The big transit news in these parts last week was the announcement that the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s board Metro’s board approved the final route for the east-west University line and decided to deploy the much more expensive light rail rather than bus rapid transit in four other transit corridors. Kevin Whited, Lou Minatti and Tory Gattis were among the local bloggers commenting on this development.
What is perhaps most galling about all of this is the sheer lack of any perspective from the local mainstream media regarding the dubious nature of Metro’s urban economics. The Chronicle article on Metro’s announcement is typical of the vacuity of media coverage of Metro — the fact that light rail systems are notoriously uneconomic and underused relative to cost is not even mentioned. Meanwhile, Metro continues to insist upon investing billions of tax proceeds in an inflexible light rail system that will cost millions in additional annual tax proceeds to subsidize. To make matters worse, the money that Metro is throwing away on what will be a underutilized and expensive light rail system would go a long ways toward dramatically ameliorating the Houston area’s flood control problems and traffic hotspots, two public works projects that would provide far more benefit for far more Houston area residents than the light rail project. In short, wasting huge amounts of public funds on a boondoggle simply does not occur in a vacuum. Such waste will negatively impact more pressing public works projects in Houston for decades.
Transit expert Randall O’Toole recently published this Cato Insitute policy analysis, Debunking Portland (related blog posts here and here), on the failures of Portlandís light rail system, which was built in a far more densely-populated area than Houston and is often touted by light rail advocates as an example of one of the rare successful systems. As O’Toole points out, the Portland system has not been a success. 9.8% of Portland-area commuters took transit to work before the region built its light rail system, while today, just just 7.6% of the area commuters use the system. The fact that Portlandís light rail system led to billions of dollars in economic development is largely a ruse — such development received billions of dollars in subsidies and, before the city started offering those subsidies, not a single transit-oriented development was built along the Portland light rail line. Finally, light rail cost overruns forced Portland to raise bus fares and reduce bus service.
As O’Toole observes, thatís considered a success?