How Traffic Jams Are Made In City Hall

The bad logic and failed policies of transportation planners

Ted Balaker & Sam Staley from the April 2007 issue

(Page 9 of 9)

Baby, You Can Drive Your Car

There is a fundamental disconnect between transportation planners and the typical American commuter. Most travelers believe the car is a good thing, a source of freedom and mobility. Giving up the flexibility of the private automobile reduces our quality of life; it's a step back, not a step forward. That's the main reason the use of mass transit is declining in the U.S., despite the billions of dollars poured annually into such systems.

 

Yet transportation planners believe public transit and sharing rides with strangers increases the typical American's quality of life. It doesn't, and our behavior reflects this. That's why the vast majority of us choose not to use public transit.

 

Back in Minneapolis, Sue may hop aboard the Hiawatha Line from time to time. But when even well-off, condo-dwelling rail fans like her continue to rely on their cars, the currently dominant school of transportation policy seems destined to create many more traffic jams than transit users.

 

Sam Staley ([e-mail]) is director of urban growth and land use policy at the Reason Foundation. Ted Balaker ([e-mail]) is the Jacobs Fellow at the Reason Foundation. They are the authors of The Road More Traveled (Rowman & Littlefield), from which this article is adapted.