As support builds for increases to DC-area transit service, a doer seizes the moment on hostile turf

As transit expert Jarrett Walker presented at Cato Institute's Hayek Auditorium on Oct. 2, Randal O'Toole took some time to check his cell phone (Photo by me)

As the DC area continues its quest for better transit, there are signs that the region’s discussion is finally shifting toward the solution we all seek: more frequent, more reliable rail and bus service, seven days per week.  

The Washington Post, deviating from its typical focus on WMATA’s construction mistakes and bureaucratic dysfunction, published an article that makes it clear extensive service cuts in recent years are at the root of the system’s ridership problems. Also clear: that the onus falls on elected officials, represented in this case by WMATA’s board, to fix it.

***

This sudden change to DC’s transit rhetoric provided a perfect backdrop for transit planner Jarrett Walker’s visit to our region earlier this week.

I was fortunate enough to see him on two occasions. First, on Monday evening, he spoke at a Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) event about the spatial mechanics and complex decision-making integral to his bus system redesigns, dazzling a packed lecture hall at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies on Monday evening.

Then on Tuesday, he went into the Cato Institute and turned notorious transit opponent Randal O’Toole into a spectator on his home court. (Event video here)

Walker set the tone for the Koch-funded organization’s “Future of Public Transit” forum with his initial response to O’Toole’s opening barrage:

“I’m somebody who works every day to make transit better.”

For the rest of the afternoon, Walker was the doer in the room, while O’Toole was a political pundit trapped behind his desk. Mindful of Cato’s libertarian nature, Walker discussed practical, efficient solutions to issues such as the ridership-coverage tradeoff, local control over transportation funding and service (which he referred to as “urban federalism”), and the overwhelming demand for high-quality transit that housing market trends have demonstrated.

He made it clear that in places that take multimodal transportation seriously (citing Seattle as an example), “you’re not going to get off the ground” politically if you’re not “absolutely rabid about improving transit.”

Meanwhile, O’Toole flubbed two big opportunities to help further the libertarian quest to lower taxpayer costs. He fielded questions on:

• The exorbitant price tags of large-scale transit projects in America, such as New York’s Second Avenue Subway and San Francisco’s Central Subway, relative to other countries
• The recently enacted California legislation that will give BART greater control of development projects around its stations, giving the agency a chance to capture the economic value it creates

However, O’Toole demonstrated little knowledge of these important issues, in both cases resorting to his typical everyone-must-use-cars diatribe instead of providing insightful analysis.

In contrast to the packed house for CSG’s event the previous night, and even though Cato tapped its deep coffers of cash to provide attendees lunch, the Institute’s Hayek Auditorium was half-empty. (I politely declined the food, which looked a bit oily). The Q&A session revealed that most people who did make it to the event desired to get where they need to go, which must have made O’Toole feel like a U.S. soccer player taking on Mexico in a “home” game.

By the end of the day, Walker was begging for a “genuinely libertarian question.” Cato failed to provide him what he wanted.

***

For years, discussion of transit issues in DC closely resembled O’Toole-style data mining. Just as O’Toole’s opening presentation consisted of a string of numbers lacking any real context, people in the nation’s capital have been subjected to a confusing hodge-podge of information on government inefficiency, railroad anatomy, transportation taxes, and declining ridership. The large amount of highly technical evidence failed to tell a clear story, but many interpreted the shallow, endless string of negativity to mean that Metro is an unmitigated disaster that doesn’t deserve any public funding – just as O’Toole would want.

But following Faiz Siddiqui’s above-mentioned article for the Post last weekend, as well as his follow-up earlier this week highlighting an internal Metro document that describes potential strategies to increase ridership, the narrative has finally shifted to focus on the actual nature of the problem: inadequate levels of rail and bus service throughout the region.

Numerous factors, including track work, budget gaps, and the outdated alignment of the bus network, underlie this problem. To fix it, voters must elect leaders committed to making transit a primary way to get around our area.

Doers like Walker – not pundits like O’Toole – will be the ones who guide and inspire those local leaders, helping build a multimodal transportation system that provides freedom and opportunity to all.