Considering the average urban freeway costs about $10 million a mile to build versus the $50 million for light rail, the trend should be towards more roads and buses, with their greatly increased flexibility, with rail relegated to the super dense urban areas where it actually makes some economic sense.
Editorial: RT's choice
Gaining riders is key to transit's future
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, November 23, 2007
Rancho Cordova Mayor David Sander has the right idea in the discussion of where Sacramento Regional Transit needs to improve its service as it tries to boost ridership: Focus on the job centers outside downtown Sacramento.
"We have a massive job center in my city, and we do nothing to feed it," he told The Bee. But standing in the way is what Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson calls transit's moral obligation to spread buses to where people need help.
The other day The Bee published another in its series of articles looking into Sacramento's transportation future. This article focused on Sacramento Regional Transit and the challenges it faces.
As the article pointed out, RT ridership is down on both light rail and buses. Income from a recent fare increase has failed to raise the anticipated revenue. And now state funding has been reduced. As a result, RT has been forced to trim service on 15 bus routes starting next year. A shrinking transit service is failing to meet a growing region's needs.
Clearly, RT must work on attracting more riders. But RT's future will hold only bleakness and retrenchment if transit devolves into nothing more than an entitlement for the poor and disabled. The outcome will be a vicious cycle of cuts in service followed by declines in ridership that necessitate further cuts in service that prompt more people to abandon transit. How does that help anyone?
