Liberals do not hold a monopoly on supporting public transportation.Â Â Thanks to a post on Sprawled Out I learned of an interview by Street Films with conservative author William S. Lind.Â Some of his points include:

Auto dominance in the U.S. is not a free market outcome

a free market outcome Liberal transit advocates should not mention reduction of greenhouse gases when talking transit to conservatives

Libertarian anti-transit critics use wrong measurements

“When you tax one competitor and subsidize the other the subsidized competitor wins.”

Here is the video (3:21 minutes):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q9zeJnCx6Q

I often find myself agreeing with fiscal conservatives — and disagreeing with Libertarians.

“Conservatives And Public Transportation”Conservatives and Public Transportation” is a collection of studies originally published between 1997 and 2009 in booklet form by the American Public Transportation Association. The book includes a previously unpublished report on the activities of the National Surface Transportation Commission, appointed by Congress in 2005 to examine the infrastructure needs of this country. Weyrich served on the commission and wrote language that strongly supported public transportation for the commission’s final report. That language, which had been adopted on a 9-3 vote, was excised from the final report.The studies helped conservatives understand why transit should be an essential part of the conservative agenda: because it enhances national security, promotes economic development, helps maintain conservative values including a sense of community, and provides welfare recipients with access to jobs.”Â (Reconnecting America)



More:

“The Free Congress Foundation has established The Center for Public Transportation under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to offer a re-balanced vision of the national transportation system in which rail and highway travel complements each other. Some journeys will always be more convenient by car. But Americans should be able to travel from any point in the country to any other point without using a car, if they so choose. They had that option as recently as the 1950s. By re-creating it, we can ensure that America is not held hostage by crises in the Middle East or other oil-producing areas.”Â (Free Congress Foundation)



Conservative or liberal, there are reasons to support good mass transit.

-Steve Patterson