Anti-transit misrepresentations

I am taking the liberty of reprinting this blog entry in its entirety from The Overhead Wire, for at least two reasons:

1. the Washington Post frequently runs op-ed pieces by Joel Kotkin in the Sunday Outlook section. Basically, Mr. Kotkin, a great writer, is a sprawl apologist.

2. Overhead Wire makes the same point I do all the time, that there is a big difference between creating a "transit system" vs. constructing a "transit line." The latter isn't a system and can't have the same level of positive impact on mobility patterns and congestion reduction that is obtained from a transit system. It's not perfect, but the DC subway lines, complemented by bus service, comprise a transit system, which works especially great for those of us in the center city.

By way of comparison, Baltimore has a single truncated subway line, a clunky (but usable) light rail line, but with limited connections to major neighborhoods and activity centers (although I do take it from BWI Airport to the city), and relatively infrequent bus service. As my friend-colleague Steve Pinkus says, the Baltimore transit "system" is "discoordinated." As a result, there is no system, and Baltimore hasn't been able to reap the positive paradigm changing aspects that transit can bring to local mobility patterns and center city competitiveness--which it did bring to Washington.

Anyway, TOW says you should compare like to like. And this is very important.

Two Percenters

Stop it. Just cut it out. Joel Kotkin, the newest of the O'Toole/Coxies is the latest offender.

Spending on upkeep of transit systems in older centralized cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago also seems logical. But with few exceptions -- the heavily traveled corridor between downtown Houston and the Texas Medical Center, for instance -- ridership on most new rail systems outside the traditional cities has remained paltry, accounting for barely 1 or 2 percent of all commuters.

This 2% bullshit needs to stop. Stop comparing a single transit corridor or a poorly funded transit network to all roads in a region. Let's compare a single road project to the whole region next time. The next interchange, i'm going to be all about comparing the number of trips. Heck the big dig only takes 2% of trips. Stop it. Wendell Cox or Robert Poole say all the time we should spend money depending on existing trip percentages. That doesn't do us any good and only enforces the current shares. We should be spending more money on livability infrastructure.

Another interesting thing about Kotkin's screed is that he praises Houston's light rail line, which he and his followers bashed in the past. So what's it going to be Joel? There's a whole lot more wrong with his ideas on the stimulus, but I'll leave that to others.