Advancing its “regional transit equity” plan, the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council issued a press release last week announcing it has received a $3.26 million federal grant to build or “enhance” 140 bus shelters. This money is matched, on a one-to-four basis, with $815,000 of local funds, meaning each bus shelter will cost a whopping $29,000.
Meanwhile, the Met Council is twisting the arms of city officials to gain support for a $1.7-billion light-rail line extending from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, which is probably the Twin Cities’ wealthiest suburb. Three (out of 13) members of the Minneapolis city council voted against the project, partly due to concerns over transit equity.
“If we think equity means maybe we might build some heated bus stops in north Minneapolis sometime in the future that we can’t promise or guarantee and we won’t tell you where they’ll be, then good for us for standing up for equity,” one of the councilors who voted “no” sarcastically stated.
For the most part, Metro Transit bus shelters are not heated and do not even provide complete shelter against the elements. They tend to be completely open on one side and the bottom foot or so is open on the other three sides, allowing the wind to flow through from any direction. A few downtown shelters are heated, but $29,000 is not going to provide heated shelters in low-income neighborhoods.
Curiously, some other cities were far more innovative in their use of the “ladders of opportunity” grant funds that the Twin Cities is using to build a few score bus shelters. San Francisco is increasing the frequencies on lines “in some of the city’s highest-need areas,” thus reducing the need for people to stand in bus shelters. Denver is increasing bus speeds through signal priority, queue jumping, and bypass lanes.
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On the other hand, too many cities are using “ladders of opportunity” money to replace existing buses with expensive hybrid or CNG buses that don’t expand capacity or frequency. It’s hard to imagine how a supposedly greener bus increases job opportunities for low-income people or why the administration funded grants that appear to fail to meet the terms of the program.
It is likely that some of these grants are more motivated by politics than by the need to help low-income people; for example, more than half of all the grant money went to three cities (Detroit, San Diego, and San Francisco) with strong Democratic electorates. An analysis of the TIGER grant program by Reason Foundation analyst Baruch Feigenbaum found that political appointees often overruled the grant recommendations made by FTA employees and that money overwhelmingly went to Democratic states and districts. A close scrutiny of the ladders of opportunity program would probably find similar results.
Back in the Twin Cities, the Antiplanner rode the region’s new Green Line train on Sunday to see if it was really as slow as reported. Originally promised to connect the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul in 38 minutes, the latest reports indicated it was taking 58 minutes. I noticed the fastest speeds were on University Avenue, where cars are supposed to observe 30 mph speed limits, but the trains accelerated to 45 mph. This could lead to dangerous situations. The line has already had two pedestrian accidents; unlike the first, the most recent one was not fatal. Despite the high speeds and minimal Sunday traffic, the train took 57 minutes from end to end.
Partly due to the obvious absurdity of spending billions of dollars on 12.5-mph trains that run nearly empty most of the day, the Met Council is facing a revolt from the five suburban counties that surround the region’s two core counties, Hennepin (Minneapolis) and Ramsey (St. Paul). Commissioners from the outer counties claim that all the money the Met Council is pouring into light rail means almost no money is available for roads. Unfortunately, the Star Tribune article makes it sound like they only want money for their local projects rather than a transportation policy that is more sensible overall, but that could just be the slant given by the reporter.
Like Portland’s Metro and metropolitan governments and transit agencies in many other regions, the Met Council is so fascinated by its pretty trains that it is ignoring the transport needs of both inner city and suburban residents. The region’s residents can only hope that the city and county officials they have elected will have the backbone to stand up against the appointed Met Council.
No surprise that Minnesota Democratic politicians use talk about helping poor people as an excuse to raise money for projects that only benefit their wealthy backers.
The last Minnesota politician who actually cared for the working people and the poor was Hubert Humphrey. He left around40 years ago.