Return of the City

Not to beat a dead horse but this article from today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides an inkling of why a strategically sited light rail line is better than the bus. Maybe the bus is more cost-effective by certain measures – it’s clearly cheaper to get a new bus route up and running. However, the redevelopment brought about by the new rail line will multiply through the economy for years. The end result will be a more livable city with attractive urban hubs built around the new stations. This is how we begin to roll back suburban sprawl. And, although the evidence from the Post-Dispatch article is anecdotal, many of the people who give up their cars to use light rail would probably keep driving if the only option were the bus.