Why the misleading coverage of public transit in Phoenix?

email | Craig J. Cantoni

[hsmomx3]

The Arizona Republic, like virtually every big-city newspaper across the country, covers public transit on its news pages in a highly misleading way. Why is this? Is it due to a pro-transit bias, an ignorance of the facts, an adherence to a tired journalism formula, a reliance on the opinions of special-interest groups that have something to gain from public transit, or a combination of all of these reasons?

Let's look at a couple of examples that may help to answer the question.

The July 14, 2003, Scottsdale edition of the Arizona Republic carried a full-page story titled, "Bus riders brace for cuts." The only news item in the story was that buses on six routes were not going to run as frequently, because of $700,000 in cuts by the Scottsdale City Council. Other than a map, photos and a sidebar on new timetables, the rest of the story consisted of self-serving comments from the city's transportation director and sniveling from bus riders.

The story did not mention that there are so few passengers on the buses that the drivers are lonelier than the Maytag repairman. Nor did it mention that riders get a huge subsidy from non-riders. When I calculated the subsidy a couple of years ago and wrote about it in an op-ed, it came to over $15,000 for a rider who commutes by bus each work day for a year. As I wrote, it would be cheaper for the city to buy cars for bus riders or transport them by taxi.

Hard-hitting reporting would have included these very relevant facts, would have asked the city transportation director to justify such extravagance, would have asked passengers why they feel entitled to take so much money from their fellow citizens, and would have asked car drivers how they feel about subsidizing bus riders. But such reporting would have required a newspaper culture that sees a reporter's job as being a government watchdog instead of a lapdog that begs for dog biscuits from transit bureaucrats.

Admittedly, the city transportation director is smart and personable, but as this non-reporter has experienced, it does not take a Pulitzer Prize-winning effort to discover that he has a big bias in favor of public transit. The bias can be seen in documents issued by his office.

Another story on public transit ran in the Arizona Republic the next day about a new commuter bus service. True to form, the reporter interviewed passengers and a transit bureaucrat but made no mention of how much riders are subsidized by non-riders.

The same tired formula is followed in scores of stories in the Arizona Republic and other newspapers about light rail. The stories do not say that light rail does virtually nothing to reduce traffic and pollution, is the most uneconomic form of transportation, relies on huge subsidies to get people to ride the train, and expropriates billions of dollars from the Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by gas taxes and is supposed to be used for highways, not mass transit. Worse, the stories do not expose the massive amount of pork that is given to contractors, other rent-seekers and political cronies, due to hidden subsidies that encourage political shenanigans and the misallocation of capital.

So what explains the misleading transit reporting? Ignorance does not explain it. I and others have sent facts about public transit and light rail to reporters at various newspapers, including authoritative studies by the state and federal governments. But the reporters continue to write puff-pieces and ignore the facts.

Maybe reporters mistakenly believe that readers would be bored by the facts. Sure, readers would be bored to know that a utility executive who takes light rail over his entire career to and from the downtown Phoenix headquarters of Arizona Public Service will receive a subsidy of about $100,000. Yep, that is of no interest to working stiffs who earn $30,000 a year.

I recently asked a reporter why such facts are overlooked. He thanked me for my e-mail and ignored the question.

Why is the media coverage of public transit so misleading across the country? I don't know for sure. But I do know that newspaper readership has dropped from 54 percent of the public in 1990 to 41 percent today, and that only about 20 percent of readers nationwide give their hometown newspaper a high score on believability.

Maybe there is a connection between misleading reporting and the drop in newspaper readership and credibility. You could ask a reporter about this, but he will ignore your question.

__________

Mr. Cantoni is an author, columnist and consultant. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

[laweeks]

Ah yes, up here in Ohio we all get to see mostly empty buses go rolling by. And we also get to see an almost yearly tax levy get proposed to prop up the insanity. Kinda' like the bicycle paths our city put in with city tax money they didn't know what to do with. And, yes, it's great to look at seldom traveled bicycle paths as you go by as the only passenger in the public transit bus on your way to the publically built major leage sport stadium.

[lelio]

Wasn't a bus stop just built in Phoenix that's not even on the bus route? People are sitting there waiting for the non-existant buses. Must be the heat.

[tom paine 2]

I have written letter after letter to the local Green Bay Press Gazette about the empty buses cruising the streets like the ghost ship Flying Dutchman. Virtually empty spewing out tax dollars. The problem is that 80% of the funding comes from the Feds so the local pols look at it as "free" I t would be interesting to hear from other Freepers about their cities bus services

[riri]

It would take me at least 6 buses to get downtown, I would imagine.

Yesterday was 115 degrees. Can you even imagine??

[JimVT]

There everywhere, Mr. Cantoni, they're everywhere.

Burlington, VT.s Progressive Permanent Politician Mayor Peter Clavelle was looking to build a "multi-modal transportation center" right on the city's beautiful waterfront.

