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Transport Subsidies Lead to Bad Decisions

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[quote user="blue streak 1"] Tulyar, Samantha:You may have hit upon the financing of operating deficits of commuter RRs. If the additional property tax (due to higher valuation) that is collected around a RR station was all directed to support the operating deficits of that operation that might solve the operating deficit/ It would not solve the capital problem.  [/quote]Proponents of transport subsidies, especially rail, claim highways and airways users benefit because of reduced congestion.  This point is debatable.In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, according to a study released last week, approximately two per cent of the population uses public transit, which consists of buses, commuter rail, and light rail.  This number is probably too low.  It considers the total population.  However, 28 per cent of the population is below 16, which could be considered the age when a teenager decides independently how to get from Point A to Point B.  The percentage of adults who use public transport is probably between six and nine per cent, although approximately 15 per cent of the users do not have an option.  In Dallas more than 40 per cent of the bus riders and 20 per cent of the light rail riders don't have a car.  No matter how one slices and dices the numbers, the percentage of people in Texas, which the part of the country that I know best, who use public transport is pretty low.  However, with the recent run-up in the cost of gasoline, the number of riders has increased during the first five months of this year.  Overall each user received an average subsidy of $3.22 per ride (2006 figures), whereas commuter rail riders received an average subsidy of $6.44 per ride in 2006.  The largest subsidies go to the light and heavy rail users.Dr. Bernard Weinstein, Professor of Economics, University of North Texas, claims that the light rail lines have attracted a considerable amount of trackside development, which in turn has raised property values and tax receipts along the rail lines.  Clearly, the light rail lines in Dallas have spawned considerable development.  What is not said, however, is whether the development would have occurred without the rail lines.  The rail footprint in North Texas is very small, but development throughout the Metroplex has been very large.  In the 32 years that I lived in the Metroplex, the population grew from 1.5 million to 6.3 million.  Passenger rail did not fuel the growth or even make it possible.  Highways did.If the true cost of driving had not been masked, i.e. the full cost of gasoline was not passed through to the end user; the Metroplex might have seen a better balanced transport system, with less emphasis on highways and more emphasis on an integrated transport system.
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