The news isn't good. 

Despite all the right rhetoric about weening the state off its car-dependency, California is actually spending more of its stimulus funds on highway projects, particularly highway widening, than the national average. The Golden State is spending more money adding highway capacity than 41 other states. Eleven other states, including the progressive transportation hotbeds of South Dakota and Alaska, didn't spend a dime on highway expansion. The following chart gives a bit more detail:

Chart: California Public Interest Research Group

Using stimulus funds to further the destructive cycle of highway widening isn't just bad transportation policy, it's also bad use of stimulus funds. Highway widening is one of the least effective transportation projects when it comes to injecting money into local economies, particularly when compared to transit.

Added to California's failure to curtail highway expansion is the state's abandonment of funding transit operations. Though the state's governor jet-commutes to work and doesn't seem to care about sustainable funding for transit, in its press release, CALPIRG notes that the majority of Californians want money to be spent improving transportation infrastructure, including transit.

When asked in a poll by the National Association of Realtors how they would spend the recovery money, a very strong majority of Americans (80%) said they prefer that stimulus transportation funding be used for repairing roadways and bridges and for public transportation. The public wants a balanced transportation system, as evidenced by local ballot measures like Measure R in Los Angeles to build more public transportation, and the statewide high-speed rail ballot measure passed last fall.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's promotion of Dump the Pump Day 2008. Flickr photo: Metro Library and Archive

Muni and BART won’t be participating in National Dump the Pump Day today, an event sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association and intended to raise awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of riding transit.

Last year, BART drew a record number of riders on a combined Dump the Pump/Spare the Air free transit day. The 2007 Dump the Pump Day led to a more modest bump for BART, without the incentive of free trips.

Neither BART nor Muni disputed the inherent effectiveness of transit awareness campaigns, but each cited their own reasons for staying out this year.

Muni did participate in Dump the Pump Day in 2006, but the agency is now inclined to create its own campaign, said Murray Bond, the MTA’s deputy director of external affairs. “Instead of buying ads now to use what basically are canned national campaigns, we’re going to run our own campaign after the new fiscal year starts on July 1,” said Bond.

He said Muni would run ads it shot last fall, which are more provocative and eye-catching than those produced for Dump the Pump Day.

“This is San Francisco. When we do things here, we try to do things upbeat, to get people’s attention,” said Bond. “Not that Dump the Pump isn’t good, but we think this thing, it’s all visual.”

Though Bond wasn’t thrilled with the Dump the Pump visuals, Muni’s campaign shares very similar goals: “The point we’re making is how inexpensive it is to ride a bus to work, or streetcar, or light rail, as opposed to what it costs to operate a car,” said Bond. “And at the same time, it’s clean, it’s green.” Similarly, APTA President William Millar says the purpose of Dump the Pump Day is “to make a difference in their wallet, as well as in the environment.”

A 2006 VTA ad for Dump the Pump on the side of a light rail vehicle. Flickr photo: richardmasoner

Affirming BART’s support for the event in spite of its absence this year, BART spokesperson Linton Johnson wrote that BART was “stretched too thin this year” to participate, but noted that they had participated every other year since Dump the Pump Day’s inception, and would again next year.

Transit agencies across the country are promoting the event in diverse ways, which raises the question of whether in the future Muni could simply use its own, more provocative ads in conjunction with the existing Dump the Pump campaign, allowing for better regional coordination while not sacrificing style. Since that won’t be happening this year, let’s hope Muni’s ads are as provocative, interesting, and effective as promised.