with new Siemens M.U, cars, electrical sub-stations, a double tracked line from just north of Pineville, NC at I-485, all the way to the UNC Charlotte campus, with heavy rail and concrete cross ties, an overhead Catenary wire, Signals, a respectable Light Rail Facility (next to the Bus Maintenance Facility) on South Boulevard, and another on North Davidson Street, near the original Norfolk Southern Railroad terminus in Charlotte. Where they hadn't appropriated the old "R" Line (from Woodlawn Road South, due to the cooking oil refinery (that was C & T Refinery and is now owned by Cargill) to Pineville, a parallel Double Tracked mainline was installed next to the freight stub line into the refinery.
The line from the Center of the City, South to Pineville passes through Dilworth, "the South End," Sedgefield, Collinswood, Madison Park, and Starmount neighborhoods as you move further South, before getting to Archdale, Sharon Lakes and into the north end of Pineville. Most of these neighborhoods are demographically upper middle class, with Sedgefield having been the hottest piece of Real estate on the east coast. But they were once low cost, low rent neighborhoods. Apartments and Condominiums are growing up on South Boulevard, where there once we're businesses. To say that this area (out to Starmount) has been gentrified is partially true. But, with the coming of the Light Rail, many people who were moving into Charlotte from the Northeast and already were accustomed to taking the light rail or subway to work, this was marketed toward them and a hence fore unknown demand was made to order.
When the line to the northeast to UNC Charlotte, via the NoDa (North Davidson Street) neighborhood was built, NoDa was getting going, but getting there was accomplished by going through the historic Belmont neighborhood (near Parkwood Avenue), which was barely starting to be gentrified the Plaza (Road) section near Sugar Creek Road was likewise still rough and only beginning gentrification. But then it passed through the edge of Hidden Valley, a neighborhood that started out as white, quickly turned black and even more quickly developed a drug and gang problem. A good part of the neighborhood is turning hispanic, but it's not being gentrified. As the line passes out of the edge of Hidden Valley, you get more high end apartments, eventually passing the University Memorial Hospital (part of Atrium Health Care) and terminating at UNCC.
At the stations, it is announced to keep your electronics and personal property close to you, implying that they could be easily stolen.It's no wonder that the light rail ridership is off, with the new addition of the northeast section of the CATS LYNX Blue Line
But, what bothers me the most about the light rail is that the street traffic has been purposely slowed down, in order to "encourage drivers" to take the light rail train. The speed limit on North Tryon Street, between the end of the I-85 exit to US 29 and Old Concord Road has been reduced from 45 MPH to 35 MPH. And on the south end of the LYNX Blue Line between the New Bern Street and Scaleybark Road Stations, the light rail line crosses the southbound lanes of South Boulevard twice at grade in a 1/2 mile section.
So the LYNX Blue Line has been a real estate boon to developers in Charlotte, who built apartments and condominiums. It will probably speed the gentrification along the North Davidson Street sections of the Belmont neighborhood and the northeast section of the Plaza, before Eastway Drive and old Concord Road. There is a 200 home development being built between the old Concord Road Station and the McCullough Drive Stations. But traffic is getting worse and Hidden Valley won't gentrify any time soon. I don't see ridership growing on the north end in my lifetime (about 25 - 30 more years).
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