Goldwater Institute

Over the past 30 years, rail public transit has seen a revival in American cities; especially in cities in the Sun Belt and West that were formed by the automobile. The vast majority of studies indicates that any benefits from the new light rail systems could have been achieved in a more cost-effective, albeit less dramatic, manner through other means. The proposed Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail Project will lead to a deterioration in mobility, have little impact on air pollution and actually lead to an increase in energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases.

Fifteen years ago, the United States was declared "A Nation At Risk" by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. The alarm was sounded, but fifteen years later many feel that the outlook is still grim. In the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study, American 12th graders ranked 19th out of 21 participating nations in mathematics; 16th out of 21 nations in science; 15th out of 16.

Should taxpayers be asked to pay more to fund expansions in existing public transit? That is the question facing city governments throughout the Phoenix metropolitan region. While proponents of increased funding of transit are doing their best to promote such tax increases, municipal government would do well to consider the implications before rushing to board the transit "bandwagon". An objective analysis of these implications indicates that the costs appear to far outweigh the benefits.

The National Park Service (NPS) has spent years designing and redesigning transportation plans for Grand Canyon National Park. The current state of these plans calls for a light rail system to be used to shuttle visitors into and out of the park. The stated goal of the transit system is "to provide more convenient access to the park than is now experienced." The premise is that the quality of the visitors' experience is currently being degraded not only by increasing congestion, but by the mere presence of the internal combustion engine.

It is often noted and well remembered that Arizona is one of the states with the fastest growing population in the nation. The growth of our population during the 1990s, 24 percent, ranked only behind Nevada. The state's growth rate in the 1980s was third, once again behind Nevada, and Alaska. This rapid growth has created the worry that Arizona's exceptional natural beauty will soon be buried under tract houses, golf courses and strip malls; a worry leading to several government initiatives to preserve the State's natural heritage.