Transportation Joins the Campaign Trail
The U.S. presidential campaign is rocketing through the primary season with conflicts and controversies that hurl past with each news cycle. As Daniel McGraw at Next City pointed out yesterday, public transportation has recently swerved into the mix. After all, it’s not every weekend that a customer's frustration with a fare gate makes the opening skit of Saturday Night Live.
The majority of funding for the Central Subway Project is from Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program. Photo taken February 2014.
Late last year, we looked at the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by the president to provide federal funding for Highway Trust Fund over the next five years. This is a crucial need that everyone from the Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx to the American Public Transportation Association to John Oliver sounded alarm bells about. While the bill helps, there are larger problems in transportation and transit funding facing the country. Now, the presidential candidates have their turn to weigh in.
As the Next City article outlines, the pressing transit infrastructure repair and capacity needs are large:
While ridership has increased over the last decade, the growth has happened while funding for transit has remained relatively flat, and many systems are aging and growing more desperate for repair and upgrades. The American Public Transportation Association estimates national mass transit systems need about $86 billion worth of repairs just to get them functional without any growth.
The candidates' ideas to address transit needs range mostly from less money to more money but also wade into exciting things like high-speed rail and rubber-meets-the-road, esoteric topics such as how the funds actually get to the local transit systems (via the state governments or more directly). These are complex subjects, but a candidate's approach to this widespread conundrum can provide concrete insight into how they would govern.
No matter your political affiliation or affinity, your life is certainly affected by how well (or not) your transit or transportation works. With California's primary approaching on June 7, it may be time to consider how well versed you are on your favorite candidate’s positions on how we’re going to keep our country moving. So, make sure you're registered to vote -- the deadline is May 23. It could improve your commute.
On Tuesdays we bring you a tidbit of transit news or trivia, either from our own backyard or from around the globe.