“Trains and public transit are too expensive.”

In August 2022, the Texas Legislature approved an unprecedented 10-year $85 billion dollar highway spending package to “improve” and expand sections of highway that the Texas A&M Transportation Institute identified on its 100 Most Congested Roadways list. 

Among these is the I-35 Capital Express Central project to expand the stretch of I-35 in Austin, for which $4.5 billion has been allocated. By comparison, the proposed Lone Star Rail District line that would have connected San Antonio and Austin via high speed rail was estimated to cost around $1.5 billion.

And that $85 billion does not include an additional $32 billion for maintenance and repair over the same time span. And despite the billions we spend every year in road and highway maintenance, Texas still has some of the worst roads in the nation.

On the other hand, it is absolutely true that the United States also has some of the highest public transit construction costs in the developed world. But the main reason it’s so much more expensive to build a light rail or subway line in the US compared to say, France, Germany, or Japan, is the simple fact that we don’t do enough of it! 

Other countries can achieve lower costs because they are constantly building and maintaining a robust system of public transit infrastructure. In the US, where it can take decades to plan, develop, and build a single train line, projects can easily go over-budget and over-schedule. We are not naive about this! But we firmly believe that the solution is to expand and normalize rail transit, not abandon it.

“Public transit loses money.”

Like roads and highways, transit is a public service that is intended to serve everyone, regardless of whether it turns a profit. 

In 2020, Texas spent $670 per person on highways, which is a 60% increase since 2011. With the state’s population expected to swell from 30 to 45 million over the next two decades, this spending will have to further increase just to keep up with routine maintenance and repairs.

In the state of Texas, highways are funded by a 20-cent per gallon gasoline tax that has already been deemed unsustainable due to increased mileage efficiency in newer cars and the increased costs of construction. 

In order to keep up, either taxes and spending will have to drastically increase or we will have to fundamentally rethink how to efficiently transport people in this state. For us, that choice is clear.

“It’s just easier to drive.” and “People like driving.”

We get it. San Antonio is a sprawling city where driving a car is often the only viable option for getting around. And this kind of car dependency isn’t going away any time soon.

That said, the way we have built cities in this country (San Antonio included) is unsustainable, not only environmentally, but also financially. 

The proliferation of cars has facilitated the kind of suburban sprawl we’ve become used to, and the great distances in turn force people to rely on an automobile to survive. We can all agree that traffic sucks, and it’s not gonna get any better as long as we continue to develop our cities this way.

“Beyond a certain speed, motorized vehicles create remoteness which they alone can shrink. They create distances for all and shrink them for only a few.” - Ivan Illich

Whether or not people actually like driving is irrelevant since most people don’t have a choice. Providing robust public transit, including passenger rail, is simply providing an alternative for people who choose to live a car-free life.

According to the latest research from AAA, the average yearly cost to own and operate a new vehicle in 2022 is $10,728, or $894 per month. We spend a staggering amount of money on something that should be a choice to own, rather than an obligatory burden. Wouldn’t it be great to have the freedom to choose?

“What about parking?”

As we alluded to in the previous question, car-dependency leads to some negative outcomes that only reinforce each other. Parking is a nightmare, especially in places like downtown, because the only reliable way to get there is to drive.

We already devote an inordinate amount of space downtown to surface parking lots and parking garages, and if we continue to build more, eventually there won’t be any room left for the things that actually make downtown desirable.

The only practical solution to parking is to make it easier for people to get to the places they want to go without needing a car in the first place. 

Does that mean no one can drive anymore and all parking spots will disappear? Of course not! But given how awful traffic and parking can be, wouldn’t it be nice to not have to deal with any of that?