Transportation's Role In Building Economies

"CEO Scott’s So-Called Pro-Business Stance Fails To Acknowledge Public Transportation And Its Role In Building Economies" by v. johns, 3/12/11, 1:40 AM

I’m not going to pull my hair out over Gov. Scott saying “No” to federal stimulus money to begin constructing high-speed rail in our state. What’s done is done. Besides, once Floridians begin to realize the real costs of such poor decisions, sooner or later, something will have to give. It’s going to take awhile for people to wake up to the filth that soils our beautiful capitol city, but based on Mr. Scott’s appalling budget proposal that favors corporate persons over real people, this year will be the year that people begin to feel those costs, rather acutely, as they witness themselves, their families and friends losing even more ground than they’ve already lost, not necessarily because of the Great Recession itself, but because of our state’s poor response to it.

Something to consider in the interim is this: With snake oil salesmen like Scott at the helm in our state government, come 2012, will buyer’s remorse set in? Or will the people of Florida continue to reward a seemingly mean-spirited state government with one-party rule? We’ll see. And for those who say Florida is a “sucky state,” ask yourself two questions: (1) “Who’s running this state?” and (2) “Who did I vote for (to run this state)?”

Regarding high-speed rail, Scott rejected the money on the notion that Florida would be stuck with operating costs after stimulus money runs its course on the now defunct Tampa-to-Orlando project. First of all “Duh!” It’s our state, of course we would have to pay to operate the damn thing! Second, the first immediate remedy to being stuck with operating costs would be to run it properly so that what we pay to operate the trains would be matched with more federal dollars. Third, it amazes me how people like Scott could run for office on their alleged business acumen, promising to run a state like a business (and other dumb nonsense), but fail to find creative ways to make their cities, counties, states or districts “profitable.” You would think that a former CEO would look at a project such as the now dead bullet train proposal and say, “I’m gonna make this work and I’m gonna make sure the people of Florida not only are not stuck with the operating costs, but are getting a clear and visible return on their investment in such an expensive endeavor.” Instead, Scott decides to take the lazy way out, possibly posturing for a presidential bid according to the Palm Beach Post, by rejecting a job creating instrument and allowing 2 billion dollars worth of jobs and infrastructure creation to be injected into some other state’s coffers. How much dumber does it get than that?

Mass transit has long had a reputation for having low dollar returns on investment. OK, I get it. But what people don’t realize is that the returns, unlike in a business where goods and services are sold and accounted for, are not direct. They tend to spread out into less tangible and less easily measured ways such as increased revenue from tourism or corporate relocation. Not to mention the maintenance of urban population without further gridlock from cars. While Palm Tran and Martin County Public Transit may occasionally suffer from budget shortfalls and low ridership, the real costs of not having these outfits would come in the form of higher unemployment, low growth and lack of any real business investment from serious firms that look for low labor costs and infrastructure efficiencies as pathways to profitability.

My final point is a theory in which I have no real name for at this time, but involves a potentially new way of looking at mass transit that’s often overlooked: how to make it profitable, at best, or at the least, self-supporting… A theory which not only calls for examining the implementation of full service on a regional scale but ignores population support in favor of scope and reach… This way of looking at public mass transit can only thrive if it is constructed in such a way that driving a car to a certain destination makes no sense whatsoever. Thus, the heart of this theory is the idea that smaller transit outfits like buses, taxis, rental cars, city rail, cruise lines, bike routes, walking trails, etc. would feed into larger outfits like regional trains and airports to form a symbiotic relationship that would eventually lead to self-sustainability. For example, with the proposed Amtrak line from Jacksonville to Miami, aligning Martin County Public Transit in such a way that collects riders and tourists from the train station to reach their destinations in Martin County would mean that MCPT would not have to worry much about funding since fares collected from enticing train riders would stabilize ridership.

The overall idea in aligning various modes of transportation so closely together, including cars, would be to create an economy of scale of sorts, but with regard to human logistical efficiency, rather than an industrial economy of scale in which suppliers and distributers align themselves closely together to reduce logistical and informational costs. An example of an economy of scale would be a parts store and other automotive-related entities being located near car dealerships. Another example would be the biotech companies forming around Scripps Florida to take advantage of proximity to their research.

This stuff isn’t rocket science. Neither is proposing a draconian budget that adds to the state’s deficit. For people who commute, as I do, it’s not difficult to see how all these things fit together. I just find it hard to digest that a former CEO could lack similar depth of observation. Guess there really is a big difference between taking a bus or train to work everyday and being shuttled around in a limo everywhere you go, huh? So, while high-speed rail may be off the table for the time being, let’s hope that commuter rail and mass transit in general won’t have to suffer at the hand of politicians how care soooo much about budgets and so little about people…