Traffic Jams and the Essential Need for Light Rail and Other Mass Transit
By Paul M. Weyrich (09/25/07)
An article by the Associated Press stated that on average drivers spend forty hours a year in traffic jams. This was a companion to a piece which reported that Washington, D.C. had become second only to Los Angeles in traffic congestion. If one commutes from Virginia, there are only five bridges which cross the Potomac River.
Various free market think tanks state that Americans love their automobiles and do not desire rail systems as an alternative. Really?
Each year Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), D.C.’s subway and bus system, reaches a new high in ridership. I have an employee who drove to work. He often was upset upon his arrival. He now lives less than one block from a Metrorail station. He comes to work smiling and continually points to the virtues of the Metrorail system. Metrorail carries close to 600,000 riders per day. Some are tourists but most are workers. If these riders were stranded on the streets of Washington there would be gridlock beyond comprehension.
Many of Free Congress Foundation’s visitors live in the suburbs and take Metrorail and Metrobus. They sing the praises of mass transit. Sure, Americans love their cars. But cars are only good when they are moving.
The fact is more cities want to build light rail systems. Depending upon the definition of “light rail,” the country has progressed from five to 22 light-rail systems since 1970.
Portland, Oregon is leading the way in building and operating streetcars. The Portland Streetcar line runs ten miles through downtown Portland. Over thirty cities have built streetcar lines recently or are planning to do so by 2010. Even after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina at least two of New Orleans’ streetcar lines are working again. Many cities are taking the streetcar revolution so seriously that a company is now building vintage streetcars. If one wants to buy so-called Authentic Trolley Cars, they are available from GOMACO, which is located in Iowa.
The last modern streetcar was built in the United States in 1952 for San Francisco. There is now no American manufacturer, although Oregon Iron Works plans to start building streetcars to a Czech design.
The biggest problem is the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). FTA has an inherent bias against streetcars. Indeed cities that want streetcars, both “Heritage” streetcar systems and modern systems, find that they simply cannot obtain FTA funding. Approximately 30 cities have shown interest in streetcars. The FTA answer is always no.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Senator James M. Inhofe (R-OK) created the Small Starts program in 2006 under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users. The primary focus of Small Starts was to assist cities that wanted to build streetcar lines with less than $75 million from the Federal Government. Cities that applied found that they were told that they had to initiate bus rapid transit programs. What a typical response from the bureaucracy.
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) recently predicted a remarkable number of light rail and streetcar systems would operate within the next thirty years. A colleague of mine from an organization known as the Streetcar Coalition stated that regardless of who wins the next Presidential election, rail will be on the agenda. Whether we speak of light rail, which is used to relieve traffic congestion (and is often interurban), or streetcars, which simply circulate around a city, rail is necessary unless people are willing to spend days in their cars.
Paul M. Weyrich
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