"I am your density"

I think our city deserves a mass transit system. What we don't deserve is self-promotion under the guise of a petition to put a light rail plan on the ballot. I won't mention the man's name because I don't want to add one more Google hit for him to salivate over. This latest plan is ridiculous. It is ill-conceived, under-funded and in general would be a disaster. I think I would cry to see carnival gondolas scarring the landscape around Union Station. Now you may ask yourself, what does a picture of George McFly from Back To The Future have to do with light rail? Remember his failed pickup line in the malt shop? "I am your destiny" came out "I am your density." I know, I know. It's a stretch. But bear with me. With apologies to James Carville, "It's the density stupid!" Mass transit, and more specifically light rail only works if you have a dense population. You have to have a lot of people in a small amount of space, AND VERY FEW PARKING LOTS for people to leave their cars at home and use mass transit. Here's a quick comparison. Porto is a beautiful city near the western coast of Portugal with a thriving light rail system. Porto's whole metro area covers 817 square kilometers. Taking their population and dividing it by the area, you end up with 1,430 people per square kilometer. Just the city limits of Kansas City, not including all the suburbs on both sides of the state line is 820 square kilometers. Almost identical in size to Porto. Dividing the Kansas City population though, you end up with a little over 500 people per square kilometer. So Porto is almost three times as dense as Kansas City. Coupled with the fact that rail is heavily subsidized by the European Union, it's not difficult to see why it works so well there. Now the circular argument begins. Does density beget light rail or does light rail beget density? In my best Al Gore imitation I would have to say "actually a little of both." Common sense dictates that transit-dependent individuals desire to live close to transit. If we have a rail system with a logical route, one that spans high-density residential to high-density commercial, I think we'll see a winner. As far as gondolas and miles and miles of track to nowhere? I don't think so.