Better public transit is key need
There is no doubt that Memphis could make a more credible claim for greatness with a modern, expanded, reliable and well patronized public transportation system.
The benefits that could be realized in transportation efficiency, health, safety and the environment would be significant. People accustomed to public transportation or who want fewer cars — perhaps no cars at all — would be more likely to make Memphis their home.
A blueprint for a much improved system in Memphis is embodied in “Transit Funding: Memphis Deserves Great Transit,” a white paper developed by the Transit Funding Working Group of Innovate Memphis. It’s a starting point for a conversation that this community should be having if it aspires to claim a spot among the country’s most desirable places to live and work and play.
A transit funding boost of $30 million annually — with $20 million dedicated to operating expenses and $10 million to capital expenses — would expand bus service hours by 50 percent, the report says, adding 220,000 hours and 3 million rides per year.
The improvements would increase transportation options and desirability for every sector of the population, with a particular focus on improving reliable transit to jobs. An estimated 10,000 new riders would connect each weekday with jobs and services.
The proposal faces a lot of obstacles, to be sure. At the moment, the Memphis Area Transit Authority staff lacks leadership with the recent resignation of chief executive officer Ron Garrison following his arrest in a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation prostitution sting.
MATA also faces diminishing federal funding. Flat state and local funding has resulted in cuts to routes and operating hours.
Memphis has the lowest level of funding per capita among cities it is competition with for new residents and jobs such as Nashville, Louisville, Charlotte and Jacksonville. The only city or county governments contributing funds are Memphis and West Memphis.
Garrison reported to the board last year that eight straight years of budget deficits totaling $22 million, while operating costs have risen, left the agency “on the verge of collapse.”
The agency’s popular Downtown trolley system is literally off the tracks because of safety concerns and regulatory hurdles.
And there is the entrenched car culture of Memphis, where decisions made by local government have deepened its reliance on the automobile, despite the fact that 30 percent of citizens living in poverty would benefit the most from reliable public transportation.
Only 2.2 percent of Memphians take public transit to work, but who’s to say that residents of this city are somehow different than other Americans, somehow endowed with a natural aversion to the bus or the train. It used to be said that nobody would dare ride a bicycle in Memphis, either, but Memphians have shown in recent years that new ideas do catch on.
That’s not to assume that if you build a better transit system they will ride. A great deal of discussion lies ahead, as details continue to emerge about how additional funding can be obtained and how the money would be spent.
But it’s a discussion that must be conducted to bring the dream of a greater Memphis within range.