Pay a high price for higher payoff in public transit

Indianapolis is the 12th largest city in the United States, and yet it only ranks 100th in terms of the quality and level of access to public transportation. Clearly, something needs to change.

Indy Connect is an organization seeking to do just that, proposing a well-designed plan that will include an expansion in virtually all forms of public transportation in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area, including a light rail line bisecting Indianapolis horizontally along Washington Street, a commuter rail line running north and south between Fishers and Greenwood, and an expanded bus service – including more and larger buses, increased express routes into and out of the city, and an expansion of bus routes into areas that are currently under-served or not served at all.

While the cost of the program — an estimated $10 billion — is high, the returns on building a high quality public transportation system would be much greater than the initial cost and would make the investment worth every penny.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, for every dollar spent on public transportation, four dollars are returned to the local community.

The construction and maintenance of this enormous public transportation project would create thousands of reliable new jobs that would significantly boost our state’s economy.

The fact that 30 percent of Indianapolis’ workforce lives in counties outside of Marion County highlights the urgent need for public transportation into and out of the central city. The commuter and light rail systems and the expanded express bus routes into and out of the city will meet that very need.

Additionally, Indy Connect proposes increasing the number of lanes on virtually all the interstates in the Indianapolis area, as well as expanding lanes in a number of major roads within the city, which should greatly decrease commuters’ traveling time.

The average wait time for IndyGo (the organization that runs Indianapolis’s bus system) buses is 30-60 minutes. Indy Connect proposes adding enough buses to decrease that wait time to 10-15 minutes.

All of these proposals are worthy of strong support, and the public shouldn’t be distracted by the high price tag when they consider the lucrative returns on this investment that will come in the future. Indianapolis should approve Indy Connect’s proposals.