Indiana

Is It Too Late or Too Early for Mass Transit?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I have always found the mass transit discussion in Indianapolis to be a fascinating one.  I grew up up in Chicago and mass transit was just a part of  daily life.   My father would load my brothers and me on the bus and subway and take us to what was then called Comiskey Park to watch the White Sox occasionally win.   I went to a magnet high school which did not have bus transportation so we rode the city bus to school everyday.  And even as an adult, when I would visit my parents and had to take a downtown trip, I’d leave my car in the driveway and take mass transit.   In each one of those instances there was a need for mass transit.  The challenge for Indianapolis’ mass transit supporters is convincing the public they need it.

Let’s face it, most people like their cars and don’t want to give them up.   There is a certain psychological comfort in not having to wait on someone else to get you from point A to point B.  According to last census data I saw, 90-percent of Central Indiana residents drive to work.   And convincing those folks to get out of their cars and take a bus or train, or much less reach into their pockets and pay for something they’ve never used and probably won’t use, is going to be a big mountain to climb.  It also doesn’t help that unlike Chicago or New York City, Indianapolis grew outward as opposed to upward, which means the population density you would also need to make mass transit work isn’t there.  And it also doesn’t help that Indianapolis is very easy to negotiate unlike other larger cities; depending on the time of day I can be from one side of town to the other in 20-35 minutes.

It would be a lot easier to sell mass transit if more people used it at an early age.  For example, I am still somewhat surprised that for all its alleged money problems, Indianapolis Public Schools haven’t worked out a deal to provide IndyGo bus passes to their high school students so students could take a city bus not only to school, but also to work.   The district could save on its own transportation costs and IndyGo would not only get an increase in ridership but you also get people used to taking the bus when they are teenagers and don’t think of it as so much of an anomaly when they grow up.

Like I said, it’s a lot easier to sell something to people they have been using for a long time as opposed to trying to convince them late in the game.   I do think the public would be willing to take some tinkering around the edges of mass transit, express buses from suburbia to downtown and the airport, for example.    But if the mass transit proponents can convince someone who has never taken the bus to get out of their car and rely on someone else to take them somewhere they can usually get to in less than half an hour on their on accord, more power to them!

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on November 14, 2010 (boomark / email).