Michael Lewyn

<p class="ecxMsoNormal"> A couple of weeks ago, I was on a bus in Chicago and noticed something that I had not noticed before- that how you paid to get on the bus affected how long you took to get on the bus.<span>  </span>People who flashed monthly passes boarded in a few seconds.<span>  </span>People who put in dollar bills got on a lot more slowly, as they fumbled for the right number of bills.<span>  </span>People who had to pay change took longer still.<span>  </span> </p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"> So to speed buses’ on-time performance (pun intended) transit agencies should encourage the former and discourage the latter. </p>

<p> A few days ago, I was in a Chicago neighborhood called Lincoln Square, on Lincoln Avenue just south of Lawrence Avenue.  Lincoln Avenue looks like many posh urban neighborhoods- narrow, walkable streets inhabited by gelato-eating, prosperous-looking people.  Even on a weeknight, the shops and streets of Lincoln Square betrayed no evidence of a recession.* </p>

<p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> (NOTE TO READERS: An expanded, footnote-filled version of this article is online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1632935 ) </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> &nbsp; </p> <p style="text-indent: 0.5in" class="ecxMsoNormal"> <span>Externalities are costs (or benefits) imposed on third parties by another individual’s voluntary action.  Government regulations exist at least partially to protect us from externalities created by others.</span> </p>

<p style="text-indent: 0.25in; line-height: 200%" class="ecxMsoNormal"> <span>As I began to type this, I was on a Greyhound bus somewhere in southern Ontario, on the first leg of my return from Toronto (where I have spent the past year getting an extra degree) to the United States. <span> </span>As I type, it occurs to me to ask myself: what are the interests of the long-distance bus rider?<span>  </span>Are they the same as users of other forms of public transit, or closer to those of drivers and truckers?<span>  </span>My short answer to these questions is: a little of both.</span> </p>

<p> In a recent blog post (at http://www.planetizen.com/node/44518) Steven Polzin argues that drivers are more productive because they get places faster.  His post, in turn, generated an avalanche of critiques noting the negative externalities of auto travel (e.g. pollution, death and injury from traffic accidents, health costs of obesity, etc.). </p> <p> But what I&#39;d like to address is something else: the positive productivity benefits of transit use.  Let&#39;s suppose that it takes me 30 minutes to reach destination X on the bus, and 15 minutes by car.  Obviously, the car is more productive.  Right? </p>