London: Still the Best City for Transit?

 I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in London for the first time in a few years,  and as I often do, I took the opportunity to survey the local transportation scene.  My observations follow:

London Underground (the Tube) – The tube is still the best way to get around.  Service was generally excellent.  Headways (time between trains) was often less than two minutes, accommodating a steady stream of customers.  There were some service interruptions due (presumably) to line maintenance work.  Some trains that I rode on, notably on the Circle Line, were definitely dirty, and more cleaning (and probably new trainsets) should be priorities.  But overall I continue to be impressed with this reliable, efficient workhorse of urban mobility.

London buses – Buses were modern, clean, frequent, and efficient, with good information at bus stops and onboard.  The only problem?  They are bound by road traffic, with few opportunities for getting around other traffic, and therefore sloooooow.

Elizabeth Line – This was my first time getting a chance to ride the Elizabeth Line, the new fast, high-tech Underground line that opened in 2022.  It is billed as a sort of regional express metro, running east-west through the city with limited stops at major interchange stations.  Some of its key features are platform screens with doors that open only when the train arrives and individual architectural treatments at each station.  All of this is first-rate and the ride was smooth and fast, as promised.  The downside is a characteristic all too familiar in London – very long walks through what seem like endless tunnels and escalators to reach the platform.  Also, I have to say that I have never quite bought into the rationale for the design of the system.  I’m sure it’s useful to many people, but if given that much money – over $20 Billion – I probably would have looked first at some other opportunities on the Underground system: redesigning some of the crazy connections at interchange stations, upgrading passenger amenities, dropping in a few key infill stations, and making some strategic extensions and realignments.  

Bike/ped improvements and city streets – There are more and more bikes in London and more and more pedestrianized streets.  I got a chance to spend time at the newly pedestrianized area around St Mary le Strand, an area I know well, where a car-clogged street has been replaced by a landscaped plaza, serving the nearby King’s College London as well as the general public.  Not far from there many of the small streets around the London School of Economics, my old neighborhood, have also been transformed into landscaped lanes.  Street by street, central London is becoming more walkable and bikeable and enjoyable.

Key takeaway: Frequency is Freedom! – As Jarrett Walker says, “frequency is freedom.”  What this means is that when you can walk up to a transit stop whenever you choose and expect your ride to arrive within a few minutes you are able to move about your community without timetables, without unproductive time hanging around the stop, and without anxiety that you will be late.  London – at least on the main Tube lines in central London – proves the point.  People come and go as they wish, comfortable in their ability to move across the city quickly and easily.  In many ways, London is still the best city for transit.

Illinois Enacts a Ground-breaking Transit Funding Bill

 If you follow transportation funding issues, you are probably aware that many transit agencies around the US are facing a so-called “fiscal cliff” – a dramatic funding shortfall that coincides with the end of federal Covid emergency funding.  Although transit ridership has been growing in most places, it still hasn’t caught up with pre-Covid numbers, leading to a major reduction in fare box revenue.  With no federal funding to make up the shortfall, transit agencies are left in a pinch.  The fiscal cliff has posed a major political challenge for state legislators throughout the country, who are effectively the last line of defense for transit.  Some states have come up with temporary fixes, some (looking at you, Pennsylvania!) are flirting with disaster, and a few have come up with serious long-term solutions.

Illinois has gone to the head of the pack for long-term solutions.  A new funding bill (passed on Halloween – make of that what you will) appears to have put a long-term funding fix in place, while implementing other pro-transit reforms (story here).

The Illinois funding formula represents a masterful political compromise.  No new statewide taxes are raised for transit.  Instead, about a Billion dollars a year is diverted to transit from the “Road Fund,” which is constitutionally permitted in Illinois, and this is topped up with a regional sales tax to support greater Chicago transit.  Normally, diverting money from roads to transit would cause an uproar from the construction industry and building trades unions.  However, the Illinois legislature essentially held the highway sector harmless by increasing funding for toll roads through a major toll hike.  In other words, the bottom line is a Billion dollar a year increase in transit funding with no net loss in highway funding (see this story from the state association of counties on the politics involved).  Everyone seems to be on board with this solution except the Republicans, who unfortunately seem to be unable to support any transit funding anywhere.

The legislature also used the funding bill as a vehicle for two major transit policy measures.  First, the “People over Parking Act” prohibits municipalities from enforcing minimum parking requirements in most cases on new development in the vicinity of transit stations and major transit corridors.  As many cities have found out, this simple step can boost high-quality urban development.  Second, the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority – created to coordinate the various transit agencies in the greater Chicago area – is given explicit statutory authority to get directly involved in promoting and investing in transit oriented development.  We’ll see how that plays out in practice.

This kind of legislation represents, in my opinion, not just progressive transportation policy, but also good governance.  A major public policy problem has been tackled head on in a way that is transparent and that takes into account all the legitimate interests affected.

Good work, Illinois!