JLF president John Hood analyzes Antiplanner’s case against rail transit:
Charlotte’s experience may be worse than average, but few transit systems would earn a passing grade on O’Toole’s tests. “By almost any objective criteria,” he writes, “few American rail-transit systems make sense. Congress should correct the perverse incentives that encourage transit agencies to choose high-cost solutions to transit problems.”
One can only hope that Congress, some future Congress most likely, will follow this recommendation before it comes time for the Triangle and Triad to submit their own cockamamie rail plans to Washington to approval. That way, billions of tax dollars can be saved and invested in real transportation solutions such as new highway capacity, highway and bridge renovation, new signaling and traffic-management technologies, and bus rapid transit.
Now get this —–high-speed rail is flopping in China as the growing middle class “seem to also prefer the advantages of the increased mobility and lower travel times afforded by intercity air travel.”
As you can probably imagine, China is also the world’s fastest-growing auto market.
