The mass transit delusion
Posted in Liberty's Lessons by R Lee Wrights on March 31st, 2010 by Dennis Polhill
There is no truth to the belief that light rail improves traffic congestion. A look at the failure of light rail in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere shows how wise Denver-area voters were to reject light rail in a landslide.
Locals in Portland report “light rail actually put more cars on the road.” Portland’s Environmental Coalition opposes building more rail because light rail forces more people into cars. Portland’s experience is not unique.
Of the 10 metropolitan areas that have built light rail in the last decade, only San Diego reports a higher system ridership. In other words, in nine out of ten cities, after light rail is built, total mass transit ridership declines. The decline occurs because consumers are rational. Rail forces more transfers, which increases travel times and decreases convenience. San Diego’s ridership is up only because light rail takes tourists to Mexico.
All infrastructure, including roads, is constructed with fixed capacity. If the government owns the infrastructure, and treats the infrastructure as collective property, then there are no incentives against overuse of the infrastructure.
Overcrowding does not occur when infrastructure is privately owned, as with hotel rooms, restaurants, airlines, shopping malls, athletic clubs, telephones, and electricity. Pricing and other value-added incentives abound. Competition for customers encourages innovation.
This past weekend was the Tennessee Libertarian Party’s state convention. Friday night was our meet and greet reception. While talking to old friends and making new ones I met a Democrat who had found out about our convention and stopped by. He was running for Davidson County Juvenile Court Clerk. With a crowded field in the Democratic primary he was searching out support from those not inside his own party. This Democrat commented to me how impressed he was with how so many individuals could come together, talk politics, and be so respectful of each other. After listening to our libertarian philosophy he was hooked, proving that we can gain converts when we reach out to the left or the right and not compromise our libertarian principles.
There have been lots and lots of message flying around in the “patriot movement,” screaming bloody murder about Obama’s Commie-Care plan. Call your congressman! Write a nasty letter! Stand around holding a sign! Wildly jump up and down! Pull your hair out! But between all the “political action” alerts out there, I did see a few examples of what is a far better idea: “Let the stupid thing pass, and then ignore it.”
The New Path objective is to turn the Libertarian Party into the American majority party. We will become the majority party through thoughtful, effective, hard-working leadership that spends your money effectively, that mobilizes volunteers all across America to do effective work, and that spends its time electing Libertarians and creating conditions that will elect more. As we move toward that objective, we will reunite vast numbers of Republican and Democratic politicians with their families in much-needed retirement, and not incidentally re-unite their political parties with their political ancestors, notably the Whigs, Federalists, and Know-Nothings.
BELLEVUE, WA - The Second Amendment Foundation is delighted to be part of a new and growing international organization whose goal is the protection of firearms rights for private citizens.
Sometimes while we’re reading an article we get so hacked off we just want to whip out our big ol’ fat red felt tip marker and lay a major rebuttal on the butthead we’re butting heads with. (And the reason we usually don’t is because then we’d have to whip out our big ol’ bottle of Windex and clean all those red Magic Marker marks off of our monitor screens.)
Recently I was in line at my favorite coffee shop. In front of me was an apparent father-son duo. I had seen the father around town but did not know him. The son, who appeared to be late teens or older, was scoping out my “cops say” button. As I sometimes do I said, “Go ahead, ask.” He did and I went into reasons why drugs should be legalized. Abruptly, his father whirled and began screaming at me, “You be quiet! You don’t talk to him! He’s mine!”
It seems to me that we have, all over the board now, people who are in disagreement about which way our government should run itself. It seems to me that other nations, much smaller than ours, are laughing at us because of it. They are like naughty children who have not learned or accepted the strength of the parent.
“A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.”
