Letter in the WSJ about our light-rail

[question everything]

Masses in Transit Are No Laughing Matter

Humorist P.J. O'Rourke once stated, "Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen." Most people reading such an outlandish statement would recognize that its purpose was to make a point with exaggerated humor. Similarly, in his "Mass Transit Hysteria," on your March 16 editorial page, Mr. O'Rourke again exaggerates with genuinely amusing writing -- but with an underlying intent of serious criticism.

So, for the purpose of making an alternative point, let's treat Mr. O'Rourke's statements seriously: He says, for instance, that it would be cheaper to lease BMW SUVs for all of the folks who travel on Minneapolis's new light-rail system than it cost to build and operate the system. Well, I priced such a lease. For the 15,500 average daily riders the tab would run taxpayers $44 million a year. Each car leaser would pay an additional $2,800 a year for operating costs out of pocket. But wait! How will these cars get downtown? According to the Federal Highway Administration, highways cost an average $20.6 million per mile, while major urban interchanges cost $100 million per interchange. To replace the 12-mile light-rail system, Minneapolis taxpayers would need to build (conservatively) 12 miles of highway and one major interchange for both the airport and the Mall of Americas. Hmm, that comes out to $440 million -- before highway maintenance costs set in. Then where will all of these 15,500 BMWs park? In the new city parking lots! If built totally on the cheap, these single-level lots will cost taxpayers at least $31 million. Now, let's not forget that whereas a square foot of commercial space will bring in at least $50 in taxes per square foot, a parking lot at best brings in $3. Since our 15,500 BMWs will require almost two million square feet of parking, that equates to a loss of $91 million in tax revenue to the city of Minneapolis every year.

The rail line, which actually cost roughly $700 million, has a life expectancy of 50 years. Its operating costs are $13 million per year and farebox revenues are so far offsetting close to $10 million of that.

So how do these two options compare? Choosing the light rail's 50-year capital lifespan for both the light-rail and BMW options, and amortizing these capital costs over those 50 years, adding annual operating costs and subtracting annual tax revenue losses, and removing any effects of inflation, in present dollars light rail costs the Minneapolis taxpayers just over $17 million per year. But to get the same benefit courtesy of BMW and more highways, taxpayers would have to dish out $166 million per year.

So where did Mr. O'Rourke get the information for his criticisms? From the Heritage Foundation, an anti-rail think tank. Where did my facts come from? The Federal Highway Administration, the American Automobile Association, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, etc. When talking transportation matters, I think it best that humorists stick to bumper cars.

Janek Kozlowski
Alexandria, Va.
(Mr. Kozlowski is an officer in the U.S. military and a trained engineer with an M.B.A. In Operation Iraqi Freedom he oversaw the engineering required for all logistics in support of ground operations in the theater of operations.)

http://online.wsj.com/opinion/letters?mod=2_0048 (paid subscritption)

[Rick Myers]

1. Excellent!!!

O'Rourke is suffering from Dennis Miller syndrome!!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Excellent!

PJ O'Rourke is an idiot. He wrote an article for Rolling Stone in which he went to Sweden hoping to find people who would gripe about high taxes and government on their backs, and instead, all he found were people who said, "Yes, our taxes are high, but we have a pretty good life."

He had to admit that everyone looked prosperous and that there were no slums and everyone got paid vacations by law and national health care and allowances for raising children. But being a Republican, he couldn't admit that maybe they were on to something, so he ended the article by saying that he didn't like Sweden because the food was too bland. :eyes:

Anyway, the type of argument that O'Rourke made here is based on arguments advanced by professional transit bashers such as Wendell Cox, John Charles, Randal O'Toole, and Mel Zucker. Those guys can be guaranteed to show up in any city that is planning a light rail line or a streetcar or any kind of New Urbanist development. They outright lie about what has happened in other cities, and they even try to lie about Portland in Portland.

[question everything]

3. Portland, of course, is the example of light rail that works

I have read once that it is so quiet that some pedestrians step in front of it, not hearing it coming...

Also, I remember the plan called for developing residential and industrial centers around the rail station.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Yes, some of this has been done already, at least as of August 2003

which was when I moved from there to Minneapolis. :-)

Portland's equivalent of the Warehouse District really boomed after a streetcar line went through.

[no name no slogan]

6. Yeah, O'Rourke is a noted moran

He was also known for going to Nicaragua in the 1980s and griping about the shortages and lack of luxuries available-- remember, this is after the Sandanistas came into power and ended years of the thuggish, fascistic dictatorship by Somosa (and his corporate US backers).

I take P.J. at face value: occassionally he's funny, but usually he's just a whiny stupid white guy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. He goes to ...Nicaragua...right after the revolution

and blames the Sandinistas for the lack of luxuries?

Okay, whatever. :eyes:

[GAspnes]

5. great rebuttal

I like to think that my paternal grandfather wasn't a *total* idiot when he built the Minneapolis/St.Paul trolley car lines.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Too bad the city wasn't smart enough to keep the trolley lines

:-(