• The United States struggles to create cost-effective rail infrastructure and attract mass transit ridership due to a lack of clear mandates to prioritize ridership.
• Ridership vs. coverage tradeoffs are common in transit planning, but without a clear mandate to prioritize ridership, agencies don’t ask the right questions.
• Amtrak’s wish list map is an example of a plan that does not prioritize ridership.
• The Transit Cost Project has highlighted the sources of expense in projects like the Second Avenue Subway and the Green Line Extension.
• Ridership is a good proxy for other goals like environmental benefits, racial and socioeconomic equity, and economic development.
• Setting a clear and simple task of spending money on things that people will use is the best way to ensure cost-effectiveness and success.
Published January 5, 2023. Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post.