Relatively recently, Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (yes, they’re Canadian), released a study entitled Evaluating Rail Transit Criticism (PDF, 40 pg.) which challenges the assertions of such transit naysayers as Randal O’Toole, Wendell Cox et al.
Litman brings up a few good points about the light rail v. automobile debate. I was particularly impressed with his discussion about the cost of light rail. Conceding that light rail does pose a huge start up cost (which sometimes can extend for quite some time), Litman points out that when one compares this cost to the automobile, sometimes we fail to add on vehicle expenses, congestion impacts, parking, and pollution emissions. I’m not totally convinced that the cost of rail, including subsidies, is really less than these costs combined, but I’m willing to check the numbers.
In one of the best lines in the study, Litman says that we won’t be able to truly compare rail to the automobile until we put the proper price tag on automobile usage.
Like most economists, I agree that the optimal solution to many transportation problems is more efficient pricing of travel. With such a system, motorists would pay directly for using roads and parking facilities, and for imposing external costs such as congestion, accident risk and pollution damages on other people.
Bravo.
But, although Litman’s study does offer some good points to ponder, ultimately the study falls into the same Sarlac pit of dispair that all transit supporters eventually fail to notice. For light rail to succeed, a city must buy into the ideas of smart growth, high density urban planning. And even then, light rail, as Litman points out, only really helps during high-congestion periods.
Here’s what amounts to Litman’s concession of the point:
Light rail requires a minimum density of 9 residential units per acre, a standard that can be met with a combination of single-family housing (4-8 units per acre) and low-rise apartments (25-50 units per acre).
Thus, if we only create the urban density problem, we can then move to transit to fix it.
