Voter Fallout
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
The big news for the week has to be the various referendums and ballot measures across the country. The two we’ve paid most attention to were the ones in locations of past cover stories, Charlotte and the Seattle area. Both are interesting in how they played out.
The Charlotte vote seemed on the face to be the most contentious. A region with a burgeoning transit renaissance, its first light rail line about to debut in a few weeks, but plagued by cost overruns and a vocal anti-transit group.
Sound Transit in Washington’s Puget Sound region was looking to the Roads and Transit package on this year’s ballot to bolster its already successful light rail, commuter rail and bus services in the Seattle area.
So this one seemed like easy money in Vegas. A city looking to finish its first light rail line that had been plagued by delays with a vocal anti-transit group lobbying against it versus a region known for embracing sustainability and transit with a successful regional system. One of these looks like it should pass easily and the other is probably doomed to failure, correct?
That’s why they let people vote.
The Charlotte area voted 70 to 30 in favor of keeping its transit tax. What’s more interesting is that there were less votes to repeal the transit tax than the number of names it took to get the measure on the ballot in the first place! Say what you want about voter turnout, but that is still a sizeable vote of confidence for a transit system.
Charlotte’s citizens turned out to make it known that they support transit and saw through the rhetoric being slung around as during all voting seasons. They let it be known that not only did they support transit, they vehemently supported it.
Next year is an election year. As 2008 progresses, it’s important to get the word out that transit is important and for voters to see through rhetoric and doomsayers who always come out in droves at times like this.
Transit will be challenged by all sides next year — it doesn’t reduce congestion, it is slower than taking a car, it costs too much, money spent on transit should be put into other things, really who rides it anyway.
It needs to be ready to face down these challenges and be prepared to face the spin.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Just goes to show that the average American wants choice in mobility, no matter what the car culture says about the so called American ” auto love affair.”
November 9th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
What is amazing is you can already see the TOD projects in Charlotte and the line hasn’t even opened yet. To me this light-rail line in Charlotte really has the possibility of making a very positive impact on the layout of that city.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Huh?? Which city has a successful light rail system? Charlotte’s is opening up in a couple weeks, and Seattle’s opens up in a couple years…3 years behind schedule, and 4 miles shorter than promised! Really, Seattle is a lot of talk with little action. We talk a green talk, but we’re the last city on the west coast to get a real transit system…and even what we’re getting is a bit weak. Just two years ago our mayor–who champions the national mayor’s movement to obey the Kyoto protocol, mind you–put the final dagger in a plan for rapid transit which would have served the side of the city which will not be served by light rail.
Also, note that a significant reason for the demise of Seattle’s Roads and Transit proposal is due to the substantial roads component, which caused many environmental groups to come out against the proposal.
Don’t mind us over here–we’re just really confused and frustrated.