7 August 2002

To the editor:

To the Editor: Ramsey County Commissioner Susan Haigh believes light rail will be necessary in the University Avenue corridor because the bus line will be at capacity by 2018. This is absurd, for two reasons. There is no chance, whatever, that University Avenue's bus capacity will ever be overburdened by demand. But more importantly, bus systems have virtually the same capacity as light rail, and it is much higher than would ever be required in any Twin Cities corridor. For example, a single busway in Curitiba, Brazil carries as many more daily riders than the entire Minneapolis-St. Paul transit system, and more riders than any surface light rail system in the world.

Wendell Cox
Principal,
Wendell Cox Consultancy