U.S. Cities Scrambling to Meet Rising
Mass Transit Demands
ATLANTA, Georgia
(CNN) – July 16, 2008 - U.S. cities are racing to
cope with ever-increasing demand on public transportation as gas prices remain
at record levels.
High gas prices in
recent months have had a considerable impact on commuters using public
transportation, statistics show.
Even regions that
have traditionally resisted giving up cars and have limited access to mass
transit are reporting a surge in public transportation use.
From trains and trolleys to subways and buses, the growth encompasses all modes of travel, according to the American Public Transportation Association, a Washington D.C.-based industry group.
Cities are using a
variety of measures to meet that demand, according to an informal APTA survey
of some transit systems.
For example, the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which is currently operating at
capacity during peak periods, ordered more subway cars, buses and coaches for
its commuter rail.
In North Carolina,
the Charlotte Area Transit System has increased the frequency of light rail
service on the weekends, ordered new buses and is taking a look at
low-performing routes to cut down on costs.
And the Southeastern
Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves Philadelphia and has seen
about 20,000 new daily customers since last July, has ordered 400 new hybrid
buses and 120 new rail cars.
Other measures being
used or considered by transit systems include changing schedules to increase
frequency of buses and trains, creating bus-only lanes and taking out seats on
trains to make more room for commuters.
'The paradox of
public transportation'
While the rise in
ridership has been a relatively easy adjustment for some systems, others are
facing difficulties in meeting operating costs, which hampers their ability to
ramp up service or maintain normal levels.
Cal Marsella, the
head of Denver, Colorado's transit system, calls it the "paradox of public
transportation."
Denver's system, like
many U.S. cities, is partly funded by revenues from sales taxes. As consumers spend
less because of high fuel costs and a sour economy, the city earns less
revenue. Consequently, funding for the transit system is decreasing just when
their operating costs are higher than ever before.
"Just when our
demand is highest, our ability to provide is being undermined by the whole
crunch," Marsella said. "The last thing we want to do is curtail
service but there is not a lot you can do when revenues are down and fuel
prices are up."
The Denver Regional
Transit District, however, saw the high prices coming and was able to lock in
the price of diesel fuel earlier this year at $3.20 a gallon -- a price far
cheaper than what the market is right now. That contract expires at the end of
this year.
Marsella is
pessimistic prices will drop much by the end of the year. "I'm budgeting
next year for $4.55 a gallon," he said. "Everybody is hurting, and I
have real concerns about our ability to sustain services and maintain
infrastructure."
A sharp rise in
ridership
Americans used public
transportation record numbers the first three months of this year, according to
the APTA. They took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation during that
period, an increase of 85 million more trips compared with the same period last
year.
Meanwhile, the number
behind the wheel dropped. Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles from
April 2007 through April 2008, according to figures released by the Department
of Transportation in June. The numbers represented the sixth consecutive
monthly drop.
In some places, the
growing embrace of public transportation has been an ongoing trend for the past
few years, reflecting a steady and gradual change in commuter behavior.
iReport: Show us your commute
For instance,
ridership increased during a period of high fuel prices from 2005 through 2006
in Tulsa, but did not decline after fuel prices went back down, said Cynthia
Stabb of Tulsa Transit.
"Once people get
a chance to try public transit and they find it works for them, they stick with
it," she said via e-mail. Asked about the current high levels, she
responded, "We believe the demand is here to stay."
Turning point?
Some observers such
as Dr. Robert Lang, an expert on urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech
University, say the gas crunch could be a turning point in perceptions of
public transportation and how cities plan development.
Consumers are
beginning to believe the high prices are a result of structural changes in the
global economy, not the result of a single event like Hurricane Katrina, which
produced a period of high fuel prices earlier this decade, Lang said.
That change in
perception is providing more momentum for some cities that were already moving
away from six-lane highways and suburbs dozens of miles apart, to a series of
urban centers connected by light rail and other mass transit systems.
He cited cities like
Denver and Phoenix, Arizona, where residents, motivated by traffic frustrations
and the promise of economic development, approved massive transportation
projects during the past few years despite the costs to their pocketbooks.
Marsella said
Denver's suburban and exurban commuters were as enthusiastic as its urban
residents in approving the multibillion dollar project in 2004. "People
want to drive their cars a mile or two to a park-and-ride, and then take the
rail in on the most congested part of the trip," he said.
Other cities, like
Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, are struggling to make the pivot.
Often cited in
discussions about urban sprawl, Atlanta has been bedeviled for years by a lack
of consensus among city and regional leaders on the need to expand its transit
system.
"Some of it is
just the fear of change," Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said.
"People acted as if transit was a dirty word and the only thing that would
be successful in Atlanta would be to build more roads, but we can see from the
congestion that you need an integrated transport system."
"Unfortunately,
there's no quick answer for the problems that we have."
Roads, and the cars
on them, will not likely disappear anytime soon, Lang said. "We're a
settler nation. And people had to get moving to do that," he said.
"There's something deep within the American psyche about the freedom of
movement."
But the current
environment may lead to a future where hybrid cars coexist with denser transit
systems. "2007, for all we know, might be the peak use of gas in the
United States," he said.
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