- Light rail is far more expensive than other more efficient transportation options
- Very few Americans use public transit, especially light rail, requiring massive taxpayer subsidies for support
- Public transit such as light rail is so unpopular because it is slow, inconvenient, expensive and unsafe
Interested in more intellectual ammo to slap down the central planners still supporting the proposed $1.6 billion money pit known as the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project?
Randal O’Toole, director of the Transportation Policy Center at the Independence Institute in Denver, has been dissecting public transit plans through vigorous research and analysis for decades. His latest work examines six reasons why “Most Americans Don’t Use Transit.”
In addition to the obvious financial reasons to oppose wildly expensive and inefficient light rail – the Durham-Orange line is projected to cost more than ten times more than a four-lane highway, while moving roughly about 7 percent as many passengers – there remains one simple truth: very few Americans use public transit, especially light rail.
Reason number one, according to O’Toole, is because transit is agonizingly slow. For instance, O’Toole points to data from the American Public Transportation Association’s Public Transportation Fact Book, which finds that the average speed of light rail lines is 15.6 miles per hour, compared to an average speed of auto travel of more than 30 mph in most American cities.
And that is just a comparison between actual ride times. This doesn’t factor in the extra time light rail riders must spend driving and parking at the rail station and waiting for the next available train, transferring lines, or walking from the rail stop to their actual final destination.
And reason number two is light rail is not just slow, as O’Toole points out, it also is very inconvenient. “If you don’t want to go downtown, transit is practically useless,” he says. Most transit is oriented to downtown areas; however, today “only about 7.5 percent of urban jobs are still located in downtown areas,” according to O’Toole. “As a result, transit just doesn’t work for most people,” he concludes. Indeed, this disconnect between light rail routes and people’s actual traveling needs shows “how out of touch transit agency leaders are with the people they are supposed to serve.”
O’Toole’s third reason most Americans don’t use transit? It’s too expensive. In spite of the billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies thrown at public transit like light rail, the user costs are still higher than driving a car to get where you are going. The comparative calculations can get complex, with costs of the purchase of a car, gas money, insurance, etc. compared to fares for public transit, but with all things considered, O’Toole concludes: “Bottom line: If you already have a car, the variable cost of taking your car on any particular trip will be far less than the cost of riding transit.” And if you don’t already have a car, he adds, it is relatively easy to find options that keep driving cheaper than public transit.
The fourth reason cited centers on privacy and security. “Compared with the aura of security offered by riding inside of an automobile, many people avoid transit because they feel vulnerable and threatened by other riders,” O’Toole notes.
Crimes such as theft, assault and sexual harassment are common on public transit systems across the world. Such incidents pose a particular threat on light rail, in no small part because “there is rarely anyone aboard to keep vehicles secure.”
These concerns are an especially acute disincentive for women, as O’Toole notes, “A woman may only have to suffer one or two experiences with groping or other forms of sexual harassment before she decides to never ride transit again.”
Reason number five piggybacks on the second reason. Not only are light rail routes centralized in downtown areas where fewer people are working, other destinations like housing and shopping have become so diffused that there simply is not a critical mass of people “moving from one point to another that mass transit systems need to work.” Simply put, people and the places people want to go are too spread out for light rail to offer viable transportation options.
Finally, for reason number six, people avoid public transit because so many public transit options are falling into disrepair. Enamored with building the next new shiny toy, transit officials have neglected maintenance costs, causing existing public transit to become dilapidated and unsafe.
These reasons people won’t use light rail are on top of the other problems presented by this incredibly expensive mode of transportation. Why should we pay billions for public transportation that is so unpopular because it is slow, too expensive, inconvenient, unsafe and run down?
The sooner light rail advocates recognize these facts, the better.
To learn more about North Carolina transportation policy over the past 30 years, read the Civitas Institute’s Public Policy Series.
I personally would love a light rail in this area! Here’s why I think your “reasons” are complete bs:
1) The travel time might be slower, but I’m able to do lots of things while on the rail that I can’t do while driving: read a book, answer emails, etc. I have had much longer commutes while living in cities and taking a bus or rail, but never have I felt as stressed out commuting as when I drive from Durham to CH and back every day through hell that is 15-501 during rush hour.
2) If there is sufficient funding for the rail, it can have bigger reach and more stops/routes. Jobs in the triangle, for example, are concentrated in relatively few areas, and wouldn’t be so hard to reach with public transit. I’d rather bike/drive for 5 minutes to go by rail than drive for 45 through traffic and pay for the pleasure of parking.
3) I’ve never lived anywhere where public transit was not by far the cheapest option, short of biking. There is simply no way that rail and other options where multiple people are transported more efficiently will cost more per person than driving if enough people use them. The economics and math of your argument do not work out.
4) As a woman, I’ve never felt unsafe in public transit. I have felt really unsafe at night walking to my car through a dark parking lot hundreds of times, however.
