Sunday, January 7, 2018

Transit Innovation

I want to clarify what I mean by "transit innovation." As an initial matter, I would prefer to have an underground train system throughout, at the least, the center of Indianapolis. Alas, it is very difficult, if not impractical, to get "there" from "here." That is why I am a fan of transit innovation. We are not stuck with a binary choice between spending billions of dollars on a train system and continuing to use the automobile for every trip.

There are alternatives.

These alternatives come in forms such as bus routes; biking routes; embrace of golf carts; walkable development.

I am not wed to any of the above ideas, nor have I dismissed other ideas that I didn't mention above. My point is that we cannot continue to expect that simply paving more roads will solve the problems that we will face as a growing community. We need to think practically about how we (a) maintain property values, not just in Speedway but in Indianapolis generally, and (b) how we marshall public resources for the best outcome (i.e. do we spend more money on roads, or do we try something else? Which option will result in the maximum amount of utility and human happiness?).

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