Why Does American Transit Cost So Much?: Episode 33

(or listen on YouTube)

In the final installment of the Great North American Cost Snake series, we break down the reasons the U.S. pays such exorbitant amounts for transit projects that are anything but world-class. What are the numbers? Why should advocates care about getting costs down? What policy changes would fix ballooning costs? All this, after the news.

Timestamps

References & notes

  1. [1] Mass Transit: CA: BART service restored between Oakland and S.F. after unexpected closure
  2. [2] Vox: Why does it cost so much to build things in America?
  3. [3] The Eno Center for Transportation: Five Takeaways from Eno's Transit Capital Construction Database
  4. [4] Transit Costs Project:What the data is telling us
  5. [5] Vice: A $100 Billion Lesson In Why Building Public Transportation Is So Expensive in the US
  6. [6] Vice: Here's How the US Can Stop Wasting Billions of Dollars on Each Transit Project
  7. [7] The Seattle Times: Why building rail transit in U.S., Seattle costs so much and takes so long
  8. [8] Pedestrian Observations: US Rail Construction Costs
  9. [9] Marketplace: Why does transit infrastructure cost so much in the U.S.?
  10. [10] Bloomberg: Why U.S. Infrastructure Costs So Much
  11. [11] Governing: Why Are U.S. Transit Projects So Costly? This Group Is on the Case.
  12. [12] The Boston Case: The Story of the Green Line Extension
  13. [13] Wikipedia: California Environmental Quality Act
  14. [14] US EPA: National Environmental Policy Act
  15. [15] Wikipedia: National Environmental Policy Act