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Transport Subsidies Lead to Bad Decisions

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[quote user="blue streak 1"]I agree about Texas weather. I've suffered in Harlengin (sp) and Laredo in the summer (110+). Any indication of decrease in ridership figures in summer?[/quote]The number of public transit riders in Texas decreases during the hot summer months, although the exact numbers are difficult to determine.  Some of the decrease is due to vacations; some of it is because school is out; and some of it is because more people move during the summer.I rode public transit to work for 30 of the 32 years that I lived in Dallas.  Several of my colleagues, who used it from October to May, would not ride it during the summer because of the heat.  I was a middle level manager in a Fortune 250 company.  We had more than 17,000 employees, of whom approximately 700 were executives and managers.  Less than 20 of the managers used public transit.  None of the executives used it.   Most of the people in DFW who used public transit came from the bottom half of the income distribution continium.  However, with the coming of the express commuter buses in the late 1980s and the light rail system in the late 1990s, the pattern changed.  Suburban commuters began to use the system in significant numbers.  In 2007 I was able to get DART's rider numbers for every bus and light rail route, as well as the TRE.  Although the numbers did not show the incomes of the people who use public transit in Dallas, the patterns of use suggest that the riders can be divided into three groups.  The majority of local bus riders are lower income folks, although there are exceptions.  Upper income people do not use public transit.  And it is unlikely that they will.  Approximately 40 per cent of the bus riders do not have a car.  The bus is their only alternative.A significant percentage of the express bus riders, although how many is unknown, as well as the light rail riders are suits.  Most of them work downtown, but some of them work on the fringes of downtown, and some are reverse commuters.  They only use public transit to get to and from work.  A significant percentage of the light rail riders at the close in stations transfer from buses that connect with the system at various points.  Approximately 20 per cent of the light rail riders, essentially those transferring from the bus system, probably don't have access to a car.  Before the light rail system was implemented, many of the buses ran downtown.  Thus, some of the riders on the light rail system were force fed onto it.  Ironically, in many instances, their commute time increased because of the transfer time between the bus and light rail.The third group are special event riders, e.g. State Fair of Texas, American Airlines Center, etc.  Many middle class event goers use the special event light rail and Trinity Railway Express services.  This is the only time that the TRE stops at Victory Station.  One of the problems with rail is its inflexibility.  Once the tracks are tacked down, it is difficult to move them.  Thus, in Dallas, the areas that took off just about the time the first light rail trains began to operate are not served by light rail, as per my previous post.  There is no way to get a train to them.  Had Dallas opted for rapid bus technology it could have easily changed the bus routes to serve the new high density neighborhoods.  As tends to be the case in life, rail has some advantages, albeit very costly ones; but buses are more flexible and can compete with rail if they can run in HOV lanes, which is the case in much of Dallas.
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