Hartgen said he thinks ridership will drop further because uptown layoffs are only starting, and that the drop in ridership should spur CATS to consider halting its ambitious plans to build more rapid transit. “We should be saving for our operating budget,” Hartgen said.
If anything, we should be building more transit to create jobs and shape the next housing boom. If we wait till the next housing upswing to build these types of lines around the country, we'll miss a huge opportunity to shape development. We can't afford it.
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If anything, we should be building more transit to create jobs and shape the next housing boom. If we wait till the next housing upswing to build these types of lines around the country, we'll miss a huge opportunity to shape development. We can't afford it.
The good news is that by the time the next housing upswing occurs, the economy would probably have to be in good shape, which would mean that gas prices would move up to the highs that were pushing people to mass transit last summer. Although the availability of better transit at that time would help shape more sustainable development than what we saw in the last 5 or 10 years, high gas prices will push people closer to work and into more dense neighborhoods suitable for transit, which solves the chicken/egg problem.
While I do contend that all will not be lost if we fail to start building transit now in anticipation of demand, we should do it now anyway since the labor, materials, and energy required to build transit are cheaper now than they will be during such an upswing.
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