Convincing Conservatives To Support Transit

Writer Matt Dellinger rode the Amtrak Zephyr line to the 17th annual Congress of the New Urbanism in Denver this year, and interviewed author William Lind over Brandy Alexanders and cigars on what was a 1,400-mile-New-Urbanist-salon-in-motion-on-Amtrak. Lind and Paul Weyrich, two conservatives noted here for their support of public transportation, wrote "Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation," which was published by Reconnecting America because we found it a most compelling argument for putting public transportation at the very top of the conservative (as well as liberal) agenda for reasons of national security and economic development.

The book collects the studies about public transportation that Weyrich (now deceased) and Lind completed over the last decade in support of public transportation (and published previously by the American Public Transportation Association). Dellinger and Lind focus on some of these arguments in this article that appeared at the Infrastructurist.

Transportation bills of the last decade have enjoyed a terrific amount of bipartisan support, thanks perhaps to a flood of earmarks and a lack of any strong federal mandates therein. But this year (or next year? or 2011?) we’re getting down to brass tacks. We’re turning the ship of state. We’re charting a new course, our leaders tell us. Which means it’s time to find out what kind of bipartisan support there may be for large-scale reforms, including perhaps a stronger focus on rail and transit, or an increase in the gas tax.

Many Democrats have been championing such reforms for years, but there have been a few prominent conservative voices in favor of more and better transit and intercity passenger rail as well. One of them is William Lind, director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation and the co-author, with the late Paul Weyrich, of the recent book "Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation".

Lind was aboard the California Zephyr earlier this month. He was wise in the ways of train passengership, a fan of pipe smoke and brandy, and scornful of computers. He also had some very clear and strong ideas about America’s transportation infrastructure, and what it needs.

MATT DELLINGER: Your book is very interesting. It’s a conservative argument for public transportation, but it’s also a guidebook for classic supporters of public transportation, on how to talk to conservatives.

WILLIAM LIND: That is essentially at the heart of all of our transit work.

So a Men Are From Mars; Women Are From Venus model. So what does a transit-loving liberal need to know when approaching an auto-loving conservative? What should they be prepared for, and what are the various points of leverage?

The most important thing that a liberal needs to know in talking to conservatives about public transportation is not to use liberal arguments. You can’t argue for transit on the basis that the poor need it. Conservatives aren’t particularly interested in that. On the other hand, when you start talking about things like promoting and shaping economic development and redevelopment, that’s a big interest to conservatives. When you talk about offering transit that is of a quality that conservatives would actually want to use–which usually means rail transportation–they’re interested, because conservatives are just as tired as everybody else of sitting stuck in traffic.

Read the full Infrastructurist article