Nathan Hunstad wrote:
While I feel comfortable riding the bus whenever, I do know that there are a lot of people who will refuse to ride the bus at all, presumably for safety reasons. I think that this is just another symptom of the irrational fear that so many people have these days, but for whatever reason, it does exist.
Well said. Frankly, this is what ignorance and lack of engagement produces. It's a symptom of a much larger and more pervasive cancer in our society. There's also the fact that the LRT is just more pleasant to ride. It is quiet and smooth, with no exhaust fumes wafting through the rear window.
That said, buses have a place in our transit system. My feeling is that they are more appropriate for short-distance trips with longer routes better served by rail.
That is why the Hiawatha line is so successful where a dedicated busway would not be. Time after time, surveys show all across the country that people would much rather ride light rail (or heavy rail) instead of buses, all other things being equal. And let's be honest: the Hiawatha line is really cool to ride. It's fun, it's interesting, it makes people feel they are in a big city. This is one reality that Metro Transit has to deal with.
Rail also has great environmental benefits. Drawing electricity from a central power station is more efficient than putting an equivalent number of internal combustion engines on the road. A roadway must cope with drainage issues while rail does not inhibit nature's solution to the problem. In fact, the proposed Greenway Trolley would use a "rails on grass" approach for drainage and aesthetic purposes. Once land is paved over, it is basically unusable unless significant effort is made to restore it.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people in the legislature, House Republicans in particular, who are either opposed to transit in principle or want to skimp as much as possible. These people, who control the purse strings, are much more likely to fund busways than rail if they fund anything at all, citing the higher cost of rail (just look at the Northstar Corridor). They do this despite the fact that the very people who are electing these legislators are saying that they would never ride buses. It sounds like a recipe for failure to me.
Of course it is. Building infrastructure on the cheap never works. Busways have their place, but sometimes I get a sense that certain legislators and high-ups are happy to fund a minimal bus system, hoping it will fail for exactly the reasons you cite. That way they can make future arguments against funding transit. Makes it easier to satisfy the Taxpayer's League that way.
The Chamber of Commerce and business leaders are finally doing something about this. The Itasca group is making a big push for transit. But we need public engagement to make sure that transit serves our communities, including neighborhoods as well as business.
It's this perception that needs to be changed, not the lack of parking spots for LRT riders. The notion that buses are only for the dregs of society, and that they are unsafe for anybody else, needs to be thrown out the window. Metro Transit needs to do its share by having more of a visible police presence on the buses (I have never seen a transit cop just riding a bus, but ever since the Hiawatha Line opened I have seen at least two transit cops at stations or riding almost all the time). They could teach their bus drivers a little customer service, which is lacking all too often. They can expand service instead of cutting it. Of course, all of this takes more money. Considering that Metro Transit no longer relies on property taxes for operating funds, the only way to get more money is to raise fares (entirely counterproductive) or get money from the legislature, and that hasn't happened lately.
I agree with everything you've said here except for the driver service, which I have found to be almost always cheerful, pleasant and helpful. The real crime that our nonexistant legislature and governor have pulled is the loss of federal matching dollars. Because we do not have a stable, dedicated funding source for transit as we do for roads (constitutionally guaranteed, even!) we have lost countless opportunities to get the 80% government match for important transit and transportation projects. We simply need to come up with 20% of the cost of these project and the feds will fund the rest. Otherwise, the money goes somewhere else. It certainly doesn't get refunded to us if we don't use it!
All this is happening despite our having key congresspeople on the transportation committees. Oberstar is the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee and Kennedy also sits on it. Sabo has done tremendous work to secure additional funding for Northstar and other projects, funding that will disappear because of the failiure of our state leaders to act. He is practically screaming at the top of his lungs about our state inaction. Other communities know how much power our state has in the federal transportation sector and they are laughing at us because we are unable to leverage it.
All this leads to what is in effect a tax increase for Minnesota, tax dollars that go to fund projects in other states, tax money that should be reinvested in our state's infrastructure. Pawlenty can cry all he wants about "no new taxes" but he has managed to raise the rate on us all. The fact that he wants a bonding bill for Northstar and highway projects belies his "no new taxes" image. He is taxing our future to pay for the present instead of exhibiting leadership by finding a stable funding source, raising the gas tax and/or other solutions.
I think the only way this will ever change is if bus riders themselves lobby for more funding, proving to legislators that voters do ride the bus and that voting for transit is an election winner. As long as bus transit is seen by both legislators and the public as just welfare taxis, though, our transit system will not improve. That is a real shame.
Absolutely. We need people who want good transit to work for it. This is most people, judging by conversations I've had on the LRT during the opening, regular service and before Twins games. Everyone wonders when we will get more. More LRT, yes but we need buses as well to serve existing roadways.
My feeling is that those opposed to transit have not spent extensive periods of time in cities with excellent transit options. Life could be so much better.
-Dave
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