INDIANAPOLIS - State lawmakers pushing for more regional mass transit got a warning Wednesday from a transportation expert.
Samuel Staley of the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, cautioned that mass transit alone cannot meet the goals of relieving congestion or improving air quality.
Staley said current mass-transit systems simply do not attract enough new passengers to make a major difference.
Staley's remarks came in testimony to the Joint Study Committee on Mass Transit and Transportation Alternatives. He countered testimony at previous hearings from former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening and other mass-transit proponents, who optimistically described buses and light-rail trains shuttling commuters between cities in the future.
"I do think mass transit has a role; the question is what is the role and what to expect from it," Staley told lawmakers. Fares from riders generally cover only about 15 percent of the operating costs of running urban transit systems, Staley said, meaning they typically must be subsidized with tax dollars.
"Mass transit is not a substitute for the automobile in the foreseeable future," Staley said, telling lawmakers it works best in niche markets. Although urban transit systems tend to be legal monopolies, Staley encouraged lawmakers to allow competition between transit companies.
A byproduct of the Legislature's debate over the failed Indiana Commerce Connector toll-road proposal, the mass-transit study committee was created by a law passed last session. The new law also triggered studies of creating transit service in six regions of the state, including Southwestern Indiana, and studies of light rail lines.
Sen. Tom Wyss, the state Senate's point man on transportation and an enthusiastic advocate of Interstate 69 construction, co-chairs the mass-transit committee. "I think the state and a lot of legislators who represent a lot of other areas understand that it's a regional problem, rather than a state problem," Wyss said. "The difficulty is committing statewide funds to regional problems. We already have to do that with the roads, and there is only a limited amount of dollars," the Fort Wayne Republican said.
But the state committee should look into allowing local officials more authority to make regional mass-transit decisions, he added.
Staley's skeptical assessment came on the committee's third hearing into mass transit. Balancing his testimony were two other experts who offered rosier predictions, citing mass transit's potential for redeveloping blighted areas.
Marilee Utter, a developer and consultant from Denver, cited that city's investment in a light-rail system, whose transit stations spawned retail outlets, coffee shops and redevelopment of surrounding blocks, she told lawmakers.
The transit committee's hearings will be distilled into a report Nov. 1, which in turn could lead to lawmakers introducing bills into the 2008 session of the General Assembly.