Public transit through DART can work, if we let it. DART can even work in Ankeny.
DART is in trouble, and we can fix it. The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority provides absolutely necessary services to many of us and our neighbors. It also provides services that would make life for the rest of us a lot more convenient, but only if we let it.
Highlighting the trouble, the city of Grimes has decided to cut ties with DART because it pays a lot but few people use public transit there. Meanwhile, how much Ankeny should pay for DART was one of the questions the Register asked of the 2023 City Council candidates. Each noted the disparity between how much Ankeny pays in, and how much we get out. There is little appetite for increasing contributions. (I’ll focus on Ankeny, my home, but this applies to many other metro suburbs.)
The solution to the problem, however, is not to say, “Improve/maintain the level of service without any changes from us.” The solution is to take responsibility and increase ridership, so the amount paid makes more sense.
Public transit is entirely dependent on the walkability of the city and the infrastructure public transit is given to use. It cannot survive without a comfortable “first and last mile” (i.e., the distance between someone’s starting/ending point and where they board or alight from public transit) or when the trip takes forever, or when the city is unwalkable and you need a car anyway.
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I’m one of the “lucky” Ankenites who only has to walk 20 to 25 minutes to get to the bus to downtown (five minutes if I bike). Others have longer distances, gaps in the sidewalk, minimal street lighting, no safe and convenient place to cross, circuitous routes around disconnected streets and culs-de-sac, low visibility to drivers, no safe place to bike, nowhere to park a bike, no seating or shelter at their bus stop, exposure and proximity to speeding vehicles, an ugly concrete car-oriented landscape, and a generally unwelcoming environment.
Furthermore, we make busing inconvenient. Buses get stuck in the same traffic that they’re trying to reduce. Prioritizing transit speed improves convenience, which increases ridership, which decreases traffic.
Improving transit ridership can help solve our growing traffic problem too.
I’m lucky enough to be able to afford a car (consider: the average monthly cost of owning/operating a car is over $1,000, ignoring the external costs to society). But I’d really rather be on a bus, spending $58 per month, and spending my commute reading the Register or a good book, and walking or biking the rest of the time. Instead I’m stuck in traffic. I am traffic.
Ankeny’s problem isn’t growth. It’s that driving is virtually the only option we encourage. Many cars could be taken off the road if we made public transit (and active transportation generally) more convenient. And the Mohring Effect means the more people that use public transit, the more/better services can be offered.
We’re a town of over 70,000 people. Public transit can work here. But we have to take responsibility and build a city where it can work.
Jack Stinogel is the founder of Imagine Ankeny, an advocacy group dedicated to improving Ankeny’s health, safety, affordability, sustainability, and municipal finances through a walkable, beautiful, human-scale built environment.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Public transit can work, if we let it, and in Ankeny, too
