How to reform public transit

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• How to reform public transit
• by Ted Balaker
• Reason Foundation
• www.reason.org

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Two words
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• Lets go from the theoretical
• to the specific

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• Lets step away from
• transportation policy altogether.

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Imagine a New Welfare Program

• Purpose feed people

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Imagine a New Welfare Program

• How service is delivered Not food stamps,
  govt-run supermarkets.

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Imagine a new welfare program

• Whom should we serve?
• The hungriest (welfare dependent) or the well-fed
  (choice eaters).

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• Choice eaters are difficult to attract
• because they can choose to eat elsewhere.

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When people are used to this
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Its hard to get them to eat this.
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If you really want choice eaters

• Must spend more
• Need fancy meals to meet their higher expectations

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But what about those who arent choice eaters?
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To someone with no food this is a big
improvement.
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We only have so much moneyhow should we spend it?

• 1. Buying many meals for the hungry
• 2. Buying fewer meals for choice eaters

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• Say we decide to buy fewer
• meals for the choice eaters.

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What have we done?

• Spent lavishly, providing welfare to those who
  need it least.
• Neglected those who need it most.
• How many people would support this program?

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• But often thats how
• transit agencies operate.

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Expensive rail transit for those least in need.

• Average choice rider has access to several cars.

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Neglect those who need transportation most

• Transit dependent person has no car.

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How are poor hurt?

• Buses rerouted to serve rail lines (more
  transfers).
• Divert money from bus to pay for rail cost
  overruns.
• Pot of funds devoted to rail yields far less
  transportation improvement.

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Insult to Injury

• Few choice riders use transit anyway
• Since 1970, spent 25 billion
• 1 of America gets to work by rail

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• Why dont more choice riders take transit?

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• Even with mounting congestion,
• auto travel is still much faster.

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Rail or Car?

• 16 mph 35 mph (worst-case
  scenario)
• Transfers No transfers
• Few destinations Go anywhere
  you want
• Scheduled service Go whenever you
  want

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Learning from food welfare

• Govt food programs not the best way to help the
  hungry.
• But the approach is better than the approach to
  transportation.

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Food Welfare

• Vouchers not supermarkets
• Private innovation
• Welfare recipient has choice
• Kept administrative costs low

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Transportation Welfare

• Not vouchers, funded bureaucracies
• Outlawed many kinds of competition
• Costs shot up
• Innovation suffered

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Food Welfare vs. Transportation Welfare

• Food stamps focus on the needy.
• Public transit focuses more and more on choice
  riders.

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How to reform transit?

• Focus transportation welfare on those who need it
  most.
• But that doesnt mean we have to pit the well-off
  against the poor.

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Common ground

• The well-off are overwhelmingly drivers.
• The poor are overwhelmingly bus riders.
• Both groups travel mainly on roads.
• A common enemy traffic congestion

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• What to do?

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• Fight the common enemy.
• Heres one way

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• Virtual Exclusive Busways (VEBs)

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How to make a VEB

• Step 1 Fall out of love with carpool lanes.

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• Carpool lanes just arent
• good congestion-busters.

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Its hard to get the flow right.

• Some carpool lanes are underused.
• Lots of valuable space goes to waste.
• Some are clogged.
• No more incentive to carpool.

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Carpool or Fampool?

• Most carpooling today is not carpooling in
  the sense we knew it just a few years ago a
  voluntary arrangement among co-workers or
  neighbors. That is dying most of the surviving
  carpool activity consists of family members with
  parallel destinations and timing.
• Alan
  Pisarski, Commuting in America.

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Carpool or Fampool?

• In 2001, fampools accounted for 83 of
  journey-to-work carpools.
• Source Nancy McGuckin and Nandu Srinivasan,
  The Journey-to-Work in the Context of Daily
  Travel, 2005.

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Carpooling Most common when least needed

• Congestion is worst during
• the morning and afternoon, but

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Carpooling peaks in the evening.
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• Relatively easy to shift away from carpool lanes
  in Atlanta.
• Very small portion of planned HOV network has
  been completed.

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How to make a VEB

• Step 2 Replace with HOT Lanes

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HOT Lanes

• Variable pricing
• Keeps traffic moving
• 65mph vs 20mph
• Electronic Toll Collection
• Popular
• Equitable

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From HOV to VEB

• Step 3 Reserve space for transit buses,
  vanpools, and some carpools.
• In Houston its 25

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• Result A virtual equivalent of an exclusive
  busway.
• Less costly, more functional.

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VEB Something for everyone

• Transit users get better service.
• Motorists get a free flowing escape route.
• Local govts get new funding source.

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And theres still incentive to carpool.

• Tolling preserves incentives to ride-share, by
• Sharing the toll with others.
• Not leaving you stuck in traffic when your
  carpool buddy stays at work late.
• Source UCLA Ph.D. dissertation by Eugene Kim,
  HOT Lanes A Comparative Evaluation of Costs,
  Benefits, and Performance.

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Weve covered a lot of ground

• If you remember one thing, let it be this

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• I have a book for sale!

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(Shameless Plug)

• The Road More Traveled
• Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You
  Think,
• And What We Can Do
  About It
• By Ted Balaker and Sam Staley
• Should be required reading
• Joel Kotkin, Author The City A Global History
• Buy their book, read it, then send it to your
  favorite political representative.
• Prof. Peter Gordon, USC
• Available September 26 from Rowman
  Littlefield

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• Questions?
• Comments?
• ted.balaker_at_reason.org