Deconstructing Award to RTD for Best Transit Agency

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) recently named the Denver Regional Transportation District as the 2008 Best Transit Agency in North America. Randal O’Toole of the Independence Institute, Cato Institute, and The Antiplanner blog deconstructs the desired qualities for an APTA award winner in today’s Denver Daily News.

Was it RTD’s ability to attract transit riders and fill up its buses and light rail cars? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, in 2006 the average RTD light rail car had just 13.5 riders on board (compared with a national average of 26), while the average RTD bus had just 10 riders (compared with a national average of 11).

RTD’s light rail cars have room for about 140 passengers, which means they are, on average, less than 10 percent full. That’s less than a single-occupancy Chevy Suburban. So that can’t be why APTA gave RTD its award.

Was it RTD’s ability to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions? In 2006, RTD’s light rail used as much energy and emitted 15 percent more greenhouse gases, per passenger mile, than the average SUV. RTD’s buses were worse than the average automobile. So getting people out of their cars and onto RTD actually hastens global warming.

The idea that the Regional Transportation District is “greener” than driving is a common canard. Read on:

Not that RTD has been getting people out of their cars. Back in the early 1980s, before RTD started planning light rail lines, it was carrying all of 1.5 percent of passenger travel in the Denver-Boulder region. In 2006, after opening two major light rail lines, RTD’s share of passenger travel was down to 1.4 percent.

What about commuters? The Census Bureau says that, in 1980, RTD carried 6.4 percent of the region’s commuters to work. By 2006 it was down to 5.1 percent.

These percentages appear to be more of a red herring. The Denver metropolitan area population exploded from approximately 1.5 million people in 1980 to 2.1 million in 2000, around a 48 percent increase. This shows that RTD’s actual ridership grew, just not at the level of population growth. Randal O’Toole continues:

Perhaps APTA was commending RTD for its ability to save taxpayers’ money. Except that RTD’s southwest and T-Rex light rail lines both had cost overruns, when compared with their original projections, of close to 50 percent. The FasTracks project, which was originally supposed to cost $4.7 billion, is now expected to cost at least $6.2 billion. So that can’t be it, either.

Maybe APTA appreciated RTD’s ability to respond to a crisis, such as today’s high fuel prices. But RTD’s response to those prices has been to propose cutting transit services and raising fares. When RTD is planning to spend billions to build rail lines that won’t be operational for six or seven years, it can’t be distracted with today’s travel concerns.

Here, Randal O’Toole and I part company. With $4 per gallon gas, transit is now more popular than it has been in years. Obviously, the ostensible purpose of the Regional Transportation District is to transport those with no transportation. RTD should and does offer subsidized fares to children, students, and the elderly. However, as I’ve detailed here and here, RTD reduces fares to a ridiculously low yearly rate to doctors, lawyers and other professionals in its Eco Pass program instead of subsidizing fares for only those who meet strict income-level requirements.

Read the rest of Randal O’Toole’s article for more information on the American Public Transportation Association and an interesting conclusion to the article.

by Civil Sense

Comments

[Allen]

I think the hardest thing for people to wrap their heads around is that transit can actually create more pollution than driving would have.

An issue I haven't looked into much are TOD's (Transit Oriented Development). Denver's regional government and RTD seem big on these. There seems to be this belief that thousands of new households will want to locate within 1/2 mile of a transit station. But we've seen near bupkiss for this sort of development along the SW line during the last decade.

Anyone know where the T-Rex data is coming from? I thought that project's costs were 50/50 between rail and road and that it came in ahead of time and under budget.