LIGHT RAIL AND URBAN MOBILITY: IS LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT JUSTIFYING ITS INVESTMENT?

Many critics of mass transit argue that mass transit investment, and rail investment in particular--especially in light rail transit (LRT)--are not justified. It is frequently argued that mass transit ridership is so small as to be irrelevant to urban mobility; that transit ridership is in steady decline; that the of urban trips by mass transit is decreasing; and that major transit investments, such as those in LRT, have not had an impact on these trends or on traffic congestion. Recently, critics have referred to U.S. Census journey-to-work survey data in an effort to dismiss seemingly impressive reported increases in transit ridership in North America. While it is possible that transit work trips might have declined despite a rise in overall ridership, claims of an absolute decline in public transportation work trips between 1990-2000 contrast with reported increases in nationwide ridership. They also appear to be based in part on excessive reliance on the competency and precision of census survey data, which may have methodological weaknesses. Journey-to-work survey data may be useful in suggesting broad trends in work travel mode choice or market share, but they do not appear reliable for the precise numerical analysis and conclusions interpolated by such critics. Furthermore, such use of these data fails to account for such factors as the effects of urban sprawl, fostering automobile dependency; the fact that much of this sprawl-type growth is typically outside the transit service area; and the fact that roadway development in almost all cases has significantly outstripped rail transit development. In addition, of the 12 big-city transit systems that apparently gained or maintained market share of work trips (according to census data) between 1990 and 2000, 9 are cities with major rail transit, and most operate LRT systems. Anecdotal case studies of LRT in Dallas, Texas, Portland, Oregon, and Denver, Colorado, suggest that ridership expansion, productivity (passenger-mileage) improvement, and reductions in unit operating costs may provide some justification of LRT investment in those cities. Furthermore, performance of Denver's LRT provides at least anecdotal evidence that LRT may provide significant mobility improvement in a specific corridor.