Karin Dryhurst

Why We Need Bus Rapid Transit

The intro to this week's New York mag feature on bus rapid transit struck me:

The future highlighted by the Bx12 SBS takes as a very depressing starting point the fact that the New York City subway system, once the envy of the world, is stalled. Not literally—as when we sat on dark, un-air-conditioned cars between stations on the way to Simon and Garfunkel reunion concerts—but still, our subways are strained under a ridership that has grown 60 percent since 1990 and a permanent budgetary crisis that has, over the past two years, only gotten worse. Last month, faced with an $800 million budget gap, the MTA canceled two subway lines and 37 bus lines and dramatically reduced late-night and weekend service. No one is expecting Albany’s fiscal situation to improve anytime soon.

If this were, say, Shanghai, one could imagine the federal government sweeping in and not just restoring transit funding but modernizing and expanding our underground tracks. Shanghai didn’t even have a subway system until 1995, and it is now in the midst of dramatically expanding it to 22 lines. But this is not Shanghai; this is New York, where the first subway line was built in 1904.

But the reason why we can't be Shanghai has little to do with the age of the subway system and more to do with the rural focus of Congress and federal transportation policy. Historically, federal transportation dollars have gone to highways. The stimulus favored highways. And it looks as if the Jobs for Main Street Act would as well. Perhaps if we put transportation funds where our people are, we wouldn't be so far behind Shanghai.

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Posted at 2:46 PM, Jul 06, 2010 in Transportation
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