Let's Dump Billions Down a Rathole

Light rail. What a buzz word. It says everything, and nothing. Just what is “light rail”?

Cincinnati, like every other city of any size had a street car system, which was dismantled in favor of motorized buses in the middle of the last century. When some one says light rail, think glorified street car. Why do we now want to resurrect something we abandoned 60 years ago? Why did we, and almost every other city in the country, trade our fondly remembered street cars for noisy, smelly buses?

Quite simply, flexibility. When a population base moves from one area to another, how hard is it to re-route buses, and change the number of times a bus will pass a certain location? How hard is it to re-route a street car? Besides laying new rails, widening a street to accept a new lane dedicated to these rails, and the politics of abandoning the old rails, it’s not that difficult. Now you know why we retired the street car.

Why is mass transit popular and feasible in places like Boston, Washington and New York? In a nut shell, population density and central destinations. There are enough people in one place, who wish to go to another place, and riding a subway is economically feasible, and convenient. Trains run often enough and the system is designed around getting folks from point A to point B almost around the clock.

Compare that with Cincinnati. Not only are our population centers scattered widely, so are our destinations. Less than 15% of the total area work force has downtown as a destination. Springdale, Florence, Eastgate, Blue Ash and half a dozen other places have as many, or maybe more, commuters on a daily basis.

There is also a certain mindset that uses public transportation. In most of the cities where public transportation is widely used, it was in place before the automobile became common. Why was Cincinnati’s subway system left unfinished in 1922? The Model T Ford had reduced the people’s reliance on public transportation.

Once the masses were free to come and go where they pleased, when the pleased, and as they pleased, regimented travel no longer held any attraction. Don’t take my word for it; ask any kid who has a license and a car to get back on a school bus. If you’ve ever tried it then you know getting our city back on public transport will be a task of Herculean proportions.

A quick look at the 5 largest cities in the U.S., and their public transportation statistics, shows a correlation between age of the city and rider ship. The more densely populated a city was in 1900, the more likely it is to have a viable public system. New York had a population of almost 3.5 million in 1900, Los Angeles, barely over 102,000.

They are now the two largest cities in the country. According to the website Geography World, (http://www.demographia.com/db-uscity98.htm) New York City has a population of a little over 8 million, with a density of over 26,000 per square mile. According to the Urban Transport Factbook website, at http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-ride2000all.htm, New York had a per capita public transport use of 880 passenger miles in 2000. In other words, every citizen of the Big Apple rode 880 miles on a public conveyance.

Compared to LA, from the same sources, with a population of almost 3.7 million, and a density of about 7800. Their public rider ship? In 2000, only 159 passenger miles per capita. We can assume one of two things from these statistic: either the denizens of La-La land don’t go anywhere, or they primarily use their own automobile.

What about Cincinnati? Statistics for the city only show a density of 4200 people per square mile, and only 91 passenger miles per capita on public transportation. At this rate Porkopolis doesn’t need public buses; we need to put each Metro driver on a bicycle built for two.

Public transport works in New York for the same reasons it doesn’t work in other places: parking, room to expand roadways, car culture, and convenience. Light rail will fail here for the same reasons.

As long as we have safe, affordable parking, lack of complete gridlock, and the ability to walk to our car and drive home before the next bus comes along, we won’t punish ourselves with a public conveyance.

If I can leave my place of employment, walk a quarter of a mile or less to my car, and drive home, all in 30 minutes, or wait 10 minutes for a 45 minute bus ride, why take the bus? Factoring in the relatively low cost of parking, and the value of my time, the bus seems even less attractive.

Would a new light rail system be any better? Sure; after the 120 years of construction and trillions of dollars for infrastructure that cities like New York, Boston and Chicago have spent.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ll be standing on a street corner that long.

And yes, if we want a viable public system we need to start somewhere, But from Findlay Market to Great American Ballpark. Are they SERIOUS!?!?!
And what about all of these folks who are proponents of the streetcar, and claim they will ride them when they are finished? Why aren’t they riding the bus NOW?