What’s the Big Picture at HRT?
Area bloggers were invited to a private meeting with new HRT director Phil Shucet. I found myself quickly bored with the discussion that got almost exclusively mired in the ugly details (cost over-runs, who was going to pay for Virginia Beach’s study, embezzlement, “culture of fear”).
When new leadership steps on board, folks typically take a step back and again review the bigger picture of their work. From attending this so-called “discussion” on Monday, I sense none of that happening with HRT. My question that turned into a whiny speech attempted to take a stab at exactly what the end goal was with HRT.
With everything in life, don’t we always put big decisions or actions on a scale to weigh both the pros and cons? In business, isn’t that called a “cost-benefit analysis”? Why isn’t HRT doing that analysis now especially in light of the additional costs?
I wanted to both ask that question and at the same time point out that many of the benefits in that analysis could be overlooked. HRT has so far failed to recognized them and in turn failed to promote them to the public. Too many folks only weigh the costs of light rail to only the potential income from fares and the lessened traffic from fewer cars on the road. And for folks to continue to be so limited in their thinking about mass transit is surely the death of any chance for any light rail expansion to Virginia Beach.
A lot of the benefits are neither so obvious nor correlate to money in the bank. I mentioned this as one example. Hampton Roads has been designated as non-attainment for ozone by the EPA. We have to develop a plan to mitigate this pollutant or we risk losing Federal highway dollars. Expanding mass transit needs to be part of that plan. Why isn’t this potential benefit highlighted at all to the public?
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in Hampton Roads that care about climate change. Why can’t HRT spell out to the public how many tons of carbon emissions are removed with folks opting to leave their cars in the driveway and taking mass transit to work?
While Virginia Beach has its own issues with outreach and education, mass transit plays an integral role in smart growth development. So few people have an understanding of compact urban development. They have no clue as to why we can’t continue the status quo of sprawl and car-centric patterns of living.
Always lost in the cost benefit analysis is our moral obligation to do the right thing for folks who can’t drive. There is, for example, the societal obligation to provide transportation to the disable who can’t drive. And with the economy the way it is, a lot of folks can’t afford to own and maintain a car. Public transportation is increasingly a must for getting to work.
I hope with HRT paying Phil Shucet $40,000 per month that we eventually do indeed get the “big picture.” Without it, HRT is doomed to failure.
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March 1st, 2010 at 8:48 am
The ugly truth: I don’t think theie is an unified big picture at HRT. Shucet had only been there a few weeks when we had our roundtable, and that largely had focused on getting LRT under control. Even if we build a regional LRT system, most passengers will still move by bus.
Michael Townes might have known where he wanted to go, but never put it into a single statement. The last TDCHR Retreat (1 1/2 days in November, 2008) wasn’t even attended by the majority of Commissioners.
Therefore, with the job now apparently Shucet’s for at least the next 18 months, the TDCHR needs a well-attended Retreat later this year.
March 4th, 2010 at 5:53 am
Unfortunately, if they let you communicate the message, we won’t need mass transit, because people would sleep right through their alarm clocks.
See, Eileen. When you attack people and thinks, you do a much better job. When you try to convey a positive message, you’re so ill-equipped to do so effectively, that it drags on and on like a bad 70s song.
Light rail’s benefits should be self-evident. If they aren’t, that should tell you something. But I’ll tell you one thing – if the project’s Norfolk issues aren’t turned around, it could take you to Mars and Beach voters will object to it.
March 4th, 2010 at 5:54 am
oops, “thinks” should be “things”
March 4th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Brian,
If all things advantages were so self-evident, companies like the one you work for would have no reason to exist.
March 4th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
No, Henry. It’s not that simple. Companies like mine exist not because people don’t know the advantages of something. Companies like mine exist because too often people oversell something and highlight the wrong advantages.