City would spend fortune for few riders, traffic snarls
COST Commentary: The title of this posting is the title printed on the op-ed published in the Statesman, October 20, 2014. This is a very good Statesman created title. The title below is the one submitted and which is on the Statesman web site.
City’s light rail proposition manipulates voters
By Jim Skaggs – Special to the American-Statesman, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014
Light rail is guided by a few Austin government and business leaders projecting a pretense of openness and transparency. Instead, concealment has prevailed. Objectivity was denied by avoiding unbiased evaluation of alternative solutions. Rail’s merits have been championed primarily by those with conflicted self-interests.
The City Council’s conditioning of the $600 million rail bonds on future council’s authorization of $400 million in roads, without voter approval, is schemed voter manipulation. The city’s proposed “roads” provide little congestion relief, being mostly studies, upgraded overpasses, an upgraded airport entrance and transportation center; many of the projects supporting rail. This reflects disdain and distrust of voters’ judgments about tax money priorities.
No real alternatives to rail were evaluated. City committees started with: Where should the downtown rail go? This ignores total transit ridership declines in Texas’ four largest cities, which are among the fastest growing in the U.S. Every proposed rail route over many years has been different. Austin is young and growing. This fixed transit, with highest cost and least flexibility, is not part of a solution.
The city states this is the “initial investment” with “much more to come.” Concealing rail’s longer term costs and tax impacts is unconscionable. This bond and road commitment will double Austin’s debt — tying the hands of a new 10-1 council and providing no bond flexibility for future needs.
The city, Capital Metro and Chamber of Commerce support rail with assertions of reducing congestion. Studies show no congestion relief because congestion will increase. Austin’s teaser, “10,000 cars off the road daily,” is contradicted by their statement that the train will attract 6,500 new, daily transit riders in 2030. Other riders shift from buses to train. If every new rider previously drove alone before riding the train, only 6,500 cars (30 days of new cars arrivals) would be off the road. More than 8 million daily, area trips in 2030 make this rail insignificant, except in cost.
This $1.4 billion ($147 million per mile) rail will cost much more, considering hidden costs such as the train overpasses and other rail costs disguised in the road plan. Also, average cost overruns, of early rail estimates, are 40 percent. Therefore, taxpayers will pay more than $500,000 for each new transit rider: An incredible tax waste for so few.
The train doesn’t improve congestion but causes significant congestion by removing two potential car lanes from busy streets and forming 4 miles of track “barrier,” parallel to Interstate 35, along the east side of downtown and the University of Texas. Vehicles crossing this track face delays every five minutes during peak hours.
This rail presents the most negative community impact in Austin’s history. Taxes will continue rising, congestion will increase with dwindling road improvements, overall transit will degrade with reduced bus service and affordability will continue to decline, leading to decreasing citizens’ quality of life.
Since 99.7 percent of today’s more than 6 million (8 million in 2030) daily people trips are on roads, the most cost-effective way of meeting citizen’s aspirations, and reducing congestion, is to develop comprehensive road systems, providing shared infrastructure supporting private, carpool/shared, public transit, commercial goods/services, emergency, school, and government vehicles.
Three road upgrade projects — 183 A, 290 East and MoPac Boulevard — will greatly improve daily trips for more than 500,000 people, sharing 113 new lane miles. This train is estimated to serve 6,500 new transit trips, an average of 4 to 5 miles in 2030 when these roadway corridors will serve 700,000 people, 100 times the train and with longer trips. Total cost of these roads is approximately equal the rail’s cost in today’s dollars. Citizens need much more of this efficiency.
Rail will not produce additional tax base. People come to Austin for jobs, not trains. The only train employment increases will be implementation and operations which taxpayers almost fully pay as they highly subsidize the few riders.
Please vote “no” on this manipulative, ineffective, city rail Proposition 1. The new 10-1 City Council will develop responsible approaches to address numerous citywide congestion areas. This is the only cost-effective solution to enhanced mobility and quality of life for all citizens. This also allows Cap Metro to focus its funds on needed regional transit improvements instead of wasting taxes on an ineffective train that will reduce overall transit service and increase fares, hurting those who need the most help.
Skaggs is founder of Citizens Against Rail Taxes (CART).