Perhaps in hopes they would name it after him while he ran for Governor.

Most people don't want a bunch of buses stinking up the area, nor trains waiting for subsidized riders.

The Mayor got the message but I have no doubt he will find another Pyramid to attempt to build.

LOCAL NEWS Monday, July 14, 2003

Council to discuss transit center, circ and circus animals

By John Briggs

Free Press Staff Writer

The Burlington City Council will have its first chance today, during its only July meeting, to hear specifics about the city's new plan for a transit center from Mayor Peter Clavelle.

On July 7, Clavelle, citing growing public and council opposition to the plan for a $15 million, three-story transit center at 131 Battery St. between Main and College streets, canceled that plan.

Construction on the building was to have begun this fall.

In his e-mail to city officials and city councilors announcing the project's cancellation, Clavelle proposed a new idea: using the half of the existing building at 131 Battery St. occupied by Mesa International as a bus transfer terminal and constructing a new Cherry Street terminal away from the corner of Church Street.

The city has not provided a cost estimate or a timetable for the new plan, which would require council approval.

Mesa will close its Battery Street store in August and relocate to Waterbury.

NOTE: The first of many, no doubt.

[Gringo1]

Well, I work for a Transit Agency in Atlanta and I can tell you from the perspective of someone who maintains vehicles that our public transit company is run by some of the most pathetic retards in the world. Public transit is form over substance these days. We used to come to work, fix stuff, then go home. Not anymore! we have long meetings about some of the dumbest sh*t instead of just doing our jobs so folks have a safe vehicle to ride on in the morning on the way to work.We have to have a weekly safety meeting where we talk about such transit-oriented things as sunscreen usage. We buy huge amounts of new equipment for the shop,and then turn around the next year and buy it again. We went from the good-old-boy network running the organization to the Home-Boy network running the organization and they run it like a small african country(insert your own opinion on what this means here)and we are operating with the biggest budget shortfalls EVER. We went from a system where the most reliable and knowledgeable people were in charge, to one where the whiners and complainers who couldn't hack it on the shop floor(read:broke more stuff than they ever fixed) are in charge. For 15 years I've watched public transit change, I dread what the next 15 years brings.

[Mo1]

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[laweeks]

Then if you're from Ohio, you'll remember that every 4 years or so, some hammera$$ politician brings up the old "high speed train" bilge between the major Ohio cities. I'm still having trouble finding bunches of people in my Ohio town eager to go soaring to Columbus or Cleveland in a heck of a hurry. But they still bring it up.

[dark_mooncat]

laweeks - "...this one would help bring the ghetto out closer to where we reside..."

Yes, we have found here in the DC area that the incidence of personal crime increases dramatically when a Metro station opens up. People can hop on a train from a place from whence you wouldn't dare drive by in an M1A1 Abrams and come to your 'hood. A young lady was 'jacked for her Explorer a few years back. They shot her dead even though each of them were twice her size. They had farecards on them.

Gringo1 - "...We went from the good-old-boy network running the organization to the Home-Boy network running the organization and they run it like a small african country..."

Those who are older than me say that DC was a much nicer place to live when it was governed by commissioners appointed by congress. DC has been a Third World backwater for more than a generation.

Mass transit can be useful, but there is a fundamental flaw if it is being run by a governmental body [or is being micromanaged by a regulatory agency]. The traffic here in the DC area is horrible. Development continues apace, while roads are not being built to handle the traffic.

I still drive in from VA to DC because even though my vehicle gets 10mpg, it is still cheaper to drive in than ride the Metro. The fares are much higher during rush hour, and there are parking fees [all of which have gone up]. The commute would take 3 hours anyway. If they only ran the trains 24hrs/day, it would be feasible to consider working a different shift, but WMATA wouldn't hear of it.

Some day I hope to make a living sitting in a cave w/my computer spewing out bellicose rhetoric. No more commuting. I really don't like seeing most people in person anyway. To update an old saying: why don't you go on the internet so I can turn you off!?

[tom paine 2]

Does MARTA still have a sub rosa translation down there?

[adam_az]

What do you expect from the Arizona Repugnant?

[IYAS9YAS]

Monorail...Monorail...Monorail!

[backhoe]

Light Rail- Boon or Boondoggle? The Quest for the Holy Rail....

[MonroeDNA]

With the exception of Taxi's, ALL public transportation is the dream of control freaks, who want to tell you where you can get on, where you can get off, and how much.

It is about control.

That's why they hate the idea of SUV's. The thought that somebody is not confined to the proscriebed routes drives them nuts.

The former student council folks want to tell you how you can move. Doesn't matter if it is efficient.

It is about CONTROL.

[marajade]

Well the author doesn't know what he's talking about... Public transit in Phoenix and surrounding Maricopa County sucks...

[foreverfree]

bump

[Gringo1]

por supuesto!