5) The reason the US has gotten built the way it has is because of people like you continuously undermining public transportation for years. The car and gas lobby is so powerful, it killed public transportation, so everything had to be built for cars (when it was previously much more convenient for public transport). And now you use that fact to put a final nail in public transportation’s coffin. However, what changed can change back — when transportation is there, people start using it and businesses catch on and follow.
6) The reason transit is falling into disrepair is not because officials are morons that are distracted by shiny things, but because people like yourselves and the republicans you back continuously deny funding to public transit. If not for that, we’d have a decent transportation system.
I’ve lived in many cities with good public transport, and in some without. The quality of life is so much higher when public transit is an option. So excited for light rail to come here!
It would be an excellent thing!
Transportation advocates once did a poll to see what percentage of people wanted light rail and what percentage of people would use light rail. A large portion of respondents wanted light rail. A tiny fraction said they would use light rail. What’s the difference in the numbers? Those who WANT it want it so OTHERS would use it and free up space on the roads.
What’s the major reason this region is contemplating regional boondoggle, what some call rail? Ex-mayor Meeker has a financial interest in rail. He either owns property or he’s going to work for the law firm representing rail operators. But, one way or another Meeker stands to gain financially if this disaster is ever allowed to come to fruition.
Everything about regional rail is a disaster. Never will it be used enough to pay for itself; it will never be self-sustaining. It will never have ridership worthy of the money spent on it. If buses were put in place, which is much much much more efficient, at least this can be moved to reach where people live. How do you move regional rail when the population doesn’t exist around the tracks? Also, buses are almost free in comparison to rail. When rail isn’t being used, the bill still exists. When buses aren’t being used, at least the buses can be sold either to another city where it does work or to some foreign government. What do you do with rail? Besides pay for it forever into the future.
Last point. Though rail is pointless, the objections to it are almost as numerous as grains of sand at the beach. Rail is centuries old. Isn’t there a more modern, more recent technology that could be implemented to relieve traffic congestion? I guess the main reason so many libs support/endorse regional rail is because libs haven’t had a new idea, a reasonable idea, in so long rail still looks new to them. The other reason libs want regional rail is so joe lunchbucket can use the stupid train while the elite, snob libs can use the ‘uncluttered’ roads. (no, i have no good words for the idea of rail. and no, i have no good words for those who do want it. and again, no, i have darn few if any kind words for elitist snob libs. get out of my wallet and stay out!)
The article is right on. My 20+ year experience with public transportation is that it is a desolate option. Just as the article points out, it is very slow, costly, and very inconvenient. While a train may be a more convenient option than a bus, busses are in the majority. It is hardly possible to do anything useful on a bus. There are too many distractions, usually poor lighting, and much shaking.
Unless one has people living like sardines, there are not enough people to fill a train and people have to be channeled to a train station. Park and Ride there, change a few times, and walk to the final destination. This in cold, rain and heat. This also means that one needs a car anyway. Now to sit in the cold car for maybe 5 miles then wait for the train, then wait for the connection, maybe another connection. During rush our you won’t get a seat and outside of rush our the schedule is very thin.
What is sufficient funding? I see the busses in Raleigh traveling mostly empty. Who pays for it? More taxes. In case of rail, the taxes will be even higher and the people paying for it are the ones who live too far away to use it.
Why is the rail plan excluding the airport?
The comment about ‘feeling’ save is very subjective. If going to a place results in parking in ‘dark parking lots’, that means the place visited is in that vicinity. Where would the bus stop? Wouldn’t that be on some dark place and require to walk past those ‘dark parking lots’ anyway? Then you have to wonder when you want to go home, when the bus comes? Of course busses (and trains) are frequently out of schedule. They cone either too early or too late, too often not at all.
I am glad my public transportation dependency is over. I can leave for work and leave the office on a flexible schedule. Even with sometimes aggravating traffic, I sit in a climate controlled car and listen to what I like and if I buy some groceries on the way, I have t cooler in the car and don’t need to schlep them all around.
Our tax dollars are better spent on roads than on rail.
Ok so 2 will use it and 999,998 will not . Lets get one.
While I love trains as much as the next RR buff and sometimes use Amtrak, if normal rail service between these two destinations is not profitable, why would “light rail” make any difference, other than to be more expensive to build and maintain? As for public transportation being safer from muggers and their ilk (responding with respects, to Gean), you still have to get from the parking lot to the station to use rail service, light or otherwise — and have you not read the stories of the crime that occurs in the nation’s subways?
very few people use public transit? maybe that’s it’s not avaliable. look at areas like the sf bay area where 70 percent of people use public transit. it’s perfectly normal for people in SF to not even own a car at all in fact I’ve known people who have abandoned their cars due to how worthless it is in areas where public transit is available. it’s so much easier hopping on Bart than it is dealing with a car.