Austin mayor says he will not support funding urban rail in 2012

Comments

• Planning for the Future

  While it is disappointing that Austin will have to wait even longer for quality public transportation, this delay does provide us the opportunity to rethink the scale and scope of our plans. The Capital Metrorail failed to attract massive ridership, or voter support, because the agency caved into to pressure from both right-wing zealots and anti-growth extremists to keep costs and size down. It was clear the urban rail was headed in the same direction. Rather than cutting corners on a cheap transit system, and putting a bad taste of rail in the public's mouth, let's build a city-wide and high capacity rapid transit rail system that demonstrates how great a city Austin can be. In the early 1970's, Washington DC, which at that time had a metropolitan area similar in size and politics to Austin's, took the bold and unprecedented step of building a massive and expensive rapid transit system in the era of the freeway. Their investment paid off, and now the DC metro boasts subway ridership (about a million riders per day) second only to New York's. Public transportation does not exist to make a profit, nor should it, it exists to provide a service to the populous and improve their quality of life. If a city is willing to invest serious money in it, however, a system can do both.

  Posted by Zach June 01, 2012 16:39:37