Are the Mass(es) onto Transit?

A great story on mass transit in the Chicago Tribune. More than half of the suburban residents appear to favor investment in mass transit over highways and toll roads.

Hopefully these types of results will be reported in other counties and states.

Suburban residents now favor more transit spending, poll shows - chicagotribune.com: "I wish the mass-transit system were expanded a lot,' he said, particularly suburb-to-suburb service that has been promised for years.

'The problem with Metra is that it is a spoke system without a wheel,' Ceithaml said, noting that the only way to get from one suburb to another on a different Metra line is to travel to downtown Chicago, switch trains and head back out. 'Why don't we have an around-Chicago rail line?'

Fifty-two percent of suburbanites said they agree with investing more of limited government resources in public transit, versus 32 percent who chose improvements to highways and toll roads. In a 1999 Tribune poll, 34 percent of suburban residents said more money should be spent on mass transit than on roads...
The director of a Chicagoland civic organization called the poll results "phenomenal.''

"People are seeing that a car-oriented culture is limiting economic development and quality of life in the region,'' said Frank Beal, executive director of Chicago Metropolis 2020, which promotes social and economic ideas for the 21st century. "There is a general recognition that friends, neighbors and family see what is happening around the country but not here. Phoenix, Arizona, has a light-rail system.''

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