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Erika D. Smith: Ads show mass transit talk finally is traveling from 'why' to 'how'

Jan. 12, 2013
If you've turned on a radio or TV in the past couple of days, you may have come across a series of new commercials that offer answers to what has become a decades-old question in Central Indiana: "Why do we need more transit options?" / Rob Goebel / The Star file photo



The answers in the commercials aren't new. ("To get to work." "To attract more jobs." "To get to the airport." "Because I want an alternative to driving.") But somehow, those answers have a new ring of truth to them.

You wouldn't know it from the commercials, but in many quarters, the debate has moved beyond: "Why do we need more transit options?" Now the question is: "How can we add transit in a way that makes financial, political and logistical sense?"

That's a big hurdle for Central Indiana to cross. It took only 30 years.

Now there's a unique opportunity to reel in many of the remaining skeptics -- and let's hope this time it takes less than 30 years.

"The exciting thing is we're starting to kick off the next phase of planning," said Anna Tyszkiewicz, executive director of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization. "And this is a point where we've really never been before."

Starting next month, Indy Connect, the band of public agencies pushing an expansion of buses and rail in Marion and Hamilton counties, will host a series of public meetings to get beyond the "why" to the "how" of transit.

The goal is to collect residents' thoughts on whether light rail or bus rapid transit would be better for three corridors -- one that runs east and west along Washington Street and two others that run north and south between Indianapolis and its suburbs. Indy Connect also wants opinions on whether those "rapid transit" corridors should run on new or existing lanes along city streets.

But perhaps the most interesting, and probably the most contentious, thing residents will be able to discuss is where to put transit stops.

How many stops should there be in the struggling urban neighborhoods south of 38th Street? Where should the stops be along the Washington Street corridor with its fits and starts of retail? How many stops should there be on the Southside, which often gets ignored?

The answers will either dispel or confirm people's firmly held beliefs about what transit can and cannot do for Central Indiana.

Because for some residents, particularly in Hamilton County, the thinking is: "Why should I pay taxes for people in Marion County to get more buses?" For others, particularly in Marion County, it is: "Why should I pay more taxes so people who abandoned Indianapolis for the suburbs can have an easier commute to Downtown?"

But when you start thinking about stops, and more to the point, when you start debating where they should go, you start to realize that transit is about more than just moving people from Point A to Point B.

"We are trying to change the conversation with the public that the plan is so much more than" just tripling the bus service and rail line to Noblesville, said Ron Gifford, who is handling the Indy Connect lobbying effort in the Indiana General Assembly.

It's about the possibility for attracting new development and people to neighborhoods. It's about the potential of finding new ways to explore the region -- especially if a stop ends up, say, two blocks from your house. It's about knowing there's always a credible alternative to driving, something I wish I had last week when I had to put my car in the shop for repairs.

Once you start hammering out the "how" of transit, suddenly, it becomes more relevant to people's lives. And just as suddenly, the "why" starts to make more sense.

That is what Indy Connect is trying to get across in its commercials, especially to the skeptics. Because transit, if done right, is indeed, as they say, "for all of us."


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