Investing in public transit
Investing in transit just makes sense. Not only does it pay for itself, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
Despite this being true, we're still on the wrong path in Illinois and in much of the country. The proposed capital plan by Governor Blagojevich has $14.4 billion for road and bridge programs but only $2.7 billion for public transit and just $160 million for intercity passenger rail. That's a 5:1 ratio for highway money to transit!
The last capital bill funded highways and transit at a 2:1 ratio. Worse yet, the Governor has proposed breaking the already weak connection between user fees and highway funds by using funds generated by a sale of the state lottery.
We're on the path to even worse congestion, worse pollution, and an even weaker economy.
Throwing money at roads is not the solution
Many studies over many years have shown that dealing with traffic congestion as a result of sprawl and lack of other options by simply improving or adding lane capacity does not effectively reduce traffic congestion or provide any real cost benefit.
A well-known study by Mark Hansen and Yuanlin Huang [1] in 1997 reviewed almost two decades of data from 14 metro areas in California and showed that in under just five years after adding, for example, 10% more capacity to a roadway, the amount of miles traveled on said roadway increases by as much as 9%. Adding a couple of lanes means equally bad congestion after very little time. This is just one of many studies that have shown that roadway expansion alone does not benefit communities by reducing traffic, nor is it a sound investment.
Poor and unsustainable land use, a lack of travel options, a stagnant economy, polluted air and water, and undesirable living conditions are all products of community development without transit in mind.
Simply put: Smart planning makes transit a priority.
Investing in transit is profitable
On the other hand, the benefits of investing in transit are great.
According to the United States Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG), "for every dollar invested in transit, America receives two dollars in economic benefits back," noting that governments cumulatively spent $30.9 B in providing transit and it "yielded at least $60 billion per year in benefits from reduced vehicle expenses, avoided congestion, global warming emission reductions, reduced road expenditures, reduced spending on parking, and avoided traffic accidents." [2] These are things that cost everyone money.
If you live in Illinois, transit benefits you economically, even if you don't use it directly--and there are plenty more benefits to be rept.
To bring things closer to home, a Chicago Metropolis 2020 study showed how, in relative to what it will cost us to allow the regional transit network to continue to decline, investments in maintaining the system will benefit citizens with a 21% return on investment ("ROI")--a very good number. But it doesn't end there--invest in expanding the system to where it should be would yield a 34% ROI. Do that in combination with land use and transit-oriented planning, and the economic benefit could be as high as a 61% ROI. [3]
The Texas Transportation Institute's 2007 Annual Urban Mobility Report showed that public transit, as a solution to congestion, public transit saved Americans $10.2 billion, while, despite the overwhelming public investment being toward roads, efforts that focused on improving traffic flow saved $5.4 billion. [4-A]
It would be a shame to ignore these numbers and the economic opportunity it presents--but that's just what we've been doing and continue to do. Over the past few decades the focus has been on less transit and more roads. Our current economy and our endlessly congested roadways are the proof.
Time, money, and our quality of life
Today in Northeastern Illinois (Chicagoland), where the bulk of Illinois residents reside and a core component of the Illinois statewide, regional, and Midwestern economy, is intolerably congested.
According to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute, the Chicago metropolitan area has the second-worst traffic in the nation[4-B].
To make matters worse, it also is among the most unpredictable traffic seen anywhere[4-C], which makes the Chicago area less attractive to today's mobile "knowledge workers" and companies choosing where they do business.
Not only is the gridlock damaging the air we breathe and our environment at large, but it's hurting our economy. People lose valuable time and waste money on spent fuel. Businesses lose worker productivity. The cost of goods rises as the cost of getting items to a store shelf goes up.
This traffic nightmare is not exclusively a Chicago problem, either--it affects suburban and even exurban areas today. In this case, the area surveyed includes the City of Chicago and the entire metropolitan area extending well into Indiana. It's a problem that affects roughly 9,000,000 people.
So what's the result? In 2005, the greater Chicago area, including the parts of Wisconsin and Indiana included in the study, wasted roughly $4 billion as a result of congestion[4-D].
Because so much of Illinois and the Midwest relies on the success of the Chicago-area, the economic damage ripples across the states. Gas costs more, goods cost more, and economic growth is stymied.
The needs are not exclusive to Chicagoland
While the Chicagoland area's transit agencies, under the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) has capital needs in the billions of dollars to bring CTA, Metra, and Pace up to a state of good repair, these needs are not limited to the Chicagoland area.
Almost every city, town, and rural area has transportation needs as commutes lengthen, gas prices rise, and the state of our national economy forces Americans to tighten their belts. Travel to and from jobs in low-density areas is crippling Illinoisans, sprawl and the traffic it brings is strangling flow of people and goods in Chicago's suburbs and across the state and everyone's hurting from it.
Gas costs more, food costs more to get to the supermarket's shelves, people have less money to spend, and the value of people's homes decrease as parts of Illinois become less and less livable.
The time for change in how we get around is here.
Tell the governor and your representatives we need more and better transit.
More reading
- Campaign: The 2008 Capital Bill
- Article: Chicagoland's capital crisis
- Article: Capital vs. Operating
- Article: Capital Funding In-Depth (
PDF) - Link: Statement from RTA on Capital Funding needs (
PDF)
Footnotes
- Hansen, M. and Huang, Y. 1997. Road Supply and Traffic in Urban Areas: A Panel Study (
PDF)
- U.S. PIRG. 2008.
A Better Way to Go.
Executive Summary, p.3 (
PDF)
- Chicago Metropolis 2020. 2008. Time is Money: The Economic Benefits of Transit Investment. p.13 ( PDF)
- Schrank D. and Lomax T., Texas
Transportation Institute. 2007.
2007 Annual Urban
Mobility Report.
- Ref. A: Summary Report, Exhibit 1: Major Findings. p.1 (
PDF)
- Ref. B: Summary Report. Table 1: Key Mobility Measures. p.32 (
PDF)
- Ref. C: Summary Report, Exhibit 12: You Should Plan for Much Longer Travel Times. p.13 (
PDF)
- Ref. D: Mobility Data for Chicago, IL-IN. p.1 (
PDF)