There’s a lot of animosity in the transportation blogging world for the Federal Transportation Administration. As the Post points out, the FTA controls the transit construction strings in this country, and as BeyondDC has lamented, their processes don’t always result in the best projects getting built.

But here’s the rub: It ain’t their fault.

These days just about every city in America wants to build rapid transit. Cities that a generation ago would have laughed at anyone suggesting a new bus route are now clamoring for rail, and lots of it. Tampa has streetcars, Dallas has light rail, LA has a subway. The Mecca of car culture that is Houston just opened its first light rail line, and NASCAR capital Charlotte is about to do the same. Denver mapped out a 120-mile system, and for the last year Albuquerque has run the coolest-looking trains on the continent. And for all that (and much, much more), the FTA gets a few billion dollars a year to dole out. They *have* to be selective, because there’s just not enough money to go around.

So whose fault is it?

We’ll give you one guess.

Transit money comes from a bill called SAFETEA-LU, which allocates about $300 billion in Federal money over the next several years for transportation projects.

Guess how much of that goes to transit.
It ain’t 50%.
It ain’t even 25%.

It’s about 18%. And of that, guess how much goes to the “New Starts” program, which is the primary funding source for major new fixed-guideway capital investments.

It’s about $7.4 billion.

That’s a lot of money, obviously, but within the context of funding every new transit line proposed around the country, it’s peanuts. And it’s peanuts within the context of the greater transportation spending bill, which is still overwhelmingly aimed at building new highways.

So let’s give the FTA a break and cast blame where blame is due: Squarely on the shoulders of Congress.