The path ahead: light rail and roads

Editorial Board
Austin American-Statesman
Saturday, October 21, 2000

Workday mornings and evenings in the Austin area, we are stuck in traffic, and we're wasting time.

in 1997, Austin drivers spent 53 hours a year in traffic jams, up from 20 hours a year in 1990. Ours is the 25th most-congested city in the country and first among cities with a population of 500,000 to 1 million.

So what are we going to do about it? What do we want our vibrant capital city to become?

We hope voters will say yes Nov. 7 or in this early-voting period to roads and light rail. Separate on the ballot but linked for the community's common good are a proposition that would authorize the area's transit agency, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to build a light-rail system and a $150 million bond proposal to help Austin pay for transportation projects. Travis County voters have a $28 million transportation bond package on the ballot; in Williamson County, it's $350 million.

Experience shows a city can't build its way out of traffic problems with roads alone. LA, anyone? A California study showed that when cities double road miles, the number of trips taken on those roads each day will grow 30 to 70 percent within a decade. Even road-warrior cities such as Houston and Phoenix are now planning light-rail lines. Dallas is thrilled with its rail line that opened in 1996. In August, voters by 3 to 1 approved bonds so that the transit agency can borrow to speed the system's completion. In Denver, light rail is so popular that park-and-ride lots overflow, and ridership this month in the southwest corridor reached a level that wasn't expected until 2015.

Other cities are looking for ways to provide mobility choices. It's time for Austin to do the same.

Here, light rail is not a fad notion. Our region's long-term transportation plan, crafted by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, for years has included a 52-mile light-rail system or busways as one of our transportation tools to cope with staggering population growth. Austin features a corridor ripe for light rail. Our city developed in a linear fashion, on a north-south ribbon. That's why so many of us are stuck in traffic on our north-south highways: interstate 35 and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1). Michael Aulick, CAMPO's director, says, "We definitely need light rail sometime in the next 25 years." Traffic is going to increase on I-35 no matter what, "and it's just (a matter of) how bad it's going to get," he says.

We've advocated a new highway to the east of I-35, Texas 130, to help ease the looming traffic growth. (it's also a $1 billion project.) High-occupancy vehicle lanes on MoPac and I-35 provide another piece of the solution. And light rail provides yet another part. It would offer people a choice along that crowded corridor to take the car or ride the rail. Rail would not spell the end of our car culture, but it would say to the old and the frail, the book-toting youngsters and the people who don't want to fight for a parking space downtown, you have a choice of transportation.

Light rail, unlike buses, can serve as a catalyst for our city's vision for growth. Our city leaders say they want a liveable, walkable city with a lively downtown and mixed-use developments throughout. Light rail can be our link for the university, state government, downtown nightlife, Town Lake and our city's heart. Transit and land use are intertwined, so if voters approve light rail Austin's elected officials will need to press forward with land-use policies that encourage developers to make it possible for people to live, shop and work in close proximity and therefore near the rail line.

Some would argue only for roads as our solution. The region's transportation plan calls for taking I-35 to eight lanes, plus one reversible HOV lane, up from six lanes. If we want 10 lanes or 12, we will need to remove graves and houses bordering the interstate. Would we want a double-decked MoPac? A freeway on Koenig Lane? The community wouldn't accept such a flurry of road building. "The era of crashing freeways through neighborhoods is gone," Aulick says.

Will light rail solve gridlock? No. Will it solve the city's air pollution? No, but it will help when people choose not to drive their cars. Does it cost a lot? Yes, but the longer we wait, the more it will cost. Can Capital Metro be entrusted with the job in light of its troubled past? All indications are the agency has steadily improved, and last week the Federal Transportation Administration gave it a glowing review.

Throughout this community, people are saying, let's put this transit plan on track. Proponents include the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Texas Bicycling Coalition, Clean Water Action, Real Estate Council of Austin, Downtown Austin Alliance, Austin Lesbian and Gay Political Caucus and leaders from Save Our Springs, high-tech companies and East Austin clergy. Even Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is a featured advocate in a television ad.

On Nov. 7 you as a voter have a say in how this community will build its future and preserve its sense of place for generations. The community needs the transportation bond package and light rail. To say "no" to rail is to say you want more of the same: commuting by car and wasted time in traffic. To say "yes" is to say you want a transportation choice that befits a vibrant city.

For Austin, the road ahead includes light rail.

Q: What is the light-rail ballot proposal?

A: Whether to authorize Capital Metro to operate a fixed-rail system. in simpler terms, you're voting on whether Capital Metro can proceed with building a light-rail system.

Q: is this a tax increase?

A: No. Capital Metro has been putting aside money from its 1-cent sales tax for this purpose. The agency would use its existing sales tax, short-term bonds and federal money to pay for light rail.

Q: What will the system be?

A: The proposed 52-mile system would go from Leander to Slaughter Lane and include parts of East Austin and Austin-Bergstrom international Airport at an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. Of that, the starting rail line would cost nearly $1 billion and run from Howard Lane to Ben White Boulevard and into East Austin. The starting line would open in 2007, but some who have studied the proposal say 2009 is a more realistic date. The entire system would be operational by 2025.

Q: What is light rail?

A: it's different from what you ride in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and New York. Light-rail trains have one to three cars that run on rails alongside traffic in the street for half of the route and are powered by electric lines overhead.

Q: How are Capital Metro's ridership projections viewed?

A: Last week, Cambridge Systematics of Cambridge, Mass., released its draft report on the state of our region's transportation planning. A small section dealt with light rail, which the report called one of the "essential components of a multimodal transportation system" in our rapidly growing region. Capital Metro projects there will be 43,200 average weekday unlinked trips on light rail in 2007. "The overall conclusion is that the 2007 light-rail ridership estimate for the Austin region is reasonable," the report said.