A few months ago, with gas prices at all-time highs, commuters started flocking to public transit in record numbers. When the economy — and oil futures — tanked, a funny thing happened on the way to work: People continued to rely on public transit, and ridership has continued to increase. It is, then, alarming to read in The Times today about how mass transit systems around the nation are suffering from major budget crises. Meanwhile, the Senate is debating amendments to strip transit from the stimulus bill while propping up highways.
It’s tough to understand the rationale behind that move. The nation needs public transit. It needs it environmentally; it needs it economically. Right now, the public have shown that they will use public transit, and to read that cities are cutting thousands of bus stops and service options in the face of record high ridership numbers is to fear for the future of the nation. While I try to stay focused on New York City issues here, nationwide transit impacts us all. The new Streetsblog Network covers this issue in depth, and now is the time for action on public transit in the New York area and around the U.S.
9 comments
I don’t get it. Last time I checked our highways are in pretty good shape.
They really aren’t. The Interstate system was overbuilt and undermaintained, just like the IND. The subway fell into severe crisis in the 1970s, about 45 years after the IND opened; the US freeway system is crumbling now, about 50 years after Eisenhower started funding the Interstates.
The problem isn’t that the stimulus is funding highways, but that it’s funding new construction more than maintenance.
Write your senators and tell them that Senator Bond’s SA 162 and SA 169 are foolishly short-sighted and need to go down!
It’s a real shame that they always cut and short change public transit funding. Capitol Hill gets so many kick backs and funding from big oil that wants people in cars. This has been the story since GM bought out all the streetcar companies and lobbied officials to close them down. Public transit has never recovered from those early days. The only thing that built the vast network of mass transit that once existed was private enterprise and competition. As long as transit continues to be funded by the public which is then controlled by greedy politicians fueled by their own self intrests then public transit will continue to suffer.
That might be true in New York, but is false almost everywhere else. North America’s second, third, and fourth largest subways – those in Toronto, Montreal, and DC – were all public from day one. The London Underground was originally private, but subsequently fell under public control, which was so successful that the attempt to privatize it earlier this decade was a disaster. The subway systems in Continental Europe and most of East Asia are publicly owned as well; the main exception is Japan, which invested in rail so much over the decades that its urban rail system is profitable enough for private control.
I can see your point. I guess what I mean to say is that if left to our politicians nothing will ever get done. Those other countries know that public transportation systems are important and vital. In this country there seems to be such no such view and it’s pretty sad.
It’s best to understand it as risk-averse behavior. Politicians don’t want to risk doing something new, such as invest in public transit, because if it fails, they’ll be held accountable; if they do nothing then not only is failure less spectacular, but also blame is spread around. So in the US and Canada, whose transportation systems are based on roads, politicians neglect public transit; in Europe and East Asia, whose transportation systems have a significant rail component, especially in commuter travel, politicians invest in rail.
But in Europe and East Asia, they invest in roads too. Also, in most of the world, the closer you get to the center of a city, especially a capital, the better the roads are. In America it’s reversed- city roads are terrible, but various far-flung suburbs have great roads. So it’s not only a mode of transportation that’s neglected, but cities in general.
Call not only your senators, but senators from other states as well!