Chicago Transit CEO Hired to Tackle CATS

The Advocate is reporting today that Brian Williams, the former manager of the Chicago Transit Authority's  North District has been hired to run CATS, or the Capital Area Transit Authority.  The CATS Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to hire Williams.

This sounds like a good move for Baton Rouge.  For far too long, this city has been run as if it were some little backwoods town out in the middle of nowhere.  Thanks to our booming economy (relatively speaking) and a semi-recent situation involving our neighbor to the East, we have become the economic engine of the state of Louisiana.  We no longer have to luxury of sitting back and watching the world pass us by.  We ARE the world now, as far as Louisiana is concerned.

Williams has stated that his main priorities will be "securing dedicated funding for the bus system and increasing the number of riders."  This, along with increasing the number of bus routes, is crucial for any city.  Transportation is one of the key components that companies look at when deciding what city to move into, and infrastructure (of which transportation is a part) is one of the key components to anything that is done by a city.  Increased travel time decreases everything else.  Productive time at work is lost, time that should be spent with the family is spent sitting in traffic, and money that should be spent on vacations and home renovations are spent instead on gasoline and auto repairs.  More people in buses means less people on the road, and that mean less traffic.

The efficiency of buses will also allow us to have a more efficient workforce.  The more people that we can easily move around the city, the larger the pool of applicants employers have to choose from.  If I am hiring, I will pick the best person for the job, regardless of whether he drives or takes the bus.  But if the bus route is three miles away from my office, I will have to settle for the one that I know I will be able to depend on, which means that the bus route is not an option.

The only problem that I see is finding permanent funding.  A city the size of Baton Rouge is in a tough spot: We are big enough to have many expensive needs, but not big enough to pay for it all.  If we lived in Houston we would not have as much of a problem.  They are in the process of building a multi-billion dollar light rail system to supplement the other massive transportation systems.  But, they have the money. We cannot look to our larger neighbors and emulate them, as we must live within our means.  Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's transportation systems.  Bet you didn't know that was in the Bible!

This should be a good move for CATS.  Someone with this kind of expertise has the potential to be very good for our city.  Hopefully he will live up to his credentials.