Mass Transit for Thee, But Not for Me

Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Eric Roper and his employer have performed a great public service by simply tracking the public transit use of Met Council board members.

It turns out that fewer than half (7 out of 16 members) ever use their mass transit passes.  It’s liberal hypocrisy of the worst kind.  Roper documents that 10 of the passes have not been used in the past year.

As you know, the regional government agency Met Council—among its other functions—operates the area’s largest mass transit system.  The Met Council also serves as the region’s planning agency and has declared war on the single-family home and the automobile.

The Met Council doesn’t want you to drive, but can’t be bothered to use its own product.  Roper documents that senior staff at the agency use transit more often.

Roper’s article appears in today’s Star Tribune print edition—front page, above the fold—under the headline “Cars rule for Met Council members.”  The members themselves are all Democrats, appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton.  The current membership of the Council include an even greater than usual share of timeservers and seat warmers.

Prominent among its ranks are Adam Duininck, the chief fundraiser for the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Gary Cunningham, husband of Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, and three labor union employees.

This would all be less amusing if it weren’t for the Council’s efforts to radically remake the sprawling Twin Cities region into a smaller, densely-packed, transit-dependent metropolis.  A transition to a more European-style city requires that most citizens abandon cars for bus and rail transit.

That our political elites won’t walk the walk should not surprise anyone.