Why Saving Transit Matters

In a piece for Bloomberg CityLab, Jarrett Walker outlines the problem with letting public transit systems die out, arguing that the loss of robust public transit is bad for everyone, even those who don’t use it.

According to Walker, since dense cities can’t accommodate everyone traveling in a car, transit “is critical to the economic functioning of these cities.” Cities call for the efficient use of space, and transit helps provide that. “Second, all communities have people who cannot, don’t want to, or shouldn’t be driving. They also have people who may find it financially liberating to own fewer cars. Transit is part of how we include those people in society and grant them the same freedoms that motorists enjoy.”

Walker notes that most U.S. transit systems are not funded well enough to grow with demand, falling behind in serving expanding communities. Meanwhile, “we have constructed our transportation funding streams to make transit’s costs visible, while the costs of car dependence are mostly concealed.” Because transit funding decisions are often made at the state level, some legislators don’t understand the necessity of transit in urban areas.

“The US is unusual in the powers it gives rural areas over cities, most obviously in the structure of the Senate and the disenfranchisement of residents of Washington, DC.” This forces transit agencies to need support from suburban areas that are often resistant to it. As more agencies face a fiscal cliff, the ineffectiveness of this system could come to a head and threaten the existence of major transit systems — and, in Walker’s view, the health of cities.