Carolina Journal’s Dan Way reports today on the relentless push by Wake County Democrats/progressives, who now control the county commission, to push ahead with a costly light rail plan that is highly unlikely to deliver on the utopian promises its supporters espouse. Just last year, consultants recommended expanding bus service to meet transit needs. But here’s what’s brewing now that progressives have taken control of the commission.
Jarrett Walker, president of a Portland, Ore.-based transit consulting firm bearing his name, has been engaged by Wake County and other local government and nonprofit groups — along with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm of Cary — to implement the new transit study.
Walker presented an outline and answered questions at a Dec. 8 public meeting of some 600 people at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Walker’s presentation of the recent history and benefits of mass transit systems used maps and grids to show how somewhat comparable capital cities of Columbus, Ohio, and Salem, Ore., have capitalized on expanded transit with higher frequency. But he downplayed discussion of how the transit upgrades would be paid for and whether they would include rail.
“We’re talking about paying some more taxes in return for a better transit system,” Walker said, “and people are going to decide for themselves ultimately whether it is worth that for them.”
He said the economic cost of an expanded transit system “is extremely tangible. We are talking an increment of some sort of revenue source that’s going to come out of somebody’s pocket.”
He cautioned against limiting judgments to just economic benefits because the pluses are “so diverse.” Transit “has social inclusion, social benefits. It has environmental benefits. It has benefits to people’s sensation of liberty,” and enhances income mobility for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
Several times Walker linked transit with freedom, saying it provides commuters another option for travel; allows people to forego the financial burden of owning, operating, and parking a car; and eliminates the stress of driving for people traumatized by accidents.
Get ready: the consultant is telegraphing the messaging the commission may use to convince Wake County voters to agree to a half-cent sales tax required to move this wrong-headed plan along.
