Our elected officials must take our transportation situation seriously. We need a realistic and workable transportation vision for the Twin Cities region to maintain its economic, social, and environmental integrity as well as ensure our overall quality of life.

First, Governor Carlson stated he has not seen a good answer to traffic congestion problems and an overall transportation solution.

Most other regions across the United States and many others around the world have acknowledged the importance of transit (bus service, light rail, commuter rail, transit alternatives) and the folly of continually expanding the highways.

For good ideas we need look only as far as our economic competitors in Portland, Dallas, Atlanta, San Diego or the San Francisco Bay Area of California for ideas. In each of these urban areas, elected officials and involved citizens have chosen to implement a balanced transportation system which includes a mix of highways, light rail transit, commuter rail, extensive bus service and other transit alternatives. St. Louis, Missouri is enjoying the fourth year of its new 17-mile light rail system, which provides direct access to downtown St. Louis to 45,000 commuters each day. In addition, St. Louis is about to begin construction on its’ second 17-mile LRT line. Seattle voters recently approved a 10-year $3.9 billion transit plan, which is comprised on light rail, commuter rail, expanded HOV lanes, and more extensive bus service. Portland, Oregon is limiting urban sprawl and targeting redevelopment along rail transit lines. San Diego will open its third rail line in December. Dallas has a new and very successful commuter rail and light rail system. In each case the transportation choices have greatly enhanced the quality of life and mobility of the area’s residents.

A good strategy for the Twin Cities growing transportation crises is a balanced transportation system consisting of well-maintained highways, light rail transit connecting our most frequently traveled routes, a clean and efficient bus system to connect rail and transit corridors, and transit alternatives - all in an effort to let people move quickly and freely between their homes, jobs, schools, shopping and entertainment while at the same time protecting the livability of neighborhoods.

The Twin Cities now stands alone as one of the only regions of our size with no real vision for transportation, except more and expanded highways. A minor investment in our already limited bus system is hardly the transportation vision the Twin Cities needs to retain its quality of life.

The Governor also stated "nobody wants to pay for it (light rail) because now you are talking billions of dollars and nobody has come up with a plan to pay for it"

Good transit (light rail, commuter rail and expanded bus service) costs money, but so does and has our current system of continual highway expansion. The Twin Cities area will spend over $3.4 billion over the next 20 years on highway maintenance and expansion. With proper leadership and a solid transportation vision, certainly some of this money could be invested in transit, not just on more and expanded highways. The Twin Cities spent nearly $450 million on highway 394, only to find the route more congested than ever before.

Each year Minnesota receives roughly $70 million from the Federal government that could be used for transit. However, our elected officials choose to spend this money on more and expanded highways. Other regions have funded transit with a combination of federal grants, state transportation funds, a less than 1% local sales tax, and transit usage fees. In the end, the wise investment of transportation dollars in sound transit choices, such as light rail, commuter rail and bus systems, can and will have an enormous effect on traffic congestion, commute times, our economic vitality and quality of life. Minnesota can’t afford to not make these wise transit investments.

The Governor went on to answer, "nobody can figure out the politics of who gets the first route, the second, the third route etc."

In many states that actually have a vision for transit and transportation, leadership has come from the Governor. The Governors of Maryland, Texas, Colorado and Washington have all been instrumental in the development of a transportation vision in their respective states. In Minnesota’s case, the Central Corridor light rail project, between the State Capitol and Minneapolis, was scuttled by Arne Carlson’s Commissioner of Transportation, James Denn, as Mr. Denn refused to sign the alternatives analysis for the project. Minnesota continues to maintain one of the few un-elected regional governments in the country, the Metropolitan Council, which is partly responsible for transportation policy in the Twin Cities. The Met Council has been widely criticized for its policies which favor highway construction and sprawl over transit and redevelopment. Governor Carlson vetoed a bill this past May which would have made the Met Council elected by the residents of the Twin Cities.

The city governments of Minneapolis, St. Paul and other communities as well as Hennepin and Ramsey counties, and other localities have been ready and willing to cooperate on improved transit for many years. Several potential corridors for light rail lines have been identified, including the Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis via MSP Airport, the Mall of America to St. Paul via MSP Airport, downtown Minneapolis to south Minneapolis via Nicollet Avenue, and St. Paul to Minneapolis via the State Capitol and the University of Minnesota, and the Hopkins-Minneapolis LRT corridor.

The Governor also stated, "you get a public attitude that says mass transit is absolutely wonderful for my neighbor, but me, its, my car"

Public opinion in the Twin Cities does support good transit. In the Metropolitan Council’s own survey from September 1996, over 68% of respondents specifically mentioned transit (expanded bus service, general transit and light rail) as the highest transportation needs for the Twin Cities. In that same survey only 2.3% said we should expand our highways. Other surveys done by the Met Council and AAA have shown that Metro Area residents see transit as their highest transportation spending priority. Other cities which have implemented light rail, including Dallas and St. Louis have seen actual ridership levels vastly exceed projected levels. Twin Cities residents would certainly use a clean and efficient transit system that gets them where they need to go and contributes to our quality of life.

The Governor went on to state, "we don't have the density that a lot of cities have. We have a sprawl. We have a spread out population. So there is no one geographic point in the metro area that you can go to and say that it has a high density that can sustain some kind of an ongoing transit system, lets say for even 16 hours per day. It is not there. That means that somebody else has to pick up the deficit that is created by that system."

While the Twin Cities region does have its share of urban sprawl, the Governor’s population density argument is simply incorrect. The Twin Cities is actually very well suited for light rail transit based on its population density and already existing rail corridors. The Hiawatha Corridor, the Central Corridor and the LRT corridor to Hopkins all offer high potential for successful transit. Our region, like San Diego and Portland, could target new development and redevelopment along light rail and commuter rail corridors instead of along new and expanded highways.

"I really cannot fault the political system because they have debated the issue endlessly. They have spent millions of dollars trying to study the problem and study by the way people's attitudes towards transportation. And it all gets back to the same thing. And that is, for whatever reason, we are not prepared yet to go into light rail"

Transportation policy for the Twin Cities is set by the Metropolitan Council, an unelected government body with $500 million in tax levying authority, appointed by the Governor. Despite consistent public support as well as growing support from city and county governments for transit, Governor Carlson, the Met Council and MnDOT have made every effort to weaken what remains of the Twin Cities’ once-extensive public transportation system. Despite growing congestion and escalating highway construction and maintenance costs, the Twin Cities remain one of the few regions across the United States with no real transportation vision.

The Governor should acknowledge the seriousness of our transportation situation and show some leadership on transportation policy during his last year in office. The Twin Cities cannot afford to stall any longer.