Just Say No

The city council of the town of Grimes, Iowa — a suburb of Des Moines — had voted to end support for the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART). City council members noted that it is spending $646,000 a year to support the transit system and yet only 13 residents of Grimes rode transit in the last year. “When you look at the math,” commented Grimes Mayor Scott Mickelson, “you could buy everybody a couple of cars for that price.”

Des Moines has an impressive downtown, but not many people there use its transit system. Photo by Jason Mrachina.

Naturally, the transit agency was unhappy with this decision. “When you think about people who are our frontline workers, a lot of them are using DART to get to their jobs,” said DART’s CEO, Amanda Wanke. “A lot of them don’t have another option for a vehicle. During these economic times, public transit is more necessary than ever.”

Just what economic times is she talking about? The U.S. economy is one of the healthiest in the world, unemployment is low, and almost everyone has access to a car.

In fact, the city of Des Moines itself should take a serious look at ending support for the transit agency. In 2022, fares paid by transit riders covered just 5 percent of operating costs and the system required a subsidy of $33 million, or nearly $14 per trip. According to the 2022 American Community Survey, out of 110,000 Des Moines residents with jobs, fewer than 1,400 relied on transit to get to work, and most of them earned more than $31,000 a year.

Of the 5,395 Des Moines residents who work but live in households with no cars, only 257 took transit to work while 1,948 drove alone and 303 carpooled while most of the rest walked to work (1,843) or worked at home (587). It doesn’t sound like transit has made itself very indispensable to the Des Moines economy.