Mass transit does not reduce congestion

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Wendell Cox
Published on Tuesday, January 09, 2007
WASHINGTON - Transit advocates must be elated. Voters in places as diverse as Seattle, Kansas City and Salt Lake City approved new taxes for transit improvements. No doubt the electoral victories depended on expectations that transit improvements would reduce traffic congestion, but nothing could be further from the truth. Traffic congestion and transit are completely different subjects. No level of transit investment, anywhere in the world, has materially reduced traffic congestion. In Washington, more than 100 miles of high-quality Metro has been built — more than in any world urban area over the past three decades except for Seoul, South Korea. Altogether, the miles of Metro built in Washington equal the total built in all of the other U.S. urban areas. Yet what about traffic congestion? Washington’s ranks fourth in the nation, and could challenge number two and three — transit rich Chicago and San Francisco — at any point. Over the past 20 years, traffic congestion has nearly tripled, despite the miles built for and billions spent on Metro. Read More »

Rebelling Against Glendening’s Transit Dogma

Originally Published in The Herald-Mail

By Wendell Cox
Published on Sunday, December 22, 2002
Bringing to mind Herbert Hoover’s 1933 list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for the incoming Roosevelt administration, outgoing Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari continues to push for an increase in the state’s gasoline tax. Like FDR, the Ehrlich administration should ignore the advice. Maryland transportation policy suffers from fundamental flaws that require serious reform, not the raising of taxes. Read More »

The Truth About Transit

Originally Published in The Baltimore Sun

By Wendell Cox
Published on Friday, July 12, 2002
IN RECENT years, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and mass transit agencies have been pumping out press releases about record ridership. At the national level, a recurring theme has been that ridership has reached a 40-year record. Read More »

Glendening's Smart Growth: Insider Game

Originally published in The Daily Record

By Wendell Cox
Published on Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Governor Parris Glendening has been a national leader in the anti-sprawl movement and is even credited with coining the enviable term "smart growth." But the Maryland legislative committee's recent approval of a $1.3 million state grant to finance and otherwise assist the Giant Foods relocation deal indicates that smart growth and fighting sprawl are a matter of who you are. Read More »

Dangers of Smart Growth Planning

By Wendell Cox
Published on Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Testimony on Smart Growth and Public Transit before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works by Wendell Cox. Read More »