Colin McNickle recently wrote in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about a study he says proves rail-transit systems are a waste of money. Hogwash. A conservative think.... Colin McNickle recently wrote in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about a study he says proves rail-transit systems are a waste of money. Hogwash. A conservative think tank like the Independent Institute is not the place to find a fair assessment of mass transit systems.

The reason to spend money on rail transit is because a dense, walkable and efficient community can be built around it. Building rail transit systems is essential to creating the framework where people can move about efficiently. More than half of commuting New Yorkers use the city's mass transit system--including the most extensive rail network in the U.S.-- to get to work. New York grew around its transit system. It did not try to serve existing suburban developments.

A different type of development will grow around highways--one that makes the use of public transit ineffective. Mass transit systems cannot adequately serve housing developments and strip malls spaced far from each other. It is a no-brainer that attempts to do this will be inefficient (as McNickle points out). Rail transit systems can effectively connect dense pedestrian-oriented communities and spur their growth. It's the pattern of growth that's environmentally-friendly and efficient as much as the transit system. Yet only fixed-transit can spur that growth and connect it efficiently.

A bus independent of a track cannot do this because a dense development or transit village will not grow around a bus route which can be moved at any time with the stroke of a pen. The fact remains that private rail systems served United States cities almost exclusively for many years until federal subsidies began funding the construction of highways.