What he said

About the highest compliment one writer can pay another is to say of their work, "I wish I had written that." That's how I feel about this thoughtful, eloquent defense of public transportation in Allegheny County by my friend and former co-worker Jason Togyer. Jason, however, is not an apologist for the Port Authority, and he does a good job laying out what is wrong with the current system.

Remember, public transportation does not merely benefit the people who use it; it also benefits those whose commute by private automobile would be much more unpleasant if all those people riding the bus and the T had to drive themselves to work everyday. I discussed this previously here. It is a public good and should be treated as such.

We all ride the bus

Chris Briem points to a study that measured the cost of transit cuts in the Philadelphia area, and wonders if a similar study has been done here. From phillyBurbs.com:

If SEPTA's latest budget crisis isn't averted, property values in Bucks will plummet, almost 60,000 jobs in the region will be lost, commuters will pay hundreds of dollars more per year and almost $90 million in tax revenue will vanish, according to a new study.

And that's not even the worst of it. ...

Even commuters who travel by car would face an increase in costs of $38.9 million per year, including longer wait times from increased traffic congestion and an expected jump in parking prices, according to the study. If “Plan B” goes into effect, the average commuter would pay about $275 more per year to park.

It's why I believe that mass transit should be regarded as part of our public infrastructure. If it suffers, we all pay a price.

Transit talk

Here's an interesting local transit blog I discovered via Chris Briem.

City of Angels

It turns out that America's freeway capital is trying to build one of the nation's best public transportation systems:

Los Angeles is No. 2 in the nation in bus ridership and No. 3 in light rail, according to industry statistics. Since 1993, it and Detroit are the only major metropolitan regions in the nation that have succeeded in lowering the annual hours of delay per traveler. In October, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) named Los Angeles County's Mass Transportation Authority the best public transportation system in the country -- truly a man-bites-dog turnaround for an agency that for years was known for incompetence and shady deals. Other cities interested in expanding their public transit systems, notably Atlanta and Tampa, are even studying Los Angeles.

Critics have long regarded Los Angeles as the epitome of suburban sprawl, a city with no true center that is clogged with traffic and pollution. But Los Angeles is the nation's densest urban region, and it makes me realize that advocates of high-density development and public transit like yours truly) have probably confused cause and effect: Excellent public transit systems do not necessarily lead to high-density communities. (Because people cannot be forced to use transit. Besides, many of the earliest suburbs grew up around commuter railroad stations.) Rather, as communities grow denser, residents will demand high-quality public transit.