Page Two

A vote for light rail is a vote for Austin's future. I'm sick of writing about light rail but not nearly as tired as Mike Clark-Madison is. See his cover story this week ("Take the A-Train," p. 28), which addresses most of the issues and points to fairly obvious answers regarding light rail (this is his sixth Capital Metro/light rail cover story). The plan's strengths seem obvious, as do its weaknesses. But the overall need should be more apparent every day. Light rail, in the long run, is as much a planning tool for preserving neighborhoods and promoting small businesses as it is a solution for transportation woes. In the short term, the construction will be like any major urban project, especially as executed in Austin.

I've been listening to Sammy and Bob on KVET a lot lately because their ongoing discussion of light rail is so revealing. (I note, without hesitation, that the best discussions of local politics are on Sammy and Bob's show and I rarely agree with either hosts or callers.) The best way to think about an issue -- to really think about it -- is to spend a long time entertaining the opposing arguments. The KVET-FM morning show is a virtual bath of negatives, not one of them dampening my enthusiasm for light rail. I respect the concerns, but I think the merits far outweigh them.

Objections, though legitimate, ultimately don't address the problem. Even building more and more roads won't solve our transportation problems. In some ways, they will accentuate them. You simply can't add many more roads to downtown Austin; it is full. More roads in the outlying areas will dump at least some of their traffic into the inner-city quagmire, pouring traffic into an already full space. I am in favor of building more roads, but that is neither here nor there when it comes to the current question. In order to preserve this city's urban core and to maintain the quality of life, we are going to need an effective form of mass transit. It is not light rail alone that impacts the city. More importantly it is the long-term residential and commercial development that accompanies and surrounds it.

One of the supporters of light rail called after my editorial two weeks ago because I was too negative about light rail. I don't buy this. If you're arguing for light rail's effectiveness over the next decade, don't vote for it. Even if people switch from cars to light rail in major numbers (which I doubt), the first lines will serve a relatively meager portion of the overall community. People will use them as they are convenient. But over time -- over the next 15, 20, 25, 30 years -- the city will develop along light rail lines. This will not only dramatically increase ridership, but also help with long-range city growth planning.

Light rail as proposed will do me no good. Neither my home nor my business nor my child's school are on routes. Still, the argument that only people who know they are going to use light rail should vote for it is ridiculous. If you don't have a child in the school system, should you be against education? If you are not going to drive on a road, should you vote against it? I have lived in cities and depended on public transportation (including Austin). If, in the future, light rail conveniently and effectively serves my needs, I will use it again. I bet my children and grandchildren use it regularly. I am willing and eager to make that bet in a polling booth.

Read Mike Clark-Madison's piece. Next week listen to Sammy and Bob -- one morning, they're going to get an advocate and a critic of light rail to battle on the air. A billion-dollar project considered in a 10-year window is a joke. A major urban public project is a prime target and easy to attack. But I keep coming back to the idea that the cost of this mega-dollar project, 50 years from now, will seem negligible. Think about it. Think what Austin will be like in 20 years if we don't start building light rail as soon as we can. How about if we build roads and more roads and more roads for the next 50 years? What will the Hill Country look like then with cars backed up as far as you can see? Los Angeles? Houston? Light rail's greatest effectiveness will be as it is built out over time. The sooner we start the better. Light rail doesn't supersede roads and buses; it complements them. This is our future -- let us take it in our hands.