Benjamin Kabak

As gas prices rise and public transportation usage climbs upward, transit agencies are finding themselves struggling under increasing costs. That’s a sentence that was true two years ago and still rings true today, but the federal government isn’t doing much about it. Sure, the feds fork over billions for capital expansion plans, but operating support has been hard to come by.

Last week, transit agencies again went hat in hand to Washington to ask for operating support, and again, Washington rebuffed their advances. Melanie Trottman of the Wall Street Journal was on hand to report on these goings-on and more:

Officials from more than 30 public transit systems came to Washington this week to tell Congress that most of them don’t have the money to keep up with demand as rising gas prices boost ridership. But a key House Republican said Tuesday that transit systems needed to streamline their operations, and not count on Congress for more money…

President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget requested $22.4 billion for public transit, more than double the amount he sought for fiscal 2010. A separate proposal would pump $119 billion into public transportation programs over six years as part of a $556 billion highway, transit and rail infrastructure bill.

But the fate of both proposals is uncertain. The last multiyear highway and transit bill expired in 2009. Since then, Congress has passed seven extensions to continue funding, but the heads of many transit systems say their plans for growth and upkeep have already been stymied by funding uncertainty.

The key House Republican is none other than House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica. During the hearings, he said of transit agencies, “They’re going to have to be much more creative and look at consolidation of some of their operations.”

The American Public Transportation Association, though, wants to see action from DC before it’s too late. APTA looks at rising gas prices and notes how the increase in fuel costs lead to more transit trips. If gas tops $4 per gallon, transit agencies would see an additional 670 million trips a year. As Trottman notes, “When gas prices rose in 2007 and topped $4 in mid-2008, 85% of transit agencies reported experiencing capacity constraints on parts of their systems, APTA said.”

The problem is two-fold. On the one hand, politicians hate to invest in operating costs because it’s not sexy. It’s not something they can show to the press or constituents as a firm commitment to transit. They can’t take people into the headquarters of a transit agency to show a well-funded system as they can to, say, a pit underneath the Sunnyside Yards.

On the other hand, the nation dialogue has focused almost exclusively on cutting costs. Politicians are putting pressure on municipalities and local government institutions to trim, trim, trim and cut, cut, cut. The federal government and the Republican-dominated House, in particular, is not going to be too forthcoming with extra dollars for operating costs right now.

And so transit agencies will go forward with their economic crises. If gas rises and voters head to buses and trains, systems will find themselves at capacity, and politicians may begin to hear from constituents about inadequate public transit. It will take creative leadership to solve this problem, and right now, we’ve seen little willingness to head down that path. Costs will grow while subsidies and support do not.

I often think that New Yorkers should care more about transit issues than they do. Whether people realize it or not, the subways are the hidden, underground force driving the New York City economy, and without them, the city will slow down. New York is the city that never sleeps because its subways never stop.

Still, most people are happy to remain in the dark on issues surrounding transit. They’re happy to repeat disproved tales of two sets of books and don’t understand the admittedly complicated financial structure that supports the MTA. They pay little attention to transit policy or the politics behind it. Most people do not have the time or energy to stay informs, and others will do it for them.

A recent Quinnipiac poll supports that belief. In a survey of New Yorkers’ political views and beliefs, the pollsters found that few people believe transit issues are that pressing. In fact, when asked what the most important problem facing New Yorkers are today, only five percent said mass transit issues were most important. Far more picked on education or the economy or even the overall budget as more pressing.

On an micro level, the numbers are even worse. Only three percent of respondents believe that quality mass transit/public transportation is a major problem while just one percent believe that highway or traffic congestion are of great concern. Of course, while those numbers are depressing, the poll is a binary one. Something either is the most important issue or isn’t, and respondents couldn’t grade issues on a sliding scale. Perhaps New Yorkers believe transit is a compelling problem but not the compelling problem of the day.

Over at Streetsblog, Noah Kazis found the silver lining in these poll numbers. Highlighting how more people picked public transit over congestion as a problem, Kazis wrote, “The voters most concerned with transportation — the ones who will be thinking about it at the ballot box — are far more interested in transit than traffic flow.”

That may very well be true, but it’s hard to find comfort in those figures. New Yorkers don’t mind public transit. They complain about it; they want trains to run more frequently, be less crowded and be nicer. But when push comes to shove, the economy and education will always remain of paramount importance.

What then can we do? I want to see a better transit system. I want to see smarter traffic and transit policies, a more robust investment in the system by our state politicians and realistic expansion plans that can happen in the next decade. I’d rather not see endless fare hikes and service cuts while the MTA races to cover its bottom line, but that’s where we are.

Until New Yorkers begin to pay more attention, transit will always just be a background issue. It’s easy to kick around the MTA because they mostly deserve it, and few people will bother to learn more about it. That’s just the nature of things right now. It might be an uphill battle, but I’ll keep fighting it. Transit should be a bigger issue amongst New York voters, but right now, it has a long way to go.