HUFFINGTON
11.11.12
NO WAY OUT
cago, traffic can be so awful that
even millionaires who can afford
chauffeured limousines sometimes
ride subways to avoid congestion.
But in communities like this, traffic is nearly nonexistent, making
cars the favored conveyance for
anyone who can afford one.
Roughly three-fourths of the
ridership on the public buses operated by the Chattanooga Area
Regional Transportation Authority are people who lack an alternative, up from about half in the
late-1970s, says Tom Dugan, the
authority’s executive director. The
reality of the bus as a vehicle that
most local people neither encounter nor desire translates into weak
local funding for the transit authority, Dugan complains.
“Most of our people are the
working poor,” Dugan says. “In
Chattanooga, no elected official is
going to win an election based on
a transit issue.”
Roughly one-third of the system’s $15.7 million operating
budget comes from the city, with
40 percent coming from rider
fares, and the rest from state and
federal support. Two years ago,
when Dugan compared his system
to those of 56 metro areas with
similar populations, he found that
Chattanooga ranked 52nd in local funding per capita, and 53rd
in the percentage of transit money
that comes from local sources.
“In any city, public transport is
an important part of the transit
system and that seems to get lost,”
Mayor Littlefield says. “Some of
the more conservative people in
the community believe that it’s
OK to spend public money on
roads, but it’s not OK to spend
“IN CHATTANOOGA,
NO ELECTED OFFICIAL
IS GOING TO WIN AN
ELECTION BASED ON
A TRANSIT ISSUE.”
on public transportation, such as
buses and rail — that those have
to be self-supporting.”
The tenets of the so-called
New Urbanism infuse local planning discussions with encouragement of bicycling, walking and
mass transit. Updated zoning
policies have clustered condos
near new office space and bus
service. Young professionals are
fixing up bungalow-style homes
that formerly sheltered down-