Time for visionary action on mass transit

The best of our leaders are visionaries. They don't file what needs to be done in the recesses of their minds, with the hope of getting to it later. They see things that need to be changed for the benefit of us all, and they're stirred to action.

Nor are they discouraged when what they see as clearly necessary is received by blank stares.

Such a visionary was the late John Noel, the former DuPage County board member who died in 2006 at age 59.

Noel was absolutely convinced that DuPage County citizens could be persuaded to leave their cars at home and use public transportation to get to and from places in the county.

But they had to have a mass transit system within the county that was convenient, practical and reliable. In other words, they could actually use it to get to and from work or run errands, not the same old Pace bus routes that don't get you to where you need to go, except for the handful of people who actually use the buses.

No, it had to be something different. Something visionary.

For example, a plan endorsed by Noel and put together with his help by the DuPage County Mayors and Managers Conference in 2002.

For one, it would offer high-speed express bus service, in dedicated lanes, to major job centers throughout the county. The buses would run every 10-to-20 minutes. There would be connecting points on this bus corridor to get to other places throughout the county, such as Metra commuter rail stations, malls, medical centers, the College of DuPage and the DuPage County government complex.

Noel's vision also included extending the CTA Blue Line, the commuter train service along the Eisenhower Expressway, into western DuPage County.

Noel had good ideas, back then, even if they didn't get the greatest reception from the public. But there should certainly be a different attitude today, with gas at $4 a gallon. And with little or no hope of that price coming down over time.

Certainly offering the kind of public transportation system that people would use in good numbers is very costly to build. Costly to taxpayers.

But think of it this way. Say expanded mass transit in DuPage County would mean tax increases in the range of $300 a year. That is what many motorists are paying now per month for gasoline, if not more than that.

A few decades ago came the vision of making it easier and more convenient to travel by car. And with the expansion of the highway system and improvement of local roads came the decline of buses and street cars as a popular way to get around town.

It's time for a new vision, now that the car has become an ever-costlier convenience. Such as the vision of John Noel, who knew what he was talking about.