If you live on the construction route of a light rail system in a major municipality you feel like you are in the middle of a war zone, where blockades and cratered streets abound.
So you harbor a sense of resentment and anger about the billions of dollars being spent on a transportation system that you doubt will likely enjoy the ridership that would justify regular disruptions in your quality of life. But you burrow on in the hope that expanding light rail will benefit the public good.
Well, you can be at peace, because we have identified the three primary reasons for light rail, albeit none of which have anything to do with mass transit.
- Reason one is jobs. When you complain to any civic leader elected, or otherwise, about the problems created by the construction they always and in unison respond the same way: “Look at the jobs it is creating”. Yes, public funding for light rail is definitely creating jobs.
- Reason two has to do with economic development. Contractors have taxpayer-funded contracts to spread throughout the economy. Yes, if the taxpayers had kept the money, there likely would be a similar, if not better, economic contribution being made, but hey, economic development is economic development, and who but the government knows best how to spread it around.
- Reason three, though, is the key. Light rail is the ornamental display of a city that has arrived! It is like a museum or a stadium. Just its construction and existence—its very ornamental presence—is the focal point of civic pride and proof of municipal success. Who cares whether it is used or not—it’s there, we have it and that shouts to the world our city has arrived!
Whether a government project is justified has nothing to do with its usefulness and its value in and of itself. If the project means jobs, economic development and is an ornamental addition to the community, that’s justification enough.
And we wonder why government spending is so out of hand.