Provisional
Truth |
Essays | December 22, 2006
Mass Transit: Get On Board
Back when
gasoline cost under $1.50 a gallon and we didn't need to
swipe our credit card twice at the pump to fill up, the idea
of expanded mass transit and light rail systems in cities
defined by suburban sprawl and near-vacant downtowns seemed
as necessary as a 60-mile-per-gallon automobile.
Times have
changed but many still are resistant to the idea of a
greatly improved public transportation system in Oklahoma
City. A year-long study of public transit options recently
presented to the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce
may help us embrace the need for better transportation
options, including light rail, as already have Little Rock
and Kansas City and many other cities.
The biggest
obstacle usually is the cost, specifically how to pay – and
who pays – for such a system. Some have suggested sales
taxes, others an increase in gasoline taxes to motivate
drivers to use alternative transportation. Federal money is
available and bonds could be issued.
In the decades
ahead, however, the cost of not moving forward with mass
transit, in terms of lost opportunity for Central Oklahoma,
could be far greater.
Some years ago,
when gas was cheap, residents of Columbus, Ohio, a community
similar in size and suburban layout to Oklahoma City,
defeated a light rail initiative after someone did the math
and determined the cost per projected rider would
exceed the cost of buying each of those riders a new car
every other year and paying for their insurance, gasoline
and maintenance.
Today the
economics of light rail and expanded mass transit no longer
seem so absurd. If $3-a-gallon gas is the harbinger of a new
era of potential energy price inflation and supply
dislocation by act, such as terrorism or war, or by
scarcity, as peak-oil adherents expect, now is the time to
finance and build suitable alternatives to individual
automobile transportation.
In fact, public
transit practically is patriotic if you believe every barrel
of oil we do not import, especially from the Middle East,
enhances our future national security. And we already know
corn, soybeans, switch grass, wood chips or used cooking oil
are insufficiently scalable to substitute for gasoline to
supply our no-driver-left-behind motoring lifestyle.
Moreover, we
cannot overlook the tremendous ecological benefits of
reduced automobile carbon emissions. Despite those who think
global warming a hoax, it is universally agreed reducing
carbon emissions would result in life-enhancing benefits
around the globe.
And, a
reliable, widespread network of public transportation, light
rail in particular, would have helped keep the city open for
business a month or so ago when a half a foot of snow
paralyzed commerce for nearly two days, as mass transit does
every winter from Minneapolis to Boston.
With a
combination of federal funding, a bond issue and higher
local gasoline taxes (which drivers hopefully would offset
by using more public transportation and buying less
gasoline), we easily could raise a half-billion
dollars or more, if necessary, to do it right and become a
model community for mass transit extending throughout
Central Oklahoma.
The Central
Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA) and
the Chamber agree with the study recommending better mass
transit. Time for the rest of us to get on board for a
better Central Oklahoma.
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