CityLab: The Mayor of Phoenix Talks About Better Transit in a Car-Reliant City

[thelakelander]

Greg Stanton on bikeability, road diets, and transit's key role in economic success. (Oh, and the Super Bowl.)


The light rail system has already reached 2020 ridership projections. (Michael Ruiz / Flickr)

To identify a long-term plan for transit expansion, Stanton recently convened a Citizens Committee (chaired by former Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, a local). The committee will collect public feedback on service needs and funding ideas, and present its recommendations to the city in the coming months. Stanton hopes to take a plan to Phoenix voters next year, perhaps on a ballot to extend the existing dedicated transit sales tax. He's confident in its prospects.

"The people of the City of Phoenix love what they've seen with our public transportation improvements," he says. "They understand that our transportation system and access to higher education, access to jobs, access to our bioscience campus in the heart of city, our economic development, are all one and the same. There is not an inch of space between the economic success of our city and the growth of high-quality public transportation."

Mayor Stanton spoke to CityLab at length about his transit priorities for Phoenix. What follows is an account of our conversation, edited lightly for length and clarity.

Full article: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/10/the-mayor-of-phoenix-talks-about-better-transit-in-a-car-reliant-city/382148/