Successful Transit Is Only Half the Story

Posted by Carol Coletta on August 12, 2009

Many urban leaders long for light rail.  Many make the trip to Portland and come away with visions of the line they will build in their own cities.

The problem is, though, they forget to ride the buses that connect to the light rail lines.  They forget to drive Portland's narrow streets.  They don't try to park.

Good transit is not a line or two.  It's a system.  It's a system that is convenient, frequent, safe and clean.  And it's a system whose price to the user is comparable to driving (not owning -- except in major cities) a car.

That's why I took special note of this column in the LA Times by David Lazarus.  Lazarus spent two weeks traveling through Japan riding "every form of public transit imaginable -- bullet trains, express trains, commuter trains, subways, street cars, monorails and buses."  And he found nearly every ride "smooth, on schedule and affordable."

So why not in LA?  Why does transit not work there? 

Martin Wachs, director of transportation, space and technology for Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, explained it to him.  "It won't be enough to just lay down lots of track and hope people will leap aboard trains and subways. You also have to discourage the use of cars -- which most Americans won't stand for -- and make our cities considerably less comfortable."

While I disagree with that last statement -- as a non car owner, I find the city quite comfortable -- it reminds me that too many urban leaders want to deal with the transit side of the equation without dealing with the auto side.  And that is a tough, perhaps impossible, proposition for success.