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With some regularity, citizens in major Hoosier communities issue transportation reports that call for continued improvement
of existing roads and streets with additional resources devoted to mass transit. Newspapers endorse the plan and it is shelved.
These plans are offered to reduce congestion, commuting time, energy usage and environmental damage. They may include financing
suggestions encompassing tolls, fees and taxes. But they are doomed to be ignored because no local government, and certainly
not the Indiana General Assembly, is interested in transportation. The exceptions might be airports and inter-city “high-speed”
trains, as long as the federal government foots an overwhelming portion of the bill.
Transportation has been a key to long-term economic health. As transportation costs decline, the quality of life advances.
Behind the decline in transportation costs lies industrial progress. Humanity learns how to do something and applies that
knowledge to reducing the costs of transporting people, goods and information.
We have seen this with travel on water and land as well as in and through the air.
Railroads, steamships, automobiles and trucks, airplanes and our cell phones are obvious examples. Historically, governments
eager to ride the latest-model bandwagon will subsidize the newest technology.
In the United States, we gave land to the railroads; built ports for ships, highways for autos and trucks, and airports for
planes; and gave away or charged little for transmission frequencies. Today, we are subsidizing “high-speed” rail
and electric motors for trucks and autos. (“High-speed” rail in the United States is defined as 120 mph. In other
countries, where the distances between major cities is shorter, trains already run at 220 mph.)
There is, however, no comprehensive plan or coordinating agency to administer and implement such a plan. Certainly, there
is neither substantive nor sustaining financing for any plan. Why not?
We have what we have and we cannot imagine better. Our private vehicles, with camouflaged subsidies, are warm and secure.
They operate on our schedules, play our preferred music, and allow us to converse with friends while applying makeup or eating
breakfast. What could be better? Well, a covered parking space right next to our destination would be nice. Also, it would
be good if there were fewer cars competing with us for limited highway or street space.
People who focus on the big picture want mass transit. The trolley, the subway, the railroad—these should be resurrected.
They will help bring rationality and efficiency to transportation and land use, advancing civility and civilization.
Those who are “people people” focus on freedom, lifestyle and the delights of an atomistic society where collective
action is suspect. They see the private auto as the greatest mass-transit system yet invented. It can be improved, but not
by replacing it with another system.
The problem becomes acute because we have much invested in existing systems, both in terms of resources and emotion.
As Americans, we Hoosiers do not have a mental model of a comprehensive transit system. How would it work? How can we get
from Madison to Merrillville better than we can today?
Should we have transit that reinforces downtown in our town? Isn’t that just a subsidy for downtown landowners who
want to recoup their losses of the last century? Won’t that somehow destroy the congeniality of folks in Princeton and
Portland? Can Terre Haute survive if Chicago and St. Louis are each about an hour away? Where is the concern for the people
of Hancock County in the Indianapolis plan?
It is easier for us to raise these practical questions than to endorse dreams that will not be realized in less than a quarter-century. What
would happen if the sound and solid citizens behind the transit plans sold the sizzle and aroma of a steak rather than the
recipe for a nice salad? That is, what if they approached transit as a politician approaches an election?•
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Marcus taught economics for more than 30 years at Indiana University and is the former director of IU’s Business
Research Center. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mmarcus@ibj.com.
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