Eye On Illinois: Fixing transit agency problems requires more than reforming status quo

One of the traps decent commentators seek to avoid is inviting the audience to respond with a variation of “easy for them to say!”

That thought surfaced when reading a two-sentence email response to Saturday’s column about the fiscal cliff facing Metra, Pace and the CTA in light of the Regional Transportation Authority’s “Transforming Transit” report calling for spending $1.5 billion on bus and train upgrades in Chicago and its suburbs:

“When reforming a broken system it’s a good idea to model a system that works. Are you aware of any transit system that is working well?”

In short, I am not. When my family travels we tend to seek natural beauty, not urban density. My best tourist experience with mass transit was a week in Washington, D.C. Our group bought weeklong Metro cards coming off the airplane and, aside from the luggage-laden walk between the DuPont Circle station and our hotel, trains got us everywhere we needed to be, cleanly and safely, even effectively getting everyone off the National Mall following Independence Day fireworks.

For one thing, that trip was almost 20 years ago. For another, I couldn’t begin to guess if the system meets its budgetary goals, if the officials are corrupt or effective and whether the network functions as needed for the people who rely on it for work, errands and daily life.

In April, U.S. News & World Report published a list of “The 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation,” which ranked Chicago tied for seventh, seemingly based on volume (224 rail miles) and reach (service to 35 suburbs). The top spot went to New York City, rarely considered a paragon of excellence.

Far more enlightening is a 2018 Vox interview with Christof Spieler, a Houston-based structural engineer and urban planner who wrote “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit.” His take:

“For transit to be useful, it has to be within walking distance of the places people are actually going. And the destinations where people are actually going are not in the middle of the freeway. They tend not to be along those freight rail lines either because those tend to be surrounded by warehouse and industrial areas, not activity centers or residential areas. So a lot of cities build transit where it is easy rather than where it is needed.”

Where to place rail lines, or which streets to make bus lanes, are questions that don’t necessarily reach the issues of governance, cost, taxpayer investment plaguing CTA, Metra, Pace and RTA.

Our current crisis calls not for vague reform, but new leadership, statewide scope and defined, attainable plans. If no good model exists, it must be created.

Easy for me to say.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.