Transit’s Identity Crisis: Social Service or Economic Engine?

Increasingly, transit investments are framed in terms of economic development, rather than public service. Cities conceive of new rail lines with the condo developer or tourist in mind, ignoring the low-income commuter who can't afford a car and the senior who relies on transit to get to the grocery store.

Yonah Freemark at the Transport Politic writes that this tension is currently playing out in Detroit, where the private sector has seized on a plan to develop light rail in the central city. An example of new-school transit thinking, the project is aimed at catalyzing development along the Woodward Corridor. Meanwhile, budget shortfalls may force the elimination of night and weekend bus service.

Such situations raise questions about the purpose of transit, Freemark writes, in Detroit and beyond:

These are big questions. What do you think?

Elsewhere on the Network today: The Overhead Wire explains how Houston's light-rail plans are being undermined by freight right-of-way. Green City Blue Lake reports that the Akron, Ohio region has developed a land use and transportation plan with the goal of a "vibrant urban environment." And Car Free Baltimore offers a first-hand account of the physical and mental transformation brought on by a year of car-free living.