Why do liberals confuse inputs with outputs? Matthew Yglesias raves about how wonderful Los Angeles is for building more rail transit, even though the city’s last burst of rail construction resulted in a 17 percent decline in transit ridership.
A Los Angeles attorney named Robert Garcie provides an antidote to Yglesias’ rantings. He notes that LA’s transit agency “spends almost twice as much on rail to carry about one fourth as many passengers” as buses. LA transit ridership recovered only when a court order directed the city’s transit agency to restore the bus service it had cut to pay for rail. When that order expired, it started new rail projects, cut bus service, and ridership is again decreasing.
Meanwhile, Cleveland reporter Angie Schmitt thrills to the fact that, even though big cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Washington can’t afford to maintain the rail systems they have, smaller cities such as Grand Rapids, Ft. Collins, and Savannah want to build their own rail systems that they won’t be able to afford to maintain. Schmitt writes for DCStreetsBlog, a popular blog known for its support of “livability,” whatever that is.
