Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, representing Ward 3, has decided not to run for re-election. Three Democrats and one Libertarian have started primary campaigns to become her successor. On April 13, all three Democrats appeared before the Democratic Nucleus Club of Pima County.
One of the topics of discussion was mass transit. All three candidates supported the idea of an independent regional authority with a dedicated funding source to run Sun Tran, Tucson’s bus service. Increasing ridership was also discussed, according to coverage by the Star’s Joe Ferguson.
With the popularity of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), the creation of another similar authority should be an easy sell — but should we buy it? The RTA, and similar authorities across the country, were created as a workaround for the limits on local government taxation. It was this taxing authority that made it so valuable to the city of Tucson and Pima County. It also relieved the city of Tucson from all the work involved in getting those road projects off the ground.
What better solution to Sun Tran’s financial problems than to hand them off to someone else?
So, let’s say that the new authority comes into being. We can assume that the dedicated funding source will be a combination of federal grants and yet another half cent, it’s-only-a-latte sales tax.
It would be a good idea to forgo the federal grants altogether. They come with more strings than the New York Philharmonic. These strings not only increase costs but can prevent the project from being customized for Tucsonans.
The financial breakdown of Sun Link — Tucson’s “modern streetcar” — is an example of typical transit funding sources. According to the Sun Link website, it has received $69 million in federal grants, $75 million from the RTA, and another $14.2 million from other local sources. Perhaps we could have saved enough money through increased efficiency, flexibility, quality and creativity to make up for the $69 million in federal money had we not sought it. Besides, electric streetcars are so 19th century!
At least the City Council hopefuls focused on a 20th-century alternative — Sun Tran. Buses are less expensive to purchase and maintain than rail systems and require less additional infrastructure. They are also flexible enough to respond to changing residential and business patterns.
Many Sun Link advocates said that the inability to re-route the streetcar was a benefit! There is also the misconception that motorists who would not move to a bus would move to a streetcar, but a 2002 MIT study “Comparing Ridership Attraction of Rail and Bus” concluded the following: “Thus, the principal conclusion of this study is that rail and bus services which provide similar service attributes have the same ridership attraction.”
I have an idea. Why don’t we try some 21st-century approaches? The peer-to-peer revolution has its transit representatives, of which Uber and Lyft are just two examples. The two combined represent a huge Tucson fleet that requires no capital purchases on the part of the government. The response times are quick, the per rider cost is low, and riders are pretty happy with it.
Now I know that there are some people who are just not comfortable unless they are shoving people into a bus. For them, I give you Bridj, a Boston startup that has a fleet of 14 passenger Mercedes-Benz Sprinters that, when combined with an Uber-type of app, provide low-cost point-to-point trips that, according to its website, cost “slightly more than public transit, but significantly less than taking a taxi.”
Let’s stop acting like wards of the state, the purpose of whom is to build monuments to centuries old technology. The grassroots, organic solutions are there, and it is the American way.
