William Lind makes the case for rail transit

But buses? Not so much.

Jon Boyd, Oct 25, 10.

“So [it is to us] a bizarre notion that we hear from so many Republican candidates and officeholders, that says public transportation, particularly rail, is somehow left-wing, and if you’re a conservative you want highways. These are not ideological issues. They’re technical issues, and they need to be dealt with as such,” says conservative commentator William Lind in an interview with Sarah Goodyear at the Grist.

Lind argues for public transportation from the basis of conservative principles, yet his preference for rail over buses is based on the premise that white “choice riders” are averse to sharing facilities with poor, non-whites, according to Goodyear:

For supporters of public transportation, William Lind, the director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation, is a complicated case. On the one hand, he articulates very cogently the reasons that free-market Republicans should vote to fund public transit (you’ll find those reasons in the interview that follows). It’s an unusual position—most Republicans are in the highways camp—and so Lind’s book, Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation (co-authored by the late Paul Weyrich), has been welcomed by many on the other side of the political fence.

But Lind’s views on race and public transit are where the complications come in. He is vocal in his insistence that mostly white conservatives—“riders by choice” who own cars and could drive if they wanted to—will not ride buses because of the poor, mostly nonwhite people who might be riding alongside them. He is equally insistent that it is not racism to say this, but simply fact-based thinking. It leads him to support rail, including streetcars, but not buses.

You’ll find that stuff in the interview below, too.

Lind says his new organization (which is affiliated with The American Conservative magazine) will be lobbying a presumably increased Republican delegation in Washington after the midterm elections on important upcoming transportation legislation.

Full interview