True North

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports in a page-one story today that the popular Route 16 bus along University Avenue, which runs every 10 minutes and stops at virtually every important cross street on University Ave, is “going to take a beating from the planned Central Corridor light rail line.” It will run less often and make fewer stops. The reason (according to the Pioneer Press): “Officials need to get riders off buses and onto trains to raise Central Corridor ridership forecasts to meet a federal funding formula.”

“Transportation policy is supposed to be about increasing mobility,” says Minnesota Free Market Institute Senior Policy Fellow Craig Westover. “’Mobility’ is people getting from where they are to where they want to go to do what they want to do when they want to do it. The decision to curtail Route 16 bus service is anti-mobility – it will force people to either wait longer for the bus or walk farther to catch the train. As we get down to the short strokes on obtaining federal funding, it becomes increasingly obvious that the Central Corridor is more about using taxpayer dollars to create a political legacy than being true to a transportation system that provides the benefits of mobility.”

Cross-posted at Minnesota Free Market Institute.