In anticipation of CATS chief Ron Tober spinning out quite a yarn for the Charlotte City Council tonight, here’s a dose of reality to keep you from losing it during Tober’s pitch.

This excerpt from the new book by Sam Staley and Ted Balaker, The Road More Traveled, makes more sense than 10,000 PowerPoint presentations from CATS and Tober. A tiny taste of an absolute must-read article:

If you want to know why so few people use mass transit, meet Sue, a college administrator in Minneapolis. If anyone would use transit, Sue would. She’s single, she lives in a condominium, and she can afford any additional out-of-pocket expense. She could use her city’s Hiawatha Line, a light rail route newly completed at a cost of $715 million. But she doesn’t, although she feels guilty about it. That’s because her car gets her where she needs to go. Faster. …

…The U.S. Department of Transportation puts the yearly cost of congestion at $168 billion. But the planning gurus who are supposed to solve our transportation problems are in the grip of transitphilia and autophobia; their beliefs about how cities and transportation work are grounded more in nostalgia than in a realistic view of the world we live in now. The public policies they design and try to enforce make it harder for us to get to work, pick up our kids from school, or go shopping. They are deliberately fostering congestion. In the words of David Solow, head of the Metrolink commuter rail in Southern California, congestion is “actually good” because “it drives people out of their cars.” …

…There is a fundamental disconnect between transportation planners and the typical American commuter. Most travelers believe the car is a good thing, a source of freedom and mobility. Giving up the flexibility of the private automobile reduces our quality of life; it’s a step back, not a step forward. That’s the main reason the use of mass transit is declining in the U.S., despite the billions of dollars poured annually into such systems.

Yet transportation planners believe public transit and sharing rides with strangers increases the typical American’s quality of life. It doesn’t, and our behavior reflects this. That’s why the vast majority of us choose not to use public transit.

Back in Minneapolis, Sue may hop aboard the Hiawatha Line from time to time. But when even well-off, condo-dwelling rail fans like her continue to rely on their cars, the currently dominant school of transportation policy seems destined to create many more traffic jams than transit users.

See? Ron Tober would catch on fire if he spoke like that — or even read it. A couple more things to watch for tonight:

  • What the hell is the deal with CATS’ Teamster bus drivers? Contract? No? Strike? Raise?
  • Can we get a new South Blvd. line cost estimate? The current one is going on six-months old.
  • What is the date for the ribbon-cutting? All of the line by the end of the year? Part? None?

Instead of those facts, we’ll get CATS spin. Which, in itself, is a very, very powerful argument for forcing CATS to change.