MnLRT...Moving Minnesoootans Into the Next Century

TLC Debunks Ten Myths About Transit and Light Rail in the Twin Cities

1. Twin Citians are different – they’re wedded to their cars and will never use transit!

Walter Kulash, a traffic engineer from Orlando, Florida, recently noted that this excuse pops up in every region of the United States he’s worked in. In spite of this, many of those regions have developed successful transit systems. The truth is that people in cities across the US will use transit when quality service is provided.

Operations and capital funding for transit in our region rank the Twin Cities near the bottom when compared to similar regions. We also have among the highest transit fares in the country. Nevertheless transit ridership remains relatively strong. This suggests that Twin Citians are determined to use transit.

According to State Fair officials, nearly half of the 1.6 million people attending this year’s fair arrived on transit. When it meets their needs, Twin Citians will use transit.

According to a Fall, 1997 survey in Minneapolis’ East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood, 37% of the respondents used transit at least occasionally. Improved transit has a ready market even in our more affluent neighborhoods.

2. We don’t have the density to support light rail!

Other regions, such as Dallas and St. Louis with densities similar to the Twin Cities have established very successful light rail lines. Despite our ranking as the third most sprawled region in the country, many areas do have the densities required to support transit.

Light rail can be used as a tool to help promote higher density development, a strategy found in cities such as Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento, California.

3. There’s no money!

There is money, but no one has been asking for it. A deputy administrator for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently said that the FTA was waiting for the Twin Cities to come and get its share.

Many state legislators are reluctant to provide funding for transit claiming that there is no vision – they want to know what they will be getting for their money.

The Federal transportation funding bill known as ISTEA provides the opportunity for states to ‘flex’ funding from highway projects into transit projects. Although Minnesota has shifted some funds, far more could be flexed in the future.

At the same time, there appears to be plenty of money for bigger roads. Over the next 20 years, $1.1 billion will be spent providing capacity enhancements to Twin Cities highways.

4. Given that we have winter half the year in Minnesota, no one will use transit!

Transit ridership is actually higher in the winter than in the summer. As bad as Minnesota’s winters may be, driving in Minnesota’s winters is even worse. Successful transit systems have been developed in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, as well as Toronto, Ontario, all of which have long winters.

5. Twin Cities highways aren’t congested!

Not yet! MnDOT should be credited with giving us the best managed freeway system in the country. But this hasn’t solved anything, it’s merely bought our region a little more time. Some 400,000 additional cars in our region are projected within the next 20 years. At the same time, MnDOT acknowledges that, over the next 20 years, it anticipates having just one-third of the $10 billion needed to widen enough highways to keep traffic in the Twin Cities moving the way it is today. The inevitable outcome will be serious congestion. One of the consequences will be the diversion of high speed, high volume traffic to city streets which will seriously degrade the quality of life in city neighborhoods. There are also concerns that increasing congestion will result in our region breaking up into a series of smaller, sub-regional economies, the sum of which will be much less than the whole we enjoy today,

6. It’s still too early for light rail!

We need to push light rail now so that it will pull us later. The most valuable contribution of a light rail system, its ability to shape development patterns, may not be fully realized for 20 years. Waiting 20 years to start means it will be 40 years before we see those benefits and that’s too late. Not only are we running out of space for new highway lanes, but the continued addition of highway capacity may be paving the way to a larger, less-treatable gridlock. As Harvey McKay writes, ‘Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.’

7. It’s too late for light rail!

Light rail is like education – the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes and the more important it becomes. Earlier claims that light rail was unnecessary because our region was done growing were wrong. Light rail can play a significant role in how our region grows to accommodate the 650,000 more people projected over the next 20 years. If we don’t start soon, we’ll miss that opportunity. Emerging issues such as global climate change make high quality transit including light rail more important than ever.

8. Light rail is too expensive!

The investment needed for a light rail line is an insignificant part of our region’s annual transportation costs. Our region spends about $21 billion on surface transportation each year. The one time $400 million investment in the Hiawatha Corridor (a 60-75 year investment) would be just 2% of our annual expenditures on transportation. The Twin Cities will easily spend at least half a billion dollars on parking structures alone at our five major trip generators in the next 10 years. An investment in a light rail line servicing these locations could eliminate the need for much of that additional parking.

9. People just say they support transit so everyone else will use it!

Most surveys show that 75-80% of Twin Citians believe that mass transit should be our highest transportation funding priority. Building a transit system with enough capacity to carry that many people would be a daunting task. But if just one out of ten people who support transit actually used it, we would be off to a very successful start. St. Louis has built ridership on their first light rail line from 14,000 to 46,000 people per day in just a few years and 79% of the riders had never used transit in St. Louis before. Light rail does attract new riders.

10. All we’ll ever need is carpools, vanpools, and better bus service!

While the bus will always be the workhorse of our transit system, the importance of a higher quality component cannot be dismissed. Light rail has a tremendous ability to attract new riders. When St. Louis opened its light rail line in 1993, the offer of free rides for the first three days drew 180,000 people. Ridership has since grown from 14,000 to 46,00 riders each day. One survey found that 79% had never used transit in St. Louis before.

Light rail has also shown a tremendous potential to attract new development. Other regions have seen little, if any, transit oriented development along busways or HOV lanes and we pass up a valuable tool to help shape our region’s growth.

Transit for Livable Communities P.O. Box 14221 Midway Transfer Station St. Paul, MN 55114
Phone: (612) 338-1871 or (612) 644-6856 12/03/97