wernicke Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Twelve Anti-Transit Myths: A Conservative CritiqueOpening paragraph:Today, any town or city that proposes to build a Light Rail line becomes a magnet fora new variety of wand'ring minstrel--the anti-transit troubadours. Travelling widely andalways singing the same songs, they tend to appear just before referenda on new railtransit proposals.Thought some of you might find the study interesting. Found it linked here on the Dallas Morning News. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihop Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 'Myth Number Three: Commuting by rail is slower than commuting by car or bus."..."Common sense tells us something is fishy here. If rail transit is slower than driving, whydo so many people drive their cars to rail transit parking lots and take the train intotown?'Other reasons, like cost. I also remember shuttles to & from some paid parking lots in the med center were discontinued and people were rerouted to the rail.I didn't get a chance to read through the entire thing, but more than a few of the stances set forth seemed to be predicated upon certain assumptions that don't take the entire picture into account. It is from 2001, tho, which seems a bit dated.I'm guessing that's where BusCAR got the idea for myths/minstrels in a release I ran across last week looking for old METRO numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 At a glance, I'm not satisfied with the data brought to bear in this paper. Much of the data is outdated, it is sparse, they rely on anecdotal information whereas the 'anti-transit troubadours' are in many cases well-regarded academics that actually have well-researched positions (even if they aren't entirely objective), and their reasoning often applies well to some cities and not others--especially not to Houston. I also noticed that they ignore even the possibility that there are superior alternatives to light rail or commuter rail in many cases.It seemed like they were trying to provide a counterargument to a point that nobody is making, which would be "light rail provides no benefits and is inferior to all other forms of transportation, bar none", when the argument that is actually being made (in most cases) is that "light rail is a suboptimal allocation of public resources"...which is to say that "we can do better."If I have time, later tonight, I'll go "myth" by "myth" and apply their reasoning directly to Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToryGattis Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 It seemed like they were trying to provide a counterargument to a point that nobody is making, which would be "light rail provides no benefits and is inferior to all other forms of transportation, bar none", when the argument that is actually being made (in most cases) is that "light rail is a suboptimal allocation of public resources"...which is to say that "we can do better."If I have time, later tonight, I'll go "myth" by "myth" and apply their reasoning directly to Houston.Amen, and looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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