Clear Thinker Tom Kirkendall has previously noted “the sheer lack of any perspective from the local mainstream media regarding the dubious nature of Metro’s urban economics” and the “vacuity of media coverage of METRO.”
For whatever reason, the Chronicle is particularly weak (and getting weaker) in terms of analyzing METRO and regional mobility policy in any critical, economic sense.
Fortunately, where the local media have dropped the ball, blogger Neal Meyer has stepped in with a lengthy post analyzing METRO spending, bus routes, revenues, and alternative mobility solutions. It’s a fascinating post that mixes historical Houston transit data, economic analysis, and a good working knowledge of transit systems. There aren’t pretty graphs (or simplistic cheerleading masquerading as analysis by an impartial transportation think tank), and the writing is a bit dense at times, so the approach may not interest the Chronicle. But for folks interested in a grown-up, cost/benefit-oriented discussion of local transit policy, it’s a very interesting read (the first of several, we hope).
