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...Mass transit is on the move. Baltimore's sparkling Metro is just the most recent result of a boom in urban rail-system construction. "There is more development going on now than in the past 100 years," exults Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of the American Public Transit Association (A.P.T.A.). Since 1972, when San Francisco cut the ribbon on its high-tech headache, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), six other U.S. cities have opened new rail systems. Six cities currently have lines under construction. Thirteen other systems either have been proposed or are on the drawing boards...
...call it the Hyatt Regency mentality," says David Prosperi, assistant professor of planning at the University of Cincinnati. "Many cities think they have to have a rail system to be a first-class city." Underneath the arriviste attitude, however, lies a persistent conviction, not always well placed, that mass transit can reduce congestion in traffic-choked downtowns, spark commercial growth and control pollution. Says A.P.T.A.'S Gilstrap: "When businesses decide where to locate, they look for a city that works well. Good mass transit is both evidence and a symbol of that...
Much of the present flurry has its origins in the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which persuaded many motorists to flee long gas lines for less frustrating subways and buses. The mounting energy crisis also spurred the Federal Government to provide up to 50% of transit systems' operating costs. Until then, money had been available only for capital and planning assistance. One result of this increased federal largesse was an investment spree in capital-intensive projects such as subways and electrified rail. There were some less benign results: fares well under the actual cost of service, leading inevitably...
...Pittsburgh's South Hills suburbs is expected to open in 1985. So far, local taxpayers have escaped all but 3% of the estimated $480 million in costs; the state and the Federal Government are picking up the rest. Says James Maloney, former executive director of the Port Authority Transit of Allegheny County: "We expect people to convert to public transit for the first time in their lives...
Buffalo also hopes to lure new riders with its 6.4-mile Light Rail Rapid Transit (LRRT) system, an unconventional marriage of streetcar and subway technologies that is costing $500 million from state and federal treasuries. The initial 1.2-mile street-level segment, scheduled to open some time this year, will cut through a ten-block-long mall in the city's central commercial district that will be closed to most other traffic. Trips within the transit mall will be free, giving shoppers an incentive to patronize downtown businesses...