The Outstater

December 14, 2025

Rolling Boondoggles

AS THE USUAL BOOSTERS line up to cut more ribbons for the almost $400-million Indy Blue Line (bus transit) in Indianapolis, our adjunct scholar Randall O’Toole is finishing work on his latest report. O’Toole, a reliable and well-informed downer on public transportation issues, concludes “the more we spend, the fewer people use transit.” 

Here is his quote in the blog “Unleash Prosperity”:

“Transit has not relieved congestion. It hasn’t reduced greenhouse gas emissions. It hasn’t helped many low-income people, the vast majority of whom have their own cars and don’t use transit. All this has done is enrich a few special-interest groups. . . . Transit advocates talk endlessly about the advantages of transit over driving. Americans are paying for it but they aren’t using it.” 

Another friend, Stephen Moore, an editor at the blog, says that taxpayer support for urban mass transit requires a lot of magical thinking. Indeed, in many cities it would be cheaper if taxpayers hired an Uber driver for every transit rider.

Indianapolis, with a higher-than-average two vehicles per household, would be one of them. — tcl

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